Midnight Drive in a 1926 Hudson
Ten years or so after I bought my '26 Coupe, I am finally able to drive it with a reasonably high degree of confidence that I will be a motorist for the entire time and not converted unwillingly into a pedestrian. Monday night after work, I drove the Hudson to a meeting of the Fullerton Theatre League with the intention of having a pleasure drive afterward.
Geoff Clark has recently been working on the car and made a number of vital improvements. First, he installed new kingpins & bushes and adjusted the steering box. Now the steering is tight & smooth, tighter than any vintage car I have ever driven. The steering is very heavy, but no worse that the big ole trucks I drove over the road in the 70s. I'll take that tradeoff any day of the week.
Geoff also relined the brakes with the proper soft woven lining. These large external contracting rear axle only brakes are transformed. Where before they were weak, grabby & faded rapidly, they are now smooth, progressive and powerful. I haven't had an emergency stop yet, but I'm pleased so far.
Another area Geoff worked his magic on was the motor. The motor never ran well even though it had been recently completely overhauled. After some poking around, Wizard Clark noticed the wrong points installed causing a weak spark by having very little dwell. That fixed, the motor seems much happier and has much more pep.
On my drive, I sought out the steepest hills in town and climbed them all easily in top gear. The car even accelerated while climbing! Very nice.
On a negative note, the car has very short legs. While Geoff was here, we checked the ratio and found it to be the same as my '29 Town Sedan, a car happy at 50 mph. The Coupe is happy at 30, busy at 32 and screaming at 35 and this with 21 inch wheels vs. the 19s the '29 has. Geoff pointed out that the racket that disturbs my mechanical sensibilities is mostly fan noise. The fan is set at twice crankshaft speed! Aside from simple noise, I have real fear that one or more of the blades will part company with the hub taking out the hood, radiator, hoses or other items in their way.
With a comfortable cruising speed of no more than 32 mph, this car will not even stay with a Model T tour that proceeds at 35 to 40 mph. Something must be done! Geoff suggested converting the hub to a V belt setup from an early '27 with an even more modern '54 Hudson fan. Well & good, this setup keeps it all Hudson. Still, it would look wrong and the flat belt of the early Super Sixes is a big part of the appearance.
As I understand it, all Hudson fans from 1916 through 1954 are interchangeable. If this is so, perhaps someone knows of a modern aluminum flex fan that will fit the original Hudson hub and withstand the revs of up to 6000 that are theoretically possible with the fan spinning at twice the speed of the crank? If a flex fan were painted an unobtrusive chassis black it might almost hide in plain view while the eye is entertained by rest of the engine. Does anyone know of a modern flex fan that fits Hudsons?
In spite of the rather stately pace the '26 was comfortable with, I sure had a great time. Just pottering around, with the cool night air a relief from the heat wave daytime conditions was relaxing and informative. It helps with historical perspective to drive a car like this 1926 Hudson, one that compares better to walking or riding a horse than to a modern car. When these cars were built, most roads were dirt or mud outside of town and 30 mph was considered a pretty good clip. The old Hudson is quite happy to potter around just above the pace of a brisk walk in top gear.
The old 6 volt lights were surprisingly good, better even than my 1983 pickup truck, and didn't flicker or fade at all. The reflectors in the headlights were resilvered several years ago making them more like they would have been when new.
The ride is very bouncy as this car has pretty stiff springs and no shock absorbers of any kind, but given that folks were used to horseback or buggies was probably considered pretty plush in it's day.
I should have the '29 Hudson back in a few days and lock forward to another midnight romp in the more modern car for a comparison. My thanks to Geoff & Lew Phelps for their parts in getting the '26 up and useable.
Paul O'Neil
SoCal
1926 Hudson Anderson Coupe
1929 Hudson Town Sedan
1939 Cadillac Coupe (How'd that get in here?)
www.cichet.us
www.aeromark.net
Geoff Clark has recently been working on the car and made a number of vital improvements. First, he installed new kingpins & bushes and adjusted the steering box. Now the steering is tight & smooth, tighter than any vintage car I have ever driven. The steering is very heavy, but no worse that the big ole trucks I drove over the road in the 70s. I'll take that tradeoff any day of the week.
Geoff also relined the brakes with the proper soft woven lining. These large external contracting rear axle only brakes are transformed. Where before they were weak, grabby & faded rapidly, they are now smooth, progressive and powerful. I haven't had an emergency stop yet, but I'm pleased so far.
Another area Geoff worked his magic on was the motor. The motor never ran well even though it had been recently completely overhauled. After some poking around, Wizard Clark noticed the wrong points installed causing a weak spark by having very little dwell. That fixed, the motor seems much happier and has much more pep.
On my drive, I sought out the steepest hills in town and climbed them all easily in top gear. The car even accelerated while climbing! Very nice.
On a negative note, the car has very short legs. While Geoff was here, we checked the ratio and found it to be the same as my '29 Town Sedan, a car happy at 50 mph. The Coupe is happy at 30, busy at 32 and screaming at 35 and this with 21 inch wheels vs. the 19s the '29 has. Geoff pointed out that the racket that disturbs my mechanical sensibilities is mostly fan noise. The fan is set at twice crankshaft speed! Aside from simple noise, I have real fear that one or more of the blades will part company with the hub taking out the hood, radiator, hoses or other items in their way.
With a comfortable cruising speed of no more than 32 mph, this car will not even stay with a Model T tour that proceeds at 35 to 40 mph. Something must be done! Geoff suggested converting the hub to a V belt setup from an early '27 with an even more modern '54 Hudson fan. Well & good, this setup keeps it all Hudson. Still, it would look wrong and the flat belt of the early Super Sixes is a big part of the appearance.
As I understand it, all Hudson fans from 1916 through 1954 are interchangeable. If this is so, perhaps someone knows of a modern aluminum flex fan that will fit the original Hudson hub and withstand the revs of up to 6000 that are theoretically possible with the fan spinning at twice the speed of the crank? If a flex fan were painted an unobtrusive chassis black it might almost hide in plain view while the eye is entertained by rest of the engine. Does anyone know of a modern flex fan that fits Hudsons?
In spite of the rather stately pace the '26 was comfortable with, I sure had a great time. Just pottering around, with the cool night air a relief from the heat wave daytime conditions was relaxing and informative. It helps with historical perspective to drive a car like this 1926 Hudson, one that compares better to walking or riding a horse than to a modern car. When these cars were built, most roads were dirt or mud outside of town and 30 mph was considered a pretty good clip. The old Hudson is quite happy to potter around just above the pace of a brisk walk in top gear.
The old 6 volt lights were surprisingly good, better even than my 1983 pickup truck, and didn't flicker or fade at all. The reflectors in the headlights were resilvered several years ago making them more like they would have been when new.
The ride is very bouncy as this car has pretty stiff springs and no shock absorbers of any kind, but given that folks were used to horseback or buggies was probably considered pretty plush in it's day.
I should have the '29 Hudson back in a few days and lock forward to another midnight romp in the more modern car for a comparison. My thanks to Geoff & Lew Phelps for their parts in getting the '26 up and useable.
Paul O'Neil
SoCal
1926 Hudson Anderson Coupe
1929 Hudson Town Sedan
1939 Cadillac Coupe (How'd that get in here?)
www.cichet.us
www.aeromark.net
0
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