One thing that can be said about cars today is that they all seem to be of the cookie-cutter variety. This car borrows parts from that car, this platform is shared with that platform, this manufacturer uses that manufacturers drivetrain, you get the gist of it. It’s hard to tell who the real manufacturer is these days.
Back in the early 60’s, there were some Mopars that shared a lot of parts as well. You can see a lot of these similar cars on the 1962 to 1965 Mopar web site, a huge hobbyist/fan site. All of those cars shared a similar body and platform, yet they were all different.
Other than the wagon and convertible, there were two solid-roof bodies for these cars: the sedan and the hardtop, with the sedan being the most sought after. The hardtop was only available as a two-door in 64 & 65. These cars were often used for the AFX factory drag race cars with their altered wheelbase (AWB).
But what does one do when the two-door sedan is hard to find, and the cost keeps it out of reach? Believe it or not, one of the other similarity between these cars is the wheelbase, particularly that wheelbase between the two and four door sedans, which makes a four-door a good base car for a two door build, as can be seen by Mike Zimmerman’s build.
It takes talent to make convert to a 2 door, but if you do it right the only people who will know are the people you tell about it.
Also, many people who want to build an AWB clone figure that since they’re cutting up the quarter panels anyway, why not start with a less expensive four door and build the two door model by using a pair of doors from a two-door and moving the lock pillar rearward. Sometimes the savings of buying the less sought-after four door makes up for the cost of doing this conversion.
It takes a bit of work, but it’s been done quite successfully and sometimes you can’t even tell that the car started as a four-door if the job is done properly. With all these talented conversions being done, let’s just hope it doesn’t drive the price of the four-door up. It could create a never ending see-saw for pricing.