I have always wanted to do a 34 3w (who hasn't). I'll be picking up a fair 34' sedan body, decent floor/subrails, excellent cowl etc. Tell me if I'm losing my mind or if I'm off in dreamland. I know that the floor structure and main body of sedan doors match 3w doors, the rear of the door tops are different as well as the placement of 1 door hinge. Easy enough obstacles to overcome is how I look at it. Now with Steve's Auto Restoration offering the 3w pieces separately........1/4's, decklid, roof, rear window, rain gutters, drip rails, etc etc..... I realize this wouldn't be a "cheap" conversion with at least 10k in reproduction metal but hey it'd be a 34' 3w. I'm not afraid at all of the work that this would entail but I just want some input of wether or not I'd be shooting myself in the foot before I even get out of the gate.
I think some guys in Sweden turned a tudor into a 5 window. It's been posted on here a couple of times.
Seems like it would be a lot easier to convert the sedan into a pile of cash, then go looking for a coupe. If you're willing to spend 10K on sheetmetal for the conversion then it seems like the cash you could get for the sedan would just about give you the rest of what you're gonna need to buy a coupe, and it's a hell of a lot less work.
Do a search for Don Smart on here, he makes the parts to do what you want.I have bought some parts for my 5 window from him and it,s the best stuff I,ve seen
Yeah its the Cheaters in switzerland, do a search on here. Also a guy here in Italy is doin the same, fabbin all the coup parts himself. I posted the link of his build from an italian forum some time ago in another thread about the same thing. Pretty *****en work. GOOD LUCK.
By the time you drop $10K on all those parts, what does that leave? The cowl? How much more to just buy the complete new body...
Not entirely HAMB friendly but a guy in NZ has done it: http://www.nz-hotrod.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=5372
A new 34' 3w from Steves is 29.5k. That's a standard body no fenders/grill/running boards etc. From the sedan I would be using the whole subframe/floor, cowl and doors so basically I'd need the top from the doors back and the remainder of the back of the car 1/4's, rain gutters, drip rails, decklid, rear window opening, panel below & above decklid etc... I also have access for a set of 3w garnish mouldings for reasonable $$$. With the price of the sedan body factored in I see approx. around 12k in sheet metal + consumables and ALOT of time. The cheapest 3w body I've seen has gone for $13,500 and needed patches all the way around the bottom. So I do think if I looked hard enough & waited I may come across a decent one near 20k ? Really not an option for me.
Not really. You'd still have a converted sedan. Since you're not concerned about having a body that would be 1/2 repro steel, why not just also buy a new floor/subrails and scrounge a original cowl, doors and roof sections? They aren't THAT hard to find. Then you could sell the sedan to someone who wants to build one, like me.
I appreciate everyone's response, there are some very good points made. It's not like this project would be starting tomorrow but it sure is nice having your ducks in a row when starting something such as this. When the time comes it looks like I'll give it the go-ahead. I'm about to be back on my current project which is a 34' tudor. I guess that I don't care for building the same thing twice, so why not the conversion? I suppose that if I knew it was going to look like a 3w that was made from a sedan I'd p*** but if the panels are available why not?
I know a fella in Ohio who built a 3 window out of a 4 door, I think he sold it for 13 K for the body, also a guy on ebay ( Libster) has done several sold them for around 17K ,Dave
Go for it KirK! I'm collecting the parts to do the same thing as you are contemplating, except mine will be a five window. After building three coupes using original parts, I think I can figure out how things go together. Steve's in Oregon now gives us the chance to put more coupes together. I have purchased his parts before, and they are top quality in every respect. Good luck with the project.
I agree on going for it. I've also been collecting parts to eventually build a 34 3/w puzzle coupe once my 5/w is done. So far I have a cowl, sedan doors, most of the roof and rear window, below deck panel, and quarters. Still need some roof pieces, etc. There's been a lot of "32 5/w from pieces" posts on the HAMB. Maybe we need a support group for 33/4 coupe puzzle builders! "Now with Steve's Auto Restoration offering the 3w pieces separately........1/4's, decklid, roof, rear window, rain gutters, drip rails, etc etc..... " Kirk, double check with Steve's about selling seperate 3/w quarters and rear window panels. I asked them about selling separate 3/w quarters back when they first started stamping and was told 'no' as the entire coupe sides were a single stamp (same as Brookville's 32 3/w's which are big bucks to buy a stamping). You can get SAR roadster quarters which would have to be cut down. SAR also has the above and below deck panels. I've seen a couple of conversions where front door tops were flipped and used for rear door tops which doesn't look right. Donnie Smart makes the rear door tops and sail panels. When I talked to him, I couldn't get a price from him though. It'll be a LOT of work and scrounging, but not everyone has 20-30k for a body.
Sorry to bring up an old thread - since SAR does not have the 3W quarters available, how accurately will a roadster quarter be if I wanted to use them on a Tudor to 3W conversion? I know with the '32s, the roadster quarter is WAY different than the 3W and would not look right nor work well. Thanks, Steve
Since originally posting this thread I lucked out and found a 34' 3w body 1000 miles from my house. It'll be resting nicely till the time and money come together to start on the build.
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