Rumble Seat Mounting question

Toddh

Folks

Sometimes when you ‘peel back the onion’ on a previous restoration you find things that just don’t make sense.  So in trying to tidy up the Rumble seat area of my ‘34 Terraplane 4-passenger coupe I discovered a disturbing short cut. The rumble seat lower cushion frame was secured to the floor with an improvised thin gauge metal strip attached to the wood seat frame and only(!) four #8 x 1/2” screws to the floor.  Yikes.  

I cannot seem to locate in any of the period parts books a bracket or mounting method for the rumble seat bottom.  

Do any of you that have a 34 or 35 Hudson or Terraplane 4-passenger coupe or convertible have any information or pictures that show the correct factory mounting method?  

Many thanks in advance!

dholck

When you say "4 passenger coupe," is that the car most would probably call a 2 door sedan?  ...or more properly, the 116-inch wheelbase Victoria or the 112-inch wheelbase Coach, as seen in the "Gangway - 1934 Terraplane Six" brochure.  [I realize some define a coupe as anything with 2 doors, but I'm going with Hudson's terminology and the fixed B-pillar definition.]
Are you actually talking about the interior back seat and not an outside rumble seat as a coupe would have?
I would recommend defining exactly what car and what seat and maybe put in some pictures.
I was also intrigued by the "4-passenger convertible" reference ...ahh, the Phaeton I guess it would be; but that's 4-door.

Toddh

My nomanclature is correct.  The 4-passenger coupe is not a “Coach” or “Victoria” which is a 2-door sedan. Likewise the 4-passenger convertible model has a rumble seat unlike the 5-passenger Phaeton with a integral rear seat.  I believe I was clear in the thread title that my car has a rumble seat. I hope this helps clarify. 

dholck

I see your mention of having a 34T 4-passenger coupe in SEP 2020 and you posted a picture of the yellow car, right?
I FIGURED IT OUT!!  What you are calling a "4-passenger coupe" is a 116-inch wheelbase 1934 Terraplane KU coupe with a rumble seat... the other 2 passengers are in the rumble seat, right?  I've never seen one referred to as a 4-passenger coupe, hence my confusion [rumble seat coupe, KU coupe, Deluxe Coupe, etc.].  You just need information on the "regular" 34 Terraplane coupe rumble seat (standard on the KU and optional on the K). 

AND SO, I go back to my original suggestion; that you search forum posts for those discussions of rumble seat hardware (let me know if you get any action on getting templates, etc.).  Also, go to the club roster and look for the 34 Terraplane KU coupe listings - those guys have the rumble seats of which you want a picture.

My 34 Terraplane 2-passenger coupe (a K 'dressed as' a KU, except for the rumble seat) next to a 35 Hudson rumble seat convertible at the 2013 National Meet.

Toddh

Mr Holck. 

I’m so happy that we were able to clear that up.  I want to apologize for causing your confusion.  I frankly had no idea that the iconic term ‘Rumble Seat’ may have other meanings to folks.  Likewise I’m also very sorry to have used Hudson period factory parts manual body style terminology in describing my car (112” ‘34 Model K - 4-passenger coupe) which caused you further confusion and consternation.  

I do want to thank you for the generous tip on searching this forum before posting my inquiry.  Wow...I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself. My purpose of posting a technical question to this forum was a now obvious careless effort on my part to cast my question across a wide net of owners in hopes I might get a rapid answer to my question. 

Thank you very much for posting a picture of your fine looking ‘34 2-passenger coupe.  It looks very nicely done. Unfortunately for my inquiry your car is clearly a trunk model. I can only surmise you won’t have the answers I’m looking for. 

Happy Hudsoning!

toddh

dholck

Sarcasm aside (we try very hard to be respectful on the HET Forum); it IS very interesting - in 50 years I have never seen any paperwork that refers to a Hudson or Terraplane 4-passenger coupe in the sales literature or the tech manuals or heard anybody use that term for a rumble seat coupe.  So, interesting to learn something new.  [I now expect that somebody will say your excerpt is right out of the Mechanical Procedures Manual; I said I had not seen it, not that it didn't exist.]

Also interesting to see that we should have been fast car buddies; you have what I have been trying to make for 50 years - a K coupe 'dressed as' a KU.  Since you had all the extra stuff (fender lights, chrome horns, rumble seat) I had mistakenly assumed it was a 116" KU.  The part I am missing is the rumble seat (got fender lights, chrome horns, 16" wheels, etc.).  The rumble was an option on the K and all the mounting points are there in my trunk.  The car had been sitting in my Grandma's garage for over 20 years ...guess I should just be happy with what I have.

"Rumble seat" was not at all confusing, it was the 4-passenger coupe part.  My goal was just to note that I thought it was non-standard terminology and might hinder you from finding what you seek.  I guess the remark about searching means you did search - good, then you have the names of the people who have exactly what you want.

What you are also finding (re "wide net of owners") is what I have found over the years - not much response to 30's car stuff.  Hence, let me be bothersome one LAST time and suggest that you contact those KU folks in the HET roster by other means (phone, direct email, etc.); probably even best to do for those guys who responded to my rumble seat hardware forum questions way-back-when.

Old guys like to kibitz and gripe and are lately out-of-whack somewhat due to Covid isolation.  If you are a younger man, please make allowances for that - if not, then you may be suffering from the same thing.   So long and happy Hudsoning.  Holck out.

Toddh

Dennis.  All sarcasm aside.  Would really like to chat with you sometime soon.  We do have much in common.  I’ll pm you with my email and number. 

All the best to you. 

T

BigSky

I hear ya on that onion layers.... I’ve found a few of those things & thus they’ve been fixed but still makes one scratch their head as to why....