Technical Instant cool for 4 door owners.

working on getting a 36 ford phaeton showed the wife a picture. she said why do you want that its 4 door its a parts car. guess she has heard me say it many times. tried to tell her different that it is a roadster cowl & the post unbolt but she's not buying it

 

This one showed up on a recent thread... I think it's sweet as pie!

 

my 4 door 38 I like them all coupes roadsters and sedans

 

Hello,

When our granddaughter was a toddler, she had the choices everyday of what to do and where to go. Her parents were just starting new jobs and were all in a tizzy. They actually did not know what to do with a baby, growing fast into a toddler. Their jobs were new to them and they wanted to get it right, so worry, worry, worry. All the time, my wife and I were many miles away, just having the time of our lives with the smart little baby turning into a toddler. Very verbal, very descriptive in what her wants and needs. She loved being with her grandparents.

So, we spent most of the day outside. At 8 a.m. we were a mile away at a huge neighborhood park, having bundled up and walked in a stroller. But the hours spent there was quiet and fun. Climbers, swings, picnic tables, slides and fairly clean sand for sand play. it was close enough for walking and no car necessary.

But as our travels began to spread out in southern coastal areas up to Newport Beach down to San Clemente, we realize what a gift it was to have a 4 door AWD station wagon. Her stuff was far in the back. We opened the back doors and she could climb into her seat easily. No more lifting and straining the ”old folks” backs. If it were a two door, we would have to lean in to give her some help and then buckle her into a safe place.

We had enough time picking her up at a run, by leaning over to grab her as she launched at us from a running start. “Pick a girl, up!” as she flew up into our arms. Whew!

We spent plenty of hours opening doors and uplifting a growing girl into the back safety seat. It was a good thing, as the extra doors came in handy. A low, two door sedan with folding bucket seats give room to get into the back seat area with the same safety straps. But, it is the leaning and bending with a weight pulling down, along with gravity, to cause an extra strain on the adult backs that normally is not there.

The advantage goes to a simple extra door for ingress/egress all of the time. So, my wife and I wanted something special to drive around with our granddaughter. We chose an older 65 Chevelle two door wagon. It was clean and nice. Then we saw a 4 door version that had much more stuff, built well and the color was good for us. The extra doors would work. But, we already had a 4 door wagon, so it would not be any different.

Jnaki

Then we changed directions and remembered liking immensely, our two door 40 Ford Sedan Delivery with bucket seats and all creature comforts after spending a lot of time working to get it right. But, we sold the sedan delivery due to not being able to get a third seat for a child safety seat in the right place. A nice two door Ford sedan was now in the picture. We had no time for a build of any kind other than customizing it to our tastes.
It had everything for us already in place. Comfortable seats, SBC power, auto trans and A/C. The cost was relative to what was being sold, so we had choices. Then as cool as a two door sedan looked, we knew the feeling of driving around in a 2 door sedan, so, we looked at a 4 door model, too.

The big thing was for this sedan as we all know is easier access to the rear seats with the extra doors. But, the front opening doors had added value as a direct access to getting in and out for a toddler or even a teenager. Now it was confusion time and choices.

The worrisome young parents said that an old car did not have the crash protection safety as our newer AWD station wagon. That as much as we liked the hot rod sedans, they would prefer that we not get going on a purchase of the old 1940 two door or 4 door sedan for daily driving our granddaughter around So Cal for her/our activities. It would have looked nice, classy with a lot of style and when we picked up our granddaughter at school, it would have stood out immensely.

But, we got the edict to be safer everyday with our granddaughter and her numerous activities/school. And, in order to be safe under the request/edict, we put the purchase in the far back burner.

Two doors work and the 4 doors have their plus factors, too. YRMV
1958
A possible future with more time and money... back then...

 

@greg37 could you post a link to the conversion. I looked but can't find it.

 

I'm a little late to the discussion, but I really enjoyed this thread so far, even though it hits me the wrong way sometimes, haha. I was born towards the end of the 70's, so in the 90's as a teenager, 2-doors were harder to find, even then when your budget was thin and just getting started. I've had 2-door sedans, 2-door hardtops, 4-door sedans, wagons, etc. Does it matter how many doors? Only if you let the critics get to you. Build what you like or can afford. Some of the kids can't afford any old car these days to begin with, and I've seen a couple local kids who find and buy a 4-door acting like they won the lottery because it's an old car, regardless of the number of doors. @ or 4, why can't we appreciate them all? Our 56 has a lot of sentimental history attached to it, and the number of doors sure doesn't mean a thing. We like it, and that's all that matters. Why not appreciate everything old? The hobby deserves it!

