ClassicCar

No problem Chaz, glad they worked for you! Man, your ride sure is coming along beautifully. Very nice workmanship too. And thanks for your generosity in the beautiful gifts you sent Dima and I!

What are you doing about the quarter windows? I don't remember, though I'm sure you told me before.

Jay

P.S. You'll have to drive out this way when you've got her done and have some of Tanya's great cooking!

Hi Bent,
Probably neither! It will eventually evolve into either a 2-door hardtop or a 3-window coupe. If I go with the 2-door hardtop route, I already have a set of 1956 Chevy hardtop rear window control mechanisims I can use. I have the complete inner panels from the Chevy which can be welded directly in place in the Hudson which will save a lot of time and effort of mounting these mechanisims. If I go with the 3-window coupe style, then there will be no back side windows, just the long door glass in the doors. See Photoshopped pic below.
Just tossing around ideas since ideas are cheaper than cutting up real metal. Does all this make sense?
Peace,
Chaz

How about a chopped top?

It'll be chopped 3 1/4". 2 1/4 inches will be taken out of the A pillar vertically and the other 1" from the roof skin. The rear tulip panel will be extended to mate with the new roof line. Possibly turning the rear window upside down which will be similar to the '51 Mercury.
Peace,
Chaz

bent metal wrote:

Awesome! How long before you start on that part of the job? ...I'm anxious!

LOL!! So is Mrs. Bojigger! . . .

jsrail wrote:

I think someone in Australia did one and the pic was floating around here somewhere. It was beautifully done and Chaz is right on track to be just as nicely done. We all await anxiously Chaz's updates to this thread.

think that's snazzy, you should see his Ford! Mods are out-STANDING!!

Yeah, daddy.

mrsbojigger wrote:

I now have the door posts on both sides cut to their new size and welded in place and both rear panels mounted to them.
I'm now working on lengthening the doors. I've already cut one of them in half. That was quite scary seeing the door laying there in 2 pieces! It's head scratching time on how do I ever rejoin these pieces with a 4" filler in the middle and still keep everything straight. More later!
Peace,
Chaz

Great progress Chaz!

I'd look to weld up an adjustable "jig" or internal/exo-skeleton to temporarily hold the pieces semi-rigid and actually mount hinges and the door to get your alignment correct, then tack weld the structure so it's rigid.

Then you can remove the door as a single piece and template your new filler piece knowing the jig will hold everything in place as you weld it up.

mrsbojigger wrote:

Dan,
WHAT?
Boy that was a mouth full in just a couple of sentences. I had to re-read it 3 times before I understood. Yes, that's exactly what I will do. I'll make some sort of jig to keep everything in aligment as per your input.
Peace,
Chaz

I was trying to describe my thoughts without a picture!More like WTF, eh?

The door shell without windows and regulators, weight-wise is easy to work with.

My thinking was to make a box frame with a sliding component that lets you adjust the width of the door pieces while it's mounted to the car.

Then once you get the door opening and closing with the correct gaps - tighten or tack weld the adjustment on the box frame - then pop the door off to build/weld-in the filler pieces.

At least you're not also doing a chop/section - then you'd have to adjust the door both directions!

Now here's where this stretching the doors gets a little weird. I'm very particular with measurements since my background is being a mapping draftsman for many years. I don't like anything over a 64th off. I had already stretched the left door and it is working fine. When I went to the right side of the car to stretch the door something was off and I couldn't figure what it was. The door was in the correct location bolted to the cowl, the newly created B-posts were the exact same measurements back from the cowl on both sides. What was wrong? I measured and re-measured and spent half the day working on the problem. I even made a template of the curves on the front of the right door and compared it to the left side. It matched!
Then the AHAA! light bulb went off in my head and I solved the problem. I measured the lengths of the front fenders. The right front fender is 1/4" longer than the left fender and pressing back into the door causing it not to shut properly. The car has never been in a wreck and these are the original fenders from the factory. Go figure!
Peace,
Chaz

bent metal wrote:

haha, I'm not surprised. I've had similar experiences. On one 47 pick-up I did, I had to move the "B" pillar forward 5/16" from it's original position just so I could make everything look right.
My advise (not that you need any), don't get too hung up on measurements. They had a little "give and take" and "that's good enough", when they made these things in production. Which I'm sure you know.
Your car looks great! Keep the pictures coming.

Unlike the AMC Pacer , they probably kept the tolerances larger for fitting because many parts where still hand formed?

That would be my guess, unless the presses of the time didn't keep good tolerances after use which would also predicate a larger margin of error in fitting.

