Is it a car? Is it a truck? Hudson utility coupe/pickup is both. You merely open the trunk and a sliding steel pickup box slides out in
Well now that's just neat. Never seen a Hudson with that set up before. Wonder if it was an option Ive never heard of or what? -dd
As I recall it was a salesman's sample bed. for those items you wanted to bring the customer out to the car to see. Some samples would have been too bulky/heavy to haul around with you. Pictures/pamphlets would spike the customer's interest, having the real deal onboard would seal the deal! I thought it was a great idea! Dan Stevens dba, Steelsmith
Chevrolet did offer a "Coupe Pickup". While the bed didn't slide, the bed was removeable and came with the truck lid so the owner was able to switch as needed.
I guess that was to combat the rash of earlier coupes having the trunk lids removed so the owners could haul stuff. One reason finding coupes with the trunk lids still with the car is somewhat difficult I hear.
Hey, During FDR's "Great Depression" not everyone could buy gasoline even if you had the cash. If you had a vehicle that was used for agriculture you could buy "rationed motor fuel". This continued into the war years when just about everything sold was rationed. The Hudson, and other independents, as well as the major players in the automobile business offered these in various forms to be sold at car dealers. In those days, car dealers did not always sell light trucks of the same lot, and this helped with sales in the rural areas of the country. " All great truths begin as blasphemies ''
AFAIK, the gasoline rationing that made a small benifit out of owning a pickup truck did not start until WW II; likewise, the Great Depression started a full two years before FDR was elected as president. Who caused, cured, or worsened the depression is a topic for another web site, however. Later, *****6
ford had them as well, i remember seeing in one of my early ford v8 magazines, a pick up bed for '35-40 ford coupes. yeah, these are pretty rare.
Chevy made these up to 1941 when they dropped the coupe/pickup on the Master Deluxe, Fleetline sedan & Special Delux models. I think Hudson/Terraplane executed the design cleaner so it could go into the trunk. We've see this feature come back on some modern pickup truck with the extended beds. http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/1941-chevrolet-coupe-pickup-1.jpg.jpg http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1941-chevrolet-coupe-pickup.htm
Yeah, friend of mine has one too. You do see his at cruise nights in SoCal. Press Kale is his name. Its a '37 Terraplane also. For the techies, the tailgate should only say "Terraplane" but his was missing and he found one from a '38 and those say "Hudson Terraplane" because that's what the cars were called in '38. Hudson Motor Car. Co. called this model a "Utility Coupe" for the record in the model 70 Terraplane series for '37.
Hudson offered the slide out bed in '37 and '38 Terraplane coupes and then in the lowest cost Hudson coupes for 1939 and 1940. I worked at a restoration shop that did one of the '40s.
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