I had a 63 Pontiac Flower car. Nobody could figure out what it was and always had an opinion me about cutting up a Bonneville. If ya just won the lottery and the bread is eatin your pocket, do it. Heck, Start it and in two years when youre needing money for the divorce maybe one of us will buy it. There are some mad-skill metal benders here.
I see alot of guys like the 4 door wagon. I see a lot of you saying drive it and I do I'v see some of the same people with choped channeld slamed gassers & all types of modifications dont be a hypocrite and I'm not rich but I'm not hurting or getting devorced in a few years and have to sell it but thanks for your concern & the in put. #5 post HA HA
I gotta build me one! It's your car, If you have the skills and equipment to do a nice job go for it. Sorry if some of us sound pessimistic, but most of us have seen too many aborted attempts at this sort of thing.
Hey Prank, At the end of the day, it's only a Chevrolet GM built close to 27000 of the 210 wagons so if this makes yer day, I say go for it! I wouldn't attempt this project if you've never done major collision work or chopped a vehicle, however There's many, many hours in building trim and filler pieces alone, to say nothing of the conversion itself! I'd study several of the four-door to two door conversions on the web (squawblow, here on the HAMB comes to mind) to give ya an idea of what's involved. The " Tri-Five '' era Chevrolets are some of the most ill designed GMs of the mid to late 50s, and without some major sectioning and probably a light chop, jus cutting off the roof and filling in the doors won't improve on that Good luck on your conversion project, and I tip my fedora to you for wondering.........
Here's a thread where the same idea had been discussed with many different ideas and opinions: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=446403 If your wagon is nice and rust free I'd probably keep it as is because your time and money would be better spent on a project that had a better chance of success and would increase its value so that when you decided to move on your investment of time and money would be repaid when you sold it. But ultimately it's your car, money and time. And keep posting, but when you ask for advice on here you'll get all you want (or don't want)!
Making your conversion from a 4 door may turn out to be more work than you expect. Using a longer door from a 2dr may help but will create a lot more structural and design work. I used a 2dr 210 wagon for my 56 conversion. I started with lots of cutting and pasting pictures, drawings and building a diecast model. I also checked out what others had done to see what I liked or did not like about their builds. You can search for a HAMB thread "MY FRIENDS 1956 ELCAMINO". It has information and pictures of my build. Currently I am doing another "they never made one" conversion on a mid 60's wagon making it a 2dr and probably with a little Nomad styling. I also did a lot of the same pre-plan steps and ended up using doors and other parts from an ElCamino to achive the look I am going for. Good luck on your decision. At some point after you start cutting, you may experience one of two things. They are usaully either excitment or regret. I hope yours is excitment.
Cut the whole top off and make it a huge phaeton. Then when you're tired of how dorky that looks, remove all the doors, shorten it up, and make a clown parade car. If you're going to ruin it, you might as well totally screw it up. It just makes my 57 wagon worth all the more!!!! And yes, I say the same sarcastic thing when someone takes a nice solid Model A and cuts the floor out of it. Some day when the hack craze is over and people are bring them back up, you'll know what I mean.
Looks like a nice wagon. If you are hell bent on fucking it up, I'd be intrested in buying the luggage rack!
My up date. OK lets have it (your opinions) what do you think still needs a little more work PS. I like more now
Many years ago, saw a 55 chevy at a car show that was a conversion. It looked like it started as a 4dr wagon, it still used the short front doors. They used the roof and windows from a 60-63 truck, chopped about 8" or so. Looked amazingly great.
Getting the proportions right is usually the issue with doing one of these. Can we get some shots outside where we can see the whole car and from different angles? The craftsmanship looks very good.
Not my handy work a freinds shop. I just pointed and said cut and pionted and said weld that there the owner of the shop had a lot to do with the fab work and what should go were as a body guy he knows what will work and what wont. Im happy with the look so far. And as for the color I wanted somthing Bright hey it is a custom car did not want the serra gold (brown) back on it Ill post more pict's when I can
How dare you cut the roof off your own car and paint it a color you like? That is not traditional thinking. Looks good. I was a bit worried about starting with a four door, but it seems ok. Rear roof corners have a 1950 Dodge business coupe look to them. Also reminds me of some of the hearse/ambulance conversions of that era. Most importantly, you like it!
BTW. you could have really pissed some people off and left it a four door, making a cool little crew cab with a 4 ft bed. Sort of like a 1957 Chevy Avalanche concept truck.