ClassicCar

Thank You Park, and Josh for the welcome! As for that picture it kinda helps, any chance does someone in HET have a picture of a 49' Hudson 4 door sedan with its roof bows? Its alright if no one has one since I could always them like Josh said.

thanks, Roger. I'll check for the paint when I get back home in December, hopefully I can see the paint dot on them.

One other thing... I do not have a key to my 49' Hudson. It was in a salvage yard for 20+ years. Any tips, advice, or tricks I could do to somehow open the two boxes on the dash?

Welcome to the club Christopher! Look forward to seeing you in the NW Chapter soon! I'm located in SE Washington State, and there is a '47 Pickup nearby needing lots of love. I'm interested to see your cars, especially the '41. I have the SWB Deluxe versions of these cars, including a sedan, business coupe, and pickup. Ok, I have a few other cars as well! The last picture is a non-Hudson car just acquired. Test your ID skills and tell me what it is.

Cheers!
Tim

OK, well here's the story.

The 47 pickup is not quite on the market yet, but should be soon. It is really 4, although much is missing there and I think it has a hemi engine in it. Turns out there is a 1950 Commodore Six coupe at the same place and it is a 4.5. Salvageable, but messy and with rusted out rockers.

The 1941 gray coupe is a completely stock original interior car. It was repainted once on the exterior, but that is all; it has the original drivetrain, which sat in hibernation for probably 30 years before I got it. It is the SWB Hudson "Six" Deluxe. The hood lights and bright work are a little different than the LWB Super Six or Commodore Hudsons in 1941. The center stepdown car is a 1950 Pacemaker Deluxe, again the new SWB version of a stepdown. The grille guard in the center was just an optional dress up item as were the fog lights and fender spears. The interior picture is a 1942 DeSoto Custom Club Coupe. They were unique as they had hidden headlights (called Airfoil by DeSoto). The only year this brand ever had them, and of course since it was an abbreviated production year due to the war, there are few of them out there. Only the 36-37 Cord was a pre-war production vehicle prior to the DeSoto with the hideaway headlamps, and those aren't really common either.

Here are the pictures of the dash for the 41 coupe and the 1950 stepdown:

Tim - Does the 47' run and what do you think they will be asking for it roughly? Also the 1950 C6 coupe sounds really tempting....
I see, thank you for telling me about the cars you have and correcting me from what I thought they were. What exactly does SWB and LWB stand for, I never heard of that abbreviation before.

Roger - Since they are made of cardboard, I think mine have long since rotted away.

Thanks Rick for the Welcome! I am on the facebook page too.

Bent metal - I just started my Wyotech Program in September so I am right at the beginning. At the moment we are learning MIG Welding, oxyacetylene cutting, how to use hammers and dollies, how to apply body filler and sand it, removing car interiors, and removing body panels. As of the next phase I am going to learn how to section the structure of the car, removing quarter panels, re skinning doors just to name a few. In the new year in refinishing I'll learn everything to do with preparing and painting cars and in my final two phases i'll learn TIG welding, shaping sheet metal, using the english wheel etc.

Tim,
I feel the exact same way, about saving as many of these cars as possible. I am interested in possibly buying the 50' coupe if the price is right. I also really like the look of the 1939 Hudson pickup, but those are hard to find (As for the 47' pickup, I'd prefer something that ran at the moment, since i could use it down here in Cali). Thanks for explaining SWB and LWB. Do you know where I can get a good deal on "The History of Hudson" by Don Bulter? I found it on Amazon for $100 new but there must be a better place. I do have "An Illustrated History - Hudson Automobiles" by Patrick Foster but it does not really cover everything and I would love to know more about Hudson Automobiles.
Could I contact you in the new year when I'll be removing the dash for the pictures from the Pacemaker?

Not sure ,but if you take the trunk lock and door locks out and have a locksmith key them.Guessing $50.00., A good chance that one of them will fit your jocky box? Also on the head liner bows, I just instaledl a head liner in my 54 Hornet and like yours all the bows were out of there keepers and the paint marks were all gone. I just got them all back in as I thought that they should be and it is not too confussing after some messing around with them. Do not do as I did and put too much tention on the rear bows when afixing to the rear window opening, because it will cause the front of the head liner to have more wrinkling that you will want to have to deal with. You will understand when you get to this?

Thanks Jon for the advice but I really think mine dash boxes are too far gone, but I have not yet had a chance to really look under the dash due to a lack of time. They could still be there, but I am not going to hold my breathe until I check.

