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1954 Hudson Italia, not mine.


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10 hours ago, Hans1965 said:

Price sounds not totally out of line

Looking at the condition of this example, I think the asking price is off by a decimal point. These are rare, but do not command stratospheric prices. Several have changed hands in the past few years in the $250-$500 range. Getting this one to a reasonable "restored condition" would cost a lot more than that. I will say I personally have always found these cars interesting.

 

Robert 

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Every existing record and photo of the Hudson Italia cars has shown red and WHITE leather seating and inserting the door panels.  This is the first I've seen of the black cushions and side inserts.  And I vaguely recall that only one car of the 25 produced originally stayed "in Europe" so it could well be that this show car for Sweden was indeed built with the black and red combination.  Which would make it unique and interesting.  

Body color of all was originally "Italian Cream" but varied between cars from a tinge of pink to a tinge of yellow.  The last couple decades of their restorations has gotten the color much more standard to a middle of the road "cream".

Indeed the entire underpinnings of the Italia are the standard Hudson Jet compacts which were nothing more than an economy car with lackluster styling but great acceleration with the Twin-H and aluminum head.  The Italia getting built at all was a concession to designer Frank Spring who had headed Hudson styling since 1932!  There was never any thought that this could be a "halo car" to save the company.  It was impossible to stamp the Italia body panels or bumpers for a production run.  Each body was hammered out of aluminum by hand.  Bumpers were welded up from several dozen steel scraps.

On offer is car #7.  In the mid 1970s I pulled #15 out of basement storage in Annandale, VA, and assembled parts for its eventual restoration. 

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Unusual stuff  comes out of the wood work during car week, that's for sure! I'm skeptical of the various prices mentioned....anyone have any data on recent sales? Restoration of this one won't be cheap, and although I'm a Hudson fan. they aren't what I would think of as "high dollar". 

Maybe similar to a Dual Ghia in value?  

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