I have seen several videos showing conversion of 4 door tri-5 Chevs into 2 doors. Sedans rather than hardtops, but they got me thinking that maybe I could save the 57 Missouri hardtop with the crushed roof by grafting a 58 roof on it. Appears to be the same roofline whether hardtop or 4 door in the Fairlane series. Same front and back glass also. Ribbed top on 58, but so what..

Or alternatively, use the 57 hardtop doors, door posts, quarter fronts and quarter glass to convert a very solid 58 4 door sedan (from Texas and stored indoors for decades, floors, rockers, trunk, quarter wheel lips all good) into either a 57 or 58 2 door hardtop.

Probably getting too old to finish yet another project, but could probably get it far enough along to show enough potential so somebody else could pick it up from there. And I still like welding anyway..  Still in Florida and just killing time at night since no cars here to fiddle with..

So has anyone seen any videos or threads that show either roof replacement on a 57 or 58 Ford, or conversion of a 4 door to a 2 door 57 or 58 Ford? If it can be done on the Chev's, I don't see why it could not be done with Fords? If not, why not?

The 57-58 quarters appear to be the same, except for the tail light provisions, roof profiles appear the same.. Doors the same except trim holes..  Am I overlooking any other potential complications?

The quarters are the same.  Striping down a 57 quarter in the tail light area you will see a seam where the tail light housing area has a panel that shapes the inside portion of the tail light area.

The roof skins should inter change, not sure about the areas where the "flipper" goes.  Removing the sealer in the gutter should show the spot welds and finding the spots on the front and rear pinches should be a breeze.  I'd go with swapping roof skins if it was me......

skinning '57 Custom

It has been done already by a friend of mine.   The problem is that l'm not computer savvy enough to search
the files to dig out the story.   When Günter  was here from Austria, l took him and showed the car to him.
A 57 Ford 4 door custom. was converted to a two door.   I posted it here about 4 years ago.
      I do remember that he moved the B posts back and installed 2dr custom front doors.  Then he
used the back door skins to lengthen the rear quarter panels.  The car came out beautiful.

Any thing is possable if you have the time and energy. In the late 90's & early 2000, I  converted a 2drht into a convertable. I had a very rusty 57 convert and a fairly nice 2drht [ had been hit on  pass. side] Put the hard top body on the convertable frame and went to cutting and welding from one to the other, it turned out great. You really can't tell it was a 2drht. I still have the car and love to drive it.  I guess what I am saying if you want to try it go for it. 

Quote from: Ecode70D on 2021-02-23 08:25
It has been done already by a friend of mine.   The problem is that l"m not computer savvy enough to search
the files to dig out the story.   When Guenter was here l took him and showed the car to him.
A 57 Ford 4 door custom. was converted to a two door.   I posted it here about 4 years ago.
      I do remember that he moved the B posts back and installed 2dr custom front doors.  Then he
used the back door skins to lengthen the rear quarter panels.  The car came out beautiful.

Yes, that is mostly what I have seen with the tri 5 Chevs. Rear door skins used to fill out front of quarters. Full  Custom Garage did a 54 Olds 4 door int o a 2 door hardtop with quarter fronts and door posts off the same hardtop car the doors came off.  I could probably do either method since I have both fairly complete bodies.

Quote from: Ford Blue blood on 2021-02-23 07:22
The quarters are the same.  Striping down a 57 quarter in the tail light area you will see a seam where the tail light housing area has a panel that shapes the inside portion of the tail light area.

The roof skins should inter change, not sure about the areas where the "flipper" goes.  Removing the sealer in the gutter should show the spot welds and finding the spots on the front and rear pinches should be a breeze.  I'd go with swapping roof skins if it was me......

Yes if it was just the roof skin it would be a little easier, but I have a rear window frame crushed almost to the deck lid, valance ahead of trunk lid slighttly bent in, trunk lid ruined and the windshield frame hit hard enough to crack the glass. If it is bent, it is very little though...

