Early birthday present

A friend was on vacation a couple of weeks ago and saw a Metropolitan outside of St. Louis along I70. On the way home they stopped and left a number for the owner to call. It turned out to be a 55 Hudson Metropolitan. Joe ended up going back to get it last Saturday and called me over on Sunday. My wife and I went to look at it and Joe told us what he needed out of it and my wife said happy birthday. So I now have my Hudson, Nash and AMC. Being a huge AMC person, I have always wanted one of each. The Met is drivable the way she is, but will need a little bit of rust removed in the near future and a paint job. I figure I can drive her as is for a number of years while I get a couple of other projects taken care of.
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I do realize that this is not really a hot rod because it has a 1500cc engine and I will never get a speeding ticket on the interstate because I do not think it can even hit the speed limit in Kansas which is 75. But it is a unique car and is a blast to drive, even with only around 40 horses under the hood.

I always liked them, never realized there were different versions of it---how did that happen?

Dave................did you see the 2 tone green/champagne Met one the cover of Street Scene a few months back? It has a blown BBC with a tube chassis. I saw it at a local car show this past summer. It is one wild ride.

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Originally Posted by sunsetdart

Dave................did you see the 2 tone green/champagne Met one the cover of Street Scene a few months back? It has a blown BBC with a tube chassis. I saw it at a local car show this past summer. It is one wild ride.

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Yuppers, friend of mine stopped by one day with the mag---wild looikin' beast for sure!!! Some place on my "things to build" bucket list is that other Nash, can't remember the model but the big ugly one with all the rounded corners.... CRS keeps getting worse, can't remember what the heck they were!!!!!:LOL::LOL::LOL:

That is cool Pastor Bubba! The wife is a keeper for sure! So is this a birthday & Xmas present? LOL.... Good Luck with a very unique car...

I always liked them, never realized there were different versions of it---how did that happen?
Nash and Hudson combined in 54 but still sold their cars under their respective names, Nash and Hudson. The Metro was actually designed in the US but built overseas by Austin because it would cost too much to change the factories over to a small car. So Nash and Hudson had the Metropolitan in 54-55 and not sure about 54. I believe 56-57 there was only Nash Metropolitans available in the US and from 58 to 61 or 62 they were AMC Metropolitans. The cars were sold in Canada and England and were called Austin Metropolitans but do not know the years on that. To my knowledge, the cars for each year are all the same except for grill badge, hubcaps and horn button.

Dave, are you thinking of the Ambassador? The old bath tub style?

So is this a birthday & Xmas present?

This is just a birthday present for January. She bought me racing buckets for the chevy stock car that I am hoping to have on the road this summer.

Looks to be in exceptional contition!
What a fun little ride.

Pastor, does your wife have a sister ??????? ( I clean up after myself and always put the toilet seat down:D) Great gift and it looks to be in great condition. I always wanted one of those and now would be the perfect time with gas prices and all.

The original smart car, way ahead of it's time.


Don

I dont know if you will ever need any parts for one of your nash,but there is a guy in Little elm that has 5 nash complete parts car plus a trailer full of parts for said cars. here is his address
3991 West Eldorado Parkway
Little Elm, TX 75068
‎
(972) 783-0800

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Originally Posted by pastor bubba

Dave, are you thinking of the Ambassador? The old bath tub style?

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Yuppers, the upside down bathtub!!! Always thought it would be kewl to do one up....

Pastor,
Love the car, and the fact that it was a present, too!! I've always liked the old Metropolitan's, but never really new the Nash/Hudson/AMC story before today. I ran across a guy not too far from me that has several Metro's that he's willing to part with, but not sure how much he values them....

Thanks SG, I will put that in my file.

Thanks for the history! Never knew any of that...thought they were just a one time idea from Nash and were only around a couple years... So anyway, the upside down bathtub Ambassador is on my things I'd like to take a shot at building some day list...probably after the 10 or 12 others I want to get done prior to doing that one!!!!:whacked::whacked:

Very cool present. Those cars just are so unique, they always turn your head when you see one.

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Originally Posted by 34_40

That is cool Pastor Bubba! The wife is a keeper for sure! So is this a birthday & Xmas present? LOL.... Good Luck with a very unique car...

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Mike, we December birthday folk grew up hating that "Here's one present for both your birthday and Christmas........." stuff!

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Originally Posted by pastor bubba

I always liked them, never realized there were different versions of it---how did that happen?
Nash and Hudson combined in 54 but still sold their cars under their respective names, Nash and Hudson. The Metro was actually designed in the US but built overseas by Austin because it would cost too much to change the factories over to a small car. So Nash and Hudson had the Metropolitan in 54-55 and not sure about 54. I believe 56-57 there was only Nash Metropolitans available in the US and from 58 to 61 or 62 they were AMC Metropolitans. The cars were sold in Canada and England and were called Austin Metropolitans but do not know the years on that. To my knowledge, the cars for each year are all the same except for grill badge, hubcaps and horn button.

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A sad end for the company that prided itself on high level engineering. All the '55-6-7 Hudson products were re-badged/re-grilled Nashes, with a few other tweaks to pretend they were Hudsons. The Hudson Met was marketed '55-6, but not '57 because Nash/AMC had decided to pull the Hudson plug. If I remember correctly total sales of Hudson named cars for '57 ended up under 2000 units.:(

One of my fond memories as a kid involves a Metropolitan. In the mid 50s we lived in Chicago, but my Grandparents and the rest of the clan all lived in central Kansas. We'd drive down each summer for vacation. I played the typical future car guy game of naming the cars we encountered on the road. One time we passed a Metropolitan loaded up with three Army guys who returned my waves with smiles and laughs. They looked like uniformed sardines in that little thing, but it looked like they were having the time of their life.

Enjoy your new toy.

Congrats! Always a favorite of mine. We had one that raced Altered classes in Illinois. It had a Max Wedge, and the front axle was out in front of the car!!!

Yours looks good. Even Lois lane and Jimmy Olson would be proud to drive that one! :-)~