Finally, an update on my model a, uh, sedan?...

Well you may have noticed a lack of updates on the fordor sedan lately. Thats because, well its not a fordor sedan anymore. And this came about for a hundred reasons, but to narrow it down heres the more popular ones:
1. my purchase of the 30' model a tudor body a few months ago
2. my lack of desire to build two sedans
3. rear body/rear door/roof section damage on my fordor body
4. I wanted a roadster of some form
5. I like to cut stuff up

I didn't want to put my new tudor body on this frame. I really want to build the tudor sedan as a highboy on 32' rails. And a tudor is what I REALLY wanted when I bought my fordor body last year, but I couldn't find one in my half of the country, so I made the best of what I had and started building the fordor.

Well then of course I found a nice tudor body a year later, so what are you gonna do. Since I now had the nice tudor body I always wanted, I had to decide what to do with my fordor. Granted, it was coming along nice, and it was different being a fordor, but it was still, well, a fordor. And my ch***is was coming along lots nicer then the fordor body was in as far as condition.

So I cut it up.

Alot.

I decided to have the best of both worlds, a sedan and a roadster. And the cowl and front doors are in great shape on the fordor, and thats all I would use to build a rpu out of it. The rear body section, rear doors, and roof were really jacked up.

So I wacked the body in half. I didn't want a cheezy homemade look to the body though. I wanted the rear body section behind the doors to have the same beltlines as the body, and have the rear of the front doors overlap the rear quarters like a tudor sedan. And to have functioning doors.

So I built the rear quarters out of a tudor door skin, with the upper beltline cut from my rear doors. And framed the rear body section out. I still have to finish capping the doors and stuff, but its getting close.

I built the bed myself. I used a 37' tailgate from mack hils. I used 38-50 stake pockets that I sectioned down shorter, and I made the bedsides from 18 guage. I bent the bed up on my brake, and rolled a bead in the side. I still have to bend up a rollpan for under the tailgate, but its starting to look like something.

I think I might build a steel bed cover that hinges and folds up, and punch it full of louvers. Heres a few pics though as it sits. Its hard to get good pics of it inside, the shops pretty crowded.

 

When I first started reading this all I could think of was how could you cut it up after all that work? But after looking at the pics damn that looks bad ***. You really do great work.

Binga

 

Wow. That is bad ***!

How about a square roll bar? I'm stuck on those lately!

 

SWWWEEEEEEEET!!!! thatb is kool! do yo still have the curved top peices?? were did you get the bed?? JG

 

Awesome idea- keep the updates rollin'!!

 

looks awesome with those black wheels and whitewalls!

 

Go back and READ the story!!

 

After this comment I thought we would have another one of those hidious tubs on our hands.

Looks like nice work again but what should we expect.

That is what I was going to do with mine before I saw a drawing here of a tub a few years ago.

 

man i was just thinkin today about what youve been up too. last i remember you were havin power outages and stuff from the weather and all.

this is lookin bithin now! not that it wasnt before, but im likin it this way too!

 

WOW...You never stop amaizing me.
That's a great idea and some beautiful work you have going.
Get us the updates a little quicker next time!
LSM

 

Thanks for all the nice words guys, I appreciate! I haven't gotten any death threats yet from the fordor fanclub yet hehe. If I had done this to start with I'd probably be driving the damn thing now instead of working on it still........

I saved all the extra sheetmetal for now. I might still build a lift-off top for it if I'm still feeling ambitious about it later. For now I just wanna get the cab done and start getting this thing ready for paint before I'm 89. That should be lots easier now than when it was fordor, as most of it is new now, and I lost the really beat up areas.

Its good to be in the loop again. I'm anxious to see how some of your projects are coming along now too. Heres a pic thru the windshield of my pops cool little modified he's building

 

That thing looks cool. I was wondering what the overall length of the box is?

 

That is really cool! If it were mine, I'd slant the windshield posts back a bit.

 

Man, I like that a lot!

But honestly... I liked how different the Fordor was more.

It's still definitely a home run tho...

 

Lookin good, lookin good!!!

 

dodgerodder, I'm sorry to see the demise of the fourdoor, such a cooool car, on the other hand the roadster p/u is (as usual for you) a cl*** act ! send more pics as you can, great to see your stuff again

 

The conversion looks to be very well done and I understand why you'd want
to do it considering the back doors were no longer functional anyway and
due to the extra bodywork involved in fixing it as a four door.

My question would be, why did you use a Tudor door to make the rear door
skins? Seems to me that the quarter area is a very simple shape that
could have been homemade, plus the upper bodylines were from the four door
rear doors and Tudor doors are pretty hard to come by and valueable. Can
you fill me in on a bit more details there?

 

Actually I used a $50 new aftermarket tudor replacement door skin from Snyders, I didn't cut up an original tudor door. One aftermarket doorskin was plenty wide to do both sides of the body. I then cut the beltline from the rear doors from the fordor, and welded them to the aftermarket panel. So for a $50 investment I had a perfect rear quarter that matches the beltline of the front doors.

It will take very little finish work to make the body straight now for sure. The fordor body had so many freaking issues that really never would have been right. Since the bed and rear half of the body are new it will make getting it ready for paint way easier, especially cuz I HATE bodywork

And hey, its all your fault anyways-your "four door into two door tech" post made me do it.........................

 

Thanks man. The box is 46" long, which worked out about right. And my box & pan brake is only a 48" wide brake, so I'm glad 46" ended up what I needed hehe

 

OK, I get it now. I re-read it and I see where it says "skin", didn't catch
that at first. That's a good idea to use a new door skin to get the right
shape right off the bat. Just thought maybe you cut up a whole door for
those two pieces, but the patch panel makes a lot of sense and looks like it
turned out really good.

Ha! Yeah, right. Four door into a two door sedan, that I can do. Four
door into a roadster pickup? I'll leave that up to you.

I bet the vultures are already circling what's left of that four door body.

 

Err, well damn, that's changed!! LOL. Looks really cool now too, course I'm partial to pickups

 

I'd like to see a shot of the back of the bed with the skin on.

 

awesome.

 

BAD***!!!! I love that thing! Awesome work man!

 

Me too.

 

I Like It... But That Won't Stop My Bleedin Heart!

 

Wicked as hell man, cl*** "A" fab work.

 

I can remember when I just had found the hamb....

Dodgerodder was posting the build pictures of the ole 4 door. It was a big inspiration for me, to go ahead and buy another car. The time and thought put into it was amazing. I think he knows what he is doing, and it shows, **** looks good.

Take a look back at some of his old posts, a ton of useful information.