KustomKreeps

Yeah will be flicking it off when i get time etc. You interested? Hydroboost unit is from Hydrotech with CPP proportioning valve. Universal mount. Basically the setup below. Alex

Hey thanks man. Thats wicked what you said. Im also a fan of the pickups. Like the grill how it curves in the center behind the fog lights. Have seen a few that had been used back in the day at race tracks with modified decks. The center section of the tray opened up like two big door and folded flat to reveal a collapsed beam that you rise up, add the supports and BAM you had a tow truck. Cant find the pics of them at the moment but here is a similar modified 1950 Buick wrecker. link with more info for those wanting to see more here. "Nailhead" came about due to the fact the engines valves kinda look like nails. they are that small. So the old donks have troubles breathing. Factory 2x4 setups used two 600s. These days with pros and the guys who are in the know all recommend two 650s. More so when used with the top intakes like i have coupled in with porting etc. I have had alot of guys go WTF over carbed and point out there worked 350 chev or 351 ford uses half or less of my total CFM. Different strokes for different folks. Yeah im pretty stoked with how the Cnotch turned out. Flockie did an awesome job on it. For breaks im using a Hydroboost setup with 1.125 in master cylinder and proportioning valve. Was wanting to keep the engine bay clean as possible and vacuum units can get rather large. Then the more I read about Hydroboost the more I wanted one. The old 401s dont make much vacuum and if i do the cam will be even less. With the hydro boost running off the PSC pro touring PS pump & external reservoir it will be better for me. The thing will have three full powered breaks worth of compression with engine off and decline from there to normal unpowered breaks. Better yet they sent me TWO full units when i only ordered one. Hydroboost info here. Tell the truth alot of the reason i went with Wilwood was its just easy and simple. the Rods by Reid front end was made for em. John gave me the part numbers needed. Hubs included. No messing about and I was able to get them from summit on special then with my other junk via Kiwi Shipping to NZ considerably cheaper than buying in NZ. Again thanks for the words of encouragement man. Alex

With the car now off the rotisserie its time to start looking at the front end. As is blatantly obvious there is a slight lack of one currently. Its laying outside somewhere. The old Hudsons one although fine in the days of dirt track NASCAR was a little lacking for what I was after. That being an updated drive train with disk brakes, power steering, airbags and room to fit the engine & trans in. Unfortunately the heavy old setup fell short on pretty much all these points. Now I think I have already rambled on about the process of deciding what to do up front and so wont go on about it to much. Basically it boils down to shelving ideas such as restoring & updating the old setup, to a Fatmans front clip, to Jag IFS, to a Holden HQ-HW setup, to the current custom made setup that is made to my ride height, weight, drive style with zero bump steering, anti dive and all that guff. It also meets all the rigorous New Zealand certification requirements. The little progress we did on Saturday was just assembling the fronts hubs & brakes along with nailing down the desired and final air out height up front. So nothing to hardcore. Using a Wilwood setup. Main thoughts being I already had Wilwood at the back, they sell the complete hub & brake kit so things should fit together easy, and they should give no worries with stopping the heavy hung of iron. Also the kit should fit under most 15" wheels but would be fine with larger wheels upto say 20inch. - yes im still unsure what im using wheel wise. The kit used is a 6 piston, vented, drilled & slotted 12.19" rotors with ford stud ( part no. 140-10741-D ) purchased from Summit who had them on special and nicely also chucked in stainless hose brake kit for free valued at near $60 USD. Nice perk that will make it not only fit all together easier but will look sweet as well. I must admit I think Summit Racing is one of my favorite stores in the world *~*' Bearings and aluminum hubs all fitted together nice. packed up with high temp grease. Of course Wilwood would have to be different and used bleeping star shaped T40 & T45 headed bolts. And naturally we had to drop everything to pop down to the local engineering shop to pick up a half inch set so we could torque em up. Once back said newly purchased sockets firstly snapped trying to torque to a small 20 or 25lbs then twisted trying to do the next size ups 40lbs. Was more than disappointed with Teng Tools quality and they will be going back. these happened to be the only ones they had in imperial at the time. It will all be pulled off anyway when we go to paint everything but still... holdups and crap tools. Sure many of you know the frustration of it all. And whats one of my posts with out a bunch of photos... Setup on the welding table. Sitting in front of the car. Drilled holes in the shock bars at air out/low height and have it set to that. This is the car at our original ride height. note the 25mm/1 inch bar up front under the car. Bleeping low and we have decided to raise the front up another inch so will have two inch clearance at this lowest point when air out. Will also give a slight rake to the car whats cool. The rear can be raised or lowed as well as its on its middle setting but we are planing to keep it there currently. And to give a better idea of how high it currently is.. a pic of yours truly standing next to the car. Love how the roof looks chopped but its still factory. Again note this is air out not at ride height.

