I love that car. I have posted about her many years ago, and I was hoping it would show up. That's probably why I conceded to these hot rod Hi- jinks in the first place. Love it.
I like those old MGs and Triumphs but I never liked cut down doors on hot rods and would never do it myself. That said, if I found a survivor I'd put it back together, nasty cut down doors and all, and drive it like I stole it.
Inserts meaning removeable. Like valve seat inserts? I'm here to help. I kinda hate a bench of know it alls too. Ron
There she is!!! How did yòu find her? I've been looking for her for some time now, really, I have. I've posted this photo before, I guess I should save her to my photo folder, no, that won't work, then I'll have some "splaining" to do with my wife. The only time I've ever got excited about "cut down" hot rod doors.
A better side view of that $25 dollar model A, not sure when the doors were welded shut and cut down, but prior to 1971 when he bought the body.
It wasn't a specifically British thing. It was done whenever it was necessary to get two people into the narrowest possible open body. And that was done for weight and aerodynamic frontal area. The 1932 Ford isn't aesthetically perfect; it just resembles a 1932 Ford more than anything else does. If there is something to criticize about the lead pic, it's nothing to do with "messing with perfection"; it is that the cutting-down is superfluous given the width of the body, i.e. it reduces the door shape to a mannerism. Which can be argued both ways.
If you get your hands on some little books from the 50's especially from back East you tend to see the cut down doors fairly often . I'm thinking the want a sports car can only afford an old roadster thing caused a lot of them to get cut down if not all. As far as the welded up doors and deeper cut openings, that may have been because you could weld the doors up on the flimsy body you drug home to build your hot rod with a lot easier than you could reinforce the body so the doors would fit and work right. There still may be a 30/31 A cowl with Mid 20's Dodge touring rear panel with sheet metal welded between to make a larger size T bucket style body that I welded up in the early 70's floating around Central Texas.
For what its worth, here in Australia we got Willys convertibles up to 1940 and they had cut down doors, not sure who built them maybe Holdens, Ruskins or possibly T J Richards.
Thank you everyone for your spirited replies. There's a lot to discuss when it comes to cut-down doors, and I'm excited to see this thread filling up with good and not-so-good examples. As I was writing the original post, I was thinking about a car that, for a multitude of reasons, stands out as prime example of this style. The problem was, I didn't have any pictures of it. Over the weekend, I shot a text to my friend @HelmuthBrothers to ask if he happened to have some snapshots of a "'32 roadster (?) that was at early TROGs that was channeled, pink, and had crazy scrolling pinstriping?" Soon thereafter, he sent these shots from Wildwood in 2018. "I remember a bunch of people were hanging around it," John wrote. "I'm glad I wanted for an opening shot of the whole car." I knew I asked the right guy. The more you look at this thing, the more it makes you think. It's like a piece of 1950s abstract expressionist art; it's visually interesting and brings up so many questions. I sent the photos to my brother, just to hear what he thought of it. First, I rattled off things that I would potentially change if it were mine, the biggest being the 1940 Ford front suspension. "I don't know," he said. "It is what it is. I'd keep it that way and appreciate it as just that." You know what? He's right.
Two questions about this: 1) Are there any other pictures of this car? 2) What makes you think it's a her?
What makes you think it's a her? Come on, it's the 40's. You didn't have to wonder then. Whole different world, and definitely a different breed of people.
Some like it,but all I ever saw,seeing cut down doors;;Was lazy work.= Yes,it is hard work to make doors work right.! I'm not on"Wow how cool,cut up list !"
That car was built by Arnold Brown of the Piston Manglers car club from Massachusetts in probably 1954, 1955. According to The Bible, err, Cool Cars Square Roll Bars, the club was known for piecing together cars from cast offs. And apparently Brown mostly used the car as a loaner if another club member's car was out of commission. It was brought back to life in the mid teens (?) by legendary Mass hot rodder Dick Kusalis. You can see him in the red tee shirt and white ball cap standing behind it. He recently passed away, so I don't know what will happen to it, but it did get out fairly often around here. It's so weird. I'd never build one, but I'd love to own it.
From this angle it looks like a heavy garage door came down on it. I'm neutral on cut down doors. I don't love it, I don't hate it.
I saved this picture from the hamb years ago. I believe it was the only picture of the car, I didn’t really think it would turn into something - wrong again, sorry Joey.
Changed the wording this morning ,didn't mean to derail the thread.The original photo of the girl and the car, was in the book :The Birth of Hot Rodding the story of dry lakes era by Genat and Cox
If this was El Mirage in 1949, Ray Morton's '29 was no. 279. I couldn't find any other pictures of it, but maybe it will help.
Here’s mine. Fabricated from scratch like the rest of the body. It took about 3 weeks to get the shape right.
I really think flattened nuts on welded doors had a lot to do with this...literally...I'm sure there were crowds of the clubs howling and pissing themselves at anyone cracking their clackers doing it too...
https://kustomrama.com/wiki/The_Bob_Berkshire_Roadster ...the advantages of this mod are many actually...sightlines, comfort, looks and ease of entry should doors be absent...this is one unique Hotrod...
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=3221 ...why is this man smiling...because he's healed and made a fix that'll keep him smiling from now on...
The Jalopy Journal
