Hudson comes Home

segajeep · Wasp Joined: Sep 05, 2011 Posts: 26

Well, not exactly home, but out of the wreckers.
So, the Pacemaker is finally out of harm's way. Got my replacement wheels on,on to the deck and out to the yard.

51hornet · Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 2:35 pm Post subject: Re: Hudson comes Home

When you had it up on the transporter were you able to get a good look at the frame? be interested to see what shape its in.

segajeep · Wasp Joined: Sep 05, 2011 Posts: 26

There are some holes at the end past the leaf shackles, and the rails that are outboard of the rear wheels had some holes.I gave a quick feel along the rockers and they felt fine. No crunching sounds when we winched it up. one of the cross members just ahead of the diff has the center (apparently) cut out.Maybe for driveshaft clearance /removal? Once I get the interior,floors and fenders off I'll get a better look.

I'm proficient with a MIG and a metal brake, so I'm not put off by repairs.I want to get the frame/floor area media blasted/repaired and coated,then get the floors in and sealed up. Going to work my way form the middle out. I'd rather not disassemble the car completely. I did that with my Beetle and it took forever(5 years).The plan is to get it solid and running, then worry about how pretty it is.

BUT, as it happens often, the parts car becomes the runner. I haven't had a good look at the underside of it as of yet, but it's unmolested and complete ,and it hasn't been ruled out....

51hornet · Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 4:34 pm Post subject: Re: Hudson comes Home

You can get pre-done floor boards with all the seams and clips on them so that can save you a lot of time. Frame is a matter of cut and repair. But good idea to media blast the underside to let you know what you are working with.

Hudsons are great cars to work on. Well engineered.

segajeep · Wasp Joined: Sep 05, 2011 Posts: 26

I saw floor boards on ebay, 50 bucks, C2C fab has the floors and trunk pan as well. I'll powdercoat anything I can. Once it's blasted I can hit it with some sort of heavy duty rust paint or Boxliner.I like a clean underside.

segajeep · Wasp Joined: Sep 05, 2011 Posts: 26

Pulled out the mouse and spider country club today, found some gronkyness inboard on the outer frame rails where the floors had rusted. Soaked the rocker cover/sill plates in WD-40 and fluid film. I'll let them soak for a while and try to get them off next time.

Transmission tunnel is pretty holy too. I don't think they make repros of it.

These frame rails look easy to fix. They are nice and flat, no funny bends. They'll give me a clean surface to weld the floors to. It seems that everywhere there is tarboard, it rusts out. Same story on my Beetle.

My Horn Button turned up under the front seat, too!

51hornet · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:26 am Post subject: Re: Hudson comes Home

Ah the fun of pulling down a Hudson and cleaning everything out of it.

Looks like you had standing water in the car for a while.

segajeep · Wasp Joined: Sep 05, 2011 Posts: 26

Went out with the deck truck this morning and picked up the second car.

As previously mentioned, it's complete with a 232 and manual trans. Good source of body parts and trim. Clean dash.All the tires but one hold air, and maybe only because the stem from the tube is stuffed inside the rim.

51hornet · Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 5:23 pm Post subject: Re: Hudson comes Home

They look good. Even in a field Hudsons look good.

segajeep · Wasp Joined: Sep 05, 2011 Posts: 26

OK, kind of late but on the weekend I did some work on the Hudson. Pulled the interior out of the parts car and popped the roof back out.

Discovered a nice solid transmission tunnel

Workable cluster

Back on the builder;After letting the numerous door sill/rocker cover screws soak in nuts off for a few weeks I was able to get them off without destroying them.Outside of the frame rails look good. Inside there is some deterioration under the door pillar.

Both sets of rocker covers are beat, though.

51hornet · Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 10:18 pm Post subject: Re: Hudson comes Home

That roof popped out pretty nicely.

segajeep · Wasp Joined: Sep 05, 2011 Posts: 26

I'm not sure if the roof will change the fate of the second car.Judging by the headliner,it looks as though there are already pinholes in it.I love the patina on it, how it sat for 40 years at Reynolds and the paint 'washed' off. I like the look of it over the shait black/white paint on the other car.I'd like to run it as is,but I've come up with a paint scheme for the other car so thats not an issue anymore.The panels are pretty beat and the bottoms of the doors are rotted.The frame isn't really better. Just rusty in different places. More work to get it on the road but I'll most certainly keep the body parts and straighten them out. Going to run the serial number from the Reynolds car, however. It's low and when I picked the car up,Mark threw in an old dealer badge and license plate frame from when Stan was a dealership, so that would be a neat piece of local car history.