Off the rotisserie. Sitting at Air out lowest height. Looking at assembling front clip this week at some point. Then from there its fabricating the new front ends rails etc and getting it all together.

That a Merc in the background? dude wheres the build thread for that!

Ass end is pretty much done! Well the hard parts any way. Full ridetech 4Link tacked in and Moser housing in place. Useing HQ 8000 series Shockwaves from Ridetech at the back. The mounting brackets have three height settings. All welded in and a quick coat of black. This is shown at the lowest height. once the skirts and rocker panels are on its going to look pretty good on the ground at this low height. Guess i will do a bit of a write up of whats going on gear wise back there. Whats in and still to be put in sitting in boxes. Talked about the Ridetech 4Link but im also using the before mentioned Shockwave airbags from the same brand. For those not in the know click here to check them out with all the fancy videos and marketing guff. Basically they are air bags that mount like a coil over but with air shocks with 26 tuneable rebound clicks. The company was great to deal with and extremely helpful. Another company who had exceptional service was Moser Engineering. Drag racing heritage & brand so built to withstand alot of abuse. the guys build and race the kit they build. Website here. Man i feel sorry for Brian Miles as he steered me through the process of ordering the custom 9′ rear end. A million emails, measurements, re-measurements latter we got it sorted. Bare classic looking Ford 9″ Housing made to my measurements. (2inch narrower than stock Hudson) Moser axles w/bearing package 5×4 bolt pattern with screw in studs. Moser perf nodular case. Trac Loc posi 31 spline. Nodular support. 1350 Pinion yoke – steel gearing at 3.50 fill & drain plugs. Wilwood breaks i will cover when i get to installing. Should last me well. So next step is taking it down off the rotisserie and sorting the front end. It will be back up on there a few more times yet i imagine

Been one of those months that I have seemed to be playing catchup the whole time. Works flatout crazy but seems to be finally settling down as the Easter break approaches. The few breaks from work flashed by. One was a pretty cool car show we took the Buick to “Timaru Caroline Bay Rock n Hop” and the other was a mission to the docks to collect the 50 buick grille and other parts that landed from the states. Flockie has been busy as well but lately has been able to get back into the project. C-Notching the rear so we can get down nice and low. A few pics of the progress so far: Note the forum seems to be resizing the images weird. Making them squished in so if you want a better look click the images to see it in the correct proportions. Initial cuts to the frame and boot floor. Check out the gravel that fell out of the rails that piled up in the inner bottom wheel tub And thats after a bit of a cleanup.. Moser Diff with Wilwood break mockup to check clearances & how much of a notch is needed. Few more cuts made for the top links to fit etc. More cuts are needed to get the diff to sit where we need it air out/lowered. Flockie got his plasma cutter out and made up the plates needed for the C-Notch then tacked in place. As you can tell from this pic to the above a lot was cut out to accommodate the new rails. The angles are bent to keep the original bump stops that we will be reusing. Process of welding it all together started along with the internal braces. First side done! And both sides done. Again the forum is messing with images squishing them. so click em to see the images in correct proportions. Im pretty happy with how its turned out. Next will be the other ridetech triangulated four link bars. Only issue and it isn’t a biggie is the place i had planed to put the airtank & compressors etc was the floor that the c-notch has now invaded. Tank may still fit in the space not sure yet but im thinking it will need to be moved or parcel tray massaged what could be more of a pain than its worth.

