Alright, first I am writing this for my father. He has way too much time on his hands. We have restored several cars over the years. We just finished a 70 Cuda. He came across a 1971 Challenger hardtop. We have lots of parts leftover from a 70 Challenger resto. After the Cuda he swore he was done with cars (he is 70). The family sight a collective sigh of relief; however, the 71 Challenger has come into the picture. It is a 318 colum shift that needs a lot of work. His dream is to make into a convertible. He swears it can be done, me I not too sure. So here is the question, can it be done and what would be involved and how expensive to do it?

I say Do It!
If you have most of the convertible specific parts what could go wrong? It's only metal!

Turning hardtop cars into convertibles is something that a couple of guys in Sweden have done a number of times on late fifties Mopars.

Check this out... http://www.droptopcustoms.com/

there was a company doing just that for the cudas and challengers. even made some hard to find convertible parts.
they went out of business a few years back, but were selling complete verts for the 60k range.

Ken Hopperdietzel is one of the best at doing this. In fact, he recently got a convertible challenger donor car, so he might have some good stuff for you. http://www.ebodyconvertibleconversions.com/

However, be prepared for some expense, because it won't be cheap to do it right.

http://web.archive.org/web/2008020320265...t%20Reports.htm

pics are all gone, but you can read a little about what they did.

Oh, and I'm doing one for myself... http://www.claylahatte.com

Obviously it can be done and you can put a 454 chevy motor into a '68 VW Beetle, too. You have to be willing to do the work. You also have to be smart enough to do it right. Factory convertibles had reinforcements or thicker-gauge metal in places. For example, GM A-bodies had real frames and the convertible frames were boxed while the roof cars' frames weren't.

Your car doesn't have a frame so the bending strength and torsional stiffness have to be added to the body.

The main problem that I see is that for most convertible conversions that get started, the most likely outcome is failure. Most of the failures exist in the form of half-finished cut-up hulks. Every once in a while one gets finished but it is horribly done. Every once in a while somebody does it right, but that is the exception to the rule.

E-bodies are rare and I'd hate to see another one scrapped.

R.

Your Father's intentions are good ones, but......

Perhaps you should mention to him that one day the car will go into someone else's hands and you will have to upfront and honest about what you did to the car for liability's sake. The worst could happen, and like mentioned already: a true convertible is a different car. Chrysler had Engineers, blueprints, and metal specifications for a very good reason.

I agree with what Dogdays said.

To be honest, I would try to talk him into selling off all that he has, and just buying a convert.

if you're gonna do it, do it right. a hard top uni-body car uses the roof structure as part of the frame.

remove it and you get a floppy car.

so you'll have to add metal back in somewhere. either frame ties and other stifening members, or replacement 'vert metal and make it like the factory did.

it can be done, but it'll be a lot of metal work, much like doing a custom chopped top on an old 40s rod.

Can it be done? Sure. But it's a horrible idea; it will take far more time, effort and expense than just buying a convertible in the first place AND to top it off, you have a worthless car when you're done 'cause NOBODY wants to buy frankenstein's monster and a convertible (even IF it was done 100% correctly) with a hardtop VIN isn't something anybody will want to buy.



Dave

Who would want to do a thing like that!

Supposedly Metro has a complete E body convertible conversion kit coming out. I hava a 71 340 Cuda with some roof rust issues. I'm considering this kit. I'm sure most people would think I was nuts to cut the roof off a real 71 Cuda,but I really miss my old Barracuda/Cuda clone convertible I used to have.

I'd love to build my '72 Monaco into a 'vert but C-Body donors are getting hard to find as it would have to be a '69 or '70.

A friend did this to a '72 e-body. He had a very rusty donor car so having the specific 'vert pieces made the job fairly easy. It's not really that big of a job for a competent bodyman or someone with good welding skills. The '72 build used subframe connectors for reinforcement instead of the metal in the rockers (donor was too rusty). Factory 'verts used an extra piece of metal in the rockers that really doesn't look nearly as heavy as subframe connectors. Of course the factory 'verts used the torque boxes, extra bracing in the rear wheelwell area, etc.
If he has the skills and time, I would say go for it. The car won't be any less safe than many of the hardtop cars that have been cut into a dozen pieces and welded back together during their restoration.
Dallas