You can't calculate a formula to find out why it's great; you just know it when you see it. This has been the philosophy of Jay Dean at the Nostalgia Ranch as he has been cutting and stitching the top on this Ford shoebox. His plan was to lower the lid and convert the sedan into a hardtop. We left you last month with the sedan's top sitting a lot lower on the body but still needing some fine-tuning.
This month we'll show how Jay tackled the A-pillars and eliminated the B-pillars with a hardtop conversion. We haven't given many measurements during any of these steps because Jay feels you really need to cut a little, stand back to take a look, and then repeat until it looks right to your eye. If you don't trust your own eye, invite some friends over and get their opinions. The point is, every car will to tell you how it looks best. Follow along for some tips to apply to your own custom.
Here's where we left you last...
Here's where we left you last month. The top looked good to the eye, but it needed a lot more work to get things to line up.
Although Jay likes to work...
Although Jay likes to work from the back of the car to the front when he's removing the roof, he likes to work from the front to the back when reapplying it.
Jay measured the opening height...
Jay measured the opening height to match it to the other side a few times as he worked.
Here we're eyeballing how...
Here we're eyeballing how everything meets at the C-pillar and wondering how best to join the two together.
You get a really good idea...
You get a really good idea of the difference of the old and new rooflines in this picture.
Jay decided to cut a relief...
Jay decided to cut a relief into the body so he could slide the roof out to where he wanted the lip edges to line up.
But meet they will. It takes...
But meet they will. It takes a lot of grunting, bending, twisting, and pulling, but eventually they meet up and get tacked in place.
But wait, there's more. Time...
But wait, there's more. Time to lose the rain gutters. They're not part of our plan since we're going to be welding the door tops onto the roof for a smooth look.
The piece he cut out of the...
The piece he cut out of the door was trimmed to fit and then tack welded in place as well.
With the rear tacked in place,...
With the rear tacked in place, Jay moved back up front to finish up the tops of the A-pillars.
Jay held the door top flush...
Jay held the door top flush against the roof and then tack welded it in place.
With the door tops welded...
With the door tops welded to the roof, they've obviously moved the distance of the original door gap closer to the roof, which means the front portion of our door was going to have to be modified to do the same.
Here you have the front of...
Here you have the front of the roof pretty much done. Easy, huh?
Jay carefully cut along the...
Jay carefully cut along the marked lines and then cut the piece away from the inner structure of the door.
About 1 inch of the front...
About 1 inch of the front edge of the piece was then cut off and welded to the inner structure to form a much tighter gap for the front edge of the door.
The curved reveal piece was...
The curved reveal piece was then trimmed to fit so the reveal would line up with the earlier reveal welded to the top.
With the front door top pretty...
With the front door top pretty well welded in place, Jay had to reshape the area around the top of the old B-pillar.
Here's the roof trimmed away...
Here's the roof trimmed away and the door pillar piece trimmed to fill the space.
The same thing needed to be...
The same thing needed to be done at the bottom of the old B-pillar where the door meets the rear of the car.
Again, we pirate a piece of...
Again, we pirate a piece of the B-pillar to make a patch panel that goes in place and gets a nice little curve to it to make it more interesting to the eye of the beholder.
The same thing was done for...
The same thing was done for the door.
Next month we'll see what...
Next month we'll see what Jay had to do to get this mess lined up.