69 Belvedere 4 door to 2 door conversion

I bought this car over a month ago on ehay. Looked too cool for the price to pass up and wasn't much info in the auction. Someone talked me into buying it, so took a chance without more info since it was in the south west. I figured worst case good parts car. Well it arrived, floor was shot, lots of wiring and stuff I didn't like plus a slant 6/3 speed with a floor shifter I couldn't shift well I didn't want to put $ into a 4 door so decided instead of cutting up for parts, I'd make it into something I'd like.

So here it is, the not as easy a the older b-body 4 to 2 door conversion.

How it looked when it arrived:

Time to start cutting!

Roof had to go

More metal removal

And the donor and roof section

And with a little help setting in place, the roof section went on fairly easy

All welded at pinch weld and so on... and new quarter starting to be installed

Quarters fit so good, goodmark, that I got them and the deck filler done in an afternoon... still some welding to finish, but more than happy with how well it went

That's as far as I got on it in the last week or so now. My garage is too full so have to work on it outside. Weather didn't agree yesterday.

I can say it wasn't the easiest conversion, but definitely not the most difficult either. I still have to change the roof skin. I wanted to use a structure that was all one piece to keep things square.

I was told I was crazy for taking doing this... but I don't think it was any worse than doing full frame rails and such.

will be watching this one. crazy? maybe so, but isn't anyone messing with old cars?
you got some mad skills there!

Very nice! I'd have done the same thing...if I had your welding and fabrication skills, lol.

I already have two 2 doors, but both I couldn't justify cutting/modifying to do what I wanted with. The satellite is already redone and way too original... my roadrunner is 95% plus original sheetmetal. So figured with this I'd have no problem putting in a rollbar, minitub it and so on. It will be a street car, but more of a track car.

It really was easy in my mind, just a ton of cutting and drilling. I did the apillars to the factory spots. The rear panels to rocker and wheel houses, they were in between, so I overlapped and welded in place... reason for the seam sealer. That and I wasn't going for a perfect factory look. This was far less work than drilling thousands of spot welds to use the good panels on a rusty car.

I learned how to do body work on wrecked cars. Doing clip, rad supports etc. So this was really no different than that. When it's done it will look just like any other 2 door and you'd really have to look to tell it was a 4 door... or look at the vin

Wait, who's this fool that "talked" you into that car???

Ha! At first I thought yeah that guy is nuts. But really this is a great project and another 69 stays on the road. Kudo's!

Sheldon

The same guy who told me to put the pipe down I was smoking when I said I was going to do this

When I was all in pieces I felt like I was nuts. Had it been solid and not needing rust repair, I probably would have left it a 4 door. But 2 of the 4 doors are damaged, floors front to back and the rear window opening was shot including the corner sections that are part of the quarters. Then the package tray was all hacked up too.

You're a better man than I. I'd have bet money you couldn't convert that vintage. Whole lot more difficult than the early-mid 60's b bodies. Well done!

Your not the only one who thought that. I have plenty of b-bodies around to look at plus built quite a few over the years... so did all my research by comparing them on my own. I couldn't find much info on the differences. There are more things I got to do to finish the conversion, like the rockers dip in where the post previously was. But the hard parts definitely done. Now to get some other cars done in the shop, so I can get it inside and do some body work.

SW PA isn't too far for me...I may have to ride up and check this out...As you found out its much easier to hack up something with no real value than something rare and original...Nice Job thus far...

A frankenbee sold on ebay once, they'd split a superbee horizontally to get rid of lower body rust and welded that to the bottom from a 4-door.

It has a WM23M9A VIN on it when finished.

Donor

End result

Definitely more of that bee used than of the rr I used. I believe 4 door vs 2 door coronet has a different wheelhouses. I was told that at least. I know for sure plymouth are the same at least physically, not sure on part #.

I haven't made any progress on it since the last pics. Just too much other stuff going on still... but plan is to finish it for next spring.

Any new updates ? Keep us posted on the progress !

Got the one piece floor pan and 2 rear pans installed. Replaced the center of the trunk floor, got the rollbar installed and new roof skin. Need to fix the door, some rust/dents, but otherwise metal works about done now.

It's been minitubbed too... still need to do the inboard spring relocation. Plan to do a triangular 4 link later, so I can reuse the front inboard spring location then too.

lookin good

Very nice!

Just a quick pic of where its at now... been fixing dents mostly in the doors, stripping old paint and working on the seam/fitment of panels. Should be in epoxy primer soon, not going to do much more body work to it, then put down some silver paint with a satin clear. I don't have the desire to block and block the body all winter.

