The present post presents Hudson grille designs during 1948-1954 model year production of the second of those basic body series. That was a period of seven model years during an era when General Motors, Ford and Chrysler tended to offer redesigned bodies every three or four years on average. But Hudson did not have their financial resources and relied on facelifts longer than it should have for corporate longevity.
Unless noted, images below are of cars listed for sale on the Internet.
This was the debut grille design for the radically redesigned postwar Hudson line.
There was essentially no change for the following model year.
Grille styling was tweaked for 1950. The air opening for the radiator was retained, surrounding sheet metal was given minor adjustments, and the grille bars were redesigned while preserving the previous horizontal theme. The most striking change was the addition of angled bars forming an inverted-V that was intended to be interpreted as a variation on Hudson's triangle logotype theme.
The following year the grille opening and related sheet metal were restyled in a rounded manner. Grille bars were fashionably bolder and the triangle feature was integrated with the license plate area frame.
A very minor adjustment followed for 1952. I think this was the best of this series of grille designs. The '51 design was good, but for '52 the turn signal lights at the edges are now rounded, fitting the overall theme better than the rectangular lights of 1951. However, the '51s had a better, smaller, hood ornament.
For 1953 the triangle was pushed back behind the grille bars, rendering it essentially invisible. Some readers might prefer this design due to its simplicity and thematic consistency. I agree that this version is aesthetically better, but nevertheless like the triangle's role in brand identification -- an important marketing consideration.
The 1948-vintage body was given a major facelift for its final year. The grille design is simple, but undistinguished. No real Hudson character here.
2 comments:
It was pretty dumb of them to keep the split windshield all the way up to 1953. By 1952 this would be a deal breaker for a lot of buyers. Even Studebaker got rid of it in 1951 for the last two years of their 1947 body style, although theirs was originally two flat planes which was even worse. You see a lot of earlier Studebakers retrofitted with the one piece version.
I had the idea a few years ago, and even did a cut and paste picture at the time of putting the 1951-2 Hudson grille on the Dodge Magnum. Then I put the racing Hudson markings on the sides, calling it the Hudson New Hornet. Chrysler (and whoever owned them at the time) has the rights to the Hudson name and I think it would have been at least good publicity as a "concept car" and would have cost little. The Magnum was the modern version of the Hudson Hornet.,
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