I've been struggling with the reality that I won't be satisfied unless I convert this Sport Coupe to a regular Coupe with a steel roof. So after much mulling around I reached out to a buddy that knew where a car was that I may be able to measure for a buck build. Very nice 31 5W that deserves far better than I believe is in store for it... anyway...it's not mine. As for why I'm going thru this... While I do appreciate all the styles..most anyways... of SC's. For myself, it's hard to beat the 5W Coupe...and I'm not a good weather planner and want to run this joker around everywhere for kicks. So this is a both a more desirable and practical end game for me. The 5W body was in great shape for me to take my references from. Spent around 4-5hrs pulling off it and ended up with a table of references that i'll refer to as I shape my buck. Will start on it as soon as I catch up abit. I need to knock out some sandblasting/clean-up before I continue with this car. It's a hassle to not do that now. Will be sure to share this journey...where ever it goes. Focused on a thorough mapping of one side longitudinally and laterally from center (will flip those to account for the opposite side later) That got me the rolled contour from the top to the gutter. General lengths and widths. In addition to some specific contours and openings were collected. I am very much a novice and if I was any smarter I'd most probably run away...but, I'm a glutton for self punishment and eager to force myself thru this. Excited to get this going.
Wow! That’s a lot of work, but....I’m excited to see how you do this. I look forward to learning new stuff and it’s cool that you are up for the challenge.
This isn’t a negative.... but I can’t help thinking that this is a huge undertaking. Do the stamp the window frames come as repop? Getting those compound window swages right will be hard? Are you chopping it at the same time? I’d be looking for some sedan doors to get the window frames from. Even sections. The art of replicating something exactly is vey difficult.... but you have the flexibility of building a hot rod /custom so you can think outside the box and maybe change it round a bit to personalise. I fabricate for a living . Balancing reality vs time vs $$$ vs outcome vs expectations is what I have to consider on every piece I make. I had a customer want me to fabricate the front and rear valance for a Beetle and I told him there was well over a week in each piece to fabricate. I asked if they were repopped??? He went online and found repops for $80 and $120. No I didn’t get the job but I avoided the drama.
As far as I know there are no reproduction roof parts for Model A. But, you can buy a 32 roof. . . @51box put some on his 29 and it looks wicked check it out
Agree with all your points. And I could parse much of it with repop and few salvaged sections. In fact I thought long and hard of a coupe rear center section last year (the section containing the window and tulip) ..they wanted $500 for it...ok shape. My current situation has me teleworking and I have been logging some good shop time. So there's my opportunity... and my shop is pretty well equipped now. A project pops up...I line up the equipment (fab or buy) and eventually knock it out. Definitely pushing my skill level on this one. Your saying everything my own father is thinking. Appreciate the input. To put it simply, I'm more into the task at hand than the push to the finish....as a result, I'm slow..and that's ok with me. The tulip panel fab i featured here was my first complicated part. Time to move to the next challenge. To the question of chop...I'm building in a 2in chop as the car will also be channeled over the rails. I'm 6.1 and have had a couple of neck surgeries so I'm balancing cool with what I can tolerate. As far as alterations...im thinking of eliminating those two beads in back but they do offer a utility in breaking up the job that I may need....my hope is to dial in my tig work with this project as well....I'm very much a novice there too. I've reciently got a Mittler Bros 36in bead roller that makes this very fun. I also took a cheap HF English wheel and beefed it up. So far its doing me right. Building a planisher next, probably after I get the buck together. I believe it'll be handy in the upper corners. The job will be broke out in quadrants...I suspect all the windows will be individually accomplished and welded in the adjacent sections. The roof will be filled in and may get a light detail to it but I've got a 5 meter target now thinking thru the buck build...anticipating where I want to break the sections so as much welding is either hidden by the gutter or falls along a line that offers some assurance of resistance to warping. I just spent the last hour trying out how I'd handle that rear side window bead that splays out around the bottom... (pic below of the example) it didn't go well, so ADAPTATION YOU SAY.....Yes there will be some adaptation Sir!!! Lol
Welp....guess I'll shut this thread down as I just picked up an entire roof system for my Sport Coupe. If your interested in following Sport Coupe turned 5W Coupe....tune in.
The Jalopy Journal
