Tail Light Housing for a 1946 Hudson

dr01a1940

In working to get this old convertible back on the road, we are making some good progress. However, I was very surprised to find that there are no tail light housings on the insides of the rear fenders. The lights have to be very dim in mainly lighting up the inside of the trunk! These days we certainly need all the lighting we can get on the rears of old cars. I'm sure someone has found a good reproduction housing that can be adapted inside the fenders. I have explored ones like the 64-65 Mustang, but of course there are no dimensions and it would be a very long trial and error process. Can anyone share what they have used or done to help the rear lights situation? It would be a tremendous time saver and greatly appreciated.

Jon B

You're missing the housing, for some reason.  What you're showing in the photo, would not be the condition when the car left the factory.  I know of no one reproducing these, because there are probably still plenty of used ones out there.  (Since the housing is in the trunk it would not be subject to the same corrosion as it would have been if mounted to the underside of the fender.  So the survival rate would have been high.)

Probably someone will jump in here and offer you one for sale. If that doesn't happen, I'd contact some of the Hudson vendors who regularly advertise used parts in the WTN.  They may have some of these lying around, or they might have a parts car from which they can salvage a pair.

Once you get a pair, try painting the insides white for reflectivity, or you might even try lining the insides with a reflective metal foil.  That way, you can direct more of the light out through the lens.

Nerve_Center

They were painted white from the factory. Combined with the proper globe in a 6V system they are as bright as a modern tail light. Well maybe not quite. Some modern ones seem too bright now.

dr01a1940

Thanks for the info. I thought it was unusual there were no housings but was told they didn't have any from the factory.

Huddy42

My '42 Hudson does not have any of these so called covers. And it as an original car as you will ever find.So I must disagree that they never had covers, my '46 coupe was the same,no such covers.

Jon B

I stand corrected! Astounding!  I looked online and all I found were those with the rinky-dink socket arrangement and no housing.  I would never have believed that Hudson could have done something like that.  If you look at the Olds taillights of the same era, for instance, they had a complete enclosure.  (Unfortunately they only used two, not 4 bolts, to hold it.  So,.... no interchange there!)

You might try looking at other makes of car, around the 1942-47 era, to see which ones had the same size taillight.  Then look for those lights on Ebay and see if they provide shots of the housing (as opposed to just the lens).  Maybe  you'll see one that looks llike it would fit.

dr01a1940

Okay, so I guess I'm back to my original question. Has anyone used anything possibly reproduced for another vehicle for a tail light housing rather than fabricate from scratch? I have a lot more things that I need to address instead of getting sidetracked on a tail light housings project.

Huddy42

I find no problem with the tail lights on my 1942Hudson with these lights,they and many others have lasted the test of time,mine are as bright as they should be.The only thing I would like,is,one in the rear window up high.