Volume 43, Issue 7

The Hudson Monthly

The North Texas Chapter of the Hudson-Essex-Terraplane Club, Inc.

Chapter Officers

President - Calvin Buchanan1382 CR 4191Decatur, TX 76234940-627-5229

Vice-President - Mike Harrel241 RichersonDenison, TX 75021903-327-8209

Secretary – Clinton Webb194 County Rd. 197Gainesville, TX 76240940-669-1084

Treasurer/Editor – Lew Bird1513 Treehouse Ln. S.Roanoke, TX 76262817-379-0458

Historian - Mark Huffman1637 Quail Hill Rd.Whitesboro, TX 76273817-781-7141

Sunshine Person - Helen Huebert2309 Robin Hood Dr.Grand Prairie, TX 75050972-602-9751

www.ntxhd.org

Joint Meet - ‘32 HudsonNotes from the Editor

2

History of the HMCC 3

August Meet Information 4

Hudson Museum 5

Tech DiscussionsGear Oil

6

Tech DiscussionsGear Oil

7

Application SheetNTC - HET

8

Inside this issue:

July 2014Dedicated to the Preservation of the great cars built by Hudson

South Texas Chapter Members - June Joint Chapter Meet

Yolanda Cates, Karen and Joe Clark, Ken Cates and Cates’ Grandson.

More on the Joint Meet on page 2.

Upcoming Meets and Events

July 21-26 National Meet in French Lick, Indiana

August 16 - Meet at Calvin and Virginia Buchanan’s Hudson Ranch

September 20 - Crusin’ for a Cure Car Show. This is an AAIAA Meet

October - Open for a Chapter Meet

October 18- Westlake Car Show, Westlake, TX

PAGE 2 THE HUDSON MONTHLY VOLUME 43, ISSUE 7

Joint Meeting of the South and North Hudson Club Chapters

The second annual joint meet in Waco was well attended by over 25 members of the Hudson fami-ly. Members started to arrive early atthe restaurant before noon and we soonhad eight Hudsons and one very niceAMC American in the east parking lot.The weather was perfect for late June,no wind and no rain in the forecast.There was a short meeting concerningthe 2016 Big Country Meet. The SouthTexas Chapter has volunteered to hostthat meet in 2016. Most of the discus-sion during the meeting was about apossible meet location. We need tothank Ken and Yolanda for being thecoordinators of the meet. On a sad note,received an email from Ken about aweek after the meet, the restaurant hadclosed down that week.

Clinton checking out the A/Con Calvin’s ‘54 Hollywood.

When was the last time you had a 1932Hudson Eight parked in your driveway? Toour surprise one morning Vicki looked out thekitchen window as the ‘32 drove into the drive-way. Del Fast was out cruising the neighborhoodand stopped by to show us how well the old carwas running. He gave us a ride around the neigh-borhood and the engine could not have sound bet-ter. It was truly a nice way to start off the day.

Note: The ‘32 made the front cover of the March/April issue of the WTN in 2012.

Notes from the Editor

In the June issue of the Hudson monthly, I made an error con-cerning Will Moon’s Essex. I printed that the Essex was a 1930 model,actually it’s a 1931 model. Will has had the car for over 50 years, and hascumulated over 300,000 miles on the Essex. Will and Brandon made thetrip from the Wichita area to the Big Country Meet as always just motor-ing down the highway.

We still have a few members that have not paid their chapter dues. This may be their last newslet-ter. Currently we have 62 paid-up members in the chapter.

PAGE 3THE HUDSON MONTHLYVOLUME 43, ISSUE 7

History of the Hudson Motor Car CompanyCopied from the July 1953 issue of the Hudson Service Merchandiser

The Hudson Motor Car Company was founded in 1909 by eight men whose vision and businessacumen had brought them to positions of some prominence in Detroit, several of whom were later to beknown throughout the nation.

These men, who agreed to go into partnership in an attempt to build a car for less than $1000, were:J.L.. Hudson, R.B. Jackson, Hugh Chalmers, H.E. Coffin, F.O. Bezner, Roy D. Chapin, J.J. Brady and LeeCounselman.

