I see re-popped 28-29 roadster quarters from different places for sale. My question is what was the difference between a Roadster Quarter over a Coupe Quarter. I'm thinking one is longer but by how much and where? I'm assuming it is in the area forward of the trunk/rumble lid since those seem to be identified as the lid being able to fit a roadster or coupe. Want to build a 28-29 Coupe soon in the gathering mode and would like to know what will and will not work. Thanks Joe
The roadster quarter is longer between the door and wheel opening, the panel above the deck lid is longer on a roadster than a coupe, and the roadster has an extra beltline height body line that the coupe quarter won't have. You can chop up a roadster quarter for a coupe but it's quite a bit different. I'm actually studying some of this as I have some rough coupe quarters and am planning on building a roadster body with them.
I once bought a set of rough coupe/sport coupe 1/4s that I hoped I would be able to use to cut patch panels out of for some badly hacked roadster panels.....what by rack of eye looked very similar turned out to be two completely different stampings....to be exact I thought I could replace the upper portion of the 1/4s (above the belt line) with coupe sections easy right? not so....curvature should be the same because they use the same trunk lid right? yes and no...1) the roadster body uses a shorter below trunk panel and a longer above trunk panel therefore the trunk does not sit at the same curvature point as the coupe 1/4 panel, 2) the belt line is completely different being flat and squarish (more like the '30-1 wheel well radius) versus the round weltline of the roadster, 3) because the coupe doors are longer but the length of the bodies are the same, the roadster panel is longer overall, but the seating area is more forward, as a result the coupe panel is also taller, 4) there are two extra body beads on the roadster panel a thick 1 runs around the top (seating area) and one at the bottom, 5) the beads inside the wheel well are different....so basically they have more differences than similarities. My conclusion was A) it's easier to fab new pieces than to slice and dice apples and oranges B) it looks better to use coupe pieces (doors, door pillars,windsheild frame) and build a coupe-ster than to try to splice the two together with the possible exception of using the roadster door pillars etc. and trimming some off the bottoms of the coupe doors and 1/4s and adding a bead to match.
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