And the 57 is better documented for title purposes. Have a MO bill of sale for an auto from a dealer down there that should sail thru in MN. Have more 57 than 58 fenders, and the 57 is probably a slightly more sought-after car than a 58. But, I like them both.

But then again, the 58 has better floors and trunk. Near pristine compared to most projects. 57 needs some floor and trunk repairs, but not a lot.  Dash and gauges much better in the 58. Have more 58 hoods than 57. Would need another 57 deck lid, but the 58 deck lid is perfect, as is the rear valance. No roof to mess with beyond the posts. Both front and rear 58 glass are tinted and good, although I could swap those along with the roof too...

All the suspension and steering are in a lot better shape on the 58, although that could be swapped over too. 

But, that all seems like it would add up to a lot more time and work than putting the doors and posts, along with front of quarters on the 58. I could put 57 tail light housings and fenders on the 58 too, but that could complicate the title process since it has a 58 frame vin.

So, idk.. But I would kind of like save one or the other....

Quote from: alvin stadel on 2021-02-23 09:15
Any thing is possable if you have the time and energy. In the late 90's & early 2000, I  converted a 2drht into a convertable. I had a very rusty 57 convert and a fairly nice 2drht [ had been hit on  pass. side] Put the hard top body on the convertable frame and went to cutting and welding from one to the other, it turned out great. You really can't tell it was a 2drht. I still have the car and love to drive it.  I guess what I am saying if you want to try it go for it.

Yes, my convertible was very rusty too, but I had a custom 4 door as parts car and I used cowl, some floor sections, new footwells all around, inner and outer rockers. Replaced doors, trunk lid with those from a salvage yard in ND. Bumpers, trim, just about everything except frame, windshield frame, top mechanism, tub area, and top half of quarters.

Lower half of quarters and frame mounts are new repro, lower valance under trunk off the custom as well as spare tire well and entire front clip. Tunnel from a retractable parts car, different dash and gauges.that I have not installed yet but have several, both 57 and 58. Have put a lot of work in it, but $1500 convertibles from the 50's are generally very rough cars.. I enjoy it though.

    I have swapped 57 and 58 trunk floors. The only difference is the location of the bumper jack hold down tab which has to be
moved.  The floors look the same. 
    When removing the panels, try to do it by drilling out the spot welds.   The whole job is very easy.  You will have a lot of fun
and self satisfaction with this swap knowing that you did  it yourself.

It does give one a sense of satisfaction to take what some people consider beyond repair and bring it back to utility. Never suspected that when I took a high school metal shop course merely to fulfill a graduation requirement that it would stick with me permanently, eventually becoming a chosen and joyous distraction from a unrelated career and so complementary to my intense interest in old cars.

I did my 73 Mach clone replacement trunk and tail light panel taking out all the spotwelds and mimicking them as you suggest. Time-consuming but looks better when it is done that way, although nobody ever sees most of the work anyway due to carpeted floors and trunk mats. Body exterior panel repair requiring lots of rust repair or partial panel replacement and panel sectioning I think is even trickier, being it is what everyone sees and the tendency of larger repairs in low crown areas to cause warpage.

Been watching some Fitzee Fabrications you tube videos. That guy is good, not fast probably, but good. He can do so much with basic metalworking tools.

Repairing wheel arches:
https://youtu.be/mU46MpCXD3g

Making body mounts with basic tools:
https://youtu.be/bsP_bvQfOWw

Making rust replacement panels:
https://youtu.be/FZRuaT2obb4

He has a bunch of videos and I am amazed at how he can tackle just about anything on metal repair using mostly ordinary everyday tools.

Quote from: alvin stadel on 2021-02-23 09:15
Any thing is possable if you have the time and energy. In the late 90's & early 2000, I  converted a 2drht into a convertable. I had a very rusty 57 convert and a fairly nice 2drht [ had been hit on  pass. side] Put the hard top body on the convertable frame and went to cutting and welding from one to the other, it turned out great. You really can't tell it was a 2drht. I still have the car and love to drive it.  I guess what I am saying if you want to try it go for it.

