Hey Guys. In 2017 I started collecting parts for a 29 Coupe body, most of the parts are junk including the doors. My main gripe with the doors is not the ripples in skin which looks like they went through a fire or even the large dent along the centre above the swage, it’s the frames or lack there of.
Not long after getting the 29 Coupe parts, I got three 30 Tudor from the same seller. My original intention was to graft the door frames from the 30’s onto the 29, but the more I though about that idea, the less it made sense. Cutting up a perfectly good pair of 30 Tudor doors to repair the 29 doors just renders them worthless. The more I looked at them the more I started to think I could fabricate some new frames for them by using the 30 Tudor door as a guide.
The third 30 Tudor door is too rough to repair so it can be a partial donor if need be. I also have a badly botched attempt at doing a rear window that I can also cut up as well.
Since the length is the same, I am ***uming that the height of the 29 and 30 Tudor doors is also the same. Is this actually the case ? If not, is anyone able to give me me the dimensions of the overall height.
Just a thought.....early Chevy doors were just wood frames that Fisher body tacked sheet metal on. It might be easier to build a hard wood door frame,and skin it with Ford outer sheet metal. Guess it comes down to what material you have the most experience working with.
in '28-'29 coupe and tudor used the same doors... in '30-'31 the tudor and truck used the same doors... both style tops will interchange to an extent...
If you're planning to start the build, I'd save the door repairs as one of the last things...hoping for better ones to some along in the meantime. It looks like a ton of work...and you know as soon as you DO repair them, a good pair will probably fall into your lap.
They are almost impossible to find, and even if I did find a set I can expect to pay around $800 AU for the pair. As far as repairing these ones go, this is my set up. The bead roller has enough combinations to do just about any swage.
The window section is for another project but you can see the similarity in the shape. I built a special hammer form with a length of round bar on the inside to make this window section and I will most likely do the same for the door frames.
With the tooling you have and the stuff you've already accomplished I'd say go for it and do a tech thread so we can follow along and see how it goes!
Well, You certainly have the tools and skills to pull it off. I had no idea how rare those doors are in the AU. Good luck with the project
We only got the Tudors and Sport Coupes here but even they weren’t that common. The most common Model A’s here were open cars, mostly 28/29 tourers.
Another question that you can ask yourself...are you trying to closely duplicate Henry's production...or are you simply looking to build a door frame that will hold your door skin where it needs to be and open and close as it should. One door frame would be a lot easier to build than the other.
I have a pair of 1929 two door sedan doors which I believe are the same as the coupe. Overall they are in good condition both inside and out. As I live on the west coast of the United States maybe it was be worth trying to determine what the shipping would cost to send them your way... I’ve rebuilt a few pairs of doors creating pieces from scratch along with using ****py repop chinese metal or parts from other doors. It is a bunch of work. It’s satisfying when you finish up but I have spent days and weeks creating something that was originally stamped in two seconds. Just offering another option
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