1947 Hudson Pickup Street Rod
“What is that thing?” That’s what we said when we rounded the corner at the Museum of American Speed’s Wheel Hub Live event and saw Jason McPike’s clean, green pickup. Then we heard other people asking the same question. Turns out, most of us have never seen a ’47 Hudson pickup before. And for good reason; they only made a little more than 1,000 of them, and most were allocated to be used as parts haulers for Hudson dealers. Few escaped into the wild, and even fewer have been rescued and treated to such an immaculate street rod restoration.
Jason and his dad found the truck in pretty bad shape behind a local repair shop. Once they figured out what it was, they made a deal and dragged the mostly complete but delipidated carcass back home. Jason got to work swapping in a small block Chevy and making the truck roadworthy. Version 1.0 of the truck was cool and got Jason around to some shows, but it wasn’t really safe. That’s where a friend introduced him to Randy Borcherding.
Randy own Painthouse in Cypress, TX and is known for knockout paint and restoration work. He and his crew got busy removing decades worth of questionable repairs and chassis “upgrades” from the Hudson, making way for new front and rear suspension, leaving only the center of the Hudson frame remaining. The rare Hudson was already plenty unique, so there was no need for a radical engine to make it stand out from the crowd. A well-detailed 350 Chevy is topped with custom machined Hudson badges on the valve covers and backed up by a 700R4 and a 3:73-geared Ford 9”. QA1 coilovers suspend the truck front and rear and custom 17 and 18-inch Wheelsmith artilleries perfectly accent the truck’s deco detailing.
We have to talk about the paint. In person, the brilliant green and brown two-tone will stop you dead in your tracks. We can’t imagine this truck painted any other color, but it wasn’t always meant to be this way. While Randy was printing a rendering of the truck in the proposed burgundy and black two-tone, his printer ran out of red ink. The print came out green and Randy loved it, ultimately changing course and custom mixing the olive green hues for the truck.
Everyone loves a '32 Ford, Plymouth 'Cuda, or a C10 pickup, but the lesson that we've learned from this hot rod Hudson is not to overlook the less common bodystyles when shopping for a project. We're glad that Jason rescued this one from oblivion and then had Randy and the Painthouse crew create this magical piece of green eye-candy. We're also grateful to these guys for letting the Museum of American Speed borrow it for a little while so we can continue to bask in its glow. We notice a new detail every time we walk past it!