THE NICKEL HUDSON
It’s funny how things come full circle. My grandfather had a Hudson dealership in Elkhart, Kansas, which is a little farming town in the southwest part of the state, in 1927. My father finished the 8th grade and starting working in his father’s dealership as a mechanic. He stayed in this profession for 65 years. Needless to say, my grandfather and father drove Hudsons, until they were no longer made. My father started his own business, City Garage, in Walsh, Colorado. This is small farming town in the southeast part of the state, about 40 miles across the state line from Elkhart, Kansas.
My first car was a 1949 black Hudson coupe, which dad purchased in 1951. My sister was given this car as a high school graduation present in 1958. A few years later her husband and my father put a 308 engine with twin H carburetors setup in it. In 1964, I received the same car as my high school graduation present. Dad told me “ Son, all you have to do to it is overhaul the engine, paint it and fix the interior and it is yours.” I did the work and proudly drove the car off to college that year. The following year I sold it to a friend who made it into a stock car, a bad choice on my part.
Fast-forward several years. In about 1970 my father was doing a lot of restoring of antique and classic cars in his garage, so he was going to a lot swap meets looking for parts. He obtained the 1937 Hudson by making a series of trades over a period of ten years. The trades went like this: he traded a very nice 1937 Buffalo nickel for a complete four horse harness set, traded that for an original buffalo robe, which in turn traded for a wrecked 1956 Pontiac, traded this for a Ford pickup and then traded the pickup for the 1937 Hudson 8, which was in Elkhart, Kansas, of all places.
When he got the ‘37 it was all original except for the paint. It had been painted Texaco Red with Texaco decals on the doors. The engine and drive train were in bad shape. Dad had a wrecked 1966 Ford around the garage and he decided to put that drive train in the Hudson to make it into a nice highway driver.
When my father passed away in 1989, The Hudson was sold at his estate sale to a farmer in the area. Ten years later I called the farmer and asked if he wanted to sell the Hudson and he said no, his son wanted it. About a week later he called me back and said his son had decided he did not want the Hudson and if he were going to sell it, he would sell it to only me. We agreed upon a price, that was more than the he paid for it at the estate sale. When I went to pick it up he told me that when he bought the car he drove it eleven miles to his farm and put it a round top and never moved it. I put the car on a trailer and took it home to Colorado Springs, CO. I changed the oil, gas filter and put some fresh gas in the tank and cranked it up. The only things I have done to the car are to put radials tires on it and paint it. The paint job is a whole different story. The car still has its original interior and many of its original parts.
I now have the car in Mesa, AZ where my wife and I enjoy taking it to shows and cruises around the area in the winter. The car is an eye catcher and most people don’t know what it is. One young man asked me “Who made Hudson?” I just smiled at him and said “Hudson.”
It really is wonderful how thing do come full circle. My grandfather owned a Hudson dealership in Elkhart, Kansas and now I have a Hudson that my father obtained by trading a Buffalo Nickel that came from the same town where my grandfather had his dealership.
Bill Beeson
e-mail: bbeeson1@q.com