I've owned this 330 4 door for several years now. Clean and solid Texas car that looks good but just doesn't do it being a 4 door. A guy who used to work for me retired recently and is doing body/paint work as a retirement activity.

Talked to him a while back about a conversion project to make this into a 2 door, and after doing some measuring and thinking he said he was game and wanted to get started.

I dropped the car off last weekend and he's already got the interior stripped and was hard at work measuring and planning cuts for the conversion. He has a sound plan, and I'm really psyched about the project.

Already he has had a few people stop by his shop who couldn't believe I was having him cut up this clean old 4 door.

Here's the donor car. Found it on racingjunk.com. The poor car was just about the rustiest 65 I'd ever seen: floors, cowl, hood, trunk lid, rear window, you name it. Somehow the doors survived pretty well intact and all 4 door panel shells are there.

I already sold off the front fenders and the car came with a good running slant 6.

Nice to see solid floor pans, although I did discover one section had been previously repaired and is going to need to be redone.

Don't have a picture of it yet but it looks like there may be just the start of some cowl rust on the driver's side. Gery wants to tear into that too.

awesome deal Larry....when your done will trade heads up for the 66 Belvedere I LOL

Any updates on the 62?

Thank you for asking about the 62. I'm afraid I've not touched it for some time now. It's covered up in a safe corner for now.

Body guy got sidetracked on a couple late model repairs that consumed him for a few weeks, but he's back at it now. The door post is gone on the passenger side.

Starting to cut on the parts car. It's pretty neat that the door opening flange is identical on both the 4 dr and the 2 dr, so aligning the inner quarter opening is simplified somewhat.

The rear quarter window channel frame attaches to the roof of the car with sheet metal screws, making removal easy. Someone had told me this some time back, but before work started, with my feeble mind I wasn't sure if I'd imagined this or had actually been told. Guess a few memory brain cells are still firing.

The rear window mechanism was actually still free and moved up and down pretty well; a small miracle considering how tough the car looks on the outside.

Looks like we can cut down the 4 dr rear door window channel, which is in good shape, to fit in the rear quarter window opening without much trouble.

He's got the outer quarter panel sheet metal pretty well cut and is measuring to determine the best way to provide drainage from the inner quarter cavity into the existing rocker panel box. After he gets the section off the parts car he's going to hang the 2 dr door and start trial fitting.

This is an awesome thread, looking forward to all the pictures you'd care to post.

I can appreciate the concept.My son has a 96 chevy Impala 4-door,and was offended when I told him it wasn't really a muscle car because it was a 4 door.Back in the day 4 doors were family cars,all muscle cars were 2 doors.Good luck,sounds like fun!

Good progress on the conversion. I'd posted earlier about drainage provisions for the inner quarter. Gary decided to duplicate the rocker panel of the original 2 door. I'm happy with the approach.

It's a bit tough to make out in the photo. Picture was taken looking down through the window opening. The outer quarter skin is to the right, inside of the car to the left and door jamb at the top of the photo. You can see the anchor points for the door striker.

Decided to use the rear door skin for the majority of the panel, since it was so straight and solid. Still need to fill in the door handle holes and make the final corner at the rear of the quarter window opening. The panel lines up well. Trial fitted a piece of side trim and it lined up very nicely.

I'm amazed at how this changes the look of the car. Door opening looks to be good. Door is pretty close to aligned already.

View from inside. The inner quarter needs to be welded in yet and I believe there's one brace to go in as well. You can see the poor donor car in the background.

We discussed the importance of duplicating the real 2 door appearance, so Gary is overlaping metal where the normal qtr/rocker panel seam is.

That is a cool project!I love post cars keep up the pics.

Gary has the car sitting up level again and has filled in the door handle holes and installed the finishing piece in the rear corner of the window opening.

Some discussion about trim. I've not found any yet, but don't want to fill in the trim holes and eliminate it all. Think we'll leave the original trim holes in place and I've got to search for new clips.

looking good Larry!wow what a difference.....cant wait to see that 1 on the road....64 330/440 Dodge 2 door sedans are 1 of my favorite Dodges.

Work continues. The inner quarter is just about all welded back in place.

Sealing the welded seams before bodywork starts. The rear window top frame is in place now.

The driver's side pillar is gone now and Gary has replaced the floor pan section which had been repaired previously. All the parts have been cut off of the donor car now, which is sitting out in the bitter cold we've been seeing the past days. Man am I sick of winter!

OMG OMG Where's the '62

Driver's side post is tacked in place. Fitment on this side is proving a bit tougher. Apparently there's production variation in door opening height from side to side, as the driver's door is a slightly tighter fit up and down than was seen on the passenger side. We wondered if perhaps someone had redone the bottom of the door at some point and it ended up being taller. Will find out once that one is stripped down.

Starting to line up the old rear door skin. Gary said a neighbor stopped by earlier and thought 'adding the little rear door' was a nice touch.

View to the inside of the car. Driver's door is visible in the background.

Stripped the passsenger door to assess condition. Not too bad at all considering how rusty the donor car was. This was the original door to the donor, judging from overspray. It does not appear we'll be as lucky with the driver's door, which will need some work.

Chapper, thanks for asking about the '62. It's still sitting covered up waiting for the sun to come out again, although I did drag home another one a few weeks ago to keep it company. Wish I'd found this second one first or I'd have started with it for sure, as it still has floors in it for the most part!

