My Dad bought this for my two brothers and me as our first car, when we were teenagers, in about 1968, in Pittsburgh, PA, and we owned it until about 1971. It was all stock and original, and we kept it that way, and maintained it and drove it, gently, all over the Pittsburgh area.
Learned about the HET Club at that time, when a Wayne Wehrle spotted us driving it, stopped us, introduced himself, and recruited us for the HET Club. I've been a member, off and on, ever since, and have owned other Hudsons over the years, but none recently.
Wayne and we became good friends, and he and other Pittsburgh area members helped us get the car running really well, and we attended many meets in the area (including the Gleydura meets up in the Youngstown area).
We had it registered with a Pennsylvania Antique license plate, I've contacted PennDOT to see if I could access any archives they might have, but they insist I can't access any records older that ten years.
So, all I can do here is describe the car as best I remember it, and see if anyone might recognize it.
My purpose is to buy it back and keep it in the family, but if not, at least I could learn what happened to it, and possibly see it one more time.
Terraplane Model 71 or 72, four door, 6-cylinder, after-market Signal-Stat blinkers on front fenders, underneath headlights.
Hump trunk, banjo steering wheel, lower side grilles adjacent main front grille were painted gray, on an otherwise completely dark blue car.
Dual tail lights, water-pump-to-goose-neck by-pass removed and plugged (before we owned it, and we never corrected it).
Original amber hood ornament had trailing edge chipped away, but otherwise in tact.
Small dent in left side of glove-box door.
Originally equipped with front-door side vent windows, but we (ill advised now, I know) removed them in favor of single front door roll-up glass, because we couldn't get the vent windows to operated properly.
Hope this helps identify the car. Thanks for your attention.
Kevin Graulty
HET Member 36858
Huntsville, TX
281-507-9149
Moved into main forum where more folks will get to see it ; hopefully someone may know of the car or what happened to it
Did you ever list it with the 1937 registry?
Do you have any old paperwork (like an old photostat of the registration or title) showing the body serial number?
Do you have an old family photo?
If you kept this in the Pittsburgh area, possibly someone in that area knows what became of it. There is a pretty strong chapter of the Club in that area, as you probably know.
Thank you. Yes, I've sent this note to the '37 Terraplane Club Registrar.
I don't have any identifying numbers or documents, only a few old photos.
I'm hoping that my narrative about our club activity, and friendship with Wayne Wehrle and others in the Pittsburgh area, and the few "identifying features" I described -- the chipped hood ornament, the "banjo" steering wheel, the blemish on the glovebox door -- might be enough to spark an investigation.
I'd be prepared to go to PennDOT headquarters in Harrisburg, to manually search whatever archives to which they may allow me access, but my calls to the only phone numbers I can find for them tell me that there are no archives older than ten years.
Thank you for your attention.
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