49 Hudson SRT8

[choco]

Is the reinforcement one or two pieces.

If two how will you make up the lost strength in the middle to stop it flexing?

It's a single piece. There are two braces which bolt to the horizontal brace, and go down to the chassis at about a 45 degree angle (but I just called them vertical braces for simplicity). Originally, they were mounted to the chassis with semi-flexible thick canvas/rubber mounts, probably to absorb vibration. I have mounted them to the chassis with a neoprene gasket and welded the mount to the chassis. I'll take a pic of it if you are interested. The strengthened brace is necessary on the driver's side to stop flexing of the firewall when the brakes are applied, and when the foot operated Lokar emergency brake (as our American friends refer to a 'handbrake) is applied. The factory step-down Hudsons all had the brakes under the floor. There's also a brace inside the cabin, under the dash, which supports the steering column, and is in the same plane as the external brace that bolts to the chassis. I moved this brace from the left hand side to the right, and made it about 30mm longer to bolt up to its original mount (which I also moved from left to right).
To simplify - I replicated all the factory bracing and made it stronger and stiffer to account for moving all the brakes to the firewall.

[choco]

Just for clarification, here is the horizontal and vertical braces installed:

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Inside the cab, there is another brace that goes from the firewall to the bottom of the dash where the steering column is mounted:

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More later.....

[zuffen]

Choc's,

Thanks for the clarification.

The brace in the first photo looks to have a joint line running vertically just to the right (on the screen, the left in actuality) of the arrow.

This is what prompted my question. it looks like you have well under control.

[toprodz]

Hey Chocco it looks like you are powering ahead with the Hudson, I am looking forward to the rest of the build,
The brace that goes down to the chassis is similar to what was on the twin spinner, It also attached to the inner fender skirt, which added a little more stiffness.
Keep up the great work..

[choco]

Hey Chocco it looks like you are powering ahead with the Hudson, I am looking forward to the rest of the build,
The brace that goes down to the chassis is similar to what was on the twin spinner, It also attached to the inner fender skirt, which added a little more stiffness.
Keep up the great work..

That's right, same for the Hudson. The inner skirts will have to be chopped up (a lot) to make way for the headers. The Hemi engine is a lot wider than the old flathead 6, and I don't see any other way around it than run custom headers outside the chassis. Of course, I'll consult with the fabricating guy first.

[hudson nut]

Choco, has there been any more progress on your Hudson? I'm watching this one closely, as I'm building a 54 Hornet coupe myself.

Dany

[choco]

Just took delivery of the new stainless headers.

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Also sorting out the wiring. I'm using the factory harness, so I have to extract the engine control circuits from the main harness (top) and put them in the engine harness (bottom).

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[choco]

Choco, has there been any more progress on your Hudson? I'm watching this one closely, as I'm building a 54 Hornet coupe myself.

Dany

Good stuff! Are you on the G3 Hemi Swap Facebook site?

[Gojeep]

Nice looking long tube headers you have there. Were they made for a particular conversion or a stock configuration that you could use?

[Chrisso]

Great looking headers there choco, some nice progress. How are you enjoying retirement?

[choco]

Nice looking long tube headers you have there. Were they made for a particular conversion or a stock configuration that you could use?

There are heaps of headers made for Gen 3 Hemi conversions into any other Mopar A, B, Body or anything, really. But for 49 Hudsons, no. I could have bought some shorty headers, for half the price, in mild steel, but would not know if they fitted until I got them. So I had them made, and the same guy will complete the exhaust system when the time comes. He's also making a set of zoomies like the ones on my Plymouth Coupe.

[choco]

Great looking headers there choco, some nice progress. How are you enjoying retirement?

Retirement is great, lots better than I expected. I just miss the $90/Hr that I used to make that allowed me to buy whatever I wanted when I built the Vicki. I did squirrel away a bit of money before I stopped work, and bought most of the big ticket items, but now I have to wait until "pension day" to see what I can afford. I just saved up enough for a tailshaft, and bought it on eBay about 10 minutes ago. Now I can't go to the pub on Friday!

Apart from that, it's all good!

[rx4ord]

Bloody pub"ll go broke now.
Crikey Choco

Tassie Dave

[Angry]

Bloody awsome build Chocco,....

definatley nice stuff ,....

Im subscribed

[choco]

Tailshaft.
After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I've dummied up the tailshaft to see how/if my cunning plan will work. I have used a Mercedes/300C tailshaft and centre bearing, utilising the factory Hudson centre bearing frame to mount the Chrysler bearing housing. Here's how it looks from the top:

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From underneath, you can see where I've placed a small x-member (the blue square tube) across the factory frame, which will mount the Chrysler/Mercedes centre bearing housing. It's just two bolts, pretty simple, and I'll raise/lower it inside the Hudson frame to get the fore and aft angle correct. It sits pretty much in the right place as it stands, though.

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This is where it finishes. I'll lob off the Chrysler/Mercedes four lobe end and slip a piece of jag/Ford tailshaft with the correct uni at the diff end. This is the only piece I'll have to get machined and balanced properly.

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