Customs Undergoing body reassignment surgery

Warren likes it.

 

I'm still going full bore on this project, a couple people asked about what to do about the title, I walked the title through the DMV today, told the lady that the title said 4 door but the car is a 2 door sedan, she said no problem, she can correct that for me, bloopety-bloop, it's done. Frickin' awesome.



Also got my leaf spring shackle mount fixed nice, that was a big worry for me, was so rotten I'm surprised the springs didn't collapse up into the floorpan. Will post pics of it hopefully tonight and I'll try to answer some of the questions that were posted. The responses to this thread mean a lot to me, a lot easier to stay motivated when people who "get it" can see the progress, just haven't had much time to post.

 

Wow, Keep up the good work! This is such a cool way to make a yuk car into a very cool ride. N.N.

 

Lol I have used the same excuse a few times over the years, did it for the 47 last winter, it must be an old typo can you change it for me please Its looking great by the way I cant believe how fast ya got her done !!

 

I love 2 door post cars

 

You're doing a great job! I love it. This is a great body style that looks so cool as a 2 door post. Sort of like Mopar built a Wilshire cruiser before the Silver Bullet. I also vote for the dog dish caps. I can't wait to see it finished. You surely get the work churned out.

 

Man you really lucked it at the DMV in WI- they are usually extraordinarily stupid and slow.

 

Total Awesomeness

 

I would have figured that a parts car with the spring shackles rotted out, in fact I have cut them up that were in about that shape. Going to look good done.

 

My dad is in Louisiana where all you have to do is ask a State Trooper for a Certificate of Physical Inspection, point out that it says 4 dr but is *obviously* a 2 door, and take that to the DMV for a corrected title. They assume the previous title had a typo. It works every time!

 

ya make it look easy. I dig it. Are those Parnelli Jones wheels?

 

I took these pics of my leaf spring mount this morning. In the second pic, where you see the welds around the shackle bracket? That little tab was all that was left of the original mount, the rest had literally fallen out. The other side looks like new, go figure. After I took these pics, I built the inner rockers and finished the outer quarter panels, the whole driver's side is fully welded and ground and I'm going to do a quickie body job on that side and paint it tomorrow.

 

Nope, should have fully functional quarter windows. The car retains the inner panels from the donor car and I have all the regulators from it too, so it's just a matter of putting the channels back in, having the new glass cut and putting them onto the regulators. The '60 Plymouth I converted, the quarter windows work on there too, was pretty easy actually.

My original plan was to get the quarter panel trim from a 2 door hardtop, but then I found out that the 2 door hardtops had 2 piece rear stainless too! Sucks actually. I would like to weld the two pieces up to avoid the seam, but I need some practice welding stainless before I dive into that, so they'll have to be seamed for now.

Two tone with black on the roof, and I might add the stainless drip rail trim from the New Yorker model, but I wouldn't even want to think about chopping it, that domed glass would be tough to lean and impossible to cut, plus the headliner is still good and I'd hate to lose that, it's the one piece of interior I can't do myself.

It's in a local junkyard. The '61 Polara has the coolest quarters with the tunneled tail lights in it, I'd consider a pair of those if I had access, but the Seneca ones don't do it for me as much so I think I'm going to stick with the stock Chryslers.

Good to hear from you again. If you're ever in the area, take a stop by.

 

I know, right? I'm sure in other states, that'd be no big deal, but having dealt with the WI-DMV before, I was so proud, I figured it was worth taking a picture of!

The key is confidence when you ask, if they don't think anything is up they don't seem to mind. I've been following your coupe since it was a sedan, your thread is one of the ones that made me want to start my own build thread. I think I've only used about 3 lbs of welding wire so far though, so I've got some catching up to do.

Me too. I've been watching your El Camino build, it's fun to follow along in your rust repairs but it's hard to appreciate how much work that is until you do it first hand.

I should have passed on this one, I knew it was bad but I didn't realize how bad until I really cut into it. I've parted out cars that were as nice/nicer than this one myself. I could have held out for a better one, but in a few years I think I'll be wishing I had saved some of the ones I scrapped. Gotta start somewhere.

 

They're actually made by Cragar, they were Cragar's knockoff of the Keystone. I got a whole set of 4 in 15" at a swap meet with the center caps for $40. The centers were blistered all to shit, so I blasted the centers and painted them. I'm real happy with how they turned out. The tires I got off a friend for $100/set and I added the second whitewall stripe. Even with paint for the wheels and new lug nuts and washers I've got less than $250 in the whole set.

With the first Keystones having come out in late '64, I think they still pass for trad. Good enough for me.

 

Beautiful, you are awesome.

