Hudson manufacturing

Unknown

Does anybody know if Hudson manufactured any cars in Australia for the australian market back in the day?
Thanks
Bjorn

Unknown

My understanding is that there was an assembly plant there, and that Hudson shipped its cars 'knocked down' into component parts, for assembly in Oz. This helped with the tax situation because then the cars were technically 'locally manufactured', not imported. I can't swear to this, but I believe the cars were assembled by a Australian body company called Ruskin. That company also, I believe, built and sold two body styles that were not offered by Detroit: the 'sloper' (a sleeker brougham, or 2-door sedan, than the one Hudson made) and a 'ute' (a stylish pickup that pre-dated the Ford Ranchero by two decades). Hudsons were assembled in Australia from the 20's to the late 40's, I think.

Hudson enthusiasts from Oz will jump in here and straighten me out soon, I'm sure!

Unknown

Thanks again for the help. I have a feeling you could be correct about that info. But i am also not very sure at all hehe
Interesting about the 2 other models made for Australia.
Yeah...all the other Hudson enthusiasts jump in with some info!!!!
Bjorn

bob ward

Most Australian Hudsons, up to the time of the stepdown, were locally bodied on imported chassis. There were 2 main reasons for this. A chassis was smaller and therefore cheaper to ship than a whole car. Plus the governments of the day wanted to encourage the development of local industry and skills, so import duties were skewed towards encouraging chassis imports and discouraging whole car imports.

The top of the range Hudsons tended to be imported fully built up, made RHD in Detroit. The owners could afford to pay the extra taxes, and there was prestige attatched to having a fully imported car rather than a locally bodied one.

In the earlier years and up to the mid 30's, in the days of 'timber and tin', there were any number of companies making bodies for Hudson chassis, not to mention other brands. In the last half of the 30's with all steel bodies, the smaller body makers faded and Terraplane sedan bodies were almost exclusively made by Ruskin.

That same prewar sedan shell was trotted out by Ruskin and fitted behind the 46/47 front clip for the postwar cars.

Stepdowns came in kit form and were assembled here. Local industry provided some components such as glass, radiators, seat frames, upholstery, wheels. Again these were the low price sedans, and the odd Hornet or Hollwood or Coupe that came here were imported fully built up.

Local assembly of imported kits continued with the 55-57 models.

Unknown

Bob, what was the history of the 'slopers' and utes? Were they made by just one Australian company? For how many years were they produced? I have seen photos of a '36 and a '38 Terraplane ute, and they both seemed professionally done, so I'm assuming that the years of production included at least 1936 to 1938.

bob ward

Terraplanes were definitely bodied as utes from new. Ruskin would have been one of the ute makers and there may have been others. The 'sloper' was I think a Ruskin body and was also fitted here to Chevs and Pontiacs of the period. I'm unsure of the years these bodies were made, I'll see what I can find.