Gifford, welcome aboard!
Give us more info on your Hudson. Start with the serial number located on the passenger side A pillar. You should see a VIN tag
when you open the door. What is the body style? Original drive train? Does it start and run? Does it stop (brakes).
When you say "restore", what exactly do you want to accomplish? A full restoration or just refresh and get her running, stopping and driving?
Put the car on a lift and look very carefully at the parameter frame that runs around. This is usually the worst trouble spot on a stepdown Hudson. Determining if rust thru is an issue. Look for rust bubbles popping out from the bottom edge of the rear quarter panels and rocker panels, that is a sign that those panels need to come off and rust repairs made to the parameter frame and panel.
How are the floor pans and trunk pan?
Post some pictures and that will help us help you !
Here is the South Africa club info-
South African
Roger Robeck
53 Drckenstein St
Durbanville Hills, Cape Town
SAF 7550
Phone # 27-21-9761593
roger@projectfreight.com

Thank you very much for the detailed info to look out for. At the moment the car is standing at a premises around 450km from where I live. I need to get it to my home town (Pretoria) straight to a company/person who can fully restore it for me and have a look at all those things you pointed out. I will give Roger a call as well. Thank you so much.

PS: I tried to post photos but it seems that there were size limitations.

Unfortunatley the number given doesn't exist anymore and the e-mail address is not in use.

Hi Gifford, welcome to the Hudson World. I have a 1953 Hornet which came form LeSotho. It was assembled in South Africa I believe, as it is r.h.d. Is yours the same? I have tried contacting South African addresses with no luck, as I would love to hear of the history of Hudson over there. I knew of a church pastor who used to drive a Hudson Hornet back in the fifties, but he died many years ago. I don't know where the assembly plant was, or whether they were imported fully built-up. The keyfob is marked "Pretorious Motor Spares, (051 475161) " I am in New Zealand, and my car came via the U.S. in 1998. It was exported there in 1993.
Geoff

This should help...
If you go to the MAIN PAGE on this site and then click on MEMBER, then click on FIND CURRENT CLUB MEMBERS, then in the menu type in the country SOUTH AFRICA you will find:

Bill James, located in Bloemfontein, email HETbilljamesgsv@gmail.com (remove the HET from the email address). He has a 1951 Hudson.

Hope it pans out for you

John Forkner

Hi Geoff. Yes, my car is right-hand drive. I am also trying to find more information. Sadly the person who would know everything about this would be my grandfather who passed away in 1997. To give you a quick rundown: In the 1980s he was restoring 4 classic cars (one for myself and each of my siblings with the idea that we each inherit a car when he eventually passed away) . He also restored a WWII Harley Davidson with side cart. One of these cars was also a 1934 Hudson Terraplane, at that time only two were in existance in South Africa and my grandfather's had the only one that was fully restored and running. When he passed away in 1997, the timing could not be worse - myself, my brother (he got the Terraplane) and two sisters (1950 Willis and 1938 Ford Coupe) moved to Pretoria to study and were living in small apartments with no space to park the cars. I eventually had to sell the Hudson to a man in Pretoria (stupidly never taking his details) and my siblings had to to the same. I started looking for it around 3 years ago and by some miracle found it in Bloemfontein and bought it back. Now as to the history of the Hudson - my mother remembers my grandfather driving he whole hockey team to tournaments in the early 60s but back then, that particular Hudson was not the same one that I eventually inherited. I phoned the Franchoek Car Museum (they have both a 1952 Hornet and 1949 Commodore) and according to them there are inly 15 Hudsons in South Africa that they are aware of - this inlcudes the Hornet and the Commodore. I can phone them again and try to get more info.

Thanks, I will definitely give this a shot!

Hi guys, please see below. I finally got my grandfather's Hudson back today and restoration will be start soon (not by me). Can someone please help me identify parts/trim not belonging to the car and more importantly help my identify from the numbers I found inside the door if this is a 1948 or a 1949 model?

I kynda like the big back window stanless (50-53) around the little back window (48-49)

Gifford, this is a little off the subject, but: were you aware that Heidi Hetzer will be driving her 1930 Hudson through S. Africa, during her round-the-world trip? She is still in South America but her next stop is South Africa. Of course, her car is much older than yours, but you might enjoy meeting her if she drives through your area. And, if you meet any other Hudson owners before she arrives, maybe you can organize a small gathering, and meet her when she comes through.

OK cool, so that is not standard? I will ask them to remove it then or do you think I should keep it?

Do you have any contact details for her? It would be awesome to speak to her. I am documenting the whole restoration process with the idea to put out a documentary as I am a freelance videographer and editor.

Gifford. You ask about removing all the extra pieces that don't belong. You should first do a little research. There are several different years of parts there. The stainless around the back window is from a 52-53, the piece that is above the trunk handle is a '50-'51, I can't see the hood ornament in these pix?. But all these pieces look like they were put there way back, so who owned this car or had this car done like this, would be my question?. The plate below the serial plate looks to be weathered the same?. Was it put there by someone doing a conversion?. These are all questions I would want to know, if it were mine?.
What does the tag below the serial plate say?. This car is a 1948 Commodore 6 "482" and the 50432 is when it was produced. Hudson built about 150,000 that year. Someone here will know the exact production numbers.

Gifford, here is the 1949 4-door

[img] [/img]

Here is the 1952 ("Hornet" model). Note the trim around the rear window. A previous owner has added this to your car.

[img] [/img]

Also, the three chrome "portholes" on the sides of your fender are not original Hudson. They are either salvaged from a Buick of that era, or are "add-ons" that one could purchase from an auto supply store and attach to his car, to add some "flash".

As they say...."it's your car!" If you want it to be authentic, remove the items. If you like the extra trim, keep it on!