64 Dodge 330 4 door conversion

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.