I am definitely going to consider that, since I am going to need a new set of keys for the car since I do not have any. As for the bows, I left the rear bow in the car, I was able to remove all the other ones.

Tim - I want to remove the dash from the car since I am going to do a Factory restoration (minus the fabric on the seats, headliner and carpet... I want to change those) for my Hudson. I also do not know the condition of the wiring harness and I would prefer to replace it instead of using the original 63 year old one.
Do you know anything else of the 50' Hudson coupe near you?

Tim - Rust for me is not too big of a deal, it just means it may take a little bit longer (a few more months of body work) before I get the car back on the road. I am going to private message you with my email so you could send me the few pictures you have.

Bent Metal - I'm not too worried the corrosion but I will definitely make a list of all the structure and body panels which need either partial or full replacement. Also the more I get into my education I am less worried about these factors, more just wondering where I can rent the proper tools to make the metal work a lot easier.

Rick - Of course! I checked Ebay today and there was one listed for $49.99 used. I'd prefer a new copy personally but I am going to keep on shopping around.

Wow, even I would let my copy go for $3990! Ok, I guess I'm color challenged, but my book was actually purple with silver design. Red, blue, white? Maybe Crestline was using up their cover stock in the reprints. Actually, mine was a used copy that I bought at Powell's bookstore in Portland, OR 20 years ago, and it looked brand new, even though it was about 10 years old at that time.

Don Butler did such a wonderful job of compiling this info. I have many of the other Crestline series books, and only the ones on Cadillac and Lincoln/Mercury come close to the quality of info contained in the Butler book on Hudson. I think he did help with some of the other Crestline books.

Alex Burr will maybe recall the WTN which is of interest to Christopher concerning 1941 Hudson dash design. Much of this was done by a lady named Betty Thatcher (unusual for female designers at the time). She designed the Start and Light switches used on the 41's that were retained all the way through to the 47 Hudsons. She also worked on designing the 41 dash in general, door/window handles, and the trim on the hoods, including the plastic hood lights. August 1993 interview, White Triangle News, Vol 35(3), January/February 1994.
Frank Spring hired her and she worked with Art Kibiger quite a bit. This article had some photos.

Hudson introduced "Symphonic Styling" that year which coordinated colors/fabrics of the cars. Tan color interiors had woodgrained dashes. Green interiors had green painted dashes. The Commodores and Commodore Custom vehicles had woodgrained dashes and window garnish moldings. All 3 of my SWB 41 Hudsons, including the 1/2T pickup had identical woodgrain dashes (the top was sunburned off 2 of these, but the faces were in pretty good shape). The window garnish moldings in all of these cars are painted a gray brown color. Hudson used a decal technique to place the woodgrain pattern on the sheet metal, then put it in the die to press out the dash piece, so all of them looked essentially identical. It's been interesting having enough unaltered condition cars/models to understand how they did this. The pickup cab was clearly made by taking a 4-door sedan body and slicing off everything rear of the front door. Now if only they had used a 2 door brougham instead those of us that are taller and a little bigger would appreciate the "extra" cab room from the larger doors and available seat area! Glen Johnson did a nice job of customizing his Terraplane pickup; I saw that several years ago when I visited him at his home and was impressed with how he did this.

I've searched Abebooks twice with no luck. Would you be able to send a me a link Brumac?
Heh, the more and more you all are telling me what the book goes into detail about just makes me want to find one for a decent price as soon as possible.

thank you Brumac, I'll get that used copy tonight if it is avaiable.

Roger,

The decal had probably a thin layer of nitrocellulose as the plastic material the decal was on/in. So it conformed easily to the press and you can see where the design is stretched around bends. The dash was spotwelded in place, then a coat of clear lacquer was sprayed on top for durability and shininess. The clear which had thinner (reducer) in it set the decal permanently to the piece, partially dissolving the nitrocellulose in place. Window garnish moldings were done manually. That's why the cheaper SWB series were just painted to save time and labor costs. Hudson didn't make money on their cars anyway due to the high quality overbuilt nature of their cars.

So the book I ordered must have sold since I got refunded today. Time to find and order another one from Abebooks.

Oh one thing I forgot to mention.... I found in September original sales literature for my 49' Hudson C6 Sedan.
I got a 49' Sales Brochure and a 49' Step Down Guide. Really cool considering they are the same age of the car.
I just need to fix her up now....

I ordered a copy again from Abebooks for $50 including shipping yesterday. Thanks for the offer anyway Eddy.