TECH: How to make a 4 door cool! OR...Shoebox Ford 2 Door Conversion!

Or a torch and just a few well placed shrinks or a slapping file and dolly would help some too.
Carry on, you are doing good!

 

Holy s**t i did my shoop in one afternoon.

 

Dan you have been a very busy since we have talked last. This made for a good read while waitng for a plane this morning. My new job has kept me very busy. I havent touched the caddy since I made it home from the show.

 

This is going to be a nice car. I advise that before you even begin to try and metal finish the panel you need to weld up the Cleaco holes- otherwise you will distort it again later. Planishing something to a metal finish is made more simple if you use the right techniques and tools.

You need to be able to tell which areas are high and which are low, for this you need to file the panel. Very high areas can be shrunk if necessary or are dressed down, Low areas are dressed up. Its a gradual and fairly time consuming process but not impossible to learn. I show a little on my youtube footage.

David

 

David,

I looked at your youtube video and website, I'm blown away by your work!

Thanks for the heads up on the Cleco holes, I went ahead and welded them up today. I'm looking forward to investing the time to learn the skill and do it right. I'm sure I'll have some questions for you as I get further along in the process.

-Dan

 

I got my hands on a shrinking disk the other day, haven't had a chance to use it yet. Got any tips?

Thanks! If it ever gets done I'll have to make a trip down for one of those world famous Iron Lord shop parties

The top chop cometh

Did I say Home Depot? I meant Office Depot

Thanks Lea!

Planning a 2 door conversion?

Cool, thanks for the tip!

Then come on over and help me get mine done

Plenty of time before car show season starts again

 

Goodness! Really clean work man!

 

That looks really good!! My brother is wanting me to do a conversion like this on a 55 chevy. Thanks for sharing.

One thing I'm wondering is why you welded the top if you plan on chopping the top. I would have left the top tacked together. Depending on how you plan on chopping the top, you make the top longer and wider. What condition is the 2dr top?

 

Thanks Dyce!

The roof isn't getting lengthened or widened when I chop it. The roof will get slid forward so the a-pillars line up. The b-pillar will get slanted. The c-pillar will stay wherever it lands. The back glass is gonna get moved forward roughly 2"-3" to keep it all proportionate and it will make the car look longer and sleeker...at least that's the plan

The roof on the 2 door donor has a couple fairly big dents in it.

 

That's what I kinda figgured you had planned. Subscribed!!

 

All pics taken haven been impounded to protect the guilty parties involved...........but here's a sneak peek

I'll let Dan do the honors from here, then I'll put up any additional pics that he didn't get

 

a good start anny more spy pics

 

If you have anything you want advise on I will help if I can.

David

 

You're doing an amazing job. Do you do body work professionally or is this just a hobby?

 

Thanks Dude!

It's a hobby that's been slowly turning itself into a business. I'm not opposed to getting paid for what I do for fun

 

I spent some time on the driver side of the roof and am pleased with how it turned out. Paint and body guru ScottB took a look at it and said primer will most likely cover the remaining defects.

 

cool , subscribed

 

It's time to chop the Shoebox!


First things first, I got on the phone and called the BEST car building, top chopping & metal fab guys I know......unfortunately none of them called me back! So I went with plan B and got a hold of my good buddies and fellow Hamber's Dave and Scott.



Dave "it needs more Salt!" Havlir (HAMB name houseoffab)






And Scott "holy shit these refrigerated Ho-Ho's are awesome!" B (Hamb name scottb356)






New to the area Hamb member Foochin came by and helped out for a couple hours as well.





Last but not least, yours truly. Thanks to ScottB for this extremely rare and hard to capture photo of me NOT working.




We spent the first part of the morning huddled around the heater thumbing through various magazines and books to try and find a set of top chopping instructions.

Left to right Fooch, Dave, Scott




We quickly got bored with that idea and decided to give this top chopping thing a try. We'd all seen it done on the internet before, so how hard could it be?

The original layout was to take 4" out of the a-pillar and 5" out of the c-pillar. Subscribing to the theory that it's easier to cut more out later than to put it back in, we decided to start with 3" for the a-pillar and 4" for the c-pillar.







To avoid the overly fat c-pillar look we made a paper template of the factory c-pillar to compare to after lowering the roof.

 

It was then time for the ceremonial first cut. Scott being the hardcore traditionalist that he is, wouldn't let us use any power tools.





After the door tops were removed, we cut out the b-pillars and rear window corner pieces.






After a few rounds of rock-paper-scissor, Dave crawled his way through the bracing and cut out the interior brace for the back glass.






Scott keeping an eye on Dave and savoring his 3rd round paper covers rock victory.




Back glass frame removed.






Next up we cut through the C-pillars.




With only the a-pillars remaining it was time to get serious (for a few minutes anyways) and do some work. In other words, I forgot to take any pictures.

Hopefully I haven't to badly offended Dave and Scott and they'll post up there pics of the missing parts.


Here it is with the roof set back on with the 3"/4" chop.




It NAILED the look I want for the car. Glad we started on the conservative side!

It was then time to figure out the rear window placement.




A little trimming here and there...



Rear window mock up with some paper giving a general idea of the plan ahead...







At this point it was far enough along for a few obligatory knuckle dragger test drives...

 

this is such a cool thread and looks like you guys are having a lot of fun! good job!!

 

In all seriousness, I want to say a huge THANKS! to Dave and Scott for coming up and helping me get the top chop underway! My sides still hurt from laughing so hard and I can't wait till we get a chance to work together again

 

My stomach just turned

 

Looks pretty good! You've got an impressive collection of parts hanging off your walls there too.


iPhone - TJJ App

 

impressive work man...Its nice to see pride taken in someones work.

 

This thread is sick! I can not believe the quality of workmanship. I kept clicking through the pages in disbelief. Kept the updates cooming. Look forward to seeing it complete.

 

The pictures dont do enough justice . it looks really good in person. It was close when I was there but not welded up yet. Great Job Dan

 

I love the way your rear deck is going to turn out, nice to have frends like that.

 

Thank you for taking the time to post pics of the steps. Following this all the way through, then its time for me to chop mine.

 

One thing Dan didn't mention is all the discussion and an hour we spent pouring over pictures of other chops . We all had the same idea of the end result and looking at other pics of what we did and didn;t want in the end made all the difference. That is where the C pillar tepplate came into play. We not only avoided making it fat, we actually ended up about 3/4 " LESS then factory. I can't wait to get back to work on it I have a couple more pics to get the full effect.

Dan I'll burn these on a disc as soon as I can get my laptop fixed. I need copies of Daves shots too

 

Good call. You have a good eye.

The typical chop on a shoebox leaves huge c-pillars which, IMHO, look terrible on this body style.