For Sale-1954 Hudson Hornet Special $30,000.00

HornetSpecial
HornetSpecial Expert Adviser
edited December 2014 in Vehicles
 Up for sale is a 1954 Hudson Hornet Special. Our story of this car
starts in 1970 when it belonged to my grandfather. A long standing
member of the national Hudson Essex Terraplane Club and an active
participant in his local Chesapeake Bay Chapter, he had a storied
history of buying and selling Hudsons. The Hudson Motor Car Company was,
by far, his favorite car manufacturer and he was fiercely loyal to them
over the years. My father was raised driving Hudsons (and occasionally
racing them, little to my grandfather’s knowledge) growing as fond of
the cars as his father. Following the passing of my grandmother in 1969,
he needed to liquidate a car or two and sold this particular Hornet
Special to a couple in the C.B.C. chapter.

35 years later we set
out to track down a car that had belonged to my grandfather. We put an
advertisement out in the club newsletter and much to our surprise we
received a call from a certain couple who had bought a Hornet Special
from him back in 1970. Needless to say we happily bought the car from
them and had it shipped from the east coast to Minnesota. It arrived on
Aug. 30th 2005 and we very quickly got to work taking it apart, piece by
piece, for a ground-up restoration. It took the better part of seven
years to complete. After the long winded and grueling process of
restoration, my father and I brought the car to Front Royal, VA to
officially debut it at Doc’s Apple Blossom Meet in 2012.

In the
following years we brought it around the car show circuit here in
Minnesota/Wisconsin and have enjoyed spending many sunny afternoons
kicking tires with like minded people. In a completely unexpected turn
of events, our modest’54 Hudson started winning at these shows and 3
years later the appreciation for this car has apparently not abated. At
the end of 2014 we sit with 53 trophies, most of which are either Best
in Show or 1st Place. I am immensely proud of this car and the hard work
my father and I have put into it. I am not going to lie and say we are
not thrilled that other people seem to appreciate this car as much as we
do. Almost a decade after we first acquired it, it is time to let this
beautiful car go to someone else who will hopefully get years of
enjoyment out of it.  

This car has been stripped to the frame
and there isn’t a part of it that hasn’t been touched. We kept it
original as possible taking only a few liberties, i.e. radial tires,
carpet in the trunk, and rear fender antennae which although not
factory, are a period correct modification. The body is all metal (no
Bondo or filler except for minor blocking) and unbelievably straight.
The rear fenders were N.O.S. as was all the stainless steel trim. All
the chrome was redone. All bare metal has been sand-blasted, cleaned,
and painted. The paint is to code, Green Gold (clearly more of a
butter-cream yellow) with a black roof. The interior is as close to
factory as possible with the original loom having long since gone out of
business. The following is a brief list of some of the restoration work
that has been done:

-Front End has been completely redone
-New Leaf Springs, Front Coil Springs, and Shocks (all springs from the O.E.M. Eaton Detroit Spring, Inc.)
-Rebuilt Master Cylinder
-New Brakes and Brake Springs
-New Wheel Cylinders
-New Custom made Stainless Steel Exhaust (made by the same company who made the exhaust for Jay Leno’s Hudsons)
-Completely Rebuilt 308 engine with matching numbers (rebuild kit from Dale Cooper)
-Rebuilt Carter Carburetors for Twin H
-Rebuilt Starter
-Rebuilt Generator
-New Voltage Regulator
-Reconditioned Radiator
-Rebuilt 2-Stage Fuel Pump
-Rebuilt Oil Pump
-Rebuilt Transmission
-New Universal Joints
-New Solenoid
-New Rocker Panels
-New Sill Plates
-Stainless Steel Brake Lines
-Stainless Steel Gas Lines
-Complete Interior Sound Proofing
-New Rhode Island Wiring Service, Inc Wiring Harness (front to back)
-New Glass (tempered) in all 4 Doors
-Beautiful Original Windshield and Rear Window
-New Replacement Windshield with Rubber Gasket
-Rebuilt Original Radio with AM/FM and Aux Functions (you can plug in your phone or mp3 player)

The car has well over $60,000 of restoration work done to it.

Disclosure: These are all the things we know are wrong with the car:
-Rear Quarter Windows leak a little and need to be resealed
-Windshield
also leaks slightly but as stated before we have a replacement
windshield and rubber ready to go. Neither of these leaks have been a
pressing problem because we never drive the car in inclement weather. I
would strongly recommend having the windshield installed by Doug
Wildrick Restorations in Shelbyville, IN. He is a master of Hudson
restoration and one of the only people left who knows how to properly
install glass in these cars.
-Rear Main Seal leaks a little
-The Rear End Seal where the Drive Shaft connects also leaks a little
-We
have Fog Lights installed but they need to we wired. We rarely drove
the car in the dark and never in fog so; again, this was not a pressing
issue for us.
-The only damage the car has sustained over the years
is a medium sized burn in the front carpet from a drop light when we
were reinstalling the radio. We have a matching rubber mat that we
ironically use to preserve the carpet that covers the burn but it is
there nonetheless.

We left the original mileage on the
odometer to honor this car's history but having been completely rebuilt,
there are closer to 5000 true miles on it.
The car has been stored inside from the time we acquired it.


More pictures available by request.

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