I would say early 50's style......steel rims, whites, stock shocks, Halibrand quickchange (magnesium), 39 buick trans, cragar tube/ibeam axle, early gauges, with all the stuff I have I think the Flatty is the best fit as far as time and style, I thank everybody for there input it's always cool to hear a wide aray of thoughts
Would that be Marshall Teague? I think he had Smokey Yunick working with him too. Love the stepdown Hudson. Love the '55 "Hash" too, but I'm weird.
There is plenty of bling bling for the Hudson, for those wanting a pretty engine. Edmunds heads and intakes - if you can find them. New Clifford Heads and intakes - not too bad considering the punch they add. Clifford made/makes a single 4 barrel or triple Weber manifold. A new set of headers are $250. I'm sure Clifford will still make a header plate for those wanting to fab up a set for an open engine bay. Hudson also had factory high performance aluminum heads that are snazzy when polished up. 4 different varieties of aluminum heads. The 7x and the Twin-H Hornet ran a dual WA-1 carbs - nice looking manifolds and damnned effective. With some attention to detail, its not very hard to pull 250-260hp out of a Hudson and not get radical on the work or dinero. Plenty of cams still out there at about $150 each. ****** choices are fairly good, the T-86 standard or OD unit was standard (the input shaft is a worry at 1.00") and can be retrofitted with a Jeep floorshifter for vintage effect. The Hydramatic is indestructable. There is a fella in Cali who makes a bowtie automatic ****** adapter and another in Illinois who will adapt a GM auto to the Hudson hyrdamatic bellhousing. I was going with a T-5 NWC when I realized the torque capacity wasn't any better than the T-86, which I'm rigging a OD T-86 to shift in 6-speed capacity. Hudson, is a good choice - I'd sure like to see more of them out there. But then, I'm terribly biased! Hud
I love the Caddy 331s. If you decide to go this route, I'll share any info I have on where to get what...which is slim. I've got 2 of them and think they're great. -Junkie
You can put me into the anything but the Hemi camp also. Mostly because that's what I plan on runnin' in mine, LOL. But seriously, Use the Hemi, you all can say what you want, but as far as I'm concerned, nothing says hot rod like a hemi, except maybe a flatty with Ardun heads.
It's a great bias, FWIW. My grandfather worked for 26 years at the Hudson Motor Car Company - I'm named after him. Have his 20 year pin. As for the heads - I've seen a bunch down at Jack Miller's old place, and electrolysis has taken its toll on most of the alloy high-comp heads. Hard to find one that seals well, IMHO.
Sixcarb threw a flathead Ford mockup block with some aluminum heads and a 4 pot intake, Its a big improvment in the looks department ,he has a nicley ported and polished block, and from what he told me on Saturday it should be a pretty serious motor.
Yah! That's it! Not ****, but Marshall. Middle-aged brains start to forget stuff... And yes - if you love a hash, you musta smoked some back in the day, 'cuz they're definitely a tough love piece. If gramps was alive today, he'd kick my *** all over town for bringin' a traitor car like that home. His job went away when they shuttered the doors late fitty four.
My vote is for a Cadillac.....take a look at the pic and see what i mean...If you're gonna consider running an early OHV Caddy, run a 390 from '59 to '62. They look essentially the same as the 331's or the 365's, they don't have the bellhousing as the rear of the block as the 331's do, and they have more cubes. They weigh in at about 600 lbs., so weight isn't too much more than a SBC, and you can really pull some serious horsepower outta these old mills if you know the right tricks. This pic is the mill in my '30 Ford coupe...390 cadillac bored 30 over (makes it a 396), oversized stainless valves in the heads, stock cam reground to 512 lift with a 300 duration by Crane Cams, 6 strombergs and a Vertex magneto...and you can do much more, it just depends how nuts you wanna get...
Joe, make up your stinking mind, hey how about one of each, and throw in a early poncho in the back seat. that's my choice early PONTIAC, not to common and they go like hell.
I have run Caddies, Fords and Buicks and to be honest it takes a lot to beat the sound of a flattie... even a bog standard one has a sound that is just so different... when you stuff meaty internals and enough carbs to sink a small ship then it rocks this whole planet... what a sound!!! but hey I'm biast I run a flattie... Do the right thing FLATTIE....and you can buy some seriously trick stuff for them off the shelf still...
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