Memories, My first Hudson
Hudsonrules
Senior Contributor
:)Well, fifty years ago this month, I bought my first Hudson from a used car lot in Seattle. It was a salmon and cream colored '50 Super "6" Sedan. It was a three speed with overdrive and I was pleased with it. Of course back then it was Fords or Chevies for most teenagers. When I brought it home, family members exclaimed, A H-U-D-S-O-N! ? They acted as though I needed to go in for a mental health check up. I kept the Hudson for a few months and under presure bought a '50 Ford, then another '50 Ford in a few short months. Those Fords had been run into the ground and did not hold up like a Hudson. One day in 1960 I traded in my '50 Ford coupe on a '53 Hudson Hornet. What a car! Rode and handled very nice. It was maroon with a cream top. Later that year, someone tried to drive through the back of the Hudson. Then it was over a year before I bought another Hudson after haviing Fords and chevies and a dodge. Hudsons were my choice then and would be today if they were still in production. I have had several Hudsons since{most of which I wish that could have saved}. The ones that I have now, I intend to drive for as long as possible. They always get attention. Any more memories? Arnie in Nevada
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My first Hudson was a 1937 Terraplane sedan that I bought in 1972 when I was a senior in college at the University of Dayton for $75. It didn't have headlights, so I couldn't drive at night; the wipers didn't work, so you couldn't drive in the rain; and you really didn't want to attempt to drive it at night in the rain. Thank God Ohio didn't have inspections!
Sold it for $125 after driving it for a year to a guy from Anna, OH.0 -
My first Hudson was a '37 Terraplane convertible bought for $500 back in '71, when I was mere stripling of 24. How I wish I still had it....
....WAIT! I still do!! (LOL!)0 -
My 1st was a '49 S6 cp. purchased in '55 from the Hudson dealer I'd worked for in H.S. during '53 & '54.
I drove it from Indiana to college in Az. during my soph. & jr. years when my dad took it over for a "driver" & I bought a '53 Stude. V8 hardtop (as 262 getting "tired").
During the summer of '57 got an engine from dealer (bus. assoc. of my dad's who'd taken on AMC so still had his old Hudson mechanics + still had a huge trove of Hudson parts, much of which I bought later in the '60s) from a '47 PU they had put a Hornet into but wrecked (head on into a tree, engine just rebuilt). They were afraid the wreck might have bent the crank & it did. After several days & nights in his shop (doing my 1st engine swap but with the pros looking on) took it out for a drive & rods started to knock due to bent crank, so put the old 262 back in.
It did not have o.d. I lowered it, shaved the hood & deck, and painted it 2-tone white & baby blue. Chrysler hubcaps on front, none on rear as too low to be seen, LOL!
Have a few poor photos of it - perhaps will try scanning them.0 -
My first Hudson was a hand-me-down 53 Jet 4door sedan. I got the car in 63 and drove it for several years before selling it to my buddy Jim O.. That car got me all over NY state and then some. Being a niave kid I once blew a head gasket on the ole JET but did not realize this had occured. I drove the car on for another 100 miles to my destination and later in the day drove it back home 160 miles. Coughing a sputtering as I got home I gathered my Dad to diagnose the malady. The next day we pulled the head and found a blown head gasket and several burned valves. We towed the car to a local machinery repair place and they decked the block and planed the head. I distinctly remember the fellow there saying to install two head gaskets and fill it with water for the first week. We did so and the little JET sprang back to life. I know Jim O drove that car for several more years. Memories0
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Good stories, all. I don't think I'm allowed to share in this thread, though. Does it count that I've liked Hudsons since '69? Sure took a long time to get to owning one, though . . .;)0
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When I was about 12 years old my father bought a 46 Hudson 4 door, I don't remember the model. After that he bought a 53 Wasp two door sedan. I still have the 1958 and 1959 registrations for those two years. They read Hudson, 1953, tudor sedan, Blue, vin # 5C-207373. My father had an accident with it and I never saw it again. I really liked the 53, it was the most comfortable car we ever had. Great memories. Richie.0