Well more than likely I'll use the OEM method of dealing with it. After studying it for a while it looks as if I could just insert a shim behind the door hinges so the door moves back enough to give a nice gap since there was NO gap at all. That would sure beat major surgery on the fender. Sounds as if I'm getting a little weary of making corrections doesn't it?
Peace,
Chaz

Yep! The right fender IS longer by 1/4". I measured it again just make certain but the whole front end sheet metal fits together OK.
I think the shim on the door hinge should get everything back into homeostatis. I tested it and it works. A little odd but it works.
Peace,
Chaz

That would also account for why they're not all that way.

They would certainly replace the dies when stampings were going this far out of spec, because everything else is affected. A few probably slipped out in the mean time.

A solid shim of the right thickness should be just the ticket. You obviously didn't need to hear that from me, but in my humble opinion that's the thing to do.

I now have both doors cut and extended to their correct measurements. It's a good fit horizontally. I used Dan's idea of a jig on the back side that is welded in place to hold everything in place. Both doors are now secured to the car and awaiting the center skins to be welded in place. They both work quite well after some tweaking. I'm sure there will be many tweaking sessions before it is finished. I will need to cut the horizontal body reveal and move down slightly to match the continuing line on the rear fender panel. That will be done when I add the filler pieces.

If you are wondering why the vertical cut towards the middle of the door instead of at the end of the door, there really was a reason. The problem with extending the door near the end has to do with the straight horzontal slot for the side window vs the curve of the body thru that area. If you cut near the end of the door it will not allow for the extension of the glass and you have to modify the complete outer curved line to keep the straight line of the slot for the glass. Understand? By cutting in the exact middle of the apex of the crown of the curved sheet metal it leaves the same amount of sheet metal on both sides of the cut and then is just a matter of filling in. Yeah, I know! More photos would help explain.

The weather here is not helping so I can work on the body. I have to work just a few minutes at a time and get back in the air conditioning. It is presently 103.6 degrees outside, and "No Jay, it's not a dry heat!".
Peace,
Chaz

Good morning Hotrod (real name here),
To answer your question, there has been some progress on the car but in different areas which didn't fall into the category of "steps towards being a 2-door". I have working on the cold air induction hoses and routing thru the right inner fender panel and on my stealth instrument panel that will be hidden inside the dash behind the stock instruments. I had also been prepping my '47 Ford convertible custom for a Veterans Day Car Show. Had a great time in Kerrville and my car not only won "Best in Show" but a 1st Place in it's Early Custom Rod category.
I just got back to working on the lengthened door panels for the last two days. I finished forming and welding up the inner sheet metal panels with the exception of a bunch of lightening holes. The goal is to have the new lengthened doors weigh no more than the stock door. It'll be a challenge but I think it can be done.
Peace,
Chaz

Because they are looooooonnnnnggg! They are now 53 5/8" long.
When lengthening anything which which has a pivot point in the middle (lower hinge point in this case) you are extending the fulcrum which in turn expotentially puts more down force on the moving object at the opposite end of the pivot point. In this case the upper hinge area. After a while hysterisis sets in and you have catastropic failure. :eek:
For now I am keeping the stock hinges but it does make a good case for Lambo doors or maybe Sliding doors. Hmmmmm! Sliding doors?
Peace,
Chaz

My OT car

Congrats Chaz! Wait 'til you see the amount of trophy's the Hud wins. I am just amazed every time you post new pics of your work. Dude, that's such a cool ride an your work is stupendous!

Now, it's in the high 60's to low 70's here. This is the one time it's really nice to be living in the desert! All kidding aside, watch that humid heat, and get in the a/c frequently like you're doing. Lot's of folks die here every year from heat, dry or the monsoon humidity.

It's finally got cool enough that I pulled the spindles and steering arms off the Dodge yesterday. I will send them Monday to CT to a company called ECI who is doing the disc brake conversion kit. This kit is $300 cheaper than AAJ's and I think a little better, because you get a new aluminum hub. Asked him about doing a kit for Hudsons and he said he hadn't any requests before, but he would look into it. Let me know if anyone is curious in a kit. (enough stealing the thread now, sorry)

Jay (finally relaxing in the cool weather!)

Just some lightening holes. Took off a full pound of weight. Hopefully it will compensate for the 4 additional inches of sheet metal.
Peace,
Chaz

Craig,

1. Back up to page 4 for first hanging of extended door.
2. Rear side windows? There will not be any rear side windows as of the latest plans. It will be a 3-window coupe.
3. Many years ago I worked for Tennesse Gas & Transmission and then later for Shell Oil Company drawing maps.

Peace,
Chaz