TECH: 1955 Chevy 4-door to 2-door shananigans!

And they say it couldnt be done.... Well, this weekend I decided to see if i couldnt totally screw up my car. The dust settled, and now I have a 2-door chevy! Now, i dont consider myself super duper skilled in metal work, but i can cut it and get it to stick together, so i figured, what the hey...ill try. Also, im only 20, so my experience is nil compared to others round these parts. Let me just say that the only down side i see of doing this is not having rear windows that roll down, other than that, its pretty quick, easy, and rewarding. Im actually making a full fledged professional manual about this conversion for school (im a junior technical journalsim major) thats due wednesday. So thatll be ready then. This post is just a higly paraphrased version of my manual. If any of yall want the real mccoy, i can send it your way.

Step One: Cut out the B-pillar and C-pillar.
Step Two: Graph 4-door latch panel to 2-door, as the form is a bit different, and we are using the 4-door b-pillar. Notice the body line on the 4-door (around the latch hole) is only about 10 inces long, while the 2-door runs the entire vertical length of the door. It may seem miniscule, but it keeps the 2-door from shuting on a 4-door b-pillar!
Step Three: Bolt on 2-door.
Step Four: Align B-pillar PERFECTLY and weld into place. Make sure your adjustments on the door hinge and door are "in the middle" so you have full ability to go any which way with the door.
Step Five: De-skin rear door and chop the chit out of it. Piece the window frame and skin onto the car. Everything here is about 6 inches shorter. Weld everything up. So do your own thing here i guess, lots of ways to go about it.
Step Six: Weld a portion of the inner door panel to on the interior of your new "extended" quarter panel.
Step Seven: Fiqure out how to mount some glass in there and tell me how you did it! HAHA, i havent got that far...sorry guys.

Anyway, pics tell the real story....

 

And obviously there is much body work to be done....cuz, well, right now its ugly...

 

....damn

 

well. thats pretty cool. never thought about that. i have a 4 door 56, but i dont think i wanna try somethin like that to it. but if i do aquire anouther one its fair game. you could make the rear window stay in place the same way the small quarter window is held in. make some tabs and an inner structure to hold it. then fab some trim peices from the old ones to go in place and hold the window in. or find a junked 2 door and hack out the inner structure and window regulator to make some roll up.

Dave

 

DAMN!!!! thats the what i have planned in the distant future for my '55 chevy!!! i just need the balls and some extra parts to do it some day!! i think i'd go with a set of Hardtop doors and chop the roof a bit though nice job man, keep us posted with progress please!

 

Since you don't ride in the backseat it really doesn't matter if they work or not.

 

cool tech dude! no worry on window regulators just us aftermarket power stuff. keep going on the build and post plenty of pic's.

 

The back side glass was stationary from the factory in the 150 buisness coupes/sedans you will also need a front seat since the four door doesnt split and fold forward.
I started to do this once but didnt have the courage or the doors at the time so I just built a 4 door
Got any close ups of what you done around the window frame and where it meets the roof and where pillar meets the door and skin

 

nice job man. it takes some balls to cut up a car like that...keep on it and post your updates..

later.

 

Very cool. I can't think of anything you could have done to a 4-door to improve it's looks more than that. 2-door door prices just went up.

 

AND, naturally, the most desireable and expensive seat there is is the front seat of 55-57 2door anythings. Ratty ones draw up to $500 if they are complete, no upholstery, required. Really nice ones....wow.

 

Seen it done with chevy ll's, never thought to do it with a tri-5. Really cool. And I thought you were gonna shorten a 4 door into a 2 door.

 

I remember putting both the front and back seats ouf of my '56 at the curb for trash pickup (years ago). Never even thought somebody might want them some day.

 

wow...i really like what you did...i've tossed that idea around for my '53 chevy, but i don't have the heart to do it....yet....haha

 

Do you know ChevyNut? Great work 20 years old or not it took a lot of thought . Good luck with the finishing it it loks like you will do real Fine.

 

Exactly right...when we were kids and building those cars, the first thing we did was chunk the frontseat for buckets and a floor shifter..now the folding bench is gold, new frameworks,no upholstery, are 495.00! my old 150 "Handyman" had molded in quarter windows....

 

Wasn't there an Overhauling episode that they turned a 4 door '55 Chevy into a 2 door? Good work! There are tons of 4 door tri fives out there just waiting to become 2 doors!

 

Actually if you bought a new '55 Business Coupe ( I don't recall the number 110 or 210 or something)the back glass rolling down was an option.

Any time you alter one it needs bodywork afterwards.

Good start and great way to save one that no one really wanted way back when.

 

Great job! For your manual, Step Two is "graft".

 

Nice! This is what every 4dr wants to have happen to it.

 

i actually have a 57 2-door (you can see it in one of the pics) that will be giving up its split bench. and ill run buckets in the 57. yep, after gettin my three-deuce powered 327 and 4 speed, i just couldnt put it in a 4-door! also, only one side of the car is done, it would be hilarious to button the other side back up and take it to car shows and tell everyone its a rare factory option 3-door! some schmuck would probably believe me.....

 

Ooooor.....

 

oooooooooor.......

 

i had always thought about welding the rear door in place...cutting out the "divider" between the rear door glass and rear pannel glass.....put in a soild glass and clean up body work....then pull the wing window out of the ft door.......doing that gives it the illusion that the door is longer........

 

Very well done. It's really not as hard as everyone thinks it is, this is certainly easier than doing a top chop. Thanks for sharing, I think this is much nicer looking than those shortened up things. I'd like to see pics of your inner structure where the back door used to be. Does the "dip" in your beltline line up with where the stock one was on a two door sedan?

(not to steal your thread for a shameless plug, but...)

If there's anyone out there who's inspired by this thread (and you should be) I have all the pieces to do this to another 55-57 Chevy, including a pair of two door sedan doors, a complete pair of quarters cut up into the roof (so you can have window regulators) and a split bench (from a '54) that I'll sell as a two door conversion kit for $500

 

That's a fuckin' steal! Why not post it in the classified, ought to go quick.

 

hey squablow,

yeah, the "dip" is in the exact location it should be. All of the material removed from the rear door skin was done at the front. This allowed the orientation of the skin itself to remain the same, "dip" and all.

Actually, the TECH post you did on converting that Fury to a 2-door was my inspriation for this! Granted, i wanted to get ahold of a parts car for the b-pillar and quarter panel like you did, i just couldnt afford it, so i improvised.

As for the interior, i was only able to weld in the upper portion of the inner door panel. I fiqured i would just finish it off with some sheet metal. Also, i had 2 days to do this conversion, because of school i only have the weekends, and the car and campus are 400 miles apart. So, alot of the little stuff is not done.

 

nice job so far

 

People have problems with the quarter windows working correctly anyway. On my 55 2dr sedan, it didn't have the pinch weld for the rubber to mount the glass solid. I just installed the new whisker channel, slid the glass all the way up and bolted rubber covered clamps under it. No rattles or air leaks.

 

Balls + Talent + 4dr. = one KOOL ride....................