Hey thanks for the tips. Where do you get dry ice from? Think i will maybe petrol and some elbow grease. Thanks for the upholstery lead

Now that some of the old crap is off the rear its time to start the cutting and welding madness! God damn but i am excited! So as you can gather from the above posts the springs etc have all been ripped on out. I chose a RideTech Triangulated 4Link to take its place. Must say im happy with the product. 5.6mm(0.219inch) wall thickness tubing and 4.8mm(0.188inch) laser CNC brackets – included is brackets for the shockwaves. It just feels sturdy and built right. Ridetech sales reps are great to deal with and more than happy to go over everything making sure the right product was ordered for the car, weight, ride height and driving style. I chose triangulated for a few reasons. One being no panhard being needed to free up room with luck for the exhaust as not much room under the Hudson for two pipes. Another was i could get tighter wheel to fender clearances due to less or no side to side play compared to a parallel 4link. They should give a much better ride quality than springs whilst being able to cope with rising and lowing the car better as well with bags. Anyway a refresher of how it was once the big stuff at back was stripped off: Below you can see the old brace and spring mounts. Flockie dealt to these. And then fabricated a Hudson bracket kit & pipe support to replace original chassis brace for each side. Good thick 5mm plating. Welded the four brackets to the car along with the ride tech one. Everything is rust killed and sealed up under the plates. With bottom bar attached. Bottom bar & mount. Right hand side bottom bar done. Left hand side bottom bar. And done! Bottom two bars attached to car via with some nice brackets. Next is notching the chassis to allow diff, rising the unscraped section of trunk floor a bit and attaching the top triangulated bars. Flockie just sees the gear and the car, visualizes so quickly how it will go together, quick glance at the NZ certification rule book to make sure its good then attacks it.

Got home from being away scraping off under sealer from the Hudson to have my old man and his mate roll up with 74 Valiant to park up for the week at my place. Not the 1970 Buick GSX im after but has potential i guess. Two to many doors and a lot of other work needed. Anyway. Anyone have any tips for removing undersealer? Gave a scraper and some power tools a go but the darn stuff is rock solid. After sitting so long all dry in a shed its turned to rock and stuck on. Not flaking off in sheets like we hoped. Other than media blasting? I hear petrol works then scraper. Any tried this? Missus cleaned up the old seats. Vacuumed out most of the old rat turds, walnuts, nests and filler from the underside of the seats. Now need to find a decent upholsterer. Any recommendations? Im located in Waimate so mid South island. Considering they are near 70 years old they & had been used by rats as a house they are in pretty good shape really. Still stink though. Springs all seem fine along with the frames. So good bones for what ever we add on them. Originally we thought get a Kanter kit and give it a go but then we would face issues with fabrics not matching the doors and other parts of interior.

On a cold Wednesday a txt msg came across saying the rotisserie has showed up. What better day to flip the old tank on its side and waterblast the underside. Assembly didn’t take long. Straight forward process of slotting it all together really and checking the pins. A quick bit of fab work and some welding and it was all connected to the car whilst still sitting on supports. Sledge hammer was brought into play to whack out the supports. And the car floated there like some crudy jetsons hovercar. ^^ Releasing the pins it sat level. A good sign. Was a bit worried it might not of been centered and would flip to one side. We slowly rotated it and clearances worked just fine. Flockie nailed it. Rotated nice and smooth with little effort required. Now if any of you have even tried trussing up a bird or something on a BBQ rotisserie you might appreciate how well we did getting a huge old car so well balanced. I know for one i have popped a chicken or something on to find it is off kilter slightly as it turns. Resulting in all kinds of grief from worn out motor to drive it to one side hitting the pan as it rotates. And behold the HoverHudson! As you can see in the above image – its a tad dirty under the car. Dry as a bone and no rot to be seen. Everything is nice and straight just dirty. The rotisserie is on wheels so moving it about is a breeze. With the forks of the tractor it was brought outside for another water blast. The amount of gravel, rat turds, dust and crud that came off the bottom of the old beast was amazing. Think some of the rails had been solid silt and dirt. Some gravel is still trapped in the rails. And as much as i would like to blame the light rain that had started i must confess that the reason i got so saturated was my glee i was having as i blasted the shit out of the old car. Day latter it had dried up a bit. Will be back out on Sunday to scrape more crud off it.

that merc looks cool. will read over your threads latter when i get home from work. Like those Oxford tail lights as well. Yeah a farmer owned the cars and lived on gravel roads. So much dirt in it you would think it had sat in a muddy river. The PSI of a water blaster should rip it all out of the rails no problem. help clean it up a bit. no doubt the vacuum will come into play at some point. Since the rats also got up in the roof im expecting it to be filled with turds as well. Not looking forward to removing the headliner. Alex

