I know there are long door and short coupes. Are all the front and rear fenders the same for all models sedans and coupes? What doors fit what models? What coupes would look better chopped. Short door or long door coupes?
As far as I’m aware the fenders are the same for all models. They are a little different year to year as to where the trim lands, which is also different year to year. the long door coupes use the same doors as the Tudor sedan and the short door I believe uses the front doors from a 4 door? I’m not certain on those. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a hood looking chopped short door coupe. They are almost always a long door
hate to say it but there is a thread on this exact topic here. the best advice is to find the build you like and find out from the owner or the HAMB which model it is. Also check Customcar chronicle there might be more info there. given the right talent, both can look good. I think it might be this one. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...d-have-questions.1282377/page-6#post-14762787 I have never hear about the front clip being different from Ford to Ford in those years. The clip is different from Merc to Ford on that era.
Here’s my old 47 long door that I put a 41 nose on I personally like the long door coupe chopped, but to each his own
Tim got it right on the fender/door interchange. As to which one looks 'better' when chopped, that's a judgement call. If you want to keep the drip rails as a character line (and many do), the short door is easier to chop. Ford 'crowned' the top on the long door for more headroom for getting into the back seat (which the short door lacks). They 'hid' this crown by spreading it out in several places. It's tough to see, but the pics below will show it when looking closely... This is a short door... This is a long door. Look closely at the relationship between the tops of the side windows and the drip rail. Notice how the door glass opening on the short door is pretty much straight at the top, and the distance from the top of the window opening to the drip rail is the same front to rear. The top of the roof is more-or-less parallel to the bottom of the window openings. The long door window glass runs up, then curves down to meet the quarter glass as it goes back (which is the same on both coupes), and the distance from the window opening tops to the drip rail increases front to rear. The roof also runs slightly uphill front to rear. So the chop on the short door is pretty straightforward; chop both ends the same and everything lines up, it retains the same 'flow'. The main issue with the short door is... well, its short. That short top/long trunk isn't to everyone's taste and chopping it makes it more obvious. Plus no back seat if that makes a difference. I've seen guys put a rear seat in these, but you need to be a midget or small kid to fit... The long door is tougher to chop and get the proportions right. To get the roof 'level', it needs more chop at the rear. But that reduces the size of the quarter window more, they can end up looking too small. There's also issues in the way the door opening is made. This is if you're trying to retain the drip rails. It can be done, but there's considerably more slicing and dicing involved to get everything lined up to get the right 'flow', mostly cutting the quarter windows out separately and chopping them a bit less then reinstalling and reworking the door openings and door tops. If you shave the drip rails, there's still more work than the short door but the degree of difficulty does go down. But some don't care for the loss of the character line of the drip rail and I'll count myself among them.
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