Unkie's 57 Chevy 4 Door to 2 Door Conversion

Here's some pics of the progress on my conversion. My 10 year old niece and I started this Saturday.

We started on the '57 since it's still too cold to paint the Austin.

 

Good start! Always admire 4 dr to 2 dr conversions. Don't lose your momentum!

 

Just wondering....

...has anyone ever thought of doing a 4-to-2 door conversion and leaving a portion of the rear doors to function as "club" doors, like on a late-model extended cab pickup? Could be really cool if you could do it without a b-pillar!

 

There's not much left of the rear doors anyway. You have to take off about 6" of the front of the rear doors, so they'd be very small. Then you'd have to do all kinds of work to get the hinges back on.

 

To work you'd have to suicide them, attach the 2-door B-post at the front, and figure out a way to make it latch when closed. On a 5-6-7 where the 4dr has the little quarter window, it would look goofy to have a short back window ahead of the quarter window. Anything else I'd photoshop up before I cut into, but I don't think there's many cars that would look good done that way - it would have to be a hardtop style to resolve the door post problems.

 

Hey Unkie,looking good!

 

Unkie,
I know everyones seen my video about 100 times, but here it is again just incase you missed it.

 

rustynewyorker, Yeah, it would be ugly.

NYfatboy, thanks!

Pir8Darryl - yeah, I've seen the video. I actually downloaded it.

 

Update pics.

4 door to 2 door on the driver's side and the straight axle installation. The one picture of the door work has the seams smeared out.

The wheelbase is extended 4".

I think I'm going to end with a longer axle before it's done. The 46" Speedway axle is a tad bit short.

 

Edited due to my own retarded comments. If anyone wants a bit more information on a tri-five 2-door conversion...heres some links

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=228873
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=179492

 

theres a guy on the two lane sight that did this same thing years ago.......

 

Can we keep this kind of bullshit off my thread?

But thanks for the bumps.

 

Nevermind...

**2nd edit**
I know these threads tend to pop up years later, so just for posterity so that people dont wonder what happened, I'll add that I reminded CSU55Chevy that I had contacted him and got his permission to use the photos in the video, and he had just forgot about it.

I deleted the original text because it was worded in a rather harsh manner as I felt it was a personal attack, but in the end it was simply a mis-understanding.

Situation normal...

 

Unkie,
I offer my most sincere appologies for draging this crap out onto your thread. I hope you can understand that I felt it nessecary to defend myself in such an attack... Nothing against you in any way.

Darryl

 

I guess its one of those times where a guy must admit when he's wrong. I was was out of line pir8darryl. I apologize. I didn't watch the movie all the way through. And with the mountains of pm's and posts Ive received on my manual i guess i just don't remember talking to you about this. I jumped to conclusions. Thanks for calling out my bullshit... im going to go stand in the corner now....

 

Apology fully accepted. I have brain farts too.

 

Thanks pir8darryl. Hey, i am planning to do another 2-door conversion on a 56 i recently picked up. I am going to join 2 sets of 4-door front doors together... i hope it works out. Ill take pictures and send them your way, that way we can add to the video... again, i sincerely apologize. We are all brothers of the vintage tin... no need for unwarranted attitude and ignorance i just displayed.

Unkie, ive been looking at the speedway motors front axle, do you recommend it? I see that its a bit short, as you said. Short enough for a deal breaker? Great work btw.

 

you can get the speedway axel up to 50in wide..... and thats the right width to use...... the speedway kits are good to use i just dont like the spring mounts......
i like the u bolts that wrap around the axel.....

 

super cool there must be alot more 2 dr doors than there is actual 2 dr cars

 

CSU55Chevy, yeah I think it's too probably going to be too narrow. But like scrape said, you can get them wider now. I got mine about a year ago and they only had the 1 width. I'll probably be getting a wider one before I finish the car.

Thanks for the compliments.

 

...has anyone ever thought of doing a 4-to-2 door conversion and leaving a portion of the rear doors to function as "club" doors

Then tell everyone that it's a 57 Saturn. You could likely get quiet a few to believe you.

 

Hell, you could just tell them it came from "down under" and they'd go for it.

 

CSU, just a thought here,
Wouldn't it be easier to build a jig to hold the back door, then cut out a "perfect" section out of it to use to lenghten the front door? There was a picture floating around the net of someone who had done exactly that, and the car was called the "Havana Taxi".

By all means, take lots of detailed pics and let me know when you have enough for a video.

 

Sorry to jump the thread, but when I converted my 52' Packard I added the section from the rear door to the front. I had to split the front door where the back door portion would follow the compound bodyline:

 

Using two sets of front doors will eliminate one of the seams, using a back door section will create two seams. I'd only suggest that if you didn't have access to a second door. Also, you'll need that back door section to fill in the empty space, and since the conversion eliminates two door gaps in the process, you'll probably come up just short. The Packard above shows the two seams (and pulls it off nicely)

I'll try to post the picture of the Havana taxi, I have it saved somewhere. (haven't found it yet, still looking)

Unkie, are you going to have fixed quarter windows? I imagine with a gasser some plexi windows would be a weight saver, I don't see how a set of regulators would work in the back anymore. Conversion looks good, I look forward to seeing this one all welded up in one piece.

I'm planning to do a similar deal on my '57 but I'm using a whole roof and door pillars from a donor to gain functional quarter windows and my doors will be interchangeable from stock with the donor door pillars.

 

Wow, looking good. I wish I had the balls and talent to go about that on my 57 4 door. very inspiring, keep up the good work.

 

Very true, but if it could be pulled off by recycling a section of the back door, the whole conversion could be done with no donor parts.

Hey, what about a new door skin over a streched inner? How much do skins run for the 5-6-7?

One more thing, if I'm gonna do another video like the first, I'd LOVE to include rocker replacement.

I'd also do a video for floor pan and/or trunk pan replacement.

 

is there a hiccup in the beltline dip that doesn't seem right? or is it just my apigmatism? i realize you're building a gasser and not a custom, but something seems like it don't line up. ya got balls to jump into a job like that, anyway, and do so well with it. makes me wanna find a moredoor roundbody Falcon to make a roadster out of...

 

Fixed windows.

I think you could probably figure something out to get the rear windows to work if you were careful about cutting up the original door frame so you could reinstall the regulator, maybe slightly modified. There will be window track all the way around the inside of my car. So you could get window felt and install that too.

There's nothing wrong with the dip. It's untouched. You cut the rear door down in the front about 6" in front of the dip, so it stays in exactly the same place it was in before you cut the door.

Thanks to everyone for the support.

 

True, and I'm sure it could be done, but 4 door front doors are fairly common and cheap yet so I don't see that being a problem. don't think it's worth all the extra effort if donor doors are availible. I hope soon the aftermarket will start producing new 2 door sedan doors and the whole thing will be moot at that point.