51 Hornet Project. With pictures.

triman62

Here is a Hornet I am currently working to save. The car beside it is a 53 Wasp waiting for its turn.

triman62

Here is a  picture of project. It broke in half while unloading. The entire bottom six inches of the car was rusted beyond use. The roof skin was rusted loose along the entire length of the drip rails also.

triman62

This is where I'm currently at with the project.

RL Chilton

Lookin' lots better, Triman!  What are your plans for it?  

triman62

Plans are for a mild custom, nosed, decked, shaved, lowered, frenched headlights, tunneled taillights nothing real radical. Powertrain will be stock Hudson 232 and hydromatic.

ski4life65

Wow! Doing some great work. Keep the pictures coming

46HudsonPU

Preston - I've inserted the pictures into the thread.  Copied your link, and pasted it in, via the toolbar utilities ('Insert Image' - 5th link from the right in the toolbar).

That way, the photo shows up in the thread, no clicking-on the link is required - also makes viewing more pleasant.

triman62

RL Chilton said:

Lookin' lots better, Triman!  What are your plans for it?  

Thanks Russell, I often look to your vert build for inspiration. That is some top notch work on that car.

triman62

Rick, Thanks for the help with pictures, and the kind reception to the forum.

triman62

ski4life65 said:

Wow! Doing some great work. Keep the pictures coming

Thanks for words of encouragement, I hope to get to a picture session soon.

triman62

A little background on the project, I have been working on this Hornet for over two years now, I have a bay at my job to work on it in. I go to work an hour early, and stay an hour late M-F every week. I get approximately ten hours each week, I have over one thousand hours in it at this time. It is a project that I want to do for the learning experience. I have been a mechanic all my life, I presently manage fleet maintenance and repair of trucks and equipment for a general contractor. I never get tired of fixing machines. I hope you find the build entertaining, I know it must be out of the ordinary for most Hudson owners. I expect to have about 2,500 hours in it when finished, and then I have a 53 Wasp 2-door sedan to do next.

triman62

Here is a picture of January's progress. Drivers door, and rear fender welded.

Glowplug

Triman- I am very impressed with your focus and work ethic. Great progress bet your welding skills are much improved!

triman62

Oldfarmer- Thanks for the kind words, this project has been done with ox-acetylene gas welding, I started with the perimeter frame and then the body skins. It has definitely improved my skills.

Quadster

Great Project!!!

Keep posting--it's inspiring!!!!!!

triman62

I'll be working on the passenger door next month, it should go a lot faster.  Besides a box of hand tools I only use a body hammer and dolly set, along with a grinder and a torch, I think that the early builders didn't have much more than that to work with back then. For my next project I will get some metal working tools and do a more modern restoration. Until The door is done here is a picture of some floor pans I bent over a piece of angle iron clamped to the edge of a sawhorse workbench.

Glowplug

Old school is the way to perfecting a honest appreciation of metal forming. My community college body work class instructor taught us to use a torch with hammer on and off techniques. To pass that course we had to straighten the roof on a car body. You know what to expect from metal when you figure out how to properly fix a wrinkled roof. BTW I passed the course. Thanks for sharing.

triman62

Another view of the floor pans Waiting for warmer weather to do rust treatment and painting..

triman62

Some more floor pans, made from an old sign that was big enough to do two cars.

triman62

Speaking of two cars, here is a sneak peek at the upcoming Wasp project.

Glowplug

52 is a rare car especially a 2 door sedan. Friend has a 52 pacemaker parts car...

Jon B

You've done some truly inspiring work, here.

Ever thought about creating a "fantasy Hudson", like a panel delivery truck, a "Nomad" style wagon, or a 4-door convertible?  Or a stretch limousine?  Might be fun, and you obviously have the metalworking ability.  (And, inasmuch as you're bringing badly-decomposed Hudsons back to life, nobody can criticize you for having ruined a perfectly good old car!)

triman62

Oldfarmer1947gmailcom said:

52 is a rare car especially a 2 door sedan. Friend has a 52 pacemaker parts car...

You are indeed right about the 2-door sedan in the picture being a 52 pacemaker, it came from the same place as the Hornet. Although it fared a little better on the frame rust with tires on it than the Hornet did on the ground, it is beyond repair also. I have a 53 Wasp 4-door that will become a donor for the 2-door sedan, which is why I usually refer to it as a 53 Wasp. I will be using the frame, and cowl with vin tag from the 53 as it has a title. Just convert 4-door to 2-door much like on the Hornet club coupe.

triman62

Here is another picture of the 51 Hornet that tells on me about its donor car.

triman62

Jon B said:

You've done some truly inspiring work, here.

Ever thought about creating a "fantasy Hudson", like a panel delivery truck, a "Nomad" style wagon, or a 4-door convertible?  Or a stretch limousine?  Might be fun, and you obviously have the metalworking ability.  (And, inasmuch as you're bringing badly-decomposed Hudsons back to life, nobody can criticize you for having ruined a perfectly good old car!)

You may have seen some of these also, however on my daily internet searches over the years I have seen for sale a 4-door convertible, a 4-door shortened to 2-door, a limousine, and three stepdown trucks, one supposedly from the factory. Wish I would have known how to copy pictures during those times. I never thought about  a fantasy Hudson though, the panel delivery, and Nomad wagon are some interesting ideas. I do have a 1958 Chevrolet El Camino project waiting for my retirement. I've wanted to build one since I was a teenager.

Jon B

The StepDown pickup trucks are "old hat" by now.  But how about a nice rumbleseat coupe StepDown?  With a curved rear window that rolls down to permit conversation between the inside of the car and the wayback?

triman62

A more detailed look at the repair process of the doors. About six inches will need to be replaced, along with the entire hinge support. It was easier to replace inner and outer metal at the same time rather than try to open the spot welded edges. I am using the 4-door car pieces for parts.

triman62

There is a look at some homemade tools used for bending metal. The hammer is a modified roofing hammer, and the dolly is from a metal building support rod.

triman62

The 4-door donor parts, I will cut some useable pieces from these.

triman62

A picture of the fabricated door bottoms.

triman62

These parts were bent like the outer door skin that is in the picture above. They are made from some 20 gauge scrap salvaged from some old windows. I wanted a little more support for the door bottoms. It is the same metal I used on the floor pans.