When Flockie called saying come over and rip out the seats n stuff cus the car will be going on the rotisserie an image of the crudson slowly rotating in a giant BBQ flicked through my head. What can i say i love BBQ and for the last years I have done rotisserie turkey with good results at xmas. A bit of Apple & orange glaze with a touch of manuka smoke and yeah good times. Of course this isnt what he had meant but i still find it a rather humorous image. Saturday the better half and i rolled up with rubbish sacks & got to work. Front seat was already unbolted so removing the seats was simple. Rats really had had a field day in the seats. stuffing, crap & walnut shells littered every inch of the interior. Keep im mind we already had filled a sack or so of this junk when we did the first clean out. Another half sack was soon recovered with an easy other half sack still lodged in the seats springs. That can be attacked by the vacuum at a latter date. Door sills also got removed. Will give them a clean up to see how they look. If i can track down some repo ones i may get them depending on price. Bumper was stripped off. Original thought was to turn the three piece bumper into a one piece. Wield it together. cover up a few old bolt holes and get it rechromed. Maybe move the bumper guards more into the middle to frame the number plate. Re chroming is bleeping expensive and i can pick up a new triple plated bumper from the states way way cheaper. But if i was to do this then i would be staying three piece. Looking at the bumper Im thinking if it was deeper ie the measurement from top to bottom of bumper was larger it would look better as it would look lower. Ideas and suggestions? Anyone know if other Hudson steepdown models had a deeper bumper that would fit? Rockers – the body panel that runs along the side of the car below the doors also removed. The right hand side panel had a large rust hole. Was worried it may of also effected the chassis rails behind. Was relived to find this wasn’t the case. Both sides of the car showed to be rust free, dry and straight. Although looking inside the boxed frame there is a good 2inch or so of dirt that has accumulated inside the chassis rails. I aint kidding the rails are half full of dirt. Flockie just patted me on the back saying i was going to get very dirty and wet once the car was flipped on its side and waterblasted. Loaded the seats and other parts we ripped out into the station wagon. Windows down and the car smelled a tad Ripe to put it mildly. Ratty piss n shit seats sure do have an aroma I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. Car will be put on the rotisserie this week at some point.

It currently has 6inch wide tires on it. I would like to go fatter naturally but really you aint going to see em. Will be so low and with skirts on all you will see is a bit of the black rubber when viewed from the side and nothing from the rear really. So i could stay pizza cutter small 6inch wide. The new Moser diff is slightly narrower than stock by 2inch so inch per side. should help a lil. But yeah also means offset etc. Or i could get larger rims. Was looking at 16's but if i went larger it would help slide down the tire further. I have the Trans/speedo is set for a 28inch tire. So if i had say 20s on the back it would make life easier still. Gas up the bag to high, jack the car. then drop the tire down then push lower under the car then slide out. Rather not cut up the panels yet until i know what further custom panel work i will be doing down the track. Still its an option. Reading on Hudson sites i see the most people get under the guards is 9inch with stock rear.

Got asked if i have any pics of the car from when it was in storage. The better half did a quick search pulled these off the interwebs. Since it was off the road since 1969 im guessing it also had other older accommodation at some point. Three owner car so i guess the person who took these was the second owner who had it for a handful of months & we purchased from. And a few old photos we got given of the car & scanned from before it was painted mid 60s. Dated on the back 1962.

Rolled into Flockies today after work to have a yarn about the important things in life… cars. Focusing on the rearend at the moment. To gain the air out/low height and drive height we are after means getting the diff up higher. This will mean more fab work than initially expected but really it aint no great surprise to tell the truth. C-Notching the chassis rails about 4inch and then raising part of the floor in the boot (trunk for you yanks) to get more clearance for the diff housing. Also may need to alter the floor slightly under the rear seat for the two piece driveshaft. We are looking at a ride height of a minimum 100mm (4inch) maybe an inch or so higher if needs be. Then of course we can go up or down from the bags when the mood suits. As you can see in the below image there is sweet fek all clearance and the ride height is still to high. A slightly better image maybe. So those rails are looking at getting about 4 or 5 inch C-notch. So up inside the trunk a bit. On a side note the wall thickness of the Ridetech 4Link that will be bolting up in here is much better than expected. Just above the center diff housing is a small raised section of the trunks floor. This will need to be raise up a bit further to get clearance for the housing. Still should be enough clearance on the ledge for the airtank etc. So no great loss really. Looking at running the exhaust under the diff. In the above pics you can kinda see just in front of the diff (opposite side than we see) that the seats floor pan is looking like it might just slightly be in the way for the drive shaft. May need a little massaging. Another issue maybe changing the tire. Will give that better thought once we know where everything will sit better. The diff is slightly narrower than stock to help with this. Also pumping up the bags will help a bit. Doubt some unbolting of the diff scenario will work due the exhaust going under the diff. All i can say is im happy that my insurance comes with free AA roadside assistance nation wide. AA stands for Automobile Association in New Zealand NOT Alcoholics Anonymous. Would be rather amusing to dial for a 12 steep program to change a flatty stuck in a wheel well. Now this is all nutted out its time to get the certifier involved just to make sure he is happy with it all. No point cutting then to find out it wont meet cert. Hope he gets out there this week but i doubt it unfortunately. Im bleeping eager to get Flockie welding shit up.

