Yahoo Autos Junkyard Gem: 1955 Hudson Rambler Custom Cross Country
The American Motors Corporation was formed when the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and the Hudson Motor Car Company merged in 1954. New cars with AMC badges didn't show up until the 1966 model year, however; prior to that, the old marque names were kept alive for a while. Cars with Nash badges survived until 1957, while Rambler (formerly a Nash model name) became the main AMC brand through 1967 (though the 1930s Nash "Weather Eye" feature name went on AMC dashboards well into the 1970s). The Hudson name got the axe at the same time as Nash, but one AMC machine managed to get two marque names just before that: the Hudson Rambler Custom Cross-Country station wagon. Here's one of those rare machines, spotted a few months ago in a Wyoming self-service yard just over the border from Colorado.
It's hard to miss Cheyenne Auto and Metal when you're heading up I-25 from Colorado, because the yard is located very close to the fireworks store with this memorable logo.
The only visible difference between the Rambler Custom Cross Country and the Hudson Rambler Cross Country was the grille badge. Otherwise, the two were identical.
You can see the shadow of that Hudson badge on this car's grille, but it's long gone. The Hudson-badged version of this car was available for just the 1955 and 1956 model years. Some of the paint schemes got pretty wild.
The only clue that allowed me to determine that this car was sold new as a Hudson was the number on this firewall tag. My guess is that Hudson fanatics don't consider this Nash to be one of their own, just as many Packard aficionados turn their backs on the rebadged-and-fish-faced Studebakers of 1958.