Some CCs exist more in their owner’s dreams and aspirations than they do in real life. When I run across a car like this Hudson Hornet, I, too, can see the potential – and if I mentally squint hard enough, that rusty and oxidized paint suddenly shimmers with a gloss so deep you could reach your hand right into it…
Cars like this (or like the semi-load of DeSotos I saw earlier this year) appear briefly and then are gone, leaving us to wonder whether they will live again, or got broken up for parts so another car can live.
I’m guessing (based on the 1979 plates) that this car was a “barn find,” and hopefully there’s enough “there” there to make it worthwhile restoring.
What a stately and beautiful vehicle; so many delightful details that are still pleasing to the eye despite the weary appearance of the car.
Hudson Motor Car Company may not be around any more, but perhaps, one day, this Hornet will fly again!
Absolute top of the bucket list, hands down.
I don’t think I’d have the heart to give this a full restoration.
best just a good tidy up
Get the mechanicals to a reliable condition and drive it as is. Ajla is right; this car would look just right without being restored.
Those rockers look pretty rusted out. These Hudsons were considered “unibody”. If I saw that amount of rot in a newer unibody car which actually uses the rockers as part of the chassis, I’d say it’s probably too far gone. My guess is that unibody, in the Hudson’s case, meant that the frame was welded to the floorpan. I’m sure someone else on here knows for sure.
Good eye! I missed that the first time. Maybe I was wearing my rose colored glasses at that moment!
The reason the rear wheels are skirted, and the main reason it was so difficult to freshen the styling, is that the outer unibody rails actually go around the outside of the rear wheels. And they DO rust.
One of the more bone-headed automotive moves that I did in my younger days- about 1975- was to scrap a perfectly savable and running ’51 Super Six Coupe (one rung down from the Hornet) with the 262 flathead and 3-speed overdrive. I started the restoration on it, and actually had quite a lot done, when my father told me he wanted it out of his garage. Having nowhere to store or work on it, and not being able to find anyone who would even take it, I reluctantly had it towed to the crusher.
Dumb kids!
From a 38 year-old Polaroid…
Rust or not…..anything can be fabricated, welded, reinforced…etc (“Fast and Loud” re welded and fabbed a first generation Ford Bronco and still made profit). Won’t win a Concours…but, who cares. It’s a dramatic, never forget style that says a lot. With nothing better to do…this ghost from the past can easily be resto moded and still look original from the outside.
My God do I love these. I’d have one in a minute. They look badass, like the kind of car a mafia don would drive to a massacre.
Thats beautiful and easily restorable. Aboriginal friends in Aussie have one of these rusting away in a field unfortunately it had been rolled at speed and it completely buggered, a rarely seen car nowdays.
Like most of you, I love these Hornets, and the 51 is my favorite. This car looks particularly good in black.
I note the Michigan plate, and would wonder just how bad the underside of this car is. In my experience, Michigan = rust + rust. Not good with unit construction. This one looks like a HydraMatic car, as well.
About a month or so ago, I was walking out of a restaurant in Bloomington, Indiana when I looked up to see a mint green 54 Hornet sedan burble past me. I could not get the camera fired up quickly enough, but oh my, was the sound of that huge flathead six something to hear. That car also appeared to be a well-worn original, but was at least running under its own power.
Probably my favorite car; rode in my uncle’s ’53 Hornet in the Catskill Mts. way back when….
A newer paint job would make this curvacious highway grouper…look like this.
Wow, what a gorgeous automobile!
Love the look of these cars. They remind me of a contemporary Mercury that’s already been mildly chopped.
A few years ago I saw one (also black) at a car show. The owner was an older guy. Externally the car looked stock. He had swapped-in a Mopar 340 smallblock V8 though. He said it was much more reliable this way, and had nothing good to say about the original Hudson powerplant.
Easier said than done. Who will rebuild that Hydramatic? If it were a clutch, where would you buy Hudsonite today? Or a cork faced plate? These had many unique aspects make repairs difficult. But that chrome steering column. Truly a dramatic automobile.
Ahhh yes, the Hudson wet clutch. I had forgotten about that little detail. Hudson always seemed to do things a bit differently.
Funny how a person’s taste changes as they age. I hated these Hudsons and upside down bathtub Packards when I was a kid. Today I’d love either one, especially the Hudson. They had identities and have grown on me.
And the rear end must have been sculpted after wind tunnel testing. You could drive in reverse and save gas mileage?
I’d really like to see one of these beasts in the metal, they’re endlessly fascintating, looking like they’re out from some noir-detective story
In the defense of Hudson, American chrome from 1951-1953 wasn’t very good. It’s called “Korea chrome” & lacks the copper under plating.
As far as Michigan, it doesn’t look like it’s breaking in half…
“Longer, lower, wider! The ’49 Hudson is the car for you!”
Although it’s a commercial for Volkswagen, it has all of the great dead auto marques: Desoto, Studebaker, Hudson, and even Packards being hawked by Maclean Stevenson before he went off to Korea:
A guy a few blocks from me has not one, but two of these in running, and fairly good cosmetic, condition. I see them out driving around Pasadena now and then. (LA weather makes this much easier to pull off with a 65-year-old car.) I drive by periodically to see if he’s out tinkering with them, but haven’t been able to talk to him yet.
My family had a ’49 model of this car in the mid ’50s and I remember the quietness of it motoring down the highway and its nice interior compared to the Fords and Chevy’s of the same age. It was the first car I’d seen with idiot lights, and big red ones with crystal cut glass you could see a block away at night. We also had one for a while in the ’60s just as I was getting my learners permit and took off from a stop in high gear once (three speed on the column) and didn’t know till I tried second and it slowed down; such was the effortless torque of that big six.
Here in Ypsilanti where I now live,we have the last remaining Hudson Dealership, Miller Motors. It’s now the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum. They have lots of Hudson parts and such laying around, and from what I hear, they are the go-to people looking for said parts.
I took a bunch of pics there last year, one of these days I’ll have to share them…
absolutely beautiful car. it just needs a friend to help it out, and care for it