 

My 2 cents=
When I was building my first cars, we wanted to have as fast of a car as we could afford. I decided that the way for me to go was with a 2 door sedan. That's because along with not necessarily being as attractive, thus not as popular or expensive, they were lighter (by a little).
Then the 2 door hard-top, which were more attractive so more popular. They were a bit heavier & always more expensive.
Next was the 4 door and the wagon progressively. Besides the extra weight the "cool factor" was lower because no one wanted to be "driving Mom's car" or "an old man's car", as that's who typically drove those "more practical for a family" vehicles back then.
They could be obtained for little money and were often stripped of any components that were interchangeable with a "more popular" body style... then junked. (I bought a '62 Impala wagon from New Mexico for $50.00... straight, rust free with a tight & healthy 327. I pulled the engine, sold a few parts off it to make my money back and had it hauled to the crusher... I still have bad dreams about that!)
The 4 doors, along with wagons therefor, were not as popular then. But those cars that did survive the fate of many a "parts car", have finally found a new place in the "old car" world of today.
I'm glad they've gained popularity recently & I agree; the "hobby" deserves it, and so do the "old cars"!

 

I've had this 4 door for about 23 years now. Used it to haul my drumset in the trunk and the whole band in the car. Now it's a weekend cruising family car

 

I was born in the mid-80's, when I was young my dad bought his 64 SS (2 Dr HT) to replace one he had owned years earlier. In the early 2000's when I bought my 62, I sought out a 62-64 4 door or wagon as at that time you didn't see any. I'm the second owner of my 62 4-door sedan, and have been for over 19 years. I love the car, and it's as much fun as my dad's 64.

I think the argument of "2-doors are the only cars" is dying with the generation who grew up with muscle cars having performance as 2 doors and 4 doors being family cars. Those days are behind us, and younger generations who see old as cool regardless of number of doors or popularity back in the day are emerging more and more.

 

Now I’ll be honest here, I never really liked more doors but because of my son whose Autistic and non verbal (now 37) he had issues getting in and out of a 2dr the older her has gotten. I had to lower my OT 4dr F150 so he can get in it without falling all over himself bless his heart. So now I’m looking for a A model or a 30 something that is a more door so we can enjoy the hobby as a family and hopefully he will be able to navigate the running boards without having balance issues.

So I guess it all depends on what you need to accommodate the family and let’s face it 4drs have been family oriented since conception. But if he can get in and ride around seeing the country that’s cool enough for me!!

 

That’s the car that started it all for me, a ‘55 4dr sedan in green and white at my Dad’s body shop when I was a kid. I saw it and fell in love. I’ve not been “normal “ since!

 

Ha-haa... "Normal" is a simple matter of perspective!

 

Pie is usually savoury where I come from, but there's nothing unsavoury about that Deuce!

 

Function trumps form.

 

Any new bumps from the moore doors?

 

Just needs skirts to be cool

 

I too am a little late to this two-door with 2 fire escapes conversation.