On February 24, 1909, designs for the Hudson Model “Twenty” were found to suit their purposesand the partners agreed to incorporate the firm under the laws of Michigan.

The First Hudson

Plans for the Hudson “Twenty” were years ahead of the times. It was to be the first low-cost auto-mobile equipped with a selective sliding gear transmission, and it was to be within reach of the averagebuyer, selling at $900 f.o.b. Detroit.

With this at-that-time revolutionary car on the drawing boards, the firm partners secured a smalltwo-story plant with 80,000 square feet of floor space, and on July 3, 1909 with 500 men at work and a to-tal capital of $20,000 the first Hudson car rolled out of the factory.

The Hudson “Twenty” was an instantaneous success. Over 4,000 were sold that first year– the big-gest first year’s business in the history of the industry up to that time. The first 16 months net sales amount-ed to $3,980.999.

A Hudson advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post of June 19, 1909, showed a roadster-type carwith bucket seats and a gasoline tank mounted up behind. It described the “Model Twenty” as follows:“Here’s a car that is good looking. It is big and racy. Note the graceful and harmonious lines. Observe thesweep of the fenders and the frame.”

“The Hudson Twenty has a sliding gear transmission, selective type, three speeds forward and re-verse. The Motor is vertical, four-cylinders, four cycle, water cooled, known as the Renault type.”

PAGE 4 THE HUDSON MONTHLY VOLUME 43, ISSUE 7

North Texas Hudson Dealers

August Joint Meet with the AAIAA

August MeetDate: August 16, 2014

Time: 12:00 Noon

Location: Buchanan Ranch/Decatur, TX

1382 CR 4191, Decatur, TX

Cell Numbers Calvin 817-996-0932 or Virginia 940-389-3867,

Home 940-627-5229Lunch will be after 12:00, the hosts will provide the main dish BBQ. Please bring a

dish to pass.

Directions: Take US-287 north to Decatur, exit to TX-1 14 west to Boyd. At Boyd turn north onto FM-730,travel north about 6.2 miles to CR-4280. There is a cemetery at the north east corner of FM-730 and CR­4280, turn left onto CR-4280 travel west 1.2 miles to CR-4191. Turn right onto CR-4191, first house on theleft about .3 miles. Look for the four tall and large blue grain silos. The four silos are excellent land marks;you can see them for miles.

PAGE 5VOLUME 43, ISSUE 7 THE HUDSON MONTHLY

The National Hudson Motor Car

Company Museum

The museum, the result of a partnership between The Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum and the Hudson Essex Ter-raplane Historical Society, will open in September occupying the former Miller Motors dealership, and will be organized insuch a way as to relate as much of the Hudson brand’s story as possible. In addition to the Hudson models that onceformed the backbone of Jack Miller’s collection, other historic Hudson models will be exhibited on loan from collectors. Permuseum manager Ed Souers, that list will include everything from a 1910 Hudson Model 20 two-seat roadster to the final1957 Hudson model built, a Hudson Hornet Hollywood that rolled off the assembly line in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on June 25,1957. It will also include a vehicle to be added to the National Historic Vehicle Reg­ister, the number 92 “Fabulous HudsonHornet” of NASCAR racer Herb Thomas. It was Jack Miller who tracked down Thomas’s badly-neglected racer, ar-ranged its purchase (after a decade of negotiation) and restored the car to its as-raced state; last November, Miller sold thecar to Souers, who will proudly display it in the museum he manages.

Ypsilanti, Michigan’s Miller Motors continued to represent the Hudson brand long after the company closed its doors, earn-ing it the title of “the world’s last Hudson dealership.” Now, 58 years after the American automotive brand’s de­mise, Mil-ler Motors will fittingly serve as the home to the National Hudson Motor Car Museum, the nation’s first in­stitution devotedentirely to the Hudson brand. The building at 100 East Cross Street in Ypsilanti has an automotive dealership history thatdates back to 1916, when Dodge automobiles were sold at the location. By the end of the 1920s, the shop hadphased out Dodge in favor of Hudson-Terraplane and Willys-Overland, although this latter fran­chise lasted only from1928-1929. Until the Wall Street crash, 1929 turned out to be a record year for Hudson sales in Ypsilanti, with the dealer-ship moving 212 new cars through its doors.

