Elsewhere in this issue, you may have read about another custom '36 Ford three-window the owner started with a nicely restored stocker because he was unable to find another decent starting point. This story is the complete opposite of that. You'd have a hard time finding something that would have made this build any harder.
Geir natvig has built a few hot rods before; in fact, his newest car is a '40 Ford coupe he drives yearround in norway, which we're sure is no easy feat. Sourcing rodding raw material is also not easy there, so when his search for a decent coupe proved unfruitful, he ended up starting with a humpback sedan a friend of his found upside down in a gravel mine where it had been resting for years. Converting a sedan into a coupe would be hard enough starting with nice sheetmetal, but Geir started with something that any sane rodder wouldn't have wasted time turning into a demolition derby contender. To say the sedan was rough would be an understatement.
I've never been to norway, but I'm guessing the folks there have more minutes in their hours and more days in their months. even more incredible than the fact that the humpback sedan's conversion to a coupe looks this good is that it was all done by Geir in his shop in one year while still working fulltime at his day job.
Geir is obviously someone who likes a challenge, and his favorite part of a build is working with his metalshaping tools and machinery, most of which he made himself. One glance at the sedan he started with and it's clear he really enjoyed himself with this one.
"I want my projects to cost as little as possible, and I do all of the work myself," Geir said. "It's more important to do it myself than having a 110 percent result." By taking this approach, he was able to keep his investment in the coupe down to $10,000 (u.S. dollars) after he traded some labor for the humpback and a '80 Malibu parts car.
Geir said the most challenging part of the buildup was locating the parts and making sure the lines flowed right while mocking it up in his small shop. He couldn't get much more than 6 feet away from it to get a good overall look, but you wouldn't know it from the final result.
Geir is already kicking around a few possible changes for the coupe, including making a new aluminum grille based on a LaSalle but with a shape more suitable for the '36 Ford in his eye.
As the saying goes, "Behind every good man is a good woman," and Geir would like to thank his girlfriend, Kristin, for all her support during his long hours in the garage.