I bought our 1937 Hudson Terraplane utility in 2009 after I saw it in the Just Cars magazine. I rang the owners in Brisbane, “only” to ask where the chassis number was located, as I couldn’t find one on my coupe chassis. I ended up buying his car! The previous owner had bought the car in 1990 and it was a Western Australian desert car, (no rust!) He was the 2nd owner and had fitted a V6 Commodore motor and auto gearbox and it had been registered in Queensland.
The owner had suffered a sever heart attack and could not finish the restoration. That’s when I bought it! I brought it to Sydney and one month later I had a heart attack! It must be the car!
Like all things we own, the car had to have a name. I wanted to call it “Flatline”, but Margaret thought that sounded too final, so we ended up calling it “Beep”
I had to get the car re-engineered for NSW registration because of the engine change. That opened up a BIG can of worms. The things I had to change and the things I wanted to:
- Fitted bucket seats for more leg room
- Altered the pedals for more leg room
- Fitted collapsible steering column
- Fitted dual circuit braking
- Fitted seat belts
- Fitted 2 speed wipers & washers
- Fitted a windscreen demister
- Got all the original instruments working again & fitted a GPS
- Re-bushed the front end and fitted disc brakes.
- Replaced the rear axle assembly with an EL Falcon disc brake rear end as the ratio did not suit the engine and tyre size
With all modifications finished, I got the car registered and started driving it. But, not for long. The steering was terrible, the car had a mind of it’s own and wandered everywhere, and it especially liked the other side of the road! I took all the slack out of the steering box, adjusted the toe in and out on the wheels, gave the axle more caster.
The result… NO DIFFERENCE !
The Fix? One HG Holden disc brake front end…now Beep steers!
The Terraplane ute is now my every day car and it is very comfortable and easy to drive. It is a very rare car too, since it was coach built in Melbourne, (and you won’t find this in America). It was shown on Jay Leno’s Garage web site when I bought it.
I would love to know if there is another 1937 Terraplane ute, or is this the only one?
The words on the badge are:
MORTLOCK Bros Ltd
1018 Hay St Perth
TERRAPLANE
FOR CORRECT LUBRICATION USE
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Summer |
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Winter |
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MOBILOIL A MOBILOIL C MOBILOIL C |
ENGINE GEARBOX DIFF |
MOBILOIL A MOBILOIL C MOBILOIL C |
SOLE AGENTS FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Oh boy…they knew how to make them look sweet back then eh?
Where’s the class and style in modern cars?
Huh, piffle.