Customs '56 Chevy 2 door conversion & build thread

There is a 55, 4 door hardtop out there someone built. It looks completely original, if you did'nt know otherwise. Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Damn fine job!

 

That is one Nice Job so far!! HELL YES it is "worth it"!!! Damn kool!

 

Yes, nearly the same formula as required for "turning shit into ice cream"

 

Thats very nice work. Very impressive quality also. Subscribed...

 

We have a Canadian Pontiac 56 4 door hardtop that we are converting to a 55 Chevy 4 door hardtop...

 

I know you don't need this but you may find it interesting to compare. click below
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=228873&highlight=55+chevy+door+conversion

 

Newb question; so the over all length of a 2 door tri 5 and a 4 door tri 5 are the same? No modifications to the frame are necessary?

 

Yep, same chassis.

 

Are the doors on two doors and four doors the same length?

 

Two-door doors are longer.

 

SWEET

 

^^^^^There's many of us that know that a 55 4 Door Hard Top was not ever made by Chevrolet. It's to bad, I think this custom build looks better than the 56 and 57 factory car's. I only wish that someone would take it a step further and put the front doors from a 2 door hart top then short'n or even delete rear doors.

 

There is a 4 door HT over in the middle east , owned by a a man named Khalil that bought the car thinking it was a 2 dr. ht. Someone in the states had done a very nice job of welding and filling the rear door gaps closed and it looked pretty good. Biggest problem was access to the back seat area, I don't know what ever happened with the project but he was willing to spend a fortune to make it right and had plans for a big engine and suspension upgrades . I too own a '56 "sport sedan" as Chevrolet dubbed them , it is an unrestored project car with the original power pac 265 , I am walking a narrow line here and might just do something I would regret later. The 2 door HT door approach might work if the door tops would blend in , not sure. I'll stay tuned .S

 

The only problem with a two door conversion on a sport sedan is you'll always have the four door hardtop back window. This is different completely than a two door, and, unless you're a real glutton for punishment and metalwork, and swap out that part too, it will robably look funny. Then there's the differences in the rooflines, flippers, and stainless. Probably be easier to just find a two door hardtop.

 

Nice job man! I like what you have done so far. Over time with 2 door tri-five cars becoming more rare and expensive I think we will see more 4 door cars being made into 2 door cars. I say why not! Post some more pics of the build.
Jay

 

4 dr htp chevy,s the center door support just hangs out there. And it held by the center floor pan brace. Ive ownes a few of them. I had one that the center brace reallt solid the rest where rusted out. One if you opend the rear door it would fall on the ground. No one makes a repop center 4 dr htp center floor brace. I wouldnt hesitate to attempt to make a 2dr htp from one that was rusted. bound to be better & worth more than a car that you where afraid to open the rear doors. As for the HTP door flippers? not very many of them work properly anyway I wouldnt bother with them. OldWolf

 

Squab...why do you use the 2-dr. doner car door jambs?...are they different from 4-dr. jambs?...I've had many Tri-Fives over the years, and never noticed...

 

I wonder if he was actually referring to the latch end/post for the door, and not the hinge end; I would think the hinge area would be the same. Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

That's exactly right, I'm referring to the striker post and not the hinge area, I've always referred to that as the "jamb" but that might not be the right term. That part is different on the 2 door, not just because the quarter butts up to it, but there's a different shape there as well, the 2 door door won't shut onto the 4 door post, even if you move the post into the right position. There was another guy on here that did a conversion using just the doors and not the pillar or rear quarter pieces, he had to cut a chunk out of the 4 door front door and weld it into his 2 door sedan door to make the door close on the original relocated 4 door pillar.

The conversion is pretty much all done, I have the doors off in these pics since I'm doing some work on the bottoms but they open and close real nice with good gaps. The car is at a friend's shop getting some mechanical stuff checked out, then I've got a couple more body welding things to do to it (front fender eyebrows, a couple small trunk pan patches, the aformentioned door stuff, ect) and then it'll be off for paint.





Thanks for all the comments. I've got more pics too, will upload them when I get a chance.

 

I think that would look neat that way. Wouldn't look factory, but I like the sport sedan roofline and I'd like to see one done with 2 door hardtop front doors, would give nice proportions to the car and would clean it up with less jamb gaps in the body and trim and 2 less door handles.

 

That is turning out fantastic!!

 

If you use the 4 door pillar, you have to modify the 2 door sedan door to make it close on that pillar, they're not the same. You could use the door skin from the old back door to fill in the gap, the inner section wouldn't be the same, but with fixed rear quarter windows, it would work.

You could also just go buy two new doors and two new full rear quarter panels with the jambs in them (they make them now, for '55 at least), weld all that into the 4 door body, add some kind of inner rear panel and again, fixed rear quarter windows (unless you could buy those somewhere) and you'd have it all together without any donor parts. Would be expensive but would work.

 

More pictures please.

 

Nice job! That thing just jumped in value big time! Great work!
Jay

 

any updates?

 

We got it running, and all of the welding is done on the conversion. I've still got a bit more work to do on the repair of the door bottoms (my 2 door sedan donor doors were pretty rough) and I have to put headlight eyebrows onto the fenders, then it'll be ready for the body shop.

It's at my friend's shop now getting the mechanicals sorted out, when it comes back I'll post up a bunch more pics. Everything so far has turned out really nice, just like factory.

 

The car runs and drives now and is approximately 2 weeks away from a paint job. I'm going to finish the headlight areas on Friday so the body man can finish his work, I'll try to take more pictures then. It's turning out really well, and I think my dad is getting excited to see it all come together.

 

the world is a better place. looks good.