Blasting Time!

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Well, now she's up on the rotisserie and ready to blast.  I built the temporary deck outside the bay door so I can roll her in and out by myself.

Here's a good shot where you can see all the work that went into the floor pans (click on the pic).  They look black because all the channels underneath the pans during removal, the replacement pans and surrounding frame has been treated with Eastwood's Rust Convertor, followed by their Rust Encapsulator. This was to protect all those areas that the blaster will not be able to reach.

Notice the braces that are temporarily mounted to the B-Posts across the width of the car , along with the braces in the door jambs.  Convertibles are notoriously "movers and shakers", due to the lack of a roof to hold everything in a very rigid structure.  While HUDSONS were notoriously over-built and over-engineered, it never hurts to have a little insurance.  These braces will allow the body to stay exactly where I've welded it back together and will keep it from developing any change, or sagging, etc.

You can also see on the back deck up by the corner of the decklid, areas that were leaded in from the factory.  Also, my new "joint" that mated the remainder of the old deck and the new deck will need to be leaded in.  Blasting comes first, though!  All these areas need to be really clean, for one, and two, blasting will "eat" away lead, faster than metal ('cause it's softer).

And now, I've just about got everybody caught up to our current progress.  If you look back at these posts, they've all been made recently.  We started this blog not very long ago.  The Hudson project actually started in mid-2005.  The bodywork itself on the shell and some of the body sheet-metal has taken me about a year to get this far.  This is in my spare time and all done by myself.  I try to spend about 15-20 hours a week on the car, and most weeks, that works out pretty well. 

There's been a considerable amount of work done obtaining parts, having the chrome plating completed, straightening and polishing stainless steel (which there's an incredible # of pieces), and working on the convertible top irons (which has been something of a nightmare).  Soon, I'll get more posted on these other aspects of the restoration.  Also, the engine is due to go to the machine shop in the very near future.  

Lookin' more like a car!

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Here's a shot from the side showing the "new" cowl and "new" back deck in place.  Looks like we're actually building something here, finally.

There was LOTS of little repairs that needed to be done on the shell as well as the body parts (which will come soon).  This spot in the picture is no exception. The top of this channel sits beside the rear seat.  The wheel well on the left of the pic is the driver side rear.  While this channel will be hidden, structually, it is somewhat weak, and I can't force myself into leaving anything with rot issues.

Here's the new piece fit and tacked in place.

Now it's ground back in and ready for business.

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The "new" cowl was in pretty good shape, but the bottom 1/3 on both sides needed some new pieces installed, which were obtained from the original cowl.

Additionally, the channel underneath the vent defrosters at the back of the dashboard needed some new pieces fabricated.

I had new front floor pans custom made by a metal-man friend of mine in CA.  He'll work with me when I tell him I want only 19-gauge metal (which is not really any longer made), and exact duplicates of the original pattern that HUDSON used.  The only "concession" I made was to have the "L" on the sides bend up, rather than down, as was originally employed.  This was only to make installation easier.  At this point, the car is not yet up on the rotisserie, and I wanted the car structurally sound before rotating it on it's side.  These pans turned out exceptional.

 This is actually the bottom half of the front floor pan. The top edge of these pans gets butt-welded to the upper half of the existing pans, which bend up into the  firewall.

Here's a later shot with the cowl mounted on the frame and repairs done.  Step-down convertibles  typically develop weak points on the frame directly underneath the cowl.  I took this opportunity for another deviation from stock.  On the inside of the frame member, a piece of 16-gauge metal was welded in for some added strength.  When I was inspecting the frame, no signs of weakness were discovered, but it never hurts to safer, rather than sorry.  Notice the upper half of the floor pan (which was removed to make repairs is now back in the car and left long, so that a good scribe line can be made with the new pans and the two can be mated together.

 The hinges are NOS I was lucky enough to locate.  Extremely rare, they are convertible-specific and thicker than a closed-car hinge.  Additionally, the doors have been mounted here. The doors were aligned, not just with the cowl, but with the back deck and gaps between doors and body were adjusted to within a few thousandths.  This also gave us the "precise" location of the cowl before it was welded in place.

