“Cars in Barns”, Field cars and other “Treasure”. Holland exchange student Marcel Moret’s Field Finds in Canada.
My name is Marcel Moret and at the time of me sending in these pictures, I was on exchange with a school in London, ON, Canada. I was searching for parts for my 1967 Cougar that I drive back in Holland at the local wreckers’ yard and I came across what must be the most comprehensive Hudson collection of Canada, if not the whole Northern America!
When I first came across the yard I was able to rummage between the cars that were somewhat tucked away between the weeds and big trucks (it was actually a truck wrecking yard) after I found a nice horn ring in one of the Hudsons, I got back to the parts office and the man behind the counter said that “The old man” decides whether or not he wants to sell the parts of his classics. (which mostly depended if you would catch him on a good day or not…) Unfortunately, the “old man” was not in at that time and they weren’t expecting him for another two weeks.
So I left my souvenir at the counter and returned two weeks later, sure enough, he was there. He was working on cleaning out his section of Hudson cars. This was the most depressing sight I had ever witnessed as a classic car fanatic. I must have struck a nerve when I expressed this to Mr. Bennet because he got into his talking chair and boy, was I in for a surprise! He told me that some of these cars had been there as long as 30 or more years and most of them were driven there by himself.
After talking about everything from politics, immigrants, car parts, landscapes and his kidney stone, he took me to his sanctuary. Tucked away behind the parts office was my first surprise, one of the earliest Hudson models, surrounded by hundreds of NOS parts and collectibles. Not much later he showed me around in his house which was more of a Hudson museum than a house. Literally thousands of Hudson car parts in what he described as “the vault”
As if this was not enough, he then took me to a large shed on the property and when he opened the doors, I almost fell back from surprise! In the isolated shed were a dozen Hudson cars in pristine condition. Every one had an interesting story attached to it, some were one of a kind, one belonged to the owner of the Hudson factory and so on.
All in all I spent a good 4 hours listening and learning about the fascinating Hudson history and I got my souvenir as well! This was truly one of the most memorable experiences I had so far in regards to salvage yard scavenging.
I have many more pictures of these cars and I am more than willing to share them with you, but my email program did not allow more pictures to be sent at the time, just shoot me an email (address below) and I will send you some!
Dutch greetings from Marcel Moret.
PS: I did manage to find some great Cougar parts on a neighboring salvage yard! If anyone would like to comment on my story or would like to sell me their Cougar parts, please email to: [email protected]