Question for everyone. What is the "best" ride height. By this i mean as low as you can go but still not worry about bottoming out etc as you drive about. I know the legal limit is 100mm. whats still rather low considering i can air out lower when parked. But is 100mm good for highway, driveway, day to day driveing? Or do you risk damage. My setup is a 1949 Hudson custom. New front end and rear end. Ridetech HQ Shockwaves, 5 gallon digital setup. More info on my build thread. Im at the stage i need to decide on ride height as the old front and rear have been cut out and I need to figure how low i want the car. So ideas please and advice. Thanks Alex

Ahh what a weekend. Honest last week sucked with one day being a family funeral then the other days working till 8:30 each night as I worked to a time frame that is still closing on me in a most desperately horrid fashion. Yesterday (Saturday for those future cyber readers out there) in a semi hangover state it was deemed a most suitable idea to jump in the ol 52 Buick and cruise along two and a half hours of highways around lakes, gorges and wide open roads to a small central Otago NZ town called Cromwell. Calls of fame being some giant fruit statue thing, a hydro power lake, vine yards and for the last few years a car show attracting a wide following of people from around the South Island NZ. A good chilled turn out of 600-700 cars i guess. Some pretty cool cars. But the inspiration i was looking for wasnt present to tell the truth. I was after interior ideas. Paint ideas. tail light ideas. and well… ideas in general. This fine day was followed by more liquid refreshments & fish n chips -a kiwi classic and mighty fine cuisine in moderation when coupled with a Mexican blanket, a good woman and pumping tunes in summer. Saturday done and pass resulted in a overcast rainy Sunday. Fine day for garage mayhem really. And that is what happened. With a general check over the 52. not much to report. rock steady. Following this beverages where served and car chats between the better half and my self progressed. Good times chatting over cars we saw yesterday, looking at photos and being those critical bastards as we picked at bits n bobs from each car. Flockie from Flockies Kustom Chassis & Rods flicked me a most welcome text saying basically to check facecrack. Faster than a speeding ticket I was online. will note as fast as i was “she” was going “FUCK ME! HE CHOPPED IT!” before i could figure out whats what on my phone. beating me to the line by a good 30 sec. ( i work IT and got thrashed) Measurements taken. Flockie in the background getting ready. Available real-estate is promising upfront. Checkout that sweet ride in the background. Diff out. Looking pretty good under there for the age of the beast. Ass end is dropped on out. But man that crap up front just aint doing it for me. Wonder how that can be fixed…. ? Something that makes sparks maybe? ps dont mind the slide in the background. a reason to all madness. last i was at the shop he was fixing an early 50’s F100 hood that had been used as a sled for the kids behind a truck in the fields by the last owner. Touching wheel arches. Damn those big old guards can swallow up 28 inches of tire. I see this and just grin. Of course bumpstops and bla bla bla will add a few inches but still. BRUTAL! Side pipes will be on there as well to make it that lil bit lower… Im thinking a C Notch is in order my friends. Check out below pic and tell me what you think. God im almost tempted to say tubb that fucker and get some serious fats on the back. Unfortunately i doubt this will happen though. those guards are a pain to get fat tires off but we will see what can be done. Gud damn son! Low enough? Front off, ass dropped and sitting pretty. This is the pic that got the missus screaming “he chopped it!” over and over with squeals of glee & frantic social media postings. This generally only happens normally for lipstick releases from her fav brands, cats, new episodes of Vikings and leadsleds in general. So a big TICK in the only female perspective i care about. I plan to use this photo to combat the “maybe i should curve your spending on the car line” should it rise its ugly head. Top job Flockie. Thanks Ash for the pic’s. He has a Truck he was air bagging today at the same time Flockie was taking care of business. o.o i have a new desktop wall paper.

