54 Olds, from 4 to 2 doors???

I`m pretty new here and I just wanted to share an idea with you. I`m thinking of making a 2 door buisiness coupe lookalike from my 4 door 54 super 88, by welding the rear doors and moving the roof 10 inches forward.
What do you think, will it look stupid with the short front doors??





Thanks for looking.
Tor, Norway
http://public.fotki.com/torivarbartholdsen/my_cars/1954_oldsmobile_super_88/

 

I'd lengthen the doors and move the B-post back.

Have a couple '54 Buick 2-doors here I could get you the measurements from.

Otherwise you get something that looks like this: (quick and dirty photoshop, I didn't calculate if it's exactly 10")

 

Thanks for the quick photoshop job! I think that is more than 10 inches, but I do get an idea of how it will look..... not to good. Maybe 5-7 inches will be better? Or maybe I just keep them all four.....

Tor

 

"will it look stupid with the short front doors??"

Yes.
r

 

How about the doors about 8" longer?

It sounds like a pain, but it can't be much more work than altering the roof - use the middle of the back side of the rear doors to splice the inside of the fronts, and get the piece of outer skin from the forward part of the rear doors. B-post gets sliced off at the very top and bottom and slid back to match. Cut out the rear door striker area so the seam doesn't become obvious when the car's driven and the body's stressed, weld in the skin, and so forth...

 

That is looking so much better!!! Thanks again rustynewyorker. I have thought of that too, and searched for 2 door sedan doors for almost a year now with no luck. So maybe I just have to make the doors longer.

Tor

 

I would wait until I had some two door sedan doors and quarters to work with. In my signature is a link to the tech piece I did about making my '60 Fury into a two door sedan using a donor car. This was pretty straghtforward to do, a lot easier than stretching four door doors or shortening roofs.

It might help if you knew what doors interchange between what models. Maybe Pontiac, Olds, and Buick Special all used the same doors and you might be able to get some from one of those cars. Talk to Flat Top Bob, he'd probably have some that you could use.

I've never seen a two door conversion done that looked good by welding the back doors shut, but maybe it's possible. I'll try a photoshop on your car and I'll post it up in a few minutes.

 

Buick doors are probably the same, the others won't be, seeing where you are in the world you might be able to get some doors ex the US, move the pliiar back and use the back door as filler...... there were alot of tri 5 chevs done over here at one stage and pretty sure they were done like this.

 

Here's one using the stock length front door and shortening the roof by about 6 inches, and eliminating the back door. Not too bad, but longer two door sedan doors would be better.

 

That's his problem - being in Norway. he's probably not going to find tudor doors and quarters to work with - whereas here I can find some today if I wanted. That was the first thing I thought of -

The interchange on these is 54-55-56 Buick Century and Special and Olds 88, although the quarters have different reveal lines from year to year. If you're converting it and building the quarter, I would think Pontiac or Chevy doors could be made to work too (you'd have to change the A-post section and vent on them at the least).

 

Leave it a 4 door,slam it,smooth it,paint it all black even the chrome and tint the windows dark as allowable.18 inch rims with low profile meats and stock freshened up drivetrain. Buy a machine gun and go cruisin....