I am hoping to buy a set of door skins for a '34 Ford Cabriolet. It appears Walden Speed Shop sells them. Any opinions or advice you guys have on the quality of their products? Jerry.
Used the door panels and the roof panels several times, excellent quality and fine people to deal with.
I used the upper portion of the door skins that are offered by SAR. Reading the responses here, I would use Walden's. How about some pics of your car. Tim
Thanks, Tim. Good idea. Here are 3 photos. First one is what I started with. Looks pretty good, huh? Turns out to be pretty rough under the surface. Second photo was taken last week. The left quarter will be replaced with a roadster quarter panel from SAR, plus a new wheel well patch from Howell's put in. The third photo show one of the doors, and it's the better of the two. These are the ones I hope to re-skin. What we do for these old jalopies, huh? Jerry.
Jerry: IF you haven't replaced the wheel well yet, look at the details of the ones offered. The cabrio uses the same one as the roadster ie: no crows foot like you see in sedans etc. If your doors don't have any rust, I'd be tempted to body work them rather than the invasiveness of replacing skins. totally your call. What part of the country are you in? I'll include a pic of the rust free body I started with. It however didn't escape the customizers cutting tool, namely being sectioned and shortened. I did a short thread on it called "34 ford cabrio pics" There are some pics in my media as well. Have fun and keep us in pics of the progress. Tim
Tim, Pretty cool car! I am located in the northern part of Puget Sound (WA). The quarter panel we are replacing was pretty rusty and had multiple patches and thin spots. I am using a roadster quarter that I purchased from SAR. As you noted, the roadster does not have the "chicken foot" reinforcement stamped into it, so I needed to get a patch panel for that also, since the original one was in very poor shape. Howell's makes the patch, and so far we have liked the stuff Ryan makes. I went ahead and ordered the door skins. The guy doing the bodywork for me is very good and likes to work this way. The original skins, like the rest of the car, have multiple patches with some good metal and some not so good. This way, we should be able to get the outside of the doors perfect. I'll send you some more photos as time goes along. Right now, we are needed a small part called a "subrail extension". It is a piece of sheet metal that is at the back corner of the car that welds between the rear corner of the floor pan and the rear of the quarter panel. Jerry.
Jerry: FYI, I paid north of 600 bucks for the repair panels for my car. The skins are I think $750 each. That said, don't trash the skins you remove!! BELIEVE me, someone may want them. I could have used the top 6" of them myself. The subrail extension is probably going to be an item you "hand" build in the garage. I made the windshield posts on my car, an inner structure and an outer skin, simply because no one offered them. If I had your car, I'd be tempted to do a semi restoration with hydraulic brakes, flathead and a 5 speed. What are your plans? Tim
Tim - Mine will be a "resto-rod". The outside look will be very close to original, but I am using a TCI frame, independent front suspension, 9" Ford rear with 4-bar links, 4-wheel disk brakes, rack and pinion, all chrome and polish. The engine is a '49 8BA flathead with a lot of work done inside to get it up to about 200hp again all chrome and polish, with a C4 automatic. It will run and drive like a modern car, but look pretty close to an original car to someone walking by. And, I'm saving the door skins and the left rear quarter. Saw some nice original V8's at the Central National Meeting for the Early Ford V8 Club in Tulsa. Hottest place in the entire country today with 115 deg heat index. Ugh.
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