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I got my first Hudson when I was 19. I was tracking down a pair of '47 Caddy limos and the owner didn't have the limos they were in storage but he did have a Hudson. "WHAT'S THAT THING?!" It was a 1951 Pacemaker Club Coupe, black with dual spotlights and I bought it after getting the 3 books about Hudson in the library. It ran but had a clang in the differential... turned out the thrust spacer block in the differential had been destroyed and I got a new pumpkin for it and fixed it. Thing was I put a jack on it and the frame went CRUNCH. Turns out someone had tried to hide the frame rott with bondo and screen. So I totally got ripped off but what did I know. Some local chapter members got me another 2 Hudson's and I pulled the engine on that '51 P kept it (still have it, anyone want it?), and sold it to Jim in TX dirt cheap. Well some guy saw that car after Jim had it and had to have it and supposedly it ultimately got restored and the frame welded up but I now wish I had kept it. Oh well. we all have one that got away.0
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In the mid seventies I was driving another antique brand and would often stop and speak with a neighbor who was deep into Hudson's. I loved his step-down convertible (what the heck, I loved all that he had) and would often say to him "maybe my next car will be a Hudson." In the 90's I was driving a 32 Chevrolet and working on a 28 Chrysler "Fisher body coupe." Still friends with the neighbor and a bit "ticked" that hot-rods had taken over our area. I got a lot of negative comments because I drove the 32 at 50 mph. It was time to start a new project so I stopped by my neighbor and we talked Hudson's. He had three at the time and I selected the 52 that became the "Salt Flats Racer." Later, after many fun miles in the 52, it was time for another project (had finished several other brands-hotrods) and the 39 Martz Hudson found me. Now I have two Hudson's. The 36 English Hudson will be out of the paint shop this week or next and the Martz is in the cut, weld stage. I have been without a drivable Hudson for nine months now and am in withdrawl. Even the all original El Camino feels my pain. It stopped running several times this summer while on tour.0
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This is my first Hudson...
That is my Grandmother standing next to it when it was new. My Grandfather bought it from his brother-in-law in Kansas, 1953. It was probably the last 52 on the lot, and my guess is Grampa got a good deal on it.
My mother learned to drive in this car, and really did not care for it then. She had a hard time seeing out of it. She likes Hudsons now, but that is a different story.
The first time I was able to drive it was before I had a license. My family would visit every year for the Tri-State Antique Engine & Thresher Show in Bird City, Kansas. Grampa had several things in the show and I was allowed to drive the Hudson. I cannot remember a time when I did not like that car.
My Grandparents passed away several years ago and my mother, through some trading with her brother, was able to inherit the Hudson. I do not own the car yet, my father is currently restoring it graciously, but it will always be my first hudson.
Thanks Grampa
Todd0 -
RL Chilton wrote:Good stories, all. I don't think I'm allowed to share in this thread, though. Does it count that I've liked Hudsons since '69? Sure took a long time to get to owning one, though . . .;)
Why not share your Hudson story, Russell. My first Hudson was a 1953 Hornet Sedan. At the time (1969) I was stationed at Barbers Point, Hawaii, and I came home on leave for a month. My dad had found this sedan in a chicken coop and bought it for me. Only problem I really had with it was a bad fuel pump gasket that allowed fuel to run into the crankcase and a bad habit of dying beside the road - usually a couple days before there was Hudson meet I wanted to take it to. I claim the only psychotic Hudson known.
The Hornet was eventually sold to make room for a 1936 Terraplane coupe which gave way to a 1949 Hudson Commodore 6 Club Coupe with a 1956 Hornet 308. Which eventually gave way to both the wife and I being in the hospital about a month apart and bill money was needed. I was out of the Coast Guard by then, but even working there wasn't much bill money to be had.
Trouble with all these cars, except the '53, was they all needed restoration. And there just wasn't the money for that. I don't know where the 53 wound up, but the 36 T ended up with Thom Bixby in MA and the 49 was on ebay not to long ago. I emailed the seller but he never got back to me.
This is one of the great things about the H-E-T club (pay attention Russell). I haven't been able to have a Hudson in over 20 years because I just don't have the money for one. But I've always felt welcome where-ever I've gone in the club. Since I can't afford a set of wheels, my contribution is the computer work scanning material to put on-line for my Hudson family to find a use for.
Thanks everybody - I've been agitating people in this club for 40 years (and got the pin to prove it) and it's been one hell of a ride. You all are the greatest!!!!
Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN0 -
I got my first Hudson about a year ago, but I've known it all my life. It's a 1950 Pacemaker deluxe brougham that was also my father's first Hudson and first car. He bought it in the mid 50's from his uncle who bought it new so it's a one family car.
