super rare option in 1951 was a 4 door convertible, all you had to do was cut the roof off. this car was given to me ( read: FREE) and the owner has seen a bunch of the other cars i have completely ruined and he said he would expect nothing less. so not only was it free, but the guy that gave it to me was wanting me to do something stupid! haha this car looked real solid and i was pretty damn happy he gave it to me as nice as it was, then of course i took the carpet out and relized it was just as rusty as my usual shit, it had just been repaired some time ago with roof sheet metal ( proly like 30 guage, super super thin) so i had to deal with that. But im VERY used to it. got it running pretty damn good with a new dist cap and points. still need to get a new fuel line and fix the brakes ( shes an E-brake stopper right now) anyways heres some pics. before.
4 inch windshield chop, and extended the catwalk about a foot, capped the tops of the doors with 1 3/4 exhaust pipe cut in half to give them smooth tops with no window openings. this car is about 1/50th of the way done and everything is just tacked, plus it still needs a shitload of welding and grinding on the floor but here it is as of now
the body has been braced up with 1 1/4 pipe under the seat and also runs instead the rocker. you can open all 4 doors and jump on the seat and nothing gives. way over built for this piece of junk
What a butcher....... I cut the top off a 50 2dr around 62 or so. For a field car. ..anyways, too much work I guess, but I bet it would be slick with a 4dr Carson with roll up windows.
good for you ,,,differant and fun,,,if people bullshit you too bad,,your on the road and there driving there keyboard,,just keep garbage bags for rainy driving,its a shock sitting down on cold wet seats.....
Make sure you modify the top corners of the windshield frame to make them look more like a convertible windshield (straighter top corners). It will be some work, but in the end the looks will be so much better. Otherwise you will always be able to tell this one was made from a sedan with the top cut of. If you go with a Padded top, or folding top, the front of that will look so much better after you would change the top corners of the windshield frame as well.
I like it. Too many people over look the fun you can have with an old cheap (free in your cast) 4 door car. The S-10 wheels work suprisingly well on there too.
there not staying, but your right they could probably be pulled off by somebody with the right paintjob.
The A-pillars on a convertible are straight. On a sedan or coupe the curve at the top. The header of a convertible is flat and horizontal, on yours it is curving downwards because of the curve in the A-Pillar. To make a better looking windshield frame on your car, you could make a straight A-Pillar, and add some filler material to the top corner of the sheet metal above the windshield corners. Take a close look at a 51 Convertible. Yours will have some more metal above the windshield, thats fine, but the corners just need to have the downward curve straightened. I hope my drawing below will help you w bit. The magenta line shows the straight A-Pillar, and top of the header shape. And the green line shows the metal you have to reshape to make it look like a real convertible. This will allow you to create a much better looking top for the car. And even without a top it will look much better.
Be aware the factory convertibles have a big X-brace under the middle of the car for a reason - the whole damn car can flex in the middle - so you might want to add something before you put any road miles on it.
moving along slowly because i had to drop the tank and clean it, fixing rust, new brake lines ect. ect. but i did get it dropped 4 inches all around, and found some original 51 chevy rims. i got them painted signal stage gloss black and got some new tires mounted up. iphone pics look like shit but thats where its at so far. stats on this poor ruined 4 door is 18 hours and around 350 bucks
Looks good! I have been dying to get my hands on something and cut the roof off like that!!! Keep it up!
yea man i had a 54 4 door i did up real nice last year and even as dirt cheap as i was in it i lost money, so i told myself right then the next 4 door i got i was gonna just have some fun with.
<P>Right on, it looks like you're having a blast with it and making it suprisingly streetable. My favorite part is the rolled tubing on the tops of the doors. Keep up the great work and enjoy the more-door!</P> <P> </P>
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