The new look

All the chrome came with the front end that Jim picked up.

 He did a nice paint job.

 It doesn't look much different than before from this angle.

 The front end is all Hudson.....

 Chrome on the hood....fenders...and on the sides is "Hudson"

 I didn't think I would like all the chrome...but it really does look good...some of it needs to be re-chromed and Jim found a place that can do it....but for now we'll leave it like it is.

 Even looks good under the hood

 The new "medalion"...now he wont have to put a sign on the roof saying "this is not a Mercury"...

  

 our old car ('49 Hudson)  and the new car ('57 Chevy) 

We use these as daily drivers.....even tow a little camper with them.

This was taken on the Skyline Drive. 

Jim has no problem driving out through a field...of course we've been here before so he knows the lay of the land.

the nice thing about old cars....Jim can fix them

The Hudson has towed this camper over 11,000 miles.....Michigan, NY,VT,NH and places in between. It was a great trip...In MI we even woke up with frost on the Hudson...
We traveled the Skyline Drive....35 mph uphill and downhill and around the peaks....it runs into the Blue Ridge Parkway...45 mph...lots of pull offs on both roads for the views.

time for paint

Jim had to wipe the whole car down with "Prep-All". It removes grease and finger prints.

This is a very tiring job...you have to keep up a constant sweep....back and forth...to make sure every inch is covered. Holding that position can be tough on your back and shoulders.

 How do you like the mask...When we built the garage it was for our tractor..we were going to have a Needle Palm business. We built it with a roll up door at each end so you could drive in and out the other side...also makes for a nice breeze.

 We left a section at the top open ...Jim screened it to keep birds out but they worked one end open...every now and then he finds a Carolina Wren nest in his shelves.

 looking pretty good...

 still wet so pretty shiny....time for a break...

 washing up the white wall tires....

 now it is ready for head lights....turn signals...bumper and trim

I kinda like it like this.....starting to look more satin than shiny.

body work and getting ready for paint

it takes a lot of time to get the body work done right....you do it over and over

 covering and taping everything that isn't going to be painted.

 backed it outside so everything that was repaired would be visible....natural sunlight is best for spotting dents

 after spending time looking it over......

 it was brought inside...sanded

 after sanding it had primer paint on it....Jim then backed it out into the shade and spent hours sanding with fine grit paper to get all the rough spots off.

 Back inside ....wheels covered...

and the whole car had to be wiped down with a solution to get all the finger prints and grease off.

this is weeks of work....he has about 400 hrs in it now.

new radiator ..brackets for bumper

Once Jim got the radiator back from Ed's Radiator repair shop he had to install it...lots of unhooking and moving parts to get it in.

 He had to modify the shroud and get new hoses.

It looks pretty good.

Now it's time to weld on the brackets this bumper will bolt to.

 a 2 x 6 and a jack holds it in place while he sets the brackets....

 He's tack welding them ...then he'll remove the jack and 2 x 6 and finish up.

 Jim used to race Top Fuel Dragsters....had to do a lot of the work himself...not like today with a big crew. He also had a shop building super charged engines for street rods....that is what he was doing when I met him...went to lots of car shows.

 Working on the rest of the "bright work".

 It will have a lot more shiny stuff on it than I like but that is what the new/old front end had.

Engine & Transmission are in.

Engine and Transmission are in and hooked up....an old quilt works great as fender protection.

Transmission coolers are installed.

No headlights yet....these are the originals.

Lots of wiring to hookup...

 the base of the lights are in.....but had to come out again for installation of adjusters.

 .Jim shined them up and put in adjusters for the headlamps.

These are the original turn signal parts.

 This is what they fit into.

He even has the shifter installed.

It all looks pretty easy when reading this...but he has hours and hours in it.  Radiator was installed but had a leak. He took the radiator that came with the front end parts to Ed's Radiator Repair.  Now he's had to remove the shroud....the transmission coolers and get everything ready to install the new/old radiator...

The case on our old transmission was cracked through...Everything inside was in good shape so Jim found a used transmission. The only thing that was usable was the case and shaft.  The transmission place used our parts and the case and shaft on the used one....put in new clutches, bands and seals.

 We are setting the transmission on the floor. It will be on a jacks and blocked for balance.

 When you don't have a lift you make do with what you have. It ended up on two jacks. Once it was in place and balanced....

then the engine went in.

 Jim bolted it to the motor mounts...but left it on the engine hoist so I could move it up and down a bit.

 Once the engine was bolted to the mounts...Jim crawled under ....we rolled the car back to the transmission...I got the easy job of either raising the motor up or down and jacking the front of the transmission up...he used two long bolts to get it in place then bolted it together.

 It sounds like an easy job but it took a lot of work on Jim's part...at this point he has over 300 hrs in the repair.