In 1932, Carl Miller bought into the dealership with partner Alex Longnecker. The pair had experience in car sales andconsidered several higher-traffic locations for their Ypsilanti Hudson dealership before settling on the store’s existing loca-tion. Though located blocks off the city’s main street, the East Cross Street location had the advantage of cheap rent, and inthe frugal post-Great Depression years, a penny saved was truly a penny earned. Roughly a decade later, Miller was able tobuy out his partner, and his Hudson Sales and Service business managed to sell between 30 and 60 cars annually, a rea-sonable volume in the postwar years. The announcement of Hudson’s “step down” models for 1948 was big news, andCarl Miller’s son Jack remembers the showroom windows being whitewashed, with only a few portholes cleared foroutward visibility, in order to create added buzz. As Jack Miller related in the April 1984 issue of Special Interest Autos,his job was to count the spectators gathered outside the showroom windows, hoping to catch a glimpse of the new Commo-dore Eight sedan; though he made an effort to count every head, he stopped counting when the total reached into the hun-dreds. When American Motors was formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson in 1954, the dealership pickedup additional product lines.

By 1956, it no longer made sense to refer to the shop as Hudson Sales & Service, so the name was changed to Miller Mo-tors to encompass more than just a single brand. The Hudson brand received its final curtain call in 1957, and AmericanMotors began ramping up pressure on Miller Motors to modernize and relocate to a higher-traffic location; Carl Millerrefused, and in 1959 the automaker pulled his franchise. Without new cars to sell, the Millers refocused their efforts onselling used cars and repairing cars already sold to customers, always with an emphasis on the Hudson brand. As theyears progressed, Jack took over the business from his father and eventually refocused his efforts on selling Hudson partsand restoring Hudson automobiles for sale. Selling at least one restored Hudson each year was a point of pride for Miller,who took his title of “Mr. Hudson” and his shop’s reputation as the last Hudson dealer very seriously. - See more at:http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/06/09/national-hudson-motor-car-museum­coming-to-ypsilanti-michigan/?refer=news#sthash.GXxpvpv3 .dpuf

PAGE 6 VOLUME 43, ISSUE 7THE HUDSON MONTHLY

Technical Discussions

(Gear oil)

By Brandon Wight

Hello everyone, this is my first installment of technical tips and current information, critical to keep-ing our classic cars in tip top running order. As a disclaimer the information I am presenting to you is theresult of hundreds, YES HUNDREDS of hours of research to overcome known or impending problemsfrom mandated changes in modern gear and engine oils. The products I will mention are only suggestions.They are what we have found to work the best for us here at the shop. There are many other products on themarket that can accomplish the same job if a few guidelines are observed.

In this article gear oils will be discussed. All gear or gear case oil is classified in one of many GLratings from 1 through 6 and more are added from time to time and some are also discontinued. For our pur-poses I will discuss only GL-4 and GL-5 gear oil classifications as to discuss each is way beyond the scopeof this article. However you can readily find this info on many websites if you are curious.

Here are the typical API service definitions for GL-4 and GL-5

API GL-4, oils for various conditions - light to heavy. They contain up to 4.0% effective antiscuff-ing additives. Designed for bevel and hypoid gears which have small displacement of axes, the gearboxes oftrucks, and axle units. These oils are normal for later classic synchromesh gearboxes.

API GL-5, oils for severe conditions. They contain up to 6.5% effective antiscuffing additives. Thegeneral application of oils in this class are for hypoid gears having significant displacement of axes. Oils inthis class, which have special approval of vehicle manufacturers, can be used in synchronized manual gear-boxes only.

Go to any auto parts store today and you can look on the gear oil shelf and find many choices forgear oil. Only problem is if you are buying oil for your vintage car, that oil is likely the last thing you willfind there. Look at the labels and 9 out of ten times it is rated GL-5. This is great for a modern rear hypoidaxle with all steel gears and thrust washers. But this is not for your brass synchronizers, bushings, and thrustwashers in an older transmission or a rear axle with brass bushings and thrust washers. There are two rea-sons for this.

