'51 Commodore 'unearthed'

Unknown

I've just 'uncovered' a '51 Hudson Commodore



It was in a wooded area on my property.



It looked like a pine needle mound noticed it

20yrs ago when I bought the property but only

recently, as I said before have I .. UNCOVERED IT.

took off a 2 foot thick blanket of pine needles



Needless to say light metal parts and bodywork has

rotted (all sorts of animals have lived in it)

but heavier parts like

Engine, Gearbox, Axles etc my be useful to someone

as parts or rebuild. Engine appears dry (no water in sump)



Ken Bertwistle 772 571-0132 9-5 EST

Full time Networker & Coach since 1980

http://Carbon-Copy-Marketing.net

http://LearnThenEarn.com

ken@zas07.net

Park_W

Ken, did you note whether it was 6 cyl or 8? Standard or Hydramatic?

Jon B

In case someone's curious, this gentleman seems to be from Florida so one would assume the car is in that state.

SuperDave

He is in Fellsmere North Indian River County, 'bout 35 miles South. [I'll go look this afternoon and report back. No doubt the trees are "Australian Pine". Many were planted around here to protect orange grovesfrom the wind. The needles are very acidic. I've seen cars with the fenders completely rusted off the body due to these things, So Ken is probably correct, that all the bodywork is shot and most likely the car could not be moved without a big shovel !! Maybe some stainless and some heavy parts remain. I'll take my digital camera and forward the pictures to someone to post for me.

Dave W(FL)

SuperDave

It started life a 1949 Commodore Eight Coupe. Nothing remains of the body except MAYBE a saveable deck lid. I forwarded pictures to Dan to post here. I bought the entire pile and will attempt to save the rear axle half shafts with bearings. Anyone need a 456 rear ring and pinion? ..I didn't think so, so will just try to save the axles. Just a shame it deteriorated to the stage it's at and if he hadn't tried to move the car from it's resting place, the stainless would have survived. None of the stainless survived. It's all bent .Maybe I'll try to remove the steering box and some of the heavy steering parts. The eight cylinder engine was long gone, but under a tree there was a 308 with single lever OD .. I'll keep that along with the twin H. One carb was smashed due to the chain that was wrapped around it to remove it from the heap of rusted body parts. I'll have a few 70 mile round trips, but I will have saved a few parts from the China smelting furnaces.

Dave W (FL)

464Saloon

Dave,

I could be interested in a 3.58 gear. Was going to start looking for something between a 3.50 and a 3.73 to replace my ungodly 4.56's

SuperDave

I made a mistake on the ratio, I did edit ..Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I had 3.58 on my mind, because that's what I replaced the 4.56 in my 49 with od. Sorry 'bout that.

rambos_ride

SuperDave wrote:

He is in Fellsmere North Indian River County, 'bout 35 miles South. [I'll go look this afternoon and report back. No doubt the trees are "Australian Pine". Many were planted around here to protect orange grovesfrom the wind. The needles are very acidic. I've seen cars with the fenders completely rusted off the body due to these things, So Ken is probably correct, that all the bodywork is shot and most likely the car could not be moved without a big shovel !! Maybe some stainless and some heavy parts remain. I'll take my digital camera and forward the pictures to someone to post for me.
Dave W(FL)

[IMG]http://www.49c8.com/images/fp/RustOnly/Fellsmere Hudson 1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.49c8.com/images/fp/RustOnly/Fellsmere Hudson 2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.49c8.com/images/fp/RustOnly/Fellsmere Hudson 3.jpg[/IMG]

Unknown

What a mess. You can barely tell that this pile of debris used to be a car. I'm surprised this didn't show up on eBay as restorable.

[Deleted User]

If it were a Hemicuda or a LS6 Chevelle and the body tags and stampings were all, it would have!

rambos_ride

Ummmm.......

Where's "FRED" from RustEze?

What is it that we're looking at again?

Unknown

Hate to say it, but this car makes Fred look good.

SuperDave

rambos_ride wrote:

Ummmm.......



Where's "FRED" from RustEze?



What is it that we're looking at again?

Hi Dan, Thanks for posting the pics. I knew these would make you feel a little better about your 49 Commodore... hehhehe

Now to see what carb linkage I can find in this mess.:eek:

SuperDave

Further update.

Retrieved the engine transmission today. The engine is a 308, no factory number on the right front corner. The vin number was stamped in after the engine change. the vin number was 4946550. A fairly early 49 production number.In contrast to the 49 Com 8 Convert that I had which was 49458715 If anyone keeps track of such things, it was 49 Com. 8 Coupe.

The engine most likely was a factory suppied stepdown replacement with the double groove harmonic balancer, twin H, hooked up to the original single lever overdrive transmission.

I did save the two rear axles with bearings which look serviceable. The deck lid was missing the bottom 4-5 inches.. The engine was well worth the effort. I am going to keep the engine and tranny combination and attempt to rebuild for a swap into my Super Six. The axles are for sale if anyone is interested, send me an email at hetdwad1939@earthlink.net drop the het.