Sorry about the sideway pics.

Note the original foam on the driver's seat (with evenly spaced relief holes). Apparently Hudson was the very first US car manufacturer to place foam on seats (a creature comfort in 39')

It has numerous parts that are not 1939, but the grill, side grills, the hood make it unmistakably a 1939.

Mike ---Are you saying the headlight bezels are not original? That would explain why I haven't seen another car with them. What other "odd" parts do you see? Appreciate the feedback.

It has a sealed beam headlight conversion kit installed. That was very common thing to do in the 40’s and 50’s for better lighting.

The bumper, hood side lights, beltline trim interior and dash make this a Country Club. Model 93 95 or 97. Check first two digits of the serial number.

Ed---Do you know whether this particular sealed beam conversion was exclusive to Hudson i.e., a Hudson made "option" installed by Hudson dealerships? Or were these bezels generic aftermarket components designed to fit multiple car makes and models?

Fred---Did all of these models (93,95,97) have the same wheelbase length or was the 97 longer? The owner of this car also has a 40' for sale (a similar 4 door sedan) but the 39' looks longer.

Model 93 and 95 were 122" wb. Model 97 wqs 129 " wb

I believe it is a '39 93 series 6 cyl. as 95 & 97 series were 8 cyl and would have a small plate on the front bumper?
Ivan l.

The sealed beam kits were strictly aftermarket, made by one or more companies in different styles, to fit specific makes of car.
Possibly Hudson might have bought some and made them available for dealers to sell. But they were not a Hudson invention.
For many, many years the sealed beams were the way to go, if you wanted to actually see at night. So a lot of people removed the original headlights on their 1930's cars and replaced them with the adapter kits, which is sad, because I think the originals looked much better. Plus: upon converting the headlights, people threw out the original lights, which means that restorers have a hard time finding them nowadays.

My first car, back in 1964, was a 1939 DeSoto and it still had the original (non-sealed beam) rectangular headlights. I resisted the urge to convert to sealed beams, although my reflectors were dull and the light was minimal. Later, when I bought my Terraplane, I had the reflectors re-silvered and managed to find extra-powerful headlight bulbs (50 cp), which was a big help. Then later, I discovered halogen lamps made especially to fit the original sockets - a definite improvement. Nowadays I am running LED headlights. I'm very glad I didn't change over to sealed beams when I bought the '37, even though that seemed to be the logical thing to do. Nowadays, those sealed beams that were "cutting edge" back in 1940, are themselves inferior to the halogen and LED bulbs that we can use in our original 1930's headlight setups. And Detroit itself has abandoned sealed beams and gone back to the "old fashioned" method of replacing a small bulb within a reflector / lens setup -- which was how it was done in pre-1940 days!

Fred Pinder may know more about the senior Hudson models. I have a 112. I addition to the headlights, I don't think the little lights below the headlights are original. The whole tail light mess looks wrong to me. Bumpers are apparently different than on the 112's.

The round lites front and rear are after market usually used when directionals were installed.

Anyone interested in buying this Californian car? In addition to the aftermarket lights it looks 100% complete. Floor boards are solid. No evidence of rust holes anywhere. The trim pieces for the sides of the front hood are in the cab as are the remainder of the dogdish hubcaps. The original interior is intact but completely shot. I think the car could be had for $2500. The seller also has a 40’ in similar condition for similar price. Contact me if interested. A shame if these solid cars slowly convert into pine tree fertilizer....