58 Belvedere project

[mikes2nd]

Cutting the donor roof off the rusty original 2dr ht Belvedere...

Obtained a nearly rust free 2 door post body from John @ Big M...

Chopping up the rest of the body today. The seller actually got one rocker and quarter panel done... but was in serious trouble as there were no real floor pans or trunk sheet metal available and it would have been years to finish so I bought it. I have been collecting parts for over 6-7 years while i worked on my Dodge and various other cars.

Getting the spare body on the frame hopefully before the weather turns real bad.

I will be plasmaing the cowl off today...

 

[57fury440]

There are not too many reproduction parts made for 57/58 Plymouths. Switching the roof is a great idea. That sedan body looks nice and solid. I've had quite a few 57/58 Plymouths over the years, but I always kept the one in my Avatar. Good luck with it. These cars are worth the work.

 

[mikes2nd]

My original car was horrible... I didn't even really need to cut it, it practically fell apart... I have no idea how the rockers could be essentially gone...
The previous owner had repaired the passenger inner and outer and it was pretty much a fail. I saved SOOO much time... Now i dont have to build the entire body.
I had purchased a floor pan, but still i would have had to reweld the entire body...

 

[mikes2nd]

Lol i cant believe i was even thinking about trying to "weld" this back up... I knew it was bad but never really assessed the state of the vehicle... basically i would have rewelded the whole car.

I am way over cutting to be careful not toss anything i might need. I will need to drill holes in the donor cars wheel housing and weld underneath. Its doable...

Interesting they built the wheel housings into the quarters and then slapped them all together. floorpan... then upper back... brought in quarters and zipped it all together...

 

[57fury440]

Switching the roof was the right way to go. Even 2 door sedans are not that easy to find. Could that hardtop have been repaired, yes but way too much money and work. The way you are doing it, you will end up with a nice solid car and a much more enjoyable project.

 

[mikes2nd]

this thing is brutal... it's held together by dirt.

 

[mikes2nd]

almost gone... I now know how these cars were fully assembled... the quarter panels were built separately depending on the doors. Floors were the same but the rear deck panels are differnt, trunk floors the same, the outer skins the same, but the inner is different, and the wheel housings were preattched to the quarters before assembly