I have searched the forums, and I know the typical response of "Don't ruin such a nice car", or just plain old, "don't do it". So if your gonna respond with one of those 2 phrases or one that closely resembles it, just save us all the trouble and don't reply. Cool..thanks. I have a 1953 Cadillac Coupe (Not CDV). for all intensive purposes, she is rust free, and in pretty darn good condition. I have dumped alot of good hard eraned money into her, and I don't want to get rid of her, but I do want a convertible. I have located a donor car that can provide all the needed parts to do the conversion. My question is on the reinforcement. My coupe is pillarless, from the bottom, the X crossmember resembles that of the convertible. What else should I consider bracing if I go ahead and do this? thanks Charles
The car will be worthless after cutting the top off, do not do it if you think you might EVER sell the car.
Great lookin car. Just hang your head out the window. Trivia question: What Airplane inspired the Cadillac's style after WW2 ?
Hard to do it and make it look RIGHT. Most come out looking like some late 1980s minitruck hack job. Been said, it is your car, do what you want, but you WILL destroy its value. Look in your wallet, that is your money too, tear it in half and throw it away,,,,, same thing. You making a convert roof? Or like mentioned above minitruck style? Man thats a good looking car as is,,,,,, better be damn sure.
What the hell. To each their own. I cut the roof off mine. Never touched the frame. It's been 15 years, hasn't folded in half yet.
You're out of your damned mind wanting to cut up a car that nice. I have a '52 Ford Customline I'd consider cutting the roof off of, but only because a bunch of drunk mexicans thought it'd be funny to smash all the windows in on it and I would rather not spend close to a grand to buy all new windows
Did the convertible has thicker side rails AND "X"? I know the prewar buick convertibles did compared to their closed counterparts. That said, I persoanlly never liked the look of the early 50's caddy in a convertible, The 55 and later looked much better in the topless variety... cadillacs, that is.
Its pretty common to do what is called a bucket job, putting the convert bucket, the pinchweld area and all guts and bracing down into a hardtop shell, the side or B pillars are reinforced into the floor, and back towards the trunk, the trunk hinges might also be in another spot now that the package tray is gone. I know the converts have a heavy I beam X member on the center of the frame, it will fit into a stock frame with the old unit out and alot of sweat and work. Most of the time the bucket is spliced in at the beltline trim.
I had a teacher once that did that with his karman geih because he was bored, he just cut the roof off with a saws-all and bought all the convertible stuff from a junkyard. Hell I say do it, IF you think you can make it look right, I.E. nearly identical to how it would be from the factory.
_charles_, If you have all the parts to make the conversion look legit get and do it. Structually speaking most of the 50's rigs had a different frame for the convertible version. OR If you have access to the donet car (a real converible) get the whole thing and put all your pretty parts on it. Do some research on other sites like Cadillac sites where other owners have done this sort of thing. See what the downfalls are or seek advise from people who've done this sort conversion. It's a nice but yours to do what you want with. Remember though, it'll never be a real convertible, and don't try to sell it off as one or it will bite you in the ass later on. Just make sure you say it's a custom convertible. good luck
First off, to those not familiar with the J body 50-53 GM Cars, the Coupe like mine and the convertible are the exact same body lines. Cut off the top and you wouldn't be able to tell it apart from a convertible, because there is no real difference. It's not like the Convertible had differently shaped sheetmetal or anything. So, if I had the correct factory parts, it should look JUST LIKE a factory convertible. NOT like a minitruck style. Here is what she would look like: Here is the Farme on a 1952 Convertible and here is the frame on my 1953 Coupe.
Or I could just buy this... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cadillac-Series-62-convertible-1952-CADILLAC-CONVERTIBLE-PROJECT-CUSTOM-ROD-1953_W0QQitemZ260372617199QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item260372617199&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A727%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318
A job like this is no cake walk. While at first it may seem easy to do going to OEM locations, guess again. The frame pics show the heavy strap iron they used to brace the X. Yes you'll need B-pillar castings. You'll need all the interior parts fron the donor to make room for the cylinders and springs as well as a bootwell for the bows to live when down, then the narrow rear seat frames and new upholstery for all of the above. The top of the windshield...different by far. Latch mechanism, might even be factory chopped. You'd need to do some research there, see if HT and Conv are the same glass. Stainless trim for the top seal, tops of the window glass, same? Just my initial random thoughts on the gig.
Cut it. I cut the roof of a '56 Sedan DeVille, and shortened it 16". Spliced and plated the frame, it was as stiff as any convert, no cowl shake. I used the top irons from a '68 Catalina and made my own front header. It was chopped about 5". As far as I know, the car still exists today, still in the same paint, 20+ years later. As far as ruining the value, who cares, and if anybody here does, I would suggest they're on the wrong message board! Last time I looked, this was a hot rod and custom car crowd...
That's a beautiful car! And it will make an awesome convertible! Looks like the x frame has been beefed up some on the vert, but i'm with you. Go topless.
I was going to suggest buying a donor 'vert and going that route. The one you found seems to be a good base to start from from what I can tell. You'll be dollars ahead in the end, it would be easier and quicker than a conversio, it would probably turn out nicer and it will be the real deal which makes it much easier if you ever want to sell. Just my opinion, but that hard top you have looks a lot nicer IMO than the 'vert.
My god that thing is fucking beautiful... I don't even like red, and that car makes me want to pee my pants.
An acquaintance of mine here in town has several 1958 Cadillac Eldorados. He converted an Eldorado Coupe into a convertible exactly as you want to do using an undoable convertible parts car. Worked great, looked, great, and is great. Most folks don't remember that what we call "hardtops", pillarless sedans or coupes, were originally called "hardtop convertibles". DO IT!
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