Pro photo doctoring at its finest my man. Will be staying four door, as you said easier to load people. Will be shaving the door handles and likely the boot as well. Been trying to decide if i will go power bearclaw or save my self the hassles and just 60lb traditional shaved kit. The current latches are still in good nick and work fine so im thinking i will be going solenoids and not the Bear claws. Save me a bit of cash this way aw well. At the moment im stuck trying to figure out what PS pump to get. Im going to use a HydroBoost brake booster that runs off the PS pump. As for the 50 Buick. Im personally a big fan of the 50 Buick fastback. But chopped. I have a 52 Buick and seen a 50 fastback and its roof was even higher. a good 2 or 3 inch off the front and they look brutal. Im such a fan of the 50 buick i have the grill off one i will be using on the Hudson. 50 above is in desperate need of lowing. reduce the altitude & raise the attitude. Alex

My dual quad intake arrived just before Christmas & i only recently have had time to look at it and the engines induction. So the intake was one of the first things i ordered way back in August. I was told it would take 4 – 6 weeks to ship. four months latter and many many emails it finally arrived. Prior to buying the crudson i was toying with the idea of Nailheads and had seen the brand Eelco as being the best intake for the old engines, better HP gains etc than the even the Edelbrock manifolds or six carb setups. Not to mention they just look bleeping cool. So off i went and brought one. Wasn’t until months latter and no intake along with a HUGE list of excuses i did a bit more research and found out the manufacture had an extremely poor reputation. mostly for taking the cash and never delivering the goods. a few threats of contacting paypal got the fire under him and the “motorbike accident”, “surgery” and god knows what else all suddenly cleared up and goods sent. The intake is all i wanted and more. Extremely happy with it. Its so light weight when compared to the factory single 4brl one i had. Nailheads love alot of carb. So two Edelbrock Performer 1405 carbs delivering 600cfb each will sit on top of the new aluminum intake. Got these from Summit when they had a sale coupled in with an instant manufacturer rebate meant i was able to get the two carbs at about the same price i could pickup a single carb for here in New Zealand. Obrein truckers sorted me for the washable airfilters along with the old school finned cover. Got to say Dennis Obrein was great to deal with. Extremely helpful and answered all my emails fast and fully. gave options and suggestions. top man in my books and I would happily shop there again. Quick pic of the induction components before I got busy on them all. So first thing was cleaning up the intake then painting it. Me being me i got a lil eagger and even though i knew it was not the best weather/temp to spray i still went ahead and sprayed. I know i know. Middle of the night when its cold and raining out should be a no brainier for not laying down paint. Still I blasted down my primmer coats and was happy enough with it i went ahead and splashed a few coats of black on it. Went off to see my old man for a few days the follwing morning but had a quick look at the intake before leaving and was relived to see it looked fine. I decided it was for the best that i was away for a few days to really let the paint cure otherwise i would of done something stupid no doubt. I also had planed to pick up the needed intake gaskets when i was in the city. No luck. All the car shops had never had one in and some had never even heard of a Buick 401/nailhead. Sigh… looks like i will be ordering them in. yet another holdup. Got back and popped the carbs, progressive linkage & fuel line on. Need to get some Vac block offs to cover a few unused ports. also the main PCV port on the primary carb(rear carb) is so close to the secondary/front carb i doubt i will be able to use the port & im thinking I will have to block it off as well. The Edelbrock carbs have a vac port at the back of the carbs meant for power brakes & im thinking I may be able to use this. Would suit me best as the PCV is located at the rear of the valley pan between the intake and distributor so this would mean the shortest rout if i use this vac port. Anyone here used the rear vac port on an Edlebrock for PCV? And of course i couldn’t help my self and popped the setup on the engine to get an idea how it would look & to check clearances etc. Its all a bit grubby but thats to be expected. im pretty stocked how it all looks. cant wait to turn this thing on \,,/(-.-)\,,/ And even though its not related to the the Hudson here’s a pic from yesterdays backroad explorations in the Buick. Took us through gorges & passes to some decent secluded river swimming spots then all the way to the ocean and sandy beaches. Nothing like a sunny day cruising with ya missus in the middle of the bench seat. Tunes blasting and a retro cooler of goodies. Pull up for an ice cream or to get fresh fruit from an orchard and watch from the shade of a coolabar tree as people congregate around the car taking selfies & pics. Also stumbled upon a Fair – same old crap really with little of interest. Happy New years guys

