Does this look goofy, or reasonable?

My buddy gave me a ****ty A tudor top section to maybe use to cap off my '31 Model A pickup body. I say that because it has enough rot in it no one will miss it if I trim off the back 8" or so and throw the rest in a s**** pile, plus narrow it if I need to. There may not even be enough to weld together to save, but I suppose I could try and rustle up another one, I do know where one sits.


I figured out why there was no rear body tin with this truck - I found one piece of the top tin and it looked torched off at the back. So I looked at the door posts again and sure enough, they latch on both sides - this was a sedan until someone put a stock A pickup bed on it. Maybe at the same time it got the light blue paint and red-painted (who says that's not traditional?) 17" wire wheels (does that make them 33-34?).


Anyways, I ground off the bolts to pull the front fenders off it, and I'd bungee-corded a hood and grille shell out of inventory on it already, so for the heck of it I pulled the box back a little (the center rivet on the fender mount arch lines up with the very rear of the frame now) and set this piece of tin on top, mocking it up using most of the C-post of the tudor as though I cut it off where the belt stamping starts to curve up to meet the window opening. That adds roughly 6" to the length of the cab.


Then I tried it out for size - I'd had a chance to sit in a stock 30-31 Double-A cab with a stock seat and it was a little tight - not claustrophobic, just not a lot of leg room - and I'm not that tall, like 5'10". I stuck a camp chair on the torque tube and one wishbone as far back as it would go.

Result is the leg room is more acceptable, I think if there's room to use a hanging pedal set it would be ideal, but before I do that I'd cut a piece of wood for a floor and set a real car seat on it for size. The camp chair was a few inches too high, so I was sitting at a bit of an angle, maybe a seat I can sit right up against will give me a couple more inches in the leg department too.

I think the stretch will let me sit the wheel a few more inches out from the dash, so I'll have more room to run some kind of '50's dash in it (just a matter of finding one that won't look like **** narrowed to 41").


Of course, what to use to cap off the lower sides and across the back is another story, the bottom of this piece is about useless. Might be able to start by cutting up an extra door, I have a couple ****py spares.

I kind of like how it looks with the added length to it, myself, even though it's just mocked up (don't want to trim this until I measure about 16 times), just wondered what anyone else thought? Pretend the splash apron is gone and the top actually fits right.


the only other thing I see is maybe lowering the bed by taking the rails under it, off. That combined with repositioning the fender mounts a little would bring them down closer to the wheel and center them (of course the high angle on this makes them look higher up than they actually are). I suppose that will take getting the bed on a ch***is that's done and has 235/75-15's mounted and see how it looks then.



Of course, how to get the finished product to have this same stance is another story.... this sits just right only because there's no spring in the front of it. None, at all. At least I found one loose the day we pulled it out. (will probably just have to spring for a drop axle and reverse eye spring down the line).



All that's a long ways off, this is going to be a long battle against rusted screws and bolts (mostly screws) that have to be drilled out to get this body into some kind of shape to use - I tried to pull the tank for someone, but found the screws in the column drop set up solid. Looks like it might be a good tank, too. But at least it looks like something -

 

screw it, give it a whirl

 

I'm wondering, it kinda *looks* like the front end from the windsheild forward is the same length as the bed in the rear. ____---____ kinda that look maybe? I like the bed on a truck to be longer than the front end, and maybe it is, kinda hard to tell. Just looks more like a cl***ic truck to me.

 

That rear cab pillar may end up looking a little thick, but anytime that you can add an extra 6-8" in cab depth to one of those trucks, go for it!

Is that a Cord/Graham/Hupp Skylark body in the background? Slippery!

 

If you can keep all the widths close (wide or narrow) I think the look will be cool. Me likey. You can cut the top off everything. You just don't HAVE to.
Rod

 

If I understand the basic idea -- to use a tudor roof and rear mated to the truck body, I think it could work. To my eyes, though, I think the entire truck will need a '60s vibe to handle the match. Something about that pairing seems to demand it.

Hope that makes sense.

 

A hot rod is not supposed to be "reasonable" Before I did all that **** I'd make it a roaster P/U. Probably less work and a nicer outcome IMHO

 

It all in the blending and your own wishs,I see lot of rods that may not be the way I'd do it,but there not mine,if you'll like it great.

 

I like it, I think the windshield height is good where it is, but make the back half of the roof higher than the front, so the top of the roof slants forward. I can do a rough photoshop if you dont' know what I mean. It could look really cool.

 

OK, here's the Photoshop. Kinda rough but you get the idea. I like it, although I'm not sure how the door frame/side gl*** is going to work.