Well, looks like a long time ago I posted the prospect of doing a conversion of a 57 or 58 4 door into a 2 door. 

But, recently while waiting for backordered EMS parts (rockers) for 56 Merc and also stymied waiting for mechanical parts for swapping a 455 Buick into a 56 Dodge 2 dr sedan, I went out and cut up the 58 Ford convertible parts car. I have almost the whole 58 convertible in pieces, but had stripped off all the unboltable parts years ago and stored them.

Have decided to try to make one of the very solid 58 four door sedans into a convertible. Since I have the "tub" with door posts I can probably just use patch panels for lower front quarter sections which are rusted on the convertible. Could probably use rear door section pieces if I had to, but the factory stuff is easier though maybe more rust repair involved.

Since the convertible perimeter frame was also very rusty and the 4 door frame is very good, decided to weld the X frame into the 4 door frame before cutting the top off. Ended up having to spend a week fixing up parts of the X frame anyway, but whatever. Solid and clean now.

Since the four door quarters and wheelwells are also very good, decided that I will leave as much of the original four door sheet metal as possible.  Have not figured out how I will graft it all together yet, but where there is a will there is a way. Lots of cutting and welding no doubt. Feel free to make suggestions on grafting it together.

I have the whole 58 top mechanical parts, though front bow is really rough (tree fell on it). Have drilled out all the front sheet metal bow and straightened it in case I just can't find another. But that is pretty marginal to work with, so if anyone has a line on 57-58 front header bow and/or top of windshield frame from a convertible LMK.

Had thought about using the whole rear quarters from the convertible and grafting that in with the tub, but the sheet metal on the 4 door is a lot cleaner and one side of the convertible quarter has rust holes up around the Fairlane 500 trim, so decided the best approach is probably to keep as much of the four door sheet metal as possible instead.  Hopefully that was not a mistake, but I think it will work.

I have a couple retractable parts cars that have the same floors as a convertible and at minimum can use the taller floor tunnel common to retractable and convertible to allow room to get the X frame where it is supposed to be. And having the 57 convertible to compare with also, has me reasonably confident.

I have laid eyes and hands on the '57 Convertible Alvis made. It is a superb piece of work that unless one was told otherwise, no one would ever know was not a convertible from the factory. Lines are spot on and everything lines up as it should. Bet he will be a lot of help for you with info. Good luck!!!

Quote from: mustang6984 on 2021-09-13 00:37
I have laid eyes and hands on the '57 Convertible Alvis made. It is a superb piece of work that unless one was told otherwise, no one would ever know was not a convertible from the factory. Lines are spot on and everything lines up as it should. Bet he will be a lot of help for you with info. Good luck!!!

       Someone told me that there are guys on this site with a lot of talent and I believe it. 

Yes, that input would be useful with respect to locating all the "tub" components in particular. I have left those components still all welded together thinking that should preserve all the dimensions of those parts in relation to one another, but makes it complicated to figure out how to install all together that way. 

But once the metal top is off the car and back glass is out maybe it will become apparent to me. Also the convertible and retractable used different and less flexible body mounts, so will be interested to see if he recalls how he dealt with that.

Not sure if he used a whole convertible frame installed under a hardtop body or altered the hardtop frame by welding in the big X member either, but I am doing the latter cuz the 58 convertible perimeter frame was rusted beyond repair, plus the 58 sedan frame and VIN are already titled and licensed. 

I still had to replace multiple parts of the big X frame because of rust and PO clearancing for more exhaust pipe clearance and more E  brake cable clearance. Some of the same X frame repairs were needed on my 57 convertible.

Also replaced both sides of vertical connectors in the rear of X frame with new metal almost twice as thick and re-welded and strengthened the front of X frame too cuz 58 factory welding of frame was apparently just as crappy as 57 factory frame welding. Looked like they ran out of welding gas and just kept welding anyway, very porous.. Should be very strong now though.