It was his daily driver until 1970 and it travelled around the country as his Air Force career progressed. He's in the process of writing it's full history (with pictures!) for me. I don't have all of the info handy but I'm pretty sure it visited over half of the states at one point or another.
It hasn't run since 1973 when it was parked "temporarily" because we were transferred across country and it wasn't really up to the trip at that point.
It's been stored in various barns and garages over the years and my father was always meaning to restore it, but last year, my parents moved to a smaller house and there wasn't room for the Hudson. Luckily, I had just built a new garage so I had room for it. (I had to buy a truck and trailer to get it home from Ohio but that's another story...)
I'm planning to get started on the long awaited restoration soon. Hopefully it won't have to wait another 36 years until it's back on the road.0 -
All right, all right, all right!!
My grandfather bought a '49 Commodore in '51, later traded it in on a '51 Hornet. My family comes from the moonshine era, and many were involved in the shipment of the stock. That same grandfather was particularly busy during Prohibition, and ran whiskey for some prominent gangsters in the Indiana/Chicago area.
Hudsons, and particularly Hornets were always a subject of the greatest cars ever around family gatherings (in particular in reference to evading authorities). I had no idea what all the hub-bub was about, but there was certainly a large mystique anytime the subject came up or a HUDSON was spotted on the road.
Had a real chance to buy my first Hudson in '84: found a '53 Hornet in a junkyard, but it was all there and had me mesmerized. But, it wasn't meant to be and it took me almost two decades later to actually getting around to my first real Hudson, a '52 Hornet Sedan.
But, the real icing on the cake has been the pleasure of meeting other Hudnuts and making some of the best friends I've ever had in the process. Had it not been for them, the folks involved with Hudsons, y'all here on the forum and the support of my family, there wouldn't have been the addition of more Hudsons to date, or of the ones I still would like to own!! LOL!
It took a long time to finally find my marque, but the wait was absolutely worth it. I'm certainly a better, happier person with a Hudson in the garage, and all the friends I've made these last 5 years.
How's that, Alex?:)0 -
Russell, love the moonshine connection. In fact my Aunt Hester's mother (also known as Hester), according to Aunties bio, drove Hudson hoochmobiles for a Boston bootlegger between Canada and Boston, back in the 20's. The first Aunt Hester, according to legend, was also Big Tony's driver - until, one night, the Dorchester mob tried to take over the North End and air conditioned Big Tony's 1929 Hudson lwb sedan with a Thompson gun. Unfortunately Big Tony was riding in it at the time - Hester was running hooch that night so escaped. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!
Hudson step-downs were used quite extensively in the trade between the 30's Ford coupes and the later Plymouth Fury's.
Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN0 -
hudsontech wrote:Russell, love the moonshine connection. In fact my Aunt Hester's mother (also known as Hester), according to Aunties bio, drove Hudson hoochmobiles for a Boston bootlegger between Canada and Boston, back in the 20's. The first Aunt Hester, according to legend, was also Big Tony's driver - until, one night, the Dorchester mob tried to take over the North End and air conditioned Big Tony's 1929 Hudson lwb sedan with a Thompson gun. Unfortunately Big Tony was riding in it at the time - Hester was running hooch that night so escaped. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!
Hudson step-downs were used quite extensively in the trade between the 30's Ford coupes and the later Plymouth Fury's.
Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN
So, I've heard!! If Aunt Hester was running the east coast, doubt my family ever ran into her, as they didn't get much east past OH, and not too much west past Chicago area. Time period was mid-20's to mid-50's. Got my first taste in '80 in North Texas, as all those northern counties are/were dry. It was either go across state lines, or brew your own!!:eek: Tasted like gasoline to me.0 -
Paid $16.00 for my '28 Essex Coupe in Aug 1965 & I'm still driving it. It is the first car to have my name on the papers!!
Did a 700 mile round trip last weekend to go to the NZ HET Club Hudson Centenary meet finishing with a fabulous back country dirt road run. Most of the 97 Rally packs that were distributed went to cars from the '20's & some from the 30's. Only one Stepdown & no Hash's but we did have a mid 60's Rambler attend. I'll try to post some photos over the next week.
We issued a 15 month calendar (November 09- Feb 11) of members cars that we gave to all NZ HET Club members. So many guys wanted more that we have to do another run. If anyone in the US wants one we can probably do you one for US$10.00 + postage, but I'd need to know in the next three weeks. HETDavid@websters.co.nz (drop the HET etc)0
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