 

So you have completely wrecked my life, now...

The least you could do is list all the cars I should look for to get the doors from...

 

I couldn't get the transmission on my 2dr to work right so to my wife's dismay, I drug home this jewell. The car has an old repaint on it but where the paint if faded through on the driver's side you can see a faint shadow of large lettering down the driver side of the car. Cop car maybe?
You have made such a radical change to the car already, I wonder if some of the hardtop stuff from this car could be used to make your car a formal roof 2 dr hardtop.

BTW: The rear shackle areas of rear subframe don't look too bad. If you come down in the next couple of weekends you are welcome to cut them out.

 

It just started to rain and got some high winds, but it looks like that's going to blow over (hopefully), here's an update while I wait for the rain to quit.

Got my '61 Saratoga grille in, love the looks of it, and did some spotty rust repair around the headlight area. The car has some bad mudwork here, I started picking at it but I'm not going to have time to tear into it now so I'm going to leave it and come back to it later.



And I've got the bodywork roughed in on the driver's side, ready for my (hopefully temoporary) quickie paintjob, was just about to put some primer on when the weather stopped me.

 

HA! My car had the same chrome wheels on it when I got it, they could have been twins. I took those off to put on another car that I was selling, otherwise they'd have been in the first before pic.

You want the doors and door jamb sections from a 60-61 Plymouth or Dodge Dart. Only the Plymouth Savoy/Belvedere and Dodge Dart Seneca/Pioneer were offered in 2 door post, along with wagons which would also work for a donor. You might be able to make it work with just doors, but the jamb section really makes things a ton easier. If you do it, be sure to post some pics. It's really not hard to do once you know where to make the cuts.

Gonna send you a PM right now.

 

Quote:
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td class="alt2" style="border: 1px inset;"> Originally Posted by Nads
I love 2 door post cars
</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
Me too. I've been watching your El Camino build, it's fun to follow along in your rust repairs but it's hard to appreciate how much work that is until you do it first hand.

Quote:
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td class="alt2" style="border: 1px inset;"> Originally Posted by rustynewyorker
I would have figured that a parts car with the spring shackles rotted out, in fact I have cut them up that were in about that shape. Going to look good done.
</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
I should have passed on this one, I knew it was bad but I didn't realize how bad until I really cut into it. I've parted out cars that were as nice/nicer than this one myself. I could have held out for a better one, but in a few years I think I'll be wishing I had saved some of the ones I scrapped. Gotta start somewhere.

Hey Squablow... unfortunately I've driven better cars to the scrap yard!!!!

And you're right... "nobody knows how much work goes into our rust belt beauties" until they do it themselves.

When I saw Nads taking on that Elcamino... I knew what he was getting into!

But these cars are becoming to rare to scrap out and I'm glad many of the younger guys are ambitious enough to tackle these projects and save them from the scrappers!

Both you and Nads are doing Great work... keep it up!

 

AWWW GEEEEZZZ!!! This is about a year too late! I saw one these for sale in my nieghborhood about a year ago for about a 1000.00 bucks... Didn't grab it because I have a strict no four door policy around this joint, and truth be told, I just flat didn't have room for another stray. I did have a sneaking suspicion there was something in the Mopar family that could provide some doors for the correct door number deal... Typical AZ car too, no real rust, 383/pushbutton combo, even had the tartan seat covers and such.

 

looking great man. Love the idea and the execution.

 

Yer like one a them geniuses and shit!

Seriously, I like this one a lot. Great job sussing it all out, and I don't hate the wheels.

 

Huge improvement!

Brian

 

After seeing this thread, I'd be thinking "300 clone" if that thing were in my driveway!

 

Wouldnt that be badass?

 

Quick and dirty paint job done on the driver's side now too. Paint doesn't really match that well, and the bodywork is rough, but I've got to call it good enough for now. None of the bodywork is anything I'll have to undo later, it's a good base for future finishing.



From here on out, I have a little trim work to install, then I need to focus on functionality. I've got less than 2 weeks left and although it runs great, I've never driven the car on the road yet. It doesn't have any seats in it and no quarter glass yet either, I'm really going to have to hustle. Should make it though.

Thanks for all the responses, really helps keep the motivation going. Probably won't have any updates until next weekend, but if all goes well then I should be able to hammer on it until it's done without stopping.

 

Ausome job so far. However, if I may play devil's advocate, for a second. I might get grilled for saying this but, I look at these pics, and can't help but think what it would look like with the rear doors sectioned down to fit with the front, then reverse the hinges, no external handle, but a pocket handle, inside, on the jamb of the rear. Like on new extended cab pickups. Keep the two door look and easy access to the rear seat.