 

not really the direction you are going with this but it kinda reminds me of an idea I had a while ago. take a 4dr model a sedan and take out the FRONT door. this leaves the back door with the cutout in it for the wheel well. slide the body back on the frame and make some kind of crazy altered out of it. similar to a bantam I guess.

 

Rpu.

 

It looks goofy! Your going to waste a lot of time screwing with it. Looks like you have plenty of "other" stuff to do. Buy a grinder and a wire wheel and get busy. I'm with the other guys who recommended the roadster pickup. I think your going to ruin the truck by trying to make that piece of **** work. Just my humble opinion.

 

It'll look bad no matter what, ship the whole mess to me and I'll send ya enough money to put primer and red wheels on the Rambler behind the truck.....

 

That Rambler needs a new frame - kinda tough on a unibody. Behind that are my buddy's freebie boats and my '37 Willys 4dr (does look kind of like a Graham Hollywood from the back - anyone for sectioning it 6" and putting a new, longer nose on it?)

It rains way too much in New York to make an RPU - I really wanted a 5-window, but I found this and decided I liked it better. The doors are all weak, too, cutting them off isn't going to help much.

The only other easy option I have is buy a 4dr that's bent in the middle and cut the back off it to cap this off - but then I lose some leg room in it.

I think if it was put together, right, it wouldn't look bad. I might even save the top corner of the window opening and tack it into the doors. The easiest way to buuld this is keep the doors stock. I have the door posts and tops from the original body, if I put it together that far (and I need to round up a set of subrails to do this) then I can play with the back as needed to get it right. From a level angle it looks kind of mean that way. But by doing it that way, and not even worrying about the bed, I can wire the pieces together and mock it up and see for sure if it looks like **** before ever tacking anything together permanently.


And yeah, the back needs to come up higher - it just sits on the bed corners and it's not even even side to side yet. My friend dragged that top up there, so as long as I was screwing around I wanted to mock it up and see how it looked.

You can see my generator in front of it, I didn't even bother to try to unbolt the fenders, just ground them off. Wire brushed some of the **** off it, too, looks like maybe the right side of the cowl won't need a full patch panel but the left I was making the holes bigger. I think the only thing holding the cowl to the ch***is is the steering column drop off the gas tank.


Part of my problem is I like to have room to stretch my legs out, one beater I had to have the seat so far back to be comfortable I actaully put another steering wheel on it with a deeper dish so I could reach it easier. Since the plan is to drive the wheels off it, it probably should be as comfortable as possible - and if it looks a little bit "backyard engineered" so be it. Same goes for a top, driving a roadster in a thunderstorm is gonna get old after a while (do they make driving goggles with little wipers on them??).


When done, I'd like to see big and little wide whites and I have some hubcaps here kind of picked out for it (I have a set of 4 and 2 more that are similar but have big cast rings on them). Reality will probably dictate whatever is on sale at Pep Boys that week...


Anyhow, the leftovers are posted in the cl***ified. The right fender wasn't too awful bad, but I did find a little crack in the bead when I took it off.

 

Oh yeah. Someone's done the A sedan with the front doors taken out. Somewhere I have a late '70's rod magazine with a feature on one done that way. It ends up looking like an early Bantam coupe on steroids -

 

there ar 2 of us on here that have done the 4door to 2door thing looks good when you get it all together

 

Save your time, energy and the earth's natural resources. Stop while you're ahead.

 

I'd tear into the slantback in the background... that yer's too?

 

OK, I think the pillar angle was ****ed up in my first photoshop. Here's another one with the door pillar straight up, but with the back of the roof higher, angled down, like I was trying to describe. I like this one better.

Roadsters are fun, but they're not very practical, unless you live in Cali or Texas where it's warm all year round.

 

That last one by Squablow isn't too bad. Build some door frames to fit the top. Or just make the top removable.

 

How about I build the top to match the existing doorframes? The doors I have all have good tops, except for the wood in them.

I like the last one too - it has a pissed off look to it. I think with the door top worked back in it would be slick enough - and a lot more character than any fibergl*** body has.

 

I have seen much worse done looks like a great idea. I like them low.......

 

Now it's starting to get interesting. Only thing is when you chop a pick up you better be about four feet tall. If you could stretch it somehow to give you more horizontal space you can make up for the chop top. Keep after it man, any A is a good A.

 

I thought about chopping it, but I need to come up with a seat I'd actually be running in it, first. It looks like much more than 2" and my head will be rubbing the top - I think before I did that I'd channel it the same amount.