well i will start off with the fact that i took a week or so away from the project. Didn’t want to walk in the garage or acknowledge the existence of the motor or trans. Using the ol if i dont see it then it never happened reasoning. All this was brought about by the rather unpleasant sound of cast aluminium cracking. Now if you have never had that distinct displeasure of hearing this then im jelouse. So the story goes i was having a great ol time. tunes blaring, woodstocks sunk and it seemed like the best time to mate up the trans to the engine. Pop some fluid in the torque converter & slip it on hearing the clunks as it fitted on snugly. Place the newly worked trans on a trolly jack and position it. Easy i think and start tightening it up. CRACK!!! I freeze as heart skips a beat. Trans bellhousing around one of the bolt holes has a crack. I didnt swear or curse. just stared at it in shock. laid down my tools. Stood up. collected my tools and put them away then exited the garage to find a beverage. My dearest who was helping balance and hold stuff had the sense to not say a word as i went about these duties in silence. So guessing the dowls didn’t line up as well as i thought. Not the end of the world. Can be TIGed back up. Just frustrating, annoying and plain old Grrrrr…… This was done a few weeks ago. I have taken a lesson from our cat. that being ignoring it. So its still in the same place i left it – that being middle of garage and even though i walk around it i have chosen not to look at it. This method seems to work well for the cat. “I ignore your existence and you reward me with temptations” So I have moved on from that debacle to the ignition system. I dont like the HEI nailhead distributors. Big and ugly. dont look old school for my tastes. I had two old GM Delco distributors. Media blasted, reconditioned to make one good & smooth operating with no end play. New cap and rotor along with a paint job and its looking better than new. Will use the other as an oil primer once i get to the fluids phase. Ripped out the old points and condenser and have put in a Pertronix Ignitor II electronic ignition unit. So should never need to worry about that side of things again. Although i have kept the old parts to keep in the cars tool box just encase the new electronic ignition ever plays up. The conversion is all done inside the distributor so i can always swap back with no issues. Also got the Pertronix Flame Thrower II coil. Its like 45k Volts so way more than i need i guess but i decided to get the coil made to work with the new electronic ignition. Black of course ( i really cant help my self) yet the thing is going to be covered by the finned metal coil cover anyways. For leads i went with Taylors ThunderVolt 8.2MM custom wire kit. things run at 40ohms so will carry the spark to problems. Nice and black so wont be an eyesore under the hood. The lengths of wire are ubber long whats good i guess. I sure did have alot of left over wire after cutting to length & crimping all the terminals up. Only down side with the kit is that it dosnt come with a crimper. But have a MSD one so that wasnt a biggie. The wires will be out of sight mostly due to the finned spark plug covers. Also the old Nailheads have the dissy at the back behind the intake so the duel carbs and airfilter will hide it all whats great. tested my leads and ALL had 39ohms or lower resistance. think the lowest was near 37ohms. Alot of people seemed to recommend the old AC Delco R45S sparkplugs to work for Nailheads. So i went for those. The R45S are a tad longer than the normal ones. And thats basically it for the ignition side at the moment. As for the car it self. I need to get in contact with Flockie to talk over the plan of attack i guess. With luck he has had a good ol poke about underneath and came up with a few ideas. Im chaffing at the bitt to finally get things going. Patience has never been one of my strong points – a trait i believe i picked up from my father then compounded by working in ICT where everything progresses fast if not instantaneous. Constantly telling my self slow down (or i may break something like a transmission…)

Any of these tail lights for sale? Been trying to figure out what i may do on the rear of my current project. Thinking those could look ok one pointing up and one down on each side kinda like you have them laid out. Whats the dimensions of one light assembly? width and height. If you have four decent spares then flick me an email with some pics etc of each. alextowart at gmail dot com Doing some nice fab work man. Alex

As often is the way~ life and work are getting in the way of what i really want to be doing: saving this heap of steel from restoration. Time of the year i guess with Christmas fast approaching and clients suddenly deciding its the end of the world if XYZ isn’t done like yesterday. i just stand there baffled as there mouth is moving wondering to myself “yes all very good and nice but come on surely they must agree the old car is more important… LEADSLED GOD DAMN IT!!!!” Its really starting to get out of control. I take it for granted its completely normal and sane if not even healthy for a guy to dream of cars n shift like that. But my dearest the other morning commented she is dreaming of cars. Cool i think to my self but whats that say about us o.0 – should note here we do live in a Bogan town so this may be common with in the local female populace..(you yanks think redneck i guess just dont youtube Bogan please) Anyways with said working life getting in the way i haven’t done sweet jack all. Popped on the Trans adapter, ordered a few small parts i needed is about all. Dropped more stuff off to Flockies Chassis Shop. Some of the projects the maestro is tinkering away on: Not much room at the moment but with luck he will have some of the projects cleared soon and the Hudson chassis etc on its way.

