I'm not calling this proof, especially since it's data for the '60 (not to mention line drawings) but I know it's true with '60 88/98 coupes as I've had my Super88 parked next to a 98. The extra length is through the rear floor and quarter windows, rear doors in your case. Scans are from my '60 shop manual. The 98 is sandwiched between 88s. I know they're illustrations but you can see there's a slight difference in the wheelbase and the 98 looks a bit longer. I'd swear the front door is longer.. maybe they used a coupe door on the 98. Maybe someone has an 88 4D-HT (or a Chevy or Poncho 4D-HT) and can post a pic or do some measuring.
IIRC, it's a Biscayne. Freiburger had one a while back. It's a flat-top 2-dr post car. Not a hardtop but still *****in.
The only bigger-body GM 4-door hardtops for '59-'60, the roof has an entirely different and more conventional design. It's sort of a cross between the 4-door post in that it has quarter windows, but is thin and curved like the 2-door hardtop roof. Buick Electra 225 and Cadillac so far as I know were the only ones to use it. As to the length issue, I just looked in my '59 Crash Book and it has no answers. It seems odd GM would make a second, nearly identical roof stamping used by only one model - but who knows, given all the other things that were different on these years. 59-60 is a wierd set of years in a lot of ways - one reason the cars almost all use the same body shell and platform is because they were rushed out after the '57 Chryslers hit. You will also find that they're the last GM cars where all the makes had their own frames and no two are quite the same; Chevy, Pontiac and Caddy were X-frame, Buick a conventional, and Olds is an X-frame with perimeter rails. So from the beltline down very little interchanges across makes. Even Pontiac and Olds, which normally share the same rearend, don't share housings and axles these years because of the wider track on the Pontiacs. '61 isn't even the same body, so what a '61 Chevy has to do with it I'm not sure, but there still was no flat top 2-door hardtop - they were post sedans.
I have a chevy roof and my olds roof. I will measure, but that won't happen until probably tomorrow. Still enjoying the feeling from having a wisdom tooth pulled that had broken a while back.
Well, it is official. If I am going to retain a roof on this car, it must be a long style. The measurement from where the drip rail starts on my existing roof to the pillar by the back window is 46 inches, the Chevy one is 43 inches. I am officially on the hunt for a ROOF!!!!!!!
No offense, but the roof-swap sounds a little overkill in Your case, esp. seeing the chances of finding one nearby anyway. Looking at the pics You posted, wouldn´t it be easier to get in touch w/someone local who knows their way around a few basic metalshaping tools like a sheetmetal brake and a shrinker-stretcher? Looks to me most of the rotted stuff in Your pics appear to be limited to the rearmost edges of the roof, something that could be replaced with sections of sheetmetal with various degrees of angles(=reproduced with the brake) and curvatures(= reproduced with the shrinker-stretcher) to them.
The pics don't do the rust Justice. The rust through is all along the underside where the roof rail attaches, and the driver's side has about a 3 foot section where the drip rail edge is barely attached to the roof anymore.
Yes I see what You mean. Still, Your drip rail, for instance, is a mere straight edge. Albeit they weren´t drip rails like in Your case, I myself had to replace some similar-shaped sections elsewhere on the body of my own car, and found a local sheetmetal shop with equipment to produce strips of sheetmetal in dimensions, angles and gauges of my choosing. This was just my solution where sourcing what I needed off a similar 50+ yr old donor car was most definitely not an option. Just my 2c, thought it might be an idea to look at what the rotted sections are comprised of and how to go about fabricating Your own patch sections before springing for another whole roof.
Well, the Chevy roof, I paid 60$ for. A guy in Indiana has a Pontiac roof he would sell me for $450, and my buddy in Cali has an Olds 88 roof he would sell me for $300... But not a one of them is the right one! The bad part is that it is such a complicated mesh up of metal pieces. To weld 4 posts for the roof would be way easier than building all new pieces. I haven't decided yet the direction I am going to go, but that is my thoughts, first off.
I see the difference in the front door being longer and the quarter that much shorter... but the length of the car is the same as the bumpers line up one the front and rear. Weird! I never knew that.
I measured them, and they are actually 3 inches different in length, so I am bummed... Although, I have thought of Cutting the roof in front of the rear pillars and behind the front ones and doing like a bikini top, but that is a little drastic. Lol... I did get the windshield and rear window out today. The rust in the rear window wasn't as bad as I thought, but it is bad enough! Also took a pic of some of the parts I have bought, but just one as the batteries were dying in the camera.
It actually looks pretty cool. I need to get some pics. A very long looking car, and easy to do since it is a hard top to start with.
Lol.. I did some work on it, but a dry socket after having 3 wisdom teeth pulled has been slowing me down. I have the 455 and trans here now, and I have the drivers door taken apart and off the car. I am slowly getting it taken apart. Going to see if I can find someone nearby to clean everything up. Probably will be pulling it off the frame to get the frame cleaned up and the engine mounted up easier. On a bright note, I cannot get the body to flex at all with the roof cut off. I still have the windshield opening on it obviously. Doors still close perfectly. Going to double up the package shelf when I repair the rust that was behind the rear window. That should stiffen it up just a tad. Going to basically take everything off the top of one, and the bottom of the other and stack them together so that the metal will be twice as thick at that point.
I really hope that the roofless car is a temp fix till you find a solid replacement. GM flat tops are the koolest 4dors ever ****in made!
Due to economics.......... I am parting this car out and building a nicer 1960 dodge that I bought out of Minneapolis. Sad to see, and it would have been cool, but I can't afford to have 2 cars, as I need the funds to build the other one. Most of my past ties are to Mopar, and I know them better.
Sad to hear... I just read this thread from start to finish, the whole time fearing this would happen. Another car that could have been saved and is now a parts car. Some things are just better left alone.
If its any consolation, I am taking every little bit off this car and trying to get the pieces and parts to someone who will use them. So far, this car has helped about a dozen other cars get some nice parts to help them get finished. Not like I am pulling 5 parts off it and sending it to the s****per. So far, we are up to a baker's dozen as far as the number of vehicles this car has helped.
The Jalopy Journal