As a product that was conceived in the late seventies by some vanner parents. I grew up with 80's and 1990's square and jelly Bean mundane smogged down junk. (I am sorry that I am not sorry but there is no way a Grand national or a 5.0 stang is a cool car I don't care how fast it was for its day, it's not cool and both are considered the coolest car of the '80s but I digress).
Over the years my old cars I have owed a fair amount of two-door and four-door cars but definitely a few more four doors. I had a four-door 60 Rambler ambassador (what a cool relatively fast car definitely had a 1950s mid-century look and fit in at any rockabilly car show back in the early 2000s) as did a four-door 63 Cadillac six Window sedan (the four window sedan has a much better roof line but the six window sedan was very Gothic/evil looking if that makes any sense), I also had a 57 Buick 4-door other than the door handles when the windows were rolled down you didn't really notice it was a four-door it was a good looking car with the windows up it was mediocre but not terrible. Heck I still have a car I've had since a teenager (I am 45 now) that is a not quite HAMB friendly 1973 Lincoln Continental Mor-dor. It's Finally getting put back together and I'm not trying to hide it's four-doorness but it's cool in its own right it's got a healthy 460, soon to be bagged, its a triple black car and hopefully soon to have a huge stereo in it so I can relive my early twenties. I make jokes and call it my time machine, it's not the coolest car on the block but the reality is it's a hoot and there's a lot of memories attached to it and I don't care it is a Mor-dor, it's fast, comfortable and seats 6 and 25 years ago when all my idiot friends were driving mini trucks all the hot teenage girls (now old chicks lol) ended up riding with me.
I think the key is with the car is how the roof line looks in proportion to the body, as a few examples the GM tri-fives that had posts looked terrible because they had too many windows down the side of the car, I don't care if they're HAMB friendly or not the window placement looks awkward and I know there is a lot of people on this website that have them I've seen you post pictures and I'm not being rude it's just a personal preference, the same cars as Mor-dor hardtops looked Fair as did the two-door post cars needless to say a two-door hardtop looks killer but for anybody born after probably 1972 by the time they were driving age the boomer generation pretty much used up all the reasonably priced clean two-door hardtops long before I was old enough to drive and I'm sorry a 57 Chevy isn't a $50,000 car I don't care if it has $100,000 dumped into it it's still a damn mass produced Chevrolet and when I used to pull my four-door Rambler next to a 100k tri 5 I got more attention than the 57 Chevy from the real gearheads because they never saw ramblers but everyone sees a Chevy but I digress and I'm not saying that to be mean to the Chevrolet guys but I am saying your cares are so me too as are most 2 door rides. I am frugal with my money because cruising to smile miles all makes and models are pretty irrelevant as long as I'm having a good time my heart is in the atomic age and in that era I tend to like two doors I will be damned if I ever pay a two-door hardtop price.
As for four-door styling it just depends on the car, the non ham friendly muscle car era there isn't a mid-size car that I can think of that looked good as a four-door I mean have you ever seen a four-door 70 Chevelle? it's hideous and only has a side profile that it's owner can love and that's only if they are lying to themselves, as a station wagon or AKA long roof four doors two doors hardtops post cars it doesn't matter they're all cool. On a 60 to 69 Lincoln the four-door convertible is just a killer looking car and the four-door sedan is definitely a good looking car and I could do a four-door or two door. On a Cadillac normally I like the four window four door sedan the best because the body has the coke bottle style proportioning (long nose, good size passenger compartment short back end, on the two doors they look kind of disproportioned as the trunk lid looks like a flight deck normally (on a 59 or 60 I think that is a good look on a 61 Through 76 think it's a little odd looking.
On a Ford Model A obviously the hierarchy is almost written Stone when it goes to whats cool and it goes probably in this order, roadster, coupe, pick up, roadster pickup, two door sedan, odd ball styles (like sedan deliveries panel vans mail trucks etc) and lastly is
four-door sedan body although I have seen some very traditional hot rods in the back of vintage car mags of the period that were made from four doors, all you got to do is give it a nasty rake, some pizza cutter 10.5" slicks with a blown multi carbbed nailhead and paint it a color like obnoxious red with white interior and it will totally make the cool kid cut for me (and I most certainly would never kick it out of the garage) and I would rather have one of them than some billet street rod roadster or ratrod coupe. If I'm being honest thinking about the car that I just mentioned on paper I wouldn't mind building one one day.
My point is some four doors are cool some are not but at the end of the day none of you should care what somebody else's think none of us are cool if we're over 30 we are just old dudes playing with our toys and our cars probably aren't going to get us laid anymore so I say long live the four door cruiser and beater.

 

I probably would prefer my ‘40 Olds to be a 2 door, but as an almost rust free 4 door, I have no problem with it …

 

Have you found the “holy grail” of tri five hard tops…… the ever elusive 55? Maybe you mean bi-five 4 door hard tops?

 

Any other 4 door slammers?

 

probably the coolest 4 door on the planet…………..

 

OT, but here it is. I got this about 6 weeks ago, pretty solid with no surprises so far. I had another years back with a 325 HP big block, a hardtop. That went like a scalded dog.

 

Supernatural...

 

I'd like to do a model car of it, there is a '67 Impala kit that is a 4 door. Graft on the '66 parts and there it is.

 

my Havasu hauler... my reason for 4 door was I needed a taxi to haul 4 adults downtown... believe it or not... tryn'n to find a nice 4 door is getting tough... senior adults are not climbing over the front seat on a model A... so, more doors, fit the bill...and the only ones that ever say anything about the extra doors are always born before 1950