Been a while, but took a week to do the body work and get some epoxy on it. Few spots to fix yet on the shell. Doors aren't done yet... but should be painted before it gets cold here.

wow!
yeah, what sheldon said.

Cool road runner creation

Hoping to paint it in a few weeks. I went back over a bunch of areas and it's pretty much a few hours from high build primer now then wetsand and spray. I have another project I'm working and trying to get both ready to paint at the same time to save the hassle of cleaning the paint room twice. More pics to come soon. Also experimenting with exhaust fans right now too as my old one I was getting blow back... then went to another that pulls way too much air.

Also still deciding on a color. I have silver paint for it, but considering rally green instead as my dad raced his 69 runner in the 70s and that was color it was.

Damn,nice work

Any updates?

Really cool build, cant wait to see it painted!

It's hard to believe its the same car. Wow!!! Now I have ideas. Great work!!

Still in primer, so no updates yet... but will definitely post pics when it is and as it gets finished.

Great job mate,

Going to pull it from hibernation and plan to wetsand/spray it in next week when I paint my 04 ram while paint room is clean. Hopefully fresh paint pics to come soon!

All wetsanded... later in week it will get sprayed.

Found a few flaws to repair.. not looking to make it perfect, but waiting on paint to arrive, so figured why not. Hoping to paint it tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.

Couple in paint pics... gota paint the hood yet, but just black on it. I was hoping the paint would be darker, but will do. It is rallye green.

That's gonna work out fine...

Looks awesome! Good choice on the color.

On a side note, what's your plan for the drivetrain?

I think I'm going to respray it to get it a little darker and I saw some flaws I'm not too happy with. I wanted it to be more like the shade my dads 69 rr was in the 70s and this one looks more candy apple green than it.

I have a 383 with domed pistons, .508 or so cam, 906 heads etc... nothing crazy but will do for now and 833 trans.

props for taking on such a big job, nice work.

Figured I'd install some glass... don't plan to finish the whole car right away, but want to have it sealed up

What a nice save from what it was. Have you rolled it out in the sun yet? That can change the look of the paint.

man that looks great!

Looks even lighter in the sun... my shop has led lights and pics on a cheap old cell phone. So you can't really see the color it actually is in the pics. I already got more paint on the way, so in a few days I'll put a couple more coats on. Saw a few spots I want to fix also. At one time I woulda called it good enough, but plan to keep this one for a long time and want to make sure it's exactly how I want it now.

Yes: It's easy to find the flaws with the shiny paint and the new paint will cover well over the green already on there.

LED lights I installed show even more than the fluorescent lighting also... plan is fix the more noticeable stuff but not go crazy. It's just a driver/drag car, but some things I can't overlook.

All sanded again and fixing flaws today and respray by Friday. Going to install dash/column, rest of the glass, weatherstrip and get the eng/trans in, then will do the rest over winter. I got two other projects going on that need to be done come spring also.

Great job, one of these days I would like to build a 70 convertable dart.

Much happier with it now. Paints like a shade darker, but big thing is the coverage.

beautiful job!

Pic in the sun... sure looks a lot different when lighting changes. The started putting on some part.

Front bumper... still gota black out the rad support, engine bay and rad support still have spray liquid masking film, reason it's not done yet. Got the dash switched over to black, was a tan/bronze color.

Gotta say

Looking good.

well done...

Installed the dash, windshield, drip rails and some weatherstrip.

looks great. Did you install the headliner yet?

Not yet, but I made sure there was room with the roll rollbar not being too tight to the roof. It's just a 6 point.

Glass/trim all done, need to final adjust doors/glass yet. Got the engine/headers in, waiting on a part from brewers to get the trans installed but got it ready to go in. Grills in and got most of the wiring done today too. Not going to finish the interior til spring, but won't take much then to finish the car. So few more updates then it will be hibernating til spring.

Wood was just to hold engine up off the centerlink as I installed the engine outside... was on wrong side of the shop and small door way. Did the brakes today too.

fantastic!

WOW. Very well done. I' have a solid 67 Plymouth belvedere 4dr and a rusty rough 67 coronet deluxe 2dr post. I have always put it on my get to it someday list. After seeing what you've done has motivated me to get started. My goal is to turn the Plymouth 4dr into a 2dr post ss drag car. If you don't mind a may have a few questions for you?

Not sure how much I could help, never worked on a 67 to know what you would need to do on one of those.

Let's get an update.

Would love to see a pic of the current status or finished product. Amazing build and conversion.

Have another big project I need to finish before I can do much with this car... I'm not a good multitasker. Hopefully I can finish it up this summer finally.

Awesome job!