Kinda O/T What are the chances of me fitting into a 29 Essex Coupe?

if theres a will , theres a way .. most or all of us have done the cheerleader in the V.W. thing once or twice and some idiot always claimed it was impossible.. good luck in your decision making process..

 

i think you should get it, you should definitely give us guys that own an essex some more details about it. they are cool cars, lots of steel almost no wood. the frame is like a 70s pickup truck frame compared to most other cars of the time. the tallest part of the frame on my car has to be 6 1/2". the doors have something like a piano hinge. is it a complete car? a shell? as for the sedan chopped and modified into a coupe, that sounds something like a late 20s buick?

 

I have not laid eyes on the car - just what I've been told by my new friend. But, I think it might just be a shell - no radiator shell, drive train, hood, fenders, aprons, etc. I don't think it has the correct doors with it, but I think it sounds like the perfect start to a fenderless rod - and something that's not too nice to reconsider making some serious modifications to to make it work for me.

 

it all depends on how bad ya want it

 

I am 6'2" 275-280 and I had an unchanneled '29 5 window coupe. It had a 5" chop in it and even with me sitting on the floor all the way back against the bulkhead, My head touched the roof. If I hit a bump real hard I could have paralyzed myself.

But you could always get crafty. Consider channeling the car, then recessing the floorboards down between the frame rails so that the floor is still as low as the rockers, just below the tops of the frame rails. Lots of work. but worth it if you are set on it. If you are 6"10 and 275 you should still be somewhat thin enough not to have to worry about the width too much.

My bro is 6'8" and 225 and he look rail thin. so you shouldn't be that wide either if you are taller than him.

 

I'm what the singles page calls HWP ... I JUST found out that I can HAVE those Desoto HEMIs I talked about!!!! Now I don't want that coupe ... I NEED it to drop one of those HEMIs into. Holy Shit. I think I'm gonna puke.

 

I gotta ask....cuz I don't have a clue?? HWP? "W" for white I'll assume but the rest??

 

HAHA!!! NO.. Height Weight Proportionate... A kind way of saying not chubby, but not skinny either.

 

Sometimes an inch or two makes a big differance,if your not planning on long trips a low thin seat would help alot.Or you could just pick the car up and carry it with you.

 

Good Post here as I used to think I wanted to get an A coupe. Besides removing the rear package tray, couldn't you kinda lay the seat in at more of an angle sloping down front to back? Kinda like a " V " but obvisously not as drastic an angle. It would bend the knees more since they would be higher than your ass. Dont know how comfortable it would be tho....

Steve

 

Yeah BigDaddy - that's kind of what I was thinkin. Besides, I'd be building this car for ME to drive. Everyone else would be a mere passenger.


... pick the car up and take it with me.... HAHAHAA!!!

 

Sam. A friend down here on the island has an Essex coupe if you want to try it on for size. Full fendered no chop. His brother has the Hemi's I was telling you about.
Bob

 

HWP=huge white person

 

Thanks Bob - I'll let you know for sure if I can pull this off.

 

HAHAHAHA!!! That's a new one.

 

Damn, do you play basketball???

Sorry dude, couldnt resist. Im 6'5 and could retire if I got a nickel for everytime I got that. Usually meeting someone I say my name, and then "My jumpshot isnt bad, not Larry Bird, but not bad..."

 

Lots of smart assed comments come to mind but you're a pretty big fella so I'll move right on.

Do a 4-8" frame stretch. Less is more subtle look proportion wise.
Move firewall forward just enough 2-3 inches make a ton of difference. (And forget running a stick.)
Remove package tray and keep roof chop to a minimum.
Use a wrap around style seat back just under thw window frame.
Suicide the doors if not already. makes easier slid in and out.
Use old Caddy tilt/tele combo column.

How would I know?
That is how I stuffed my old pops 6'7" 340lbs ass into a 34 Ply coupe. Had to use seat slide to reach pedals after done. You could hardly tell on the car.

 

FuelFC - Now THAT is what I'm talking about. That gives me a whole lot more confidence. I gotta figure this out. You're proof that it can be done.
I stretched the car in the roof and doors in photoshop and it actually looks pretty damn good - it created an optical illusion where it appeared chopped. Maybe if I pulled off something like this, I could just drop the front lid an inch or two to give it a nasty rake and mean presence that I love so much. Thank you.

yeah ... there is an almost unlimited supply of smart ass comments you hear every day when you're a pituitary freak like me. Believe it or not, I didn't play basket ball. Where it never ceases to amaze me a guy working at the 7-11 hears that and has the audacity to tell me I'm wasting MY life. Hah.

 

Heh heh heh.... some funny stuff in this thread.

As far as the subject goes, I'm 6'2, was 280 when I started my '31 coupe, now I'm 220 (no fast food/no soda/eatin' right/workin' out)and I still fit the same, anyways I digress....

I test fitted myself in a ton of A-coupes before I built mine. I could fit with a 4" chop, no channel, and the correct seat arrangement. I even have a 4 speed!!

You might ask if you could sit in other people's hot rods, they're usually nice as long as you're not covered with pokey or dirty shit. I got a good feel for what would work for me.

I bet you could make it work, but you probably won't be able to channel the car. Not so bad, necessarily, just something we/you/me have to live with.

Either that, or put "helmet" blisters in the roof! Hah hah!!

Good luck dude!!!

 

why cant you channel a car and sit down between the frame rails is this not doable?

 

holy shit how do you manage to put your feet on any of the three pedals. I have a 29 model a pheaton and almost have to sit sideways to use the starter/brake/ go pedal and im only 5 11

 

i dont really think you could fit 2 people in the car if you did that, you would both be squeezed between the frame rails which would probably be 4" narrower than the body. you would probably have to have some sort of tranny hump and driveshaft tunnel which there won tbe any room for.

 

See, I learn something new every day on the HAMB.

An inch or two ALWAYS makes a big difference.

 

Denise, you always know how to make a fella blush.

 

and hopefully laugh at the same time.......Happy Thanksgiving bud!

 

I've been meaning to start a thread similar to Gigantor's... I'm 6'-4" and 350#... even most new full size trucks are not super comfortable for me. I've been wanting to explore what bodies I might better fit in so that I can start shopping for a donor. I'm not into the led sled styles, but loved the shoebox project listed here http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=169255

this one really catches my eye, but not sure how well my Grape Ape frame might fit in it. not to derail Gigantor's thread, but any input for me?

 

Welcome to the big guy club Chumly. As was stated here earlier, late 30's through early 40's cars (not so much trucks) have A LOT more wiggle room. I have a 39 Buick coupe shell sitting in my garage that looks MASSIVE compared to the earlier 30's/late 20's cars and trucks. It's a bone of contention about how the "later" body styles look without fenders however. It's just not the same. Good luck and let me know what you're thinking.