4 door conversion

[Mark Cramond]

Found an interesting car for sale here. Was a four door MKI that has been converted to a 2 door.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Cars/Ford/auction-100042556.htm?p=3

I remember reading an article about someone trying this on the MKII and they said it could not be done. I think it was on Tommy Sandhams site.

Still, it looks like it has been done well. What would it be worth i wonder.

 

[colin]

hi mark, looks a great car. a friend if mine is in to fabricating and has converted a mk2 ford concole 4 door in to a 2 door soft top with a carlson top as well, looks realy good and am looking into doing carlson top for my cortina,

 

[Matthew]

I have to ask :? ..... what is a "carlson top"? I presume its some sort of a removable roof for a convertable car??? :?:

 

[colin]

hi mat... its a thing that started in the 50s with the hot roders in the U.S.. take the roof off a car lower the roof line then fabricate a material covered timber roof to match the lines of the car. its all hand made and to wot you as a designer wont. it can be fixed or removeable. crayfords did one for the cortina but only as a prototype. are you thinking of doing one for your car?

 

[Matthew]

Thanks Colin,
I was'nt thinking of doing one for my car...... but I'll keep it in the memory bank for future reference. 8)

 

[Benny]

Pretty cool. I remember seeing a guy on the web try it a few years ago, and completely lost the plot when he got to the C-pillars. His conclusion was "this conversion CAN NOT be done"....I guess that should have read "I can't do this conversion"

 

[garyeanderson]

Hi Benny

I believe this is the referance you are refering to.

http://freespace.virgin.net/tommy.sandham/fourintotwo.htm

Maybe Tommy Sandham could have spent more than a day on it and make it work, but concluded that it wasn't the way to go for what ever reason.

Gary

 

[colin]

just out of interest been speeking to my old man, he worked in the design shop at Ford Daganhan and with GM in AUS, he said when a drawing came from upstaires it would always be a 4 door car that thay would work on first then from that a 2 door was much easyer to produce,

 

[Rick]

I remember seeing a goodwood green 4 door mk1 that was converted to a two door all that happened was that the rear doors were welded up, it was weird looking at the car before you knew what had been done to it, as you knew something was wrong but you couldnt put your finger on it, this car was around the Southend area about 8 years ago.

 

[Jonners]

John Wood wrote an article on this published in QB ages and ages ago - mid to late 80's???

And I still consider myself to be a young man....

 

[Keith Halstead]

I remember seeing a goodwood green 4 door mk1 that was converted to a two door all that happened was that the rear doors were welded up, it was weird looking at the car before you knew what had been done to it, as you knew something was wrong but you couldnt put your finger on it, this car was around the Southend area about 8 years ago.

You're right Rick - it was Black/Gold as I recall and owned by Robbie Sloan who owned the 'experimental' car that originally had a TMP 86S registration. The four door weld up had a nice Jason Lepley motor in it when I saw it.

 

[TimB]

There was a MK2 (not lotus) for sale on ebay a while ago, 4 door, rears welded up to make 2 door. Apart from 'because it is there' reason I don't see any point or advantage for taking on such a project. I do admire the body building skills of the example at the start of this post though.

 

[Mark Cramond]

From memory the one en ebay was advertised as a Savage replica.

 

[jwoch]

Coming back to this one. Jonners pointed out I made somme suggestions a very long time ago. With current knowledge its much simpler.
On standard shells, for all practical purposes, there are only three panels different between a 2 door and a 4 door, viz. the two rear quarters and the roof.
JW