TECH: How to make a 4 door cool! OR...Shoebox Ford 2 Door Conversion!

wow just wow. awesome work, thank you for taking the time to step by step this.
i am getting into this very thing on a 53. and your build will be great help.

anyone know exactly how much longer the two door, front doors are compaired to the four door, front doors?

thanks again!

george

 

You missed your "dare to be different" opportunity, with your mad skills, you could have closed off the fronts and left the back doors...! (Just kidding) really, it looks fantastic.

 

Beautiful work, most of the two door conversions I've seen have been pretty dismal, yours is top notch.

 

Straight posts it is. great job. this car will be the finest custom in the Old Dominion, and Dan is becoming one of if not the best buider in the region.

 

Holy Crap...Your a beast!

 

Any updates. What's the status of this car. Just read entire thread and I want to see the completed ride. Great work

 

Any updates? I also am curious how it is turning out!

 

Funny you should ask! I actually managed to sneak in a day or two on it while waiting for parts to arrive for customer projects. Update tonight! Maybe tomorrow....hopefully tonight...

 

I've got a birthday coming up (crap!) which reminded me of my self imposed deadline to get this project finished...I want to drive it by the time I turn 50, so I better get to work.

I'm in the final stage of finishing up a customer car and apparently a new fuel pump for a '55 Plymouth is 4 days from anywhere so it left me with a little free time.

Now, where did I leave off? Ah yes, chopping the piece out of the roof and sliding it back to make the b-pillar straight. After much aligning, eyeballing, mocking up and measuring, the b-pillars just didn't look right when they were straight. That got me to wondering if they were straight from the factory so I snagged a few measurements off a parts car...








Well lookie there, they're "slanted" from the factory. Only an 1/8" or so, but still leaning forward...



More to follow...

 

Armed with my newly found measurements I mocked up my b-pillars leaning forward 1/8". Much more betterer...




My roof piece was now to short though...




Didn't have any extra shoebox b-pillar roof sections laying around so I added some back on. Kind of a cool looking piece I think...and I didn't loose any fingertips in the bandsaw




Weld, grind, all better..

 

Then I got all zoned out and didn't take any pics. Here's the door top tacked on and test fitting the vent window..




I cut the vent window frame and got it tacked together...




Ooooh, it even works!




Now, I've got a question for YOU! When I sanded the "chrome" off the vent window frame, I said to myself, self, "that doesn't sand off like regular chrome?" When I tack welded it, it didn't look right either.

After a quick HAMB search it appears the vent window frames are stainless, oops! So my question is, does that vent window frame need to be relocated to the nearest trashcan? I assumed they were chrome and after welding I'd get them re-chromed but apparently that's not so...so...what oughta I do now? Get another frame and heat/bend it to shape then re-polish?


Ok, back to the show. Here it is all welded up and ground down nice and purdy.








Even got the inside lined up and finished off decent...




It needs some fine tuning to get it lined up but it's close enough for now...








Garnish moulding chopped and tacked...




Welded and ground. The top joint kicked my ass, kept moving around when I tacked it, finally took it off and clamped a solid rod behind it to keep it straight...










I guess it's just as well I screwed up the vent window, I don't like the way it follows the garnish moulding, to much curve on the end. Agree? Dis-agree?

 

Thanks! I can't wait until all the chop metal work is done

Thanks guys!

Vent windows are a must have, this here ain't no street rod!

Cool, look forward to seeing some pics of your '53! Since you posted this awhile ago, do you still need door measurements? If so, let me know...

Ooooh! Ooooh! Lambo doors

Thanks! Hopefully the only indicators once completed will be the weld lines on the inside of the roof / quarter panel...and the VIN number...

Haha! Best builder all right!..........................on my street.................maybe.....................

I just want a cool Shoebox is all

Ask and ye shall receive! Just don't ask often

 

Killer job man,,,,, even better thread.

 

Regarding your vent windows.

I am doing the same right now for our Mercury. I was able to bend the stainless piece and avoided any welding. On some stainless pieces I used a little heat and it made it easier.

The Mercury has vent windows on the back side glass. The curve got too tight to make it without cutting and welding. For that I bought a spool of stainless wire and used the spool gun on the mig welder. I think I should be able to polish it up to look good.

Neal

 

The car is coming along great. I am diffently have to come over and see it.

 

sweet

 

Awesomeness is being achieved

 

Made a template of the drivers side rear window...




Transferred it to the pass. side to make sure everything stays the same. I'm glad I did as this side was a little off, a little trimming and pushing and everything lined back up. I clecoed ( I don't think that's a word) it in place so I could have it in the same position after every test fit.





It will also help get the rear corner in the same position as the driver side and with the same radius...





I cut the bracing off the back side of the corner piece...





Then stuck in the shrinker to tighten up the radius...





That made the back side a little wavy so I put in the stretcher to flatten it out...






Once the radius was correct I marked the cut lines on the template...




Clecoed the template back in the window opening and marked the cut lines on the body...







Here it is with the corner, b-pillar and roof section welded up. Still needs a fair amount of hammer/dolly work on the roof as you can see...





While letting the welds cool on the roof and window corner, I started working on finishing off the quarter panel seam, gonna come out pretty decent I think...





Until next time...

 

Cool, thanks for the info Neal. When you get around to polishing the section you welded I'd be interested in hearing/seeing your results. My welding and polishing of stainless is fairly limited and I've heard lots of issues with getting the weld to completely disappear after polishing. I guess I'll get plenty of practice when it comes time to do the window surround stainless and side trim

Thanks!

 

Beautiful work! You're taking the time to fine tune all your panels prior to welding.
BTW, "Clecoed" is commonly used in aircraft building circles, which I used to do. It's considered a process step (position, drill, cleco, pull apart and deburr, reposition and clecoed in, final riveting). As in; "We'll get that panel positioned and clecoed in place."

 

Love this thread !! Keep it up as I am following it religiously to do mine similar !!

 

It'll have been a month this coming week without an update.....we're DYING here! (lol)

 

Subscribed!!!! Absolutely killer work; gotta find me some doors now.

 

Subscribed!!

 

Updates??????

 

Yeah, two-and-a-half months are too long to wait between episodes!

 

I just found this the other day and subscribed, spent the last while going through all the pages at once. GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You try to make things the same on both sides?

You have my utmost respect, sir!

 

Any update?

 

Great thread. Just stumbled across it. Amazing work too!!! Maybe will get the motivation to do the same to my car! Keep up the great work!