You need to keep an eye on me doing the floors, otherwise I might 'accidentally' weld them in so it really IS that low...

I suspect that if you channelled it that much, we might need to do something with the cab roof, too...

Move the seats back and put some window holes in the loadspace roof?

i made the model of your car russ

can't remember which thread it came from but i want one of my car now, it's cool

Breaking this and starting again. The shell is for sale (see the flea market section) but I'm going to keep the chassis, make it stronger and repaint it all (it's currently bamboo green). While that's happening I'm going to take 2cm out of each front suspension arm and give it some more negative camber so I don't keep destroying front wings. As soon as the shell is sold I'm looking at replacing it with an old one (4 light, suicide doors, flat rear panel).

I'd have liked to have done some more meetings with it as it is but although it does look quite cool it's not the best I can do.

Russell,

I've often wondered if it would be possible to take the hinge section off a back door, and attach it to a standard front door. Then fabricate a B panel front hinge (or steal one off another B Post) and attach the old doors with some adapted back latches at the A post. Might it be possible for a demon welder like yourself?

You could then keep the modern bonnet weld up the 3rd window and make yourself a '62-'64 look alike. Of course you'd also have to fabricate a flat back panel too though.

Much less work though to get an old shell from leboncoin or something I guess but maybe that could be expensive?

Like the sound of your project though looks cool today but that would be cooler. Did you say you are going to negative camber at the front though? I haven't heard of that before.

Chris

You're right, I've considered using a B pillar reversed and welded the opposite side and using rear door hinges. However, this isn't a 5 minute job when you take into account the door latches have to be moved and the front doors need a lot of reworking to get the handles at the front. Old doors use a different hinge to late ones (even the rear door hinge is actually rolled the other way) so it'd be much easier to use old doors and an old B pillar. welding over the rear window apertures is ok in theory but in practice it's likely to cause a lot of distortion. it's be simpler to replace the rear 1/4 panel and spotweld a new one in. likewise with the back panel. Once I'd cut the off the B pillar, the back panel and the rear 1/4s, along with the entire floor from bulkhead to bootfloor, I might aswell start with another shell that has all the desired parts there beforehand. I've certainly thought a lot about using the shell I already have, but I'd like to start afresh.

Once the fabrication required for the shell is in place and all the parts are basically reworked into the lowered body then I can start to strip the chassis down and get things painted, and reassembled.

I'm keen to use a ripple bonnet too, and I think they have a lower profile to the later bonnets which poses issues with the alternator and oil filler, and probably the headlamp bar too. Nico, who's airride 2cv we featured got around this problem by lowering the engine and the front chassis crossmember, which seems like a good idea and something I'll think about doing. The chassis needs a lot of strength putting into it too, there's a large hole worn through the bottom of it and it's a pretty feeble effort to start with.







First things first, I need rid of the green shell, and to find one of these..





Or, I'm wondering about maybe something like this...

Hmmmm?

Low, silver with black rims.

You and me both buddy, I'd love a four light suicide door job.

While speaking of modifications. I'm not a welder, how difficult/easy is it for a welder to add the earlier type rear light panel to a later shell to be able to have those cute little 1960's rear lights?

(Did I just say cute... )