Work continues. Driver's side is welded up, window corner piece is in place and door handle holes welded up. Ready to start sealing the seams.

Being an old stock car racer, Gary even had his angle checker out verifying the door jamb angles are correct and consistent side to side.

View from the front. I'm very pleased with the progress. He's welding in the inner panel today, installing the window channel and will start body work shortly.

This is a really cool project! I like the look of the 2-door cant wait too see what it looks like all done

Larry did you buy that 62 Plymouth from IL?

Hi Bill. I did buy the one from the DeKalb area. Happy with the purchase. The worst part of the whole deal was the heater core in my Dodge decided to plug up some. We about froze to death until the sun came out during the day but then froze again on the way home the same evening. I don't think I warmed back up for 2 days after getting back home! I was ready to set my truck on fire by the time we pulled into the driveway.

General update, no pictures to show at this time. Gary had been struggling for the past few days trying to finalize door alignment on both sides. He was having a heck of a time getting the doors to fit the door opening properly.

I stopped out to see how he was doing. After looking at the car for a while, and double checking all his before/after measurements, I suggested he take it down off the jack stands and let it sit on all 4 wheels for a couple days. I've always been amazed how much a unibody car moves around when lifting on an asymetric hoist and wondered if the body was reacting to support being provided at the subframe arms front and back. Even this one being a 4 door and very solid, you could see changes in the door gaps on the hoist vs the floor.

Checked it today and things are looking better. He's on to try and make the final adjustments. Lesson learned I guess.

Body guy had been side tracked for the past several weeks redoing a Corvette for a very anxious customer. Since it's still snowing here, the delay didn't concern me at all.

I was glad to see him get that out of his system as he's thrilled to be back working on steel again.

First coat of primer is on the driver's side.

Passenger door was pretty decent as far as rust goes, but had its' share of dents and creases.

Passenger side is shaping up well. He's trial fitted the rear quarter glass and mechanisms and everything fits back together again.

Gary has discovered evidence of the car having been hit in the front at some point. There is some slight cowl damage behind the front fender and he had to space the lower door hinge out a bit to get the door alingment where he wanted it.

Work continues. Passenger's side coming together.

Driver's side getting close.

Inside looks pretty well finished up, other than the custom window crank handle.

Getting closer. Gary hoped to paint the jams today.

Long view of driver's side

Last one for today

Getting closer. Long view of passenger side.

Door jams are painted.

Floor pans cleaned up and painted.

Car is painted. These photos were taken the next morning, so it's not been buffed yet. Overall looks pretty good.

Rear view

View down rear quarter, where used to reside an extra opening and door handle! Sure changes the look of the car.

One more for today. I'm told Gary is buffing today.

looking good Larry!

You are really getting into that cream color, aren't you?
I like WHITE!!!

How is the 64 coming??

Thanks for the follow up guys. The car is back together and home. I had to buy a new computer with a new and improved version of windows, which has proven to be just about useless for me. Pictures won't load, email craps out half of the time, etc.

Anyway, I'm happy with the conversion results. Still adjusting the doors so they shut the way I want and have to install the split bench and new carpet yet. Thanks again!

Other side. Can't believe it's the same car.

Love to see more pictures when you have the time.
I was hoping you were going to paint it white.

Might want to think about frame ties, looks like he cut away the rocker skin to reveal the inner brace for drainage?

For 'some reason',,this thread was clear back on page 6....

Your car turned out great. I want to do this again to a Valiant that I have. I did my rear section differently and didn't take apart the added rear window rear quarter section. Did you but well the rear of the added on door sheetmetal and overlap the front of the door sheetmetal to weld it? Did you use the 4 door post or the two door post. How did you get the metal to lay flat and smooth before welding on the 1/4 panel?

Chapper has my wife put you up to bugging me about finishing projects? I do appreciate the interest though!

Abody, thank you for the comment and questions. Have to use the 2 door post as the 4 door is completely different on these. I suspect you'll find a similar issue on the Valiant.

We did overlap the door skin at the front as you can see in one of the earlier photos. This made it easier to keep it flat and in line and provided enough room to blend in when done. The back end was as you suspected butt welded. With the inner panel gone (since it was a 4 door opening to begin with) it wasn't too hard to support the skin from the back side in order to weld on the outside. The inner panel was added back in later on.

Since posting these I've heard from several others who've done the conversion with different techniques. Certainly the cleanest is to be able to use full front quarters off the donor car. My donor was too rusty to do that with. We settled on the door skins as the next best option.

It had also been suggested here that we weld in subframe connectors because of the cutting done to the rocker boxes. That was an insightful suggestion.

I deemed it not to be required as the rocker boxes were rewelded to duplicate the construction of the original 2 door rockers. This wasn't obvious in the photos I'd posted. I've had it up and down on the asymetric hoist a number of times and watched to see if the door openings changed shape. So far at least there's less movement now than there was with the 4 doors. This seems to make sense considering the sheet metal added to make up the front quarters.

If I was going to put slicks and healthy engine in it I'm sure this would need to be revisited. For now I just can't wait for the sun to come out again. 3" of snow again yesterday. We might actually reach 30 degrees outside tomorrow.

Hope this helps. Best of luck with your conversion!

did you want to trade it for a clean 66 Belvedere I? LOL

Looks great! Thanks for the detailed pics documenting the conversion.