Russell's Ramblings

RL Chilton

A few people have asked about me and my car lately, so I thought I would get folks caught up. Unfortunately, Scarlet has been in dry storage for a long time. It blows my mind to think about it, but after a 9-year restoration and another 9 or 10 years in waiting, I look up at the calendar and realize I have owned her for 20 years. 

Several factors caused my hiatus from the Hudson world. About 6 years ago, I started a web-based business manufacturing a product for the Model Railroading industry. Since I still have my day job, that has kept me very busy on nights and weekends. Eventually, this sideline business will become my retirement job. Additionally, in about 2 months, my wife Vicki and I will become empty nesters as #1 son has gone on to the Air Force and #2 son is starting college in August in Kansas. The reclamation of our time from hands-on parenting has made me all the more aware of how much I have been missing Hudson folks, doing Hudson things, and Hudsoning with my car.  There is no time like the present to get back into the swing of things! Poor Scarlett has been up on jacks in the garage, fluids drained, sans battery, nothing but Kroil and cobwebs in the cylinders—her hulk hiding beneath a car cover. There really is a lot to be said for out of sight, out of mind.

The International Meet is coming up in French Lick, and I would absolutely LOVE to go, even without a car. I’ve been wanting to visit that place since before the Inter. Meet was there the last time around. What a beautiful setting for the world’s most beautiful marque! Unfortunately, this just isn’t the time right now. But NEXT year, it is my understanding that the Hudson IM will be in Denton, Texas (along with our Regional).  That’s much closer to home for us here in South Central Texas. Even if I have to drive her myself, I’m taking Scarlett up there. 

Obviously, I’ve re-found my Hudson bug. Recently, I have been organizing the garage and getting ready to get her back on the road. (It’s amazing how much dust can accumulate over time. I cleaned for 3 days and am still not quite done clearing it!) And just polishing the brightwork after letting her sit for so long can become a Herculean chore. After an extensive restoration, there’s always that last 5% that needs to be re-done, finished up, fixed, repaired, or changed—all the things that you rushed when you were trying to get the car done are the things you really needed to take the most amount of time and care to do correctly. I have a list of items on this list and have completed roughly half of them in the last weeks.   

This Fall, I have an long-time Hudson friend who is coming to stay with us to help me finish her up, mainly to review and fine-tune the hydraulics (I had to replace the driver quarter window cylinder) and to dial in the engine. He can do that even better than I can—the difference between a real mechanic and a shade tree, like me. My time is still limited, but that is going to change as this year gets into its latter stages. 

For those of you that know me, this gets you caught up on my doings and for those of you that don’t, I used to be a fairly prolific poster on this forum. Maybe I can be that again going forward.  

RL Chilton

One of the items on my list was actually something I wanted to do initially, a 6-bladed fan as opposed to the 4-bladed stock fan that doesn't move a whole lot of air. I started this project before the restoration was "finished" and got frustrated with it, ran out of time and threw it on the shelf. I figured I would get to it later. Later finally came! It's a universal-type fan and I had to make an adaptor to go from the hole pattern on the fan to the hole pattern on the water pump. You can see the adaptor if you look closely on the back side of the fan. The larger blades were initially going to run into the clutch on the compressor, so I had to back-cut the backside of the blades. After the first blade engineered to clear properly, I made a template to cut all of the other blades to match. Also, after moving the radiator all the way forward, I could still maintain the 7/8" from fan to radiator, so that worked out well. After getting the fan back off of the shelf, it only took me a half a day or so to finish up the engineering. Don't know why I put it off for so long.

Only thing I don't know is how much noise this fan will make. I've been told that 6-bladed fans can be a little noisy. We'll see when she's running, again. I'll make sure to comment on that when the time comes.

RL Chilton

This forum used to be hotbed of Hudson activity. Not so much anymore?

KenU_Tx

Russel, we all went to the HET Club Facebook page and the HET Club, Non-AI Facebook Page. Not much activity here anymore.