Classic Cars Authority: work truck

Sunday, June 10, 2012

wow, a 34 Husdon Terraplane garage made truck from a car, because during WW2, trucks were given more gas rations (and a lot more useful to working guys than a car)

Commentor "Stll Out There" asks why "they" call this a garage made/ home made conversion. Because it looks like one. And because I have seen no evidence of a Terraplane truck from the factory. http://www.hetclub.org/burr/other/technical_service_bulletins_vol4-ts34-001-ts46-001.pdf

I know it's a Terraplane from the speedometer

Firstly, to address "Still Out There" there is no "they" here at this blog, it's just me, Jesse, and I am Just A Car Guy, not an expert, and the back of the cab has a square and un conventional non factory termination look. The graceful curves of the fenders and under the pick up box represent the design quality that Hudson made cars with, and the flat-straight lines of the back of the cab don't. Seriously, look at the bottom of the rear of the doors.

No car company made such a bad transition to the back of the cab from the doors by adding a square bottom inches away from the bottom of the doorline. They would have been shot for that.

In the past couple of hours a family member (Bent metal) of the owner confirms that this exact vehicle IS a garage conversion, not a factory job. http://www.classiccar.com/forum/discussion/160636/green-34-t-pu That rear pan that goes between the back fenders is on cars only. Trucks didn't have that.

Far out! This little socket set is an unusual hex head instead of the common square drive of 1/4, 3/8, or 1/2 inch... and is mounted above the rear window

see under the tail gate? not how trucks are made. That was my 3rd indicator that this was a garage conversion.

below is a look at what this looked like before the truck conversion

In 1934 the word "Essex" was dropped and the car became the Terraplane. The cars were slightly heavier and rarely joined competitive events, particularly as they now lacked the eight-cylinder powerplant. The name Terraplane remained constant through the 1937 model year. By 1936 Terraplane commercial cars were produced in fair number.

In 1938, knowing they were going to drop the Terraplane, Hudson management chose to phase out the Terraplane name similarly to how it had been introduced, and the 1938 cars were named Hudson-Terraplanes.

The Terraplane contributed greatly to Hudson Motor Car Co. sales during the Depression 1930s. Sales of the Terraplane outpaced Hudson vehicles in the late mid-30s and it is said that Hudson management was not fond of that fact and that was partly why they chose to eliminate the car as a make. One unique feature was "Duo-Automatic" brakes. Terraplanes had two brake systems—hydraulic and mechanical. Should the hydraulic brakes fail (i.e. the brake line had a leak in it), the mechanical brakes would be used to stop the car.

Perhaps the most memorable sales slogan of the Terraplane years came from 1933: "On the sea that's aquaplaning, in the air that's aeroplaning, but on the land, in the traffic, on the hills, hot diggity dog, THAT'S TERRAPLANING".

Info and bottom photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/homer----simpson/6931919281/