Here the front pan on the driver side has been installed and being finished up.  Notice the rot on the pan underneath the driver seat.  This section will be cut out and replaced.  I'll cut about 16" over from the frame and the whole "box" part of the pan will be replaced.

Cowl is in place, but front pans have yet to be welded in in this shot.  Gives you a better view of the whole process. The 2nd picture shows the transmission tunnel in place.  This was actually bolted to the new pans before welding them, to make sure everything lined up properly.  The tunnel is attached with speed nuts and bolts, just like HUDSON did it.

These two pics show the front floor pan area about 95% complete.  Just some minor finishing to do before she gets blasted.

Cowl Time! (moo.)

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Off comes the old cowl. The old one was missing the windshield header.  Initially, I was going to use this cowl and do the repairs and replace the header.  I actually found a replacement and purchased it just for this purpose.  After securing the 2nd car, it was actually going to be easier replacing everything from the top of the frame up.  The cowl from car #2 was in much better shape.

Wow.  What a mess.  Notice the cowl was removed right above the top of the frame.  Now the frame can be marked where the old cowl was, and the remainder of the bottom of the cowl can be removed and cleaned up.  The bottom half of the front floor pans are still in the car at this point, but will soon be removed and replaced.

Getting the "new" rear deck ready.

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Here you can see I've removed the rear deck from car #2. Next, we'll prep the frame, and prep the deck and get ready to install the deck.

(Remember, I had one car with a good frame, but bad body parts. I had another car with a rotten frame, but very useable body parts. The process means removing the good body parts and mating them to the good frame.)

Back deck is coming together . . .

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The top pic shows the back deck mounted. Notice the pan surrounding the pump well has yet to be repaired, but this can be done afterwards, as only a section out of the middle is going to get replaced, and we won't need to get back underneath the wheel wells.

The second picture shows the "new" back deck in place. Also, look closely and you can see the NOS decklid is temporarily attached. This is to make sure we get everything lined up properly, and the gap around the trunk lid is going to be within tolerance.

Coming up next, I'll show some of the work we had to do to get the "new" cowl into place.

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(These two pics show the re-worked wheel wells in place and the "new" rear floor pan, scrounged from a sedan parts car.)

Next, we scrounged some sedan wheel wells that were in good shape, and put the "dent" back in the top of them. These will allow the top mechanism some extra room when folded back into the top well . . . again just like Hudson did it.

2nd pic has the rear floor pan in place, spot-welded back in. Look closely and you can see the old cowl has yet to be removed, along with the front floor pans.

Tear down...

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First thing we had to do was remove all the top body parts off our good frame and find out what we had left. So, the back deck was removed, right down to the top of the frame. About 18" up from the very bottom of the rear valance was retained (the part of the back deck that goes around the bottom of the decklid) and the "cut" was made just above the original factory lap-weld. All the excess metal left over from the upper-removed section was cleaned up, and the new joint that will mate the original bottom valance and the "new upper deck" will be put back just like the factory originally did it. The original lap welds were leaded in, and all the old lead was carefully melted out.

Also, the cowl had to be removed right at the top of the frame. Rear wheel wells were removed, as they were too rotten to save. Front floor pans, rear floor pans, and upper rear deck floor pan (underneath the well wall) were all removed. The only floor pan we saved was the trunk pan. Only some minor repair work was needed there. In the 2nd & 3rd Pic, the back floor pan has yet to be removed. The square hole you see close to the middle of that pan is the convertible top pump well.

The rear floor pan was really bad, so the whole pan was removed. Some of the "L"-channel had to be re-fabricated and put back (see top pic). The "new" floor pan will be spot-welded to these.

From the beginning...

This is the first of our blogs to get you all caught up on our project.

Where to begin? Does it begin in about 1970, when Russell saw his first Hudson?

Does it begin in 1984, when he wanted to BUY his first one?

Maybe it starts in the fall of 2005 just before we finally did buy our first Hudson, a 1952 Hudson Hornet Sedan. That's when Russell discovered Hudson made a convertible.

Or does it begin in September 2006, when we began buying the pieces that will someday become our newest Hudson, a 1952 Hudson Hornet Convertible? We'll start there, I guess.

For some background, here's a story that went into the White Triangle News (the magazine of the International Hudson-Essex-Terraplane Club) about our project. Click on images for a bigger view.