Works been flat out this week so haven’t had time to get in the garage much. Engine is sitting waiting for me to pull my finger out and hook the trans up to it. And talking of the Trans. Its a 700R4 from Monster Transmissions worked up to handle 650HP & 600ft/lbs torque. Medium firm shift kit. Wasnt happy with the service from Monster trans. Order took 6 weeks to build, test and ship. During that time they didnt answer a single email and only a few Facecrack messages. Still it was very well packaged on the crate and looks to be of decent build quality. Time will tell though how it shifts and handles. They have discounts every day from 5-20% off with free shipping USA wide along with cash discounts. I was able stack like 3 discounts to get it at a reduced price by just checking back every day for a few weeks. Package Link: 700R4 SuperStreet master conversion package. Comes with pretty much everything needed to install other than fluids, cross member and driveshaft. Kit contains: 700R4 SS Mega Monster Transmission, rated up to 650hp/600tq What’s Inside The Transmission: 5 PINION FRONT & REAR PLANETARYS PRECISION MASTER OVERHAUL KIT SUPERIOR HIGH PERFORMANCE REPROGRAMMING SHIFT KIT SUPER PUMP DIRECT/REVERSE INPUT DRUM TURBINE INPUT CLUTCH HOUSING MODIFIED SUNSHELL DRIVE GEAR TO INCREASE REAR PLANETARY LUBRICATION MODIFIED INPUT SUN GEAR TO INCREASE FORWARD PLANETARY LUBRICATION UPDATED/MODIFIED ACCUMULATORS RAYBESTOS PRO SERIES KEVLAR BAND UPDATED & MODIFIED GOVERNOR w/SPRING KIT & NYLON GEAR RECALIBRATED VALVEBODY w/UPDATE TV VALVE ASSEMBLY RECALIBRATED VALVE PLATE FOR SHIFT FIRMNESS NEW HIGH FLOW FILTER NEW LOW/REVERSE HEAVY DUTY SPRAG NEW 29 ELEMENT HEAVY DUTY FORWARD INPUT SPRAG NEW HIGH PERFORMANCE ALUMINUM SERVO What’s Included With Conversion Package: Performance Torque Converter, your choice from 1650-2500 Stall Universal Fillertube with updated Locking Dipstick Updated Universal Fit Throttle Cable with metric bolt Metric Linkage Nut 2 Brass Coolant Line Fittings Metric Torque Converter Bolts Universal Transmission Mount with bolts Speedometer Drive & Driven Gears Speedometer Housing & Support Bracket Speedometer Housing O-Ring External Lock-Up Kit 700R4 Chrome Throttle Cable Bracket Hayden Transmission Cooler Kit 700R4 Universal Dust Cover 700R4 Stock Depth Chrome Pan Unboxed: Painted up to match the engine: Using a trans adapter to mate the old Nailhead bolt pattern to the 700R4. Seems well made but the manufacturer ( Bendtsens ) is a jerk. Total ass hat and i wouldn’t ever go back to him. Once i get down to the shops to get some locktight i will get it all together. God i hate those annoying hold ups. already to go but cant find my locktight after ages of searching. frustrating to say the least. On a different note the Hudson is away at Flockies kustom chassis hotrod shop. Moving the car about is a breeze with the tractor. /Jealous. His boy is following close in dads footsteps it seems. Even though he is young he is out there helping wrenching along side his dad learning the skills. Till he gets to an age to use the welder seriously he is stuck with cardboard and making some serious customs and hotrod models from scratch. Kid has some great ideas and sure likes to chat about them to any who will listen. Exciting times i tells ya. just wish i had more time to tinker.

any one have any ideas for a paint scheme for the old car. We have been throwing ideas about for the last months. will have a different grill, frenched lights, shaved handles, nosed, tidied up rare etc etc etc. Satin Black with pin stripping was our first thought. then we thought maybe dark red or purple. then white with tinted windows and maybe light pin striping. not really into two tone. here is a few pics of the Crudson and our 52 Buick together to help with paint ideas for the Hudson. Not into bright colours. Advice and ideas! Once the color is sorted we can start thinking interior colour. Alex