moulding at bottom of doors on a stepdown

bartibog, When Hudson first produced the stepdown in 1948, the moulding at the bottom of the fenders and doors was made of stainless steel regardless of the model.In 1950 this stainless steel recieved a character line on it to match the mid door "eyebrow" moulding. While they looked the same the door bottom moulding was slightly narrower. Sometime toward the end of the 1950 model run, a new moulding was put into use. Where previously there had been use of stainless moulding , now came painted moulding to match the color of the car. What also changed was that this new material was made from standard steel-no more stainless. It also went back to the "oval" profile of the 48-9 design. This was the situation up until 1953. In 1954 it was discontinued altogether. Stainless pieces will work on cars that did not origionally come with them but if your goal is origionality, then they could be painted. Big advantage with stainless is the resistance to rust,but the retainer strips are another story!

Larry, I don't doubt for a minute that your picture shows what you say it does. However, customers could ask a dealer to replace the piece or they themselves could do the same. 50-60 years is a long time and things do happen. If you look in the Master Parts 48-54 catalog on pg 466 you will note all that I explained previously is supported by what Hudson published. On convertible stepdowns many times the restorer opts to put stainless moulding on it to dress it up. The reality of it is that since it's your car you can do anything you want to.

Dave ,You are certainly correct in your observation . K-Gap sells the rubber strips and reccoments using 3M adhesive or using perhaps small,short screws to do the same job. I cheated and went and bought black closed cell foam rubber and cut it into strips . Then applied weatherstrip adhesive from 3M and shut the doors. The foam closes the gap and contours itself where it ought to be sealing . Works great and I think seals better than the repop K=Gap sells. No knock on Danny ,but foam rubber really seals better than a rubber strip. Danny's repops are exact replicas minus the steel reinforcement strip but I think Hudson could have done a bit better here.