GL-5 with heat creates a hard protective wear barrier on everything in the case. The problem is it isthe bond is too strong for soft and yellow metals and will peal and literally machine them away in small in-crements at a time. We have drained many transmissions and rear axles where the oil would glitter from allof the brass in it! In many cases this oil was just installed not long before we drained it! The second prob-lem is that many GL-5 rated oils with heat also become very corrosive to brass and copper! Some grades ofyellow metals will actually start to turn black in some cases! Putting GL-5 in your vintage gear case is likekicking a dying horse- it just does not need that kind of abuse!

The answer is to use oil that is GL-4 Rated. GL-4 creates a similar barrier as GL-5 but creates amuch weaker bond to the metal as so it will not peal softer metal. It also is absent of additives that corrodeyellow metals. We use Bradd-Penn GL-4 80W-90 part# 023-7729 for anything around 1927 and newer.We have found this to be very high quality oil with extremely very low or no trace of sulfurs in the oil thatcan also be corrosive over time. You can buy this oil on line or over the phone; we order it by the case of 12from autoplicity.com (800-299-1028). If you call them they have been known to give better deals for ship-ping too. (continued on page 7)

From the July Issue of the Sunflower - Hudsonite Family

PAGE 7VOLUME 43, ISSUE 7 THE HUDSON MONTHLY

Technical Discussions (Gear oil)

For some very early cars around 1927 and back some experimentation might be necessary as manymanufactures designed their gear cases to run with thicker oils. These can be readily found by many sup-pliers. One of our favorites is Restoration Supply Company in Escondido Ca. They have a great websiteand have a very extensive catalog of general parts as well. There phone number is (800-306-7008).

Next time I will discuss engine oils and the additives you want to see for your vintage engine.

Resources Mentioned:

Restoration Supply Company (800-306-7008)

A great source of oil and general supplies for vintage and early cars

Autoplicity.com (800-299-1028)

Bradd-Penn Gear oil GL-4 80w-90 Part# 023-7729

2014 HET International at French Lick, Indiana

Tuesday July 22ⁿ~ thru Saturday July 26~~

Please join the Southern Indiana Chapter of the HET as we revisit the roaring twenty’s at the Eighth Wonderof the World: The beautiful French Lick Resort in French Lick, Indiana. Choose between two four starresorts within one mile of each other to enjoy a bygone era of first class accommodations.

A full schedule of events is listed in your latest WTN. Some of the highlights include free tours to Jasperengine and two outstanding automobile collections. Live entertainment with the Hudson Hornet bandThursday evening and all your Hudson friends.

Please come explore the history of this amazing small Indiana community. Local artisans and shops. Firstclass Casino and PGA golf courses. There is much to experience and enjoy.

It promises to be a special place, with special cars, and special people.

Registration information is available in the WTN as well as on the Hudson website http://www.hetclub.org

PAGE 8 VOLUME 43, ISSUE 7THE HUDSON MONTHLY

The North Texas Chapter of the Hudson – Essex – Terraplane Club

Annual Dues $10.00 – March 2014 to March 2015

Send Dues to:

North Texas Chapter % Lew Bird

1513 Treehouse Ln. S.

Roanoke, TX 76262

Name: Member and Spouse

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Street

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

City, State, Zip

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Phone (include area code)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

E-mail Address

__________________________________________________________________________________________

National Membership is required of all Chapter Members

The Hudson – Essex –Terraplane – Club Membership Application

To join fill out this form and send to: H.E.T. Club, Inc., 2850 North Meridian Ave., Wichita, KS 67204U.S. Regular mail: $33.00 a year U.S. 1st Class mail: $43.00 a year

Name: Member and Spouse

______________________________________________________________________________

Street_________________________________________________________________________

City. State______________________________________________________________________

Phone and E-Mail________________________________________________________________

Please include information on the Hudson built cars

Year___________________________________________________________________________

Make__________________________________________________________________________