Update 3: The Hudson gets "re-styled"...

I've been thrashing on the Hudson lately, trying to get it ready for Billetproof. Alas, I'm not going to make it to Billetproof this year as I am getting called away for work (I'm a catastrophe claim adjuster) to the midwest.



SO, I thought I might put up a couple photos of the stuff I've been doing on the car.



So, this is what the car looked like about a month or so ago:









First things first, I had to strip the car to get it ready for DP sealer so I can do the finish bodywork. I wound up using a razor blade on the whole car. That pulled off most of the paint.











A bit more (a lot more) stripping produced a body in bare metal. There was a ton of bondo in the doors and rear quarters, almost a half inch thick in spots. Whoever had done the previous body work never even tried to pull the dents. There wasn't any rust under the bondo, so I lucked out.











I've wanted to do something with the grille opening for a long time. It was just kind of an unfinished hole in the front of the car. I had picked up a 51 Merc grille surround, and played around with a 51 Ford grille, a 53 Olds grille, a Kaiser grille bar, and finally decided to make my own surround and use a 51/52 Plymouth grille.



I used the Plymouth grille, narrowing it 4 inches. I also cut up the grille pan from the Plymouth and set it in place.

I took some 3" mandrel bent tubing for the top curve of the grille surround.



The stock Hudson hood has a big piece of trim that runs along the front edge, and I wasn't going to use it. I bent up some flat sheet at a buddy's house so I had a lip to work with and fashioned a new front edge. Filled some holes, and rounded the hood corners.













As of right now, the car is ready for DP. When I get back in mid July, I'll work on some custom fender flares for the rear wheel openings (I'm not using skirts) and get the thing painted.