Am I crazy? Down and dirty muscle car on the cheap

As far a 4 doors go, pretend you're in Australia. Straya doesn't have the hangups we do regarding quadraports.

I'm looking at Sevilles as we speak.

I dearly want to do something like this:

4-Door to 2-Door conversion

In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :

Especially with a wagon....Malibu, Lemans, etc.

My first thought at the start of the video though was "I wonder if you could use hardware from an extended cab pickup and make the short suicide doors for the rear?"

I used to turn up my nose at 4-door stuff. But the reality is, some of the 4-doors make GREAT sleepers and can still look decent. 2-doors will always look better, but stuff like those 70's Sevilles look great and have all the same underpinnings of a popular platform and make great mod fodder. 

And wagons will always rule the most. 

I know you don't want a 4-door but this matches the "down and dirty" to a tee.  Besides, it would stomp a mud puddle up the butt of most "real" muscle cars.  
 

Oh, and it's Tony Angelo 

Are you open at all to the idea of something newer, like a third-gen F-body, Fox body or G-body? If so that will greatly open up your pool of candidates. If not, I get it, but wanted to throw it out there.

In reply to Will :

I appreciate the suggestion, but those just dont move my needle enough. 
 

i actually already own a 3rd gen F body that i'm selling because i like it, but i dont love it. I've had it since I was 17 but it's not cool enough and it's too nice to take it apart.

In reply to Appleseed :

The Seville body pre 1981?, is related in structure to a Nova body. But Caddy put numerous supports all under the body. People claimed it was just a tarted up Nova were very wrong! We used most of the floor under a 79 Camaro in a strict Stock class. Tech never noticed the floorpan differences, bracing and re-enforcements only Caddy used. The most obvious one is underneath, just inside the pinch weld that hangs down. It is the same as adding frame connectors between the end of the frame and the spring perch. All came with rear sway bar and ten bolt, many posi. Get solid mounts for the subframe , add Camaro springs and shocks. It'll be noisy but it'll handle like a Z28. Put the Herb Adams huge front sway bar on it and I'd bet you easily hit .98G on the skid pad. Most had 4 wheel discs and used the large lug pattern 15" wheels. You will have more wheel choices with the 5X5" pattern than the Chevy 5X4.75". (First year may be an exception.) trim the Caddy Fat off that car, it'll swallow an Olds 455 and a th400. It'll scream. 

In reply to Appleseed :

The Nova and clone based Seville's widened the radiator area so a huge rad is standard. IIRC you can put a Nova or cousin front clip and front doors on the Seville for mega weight savings! Gut the back doors! These Caddy's doors used the same skin but were built like tanks and weighed like tanks too! Those bodies use a Camaro gas  tank so you can get an aftermarket tank that is built to use a later model FI pump of many different pressure ratings and it has a return as well. You must swap out the gas filler neck. The back doors are not X body but resemble(and may be) a stretched G body back door? G body is Malibu and it's clones. (I never checked. Sure look the same.) I would gut the caddy back doors and fix the window up. All the body from the doors back is Caddy including the roof! But much tasty stiffening added all over the under body, too much goodness to overlook. Battery in the trunk, + cable from a Chevy Cobalt, HHR, Ion, G5. Lighten or swap front sheet metal. The Seville's were as quiet or quieter than a Rolls! Dump all of that sound deadening and wear ear plugs if you have to! Watching impatiently. I'll be OK, just like a kid at Christmas. 

In reply to No Time :

Funny you mentioned that! I've been telling car nuts for years that changing a 4 door into a 2 can be simplified. Because when you make it a 2 door the 4 door front seat usually will not let you get into the back seat! The extended cab door idea would leave the interior in tact! Easiest would be a model with flat door glass.  Cutting down side windows is possible but hard to do! Cutting down curved side glass or getting curved side door glass made may be $$$$, might kill the project. The 55,56,57 4 door post style  has a little glass triangle behind the rear door, that area could be left alone! Because the reversed door still has the same opening, just backwards. 

I too have had dirty thoughts along these lines of doing a Patina'd '60 Valiant... 

In reply to golfduke :

Don't short sell that one! The humble Valiant was the bones for the Barracuda and many bits bolt on! I believe the first year Barracuda was labeled a Valiant with a special grill and that huge back glass. The real problem on  The 60's Valiants is that the earlier one we're very much engineered around the 6cylinder engine and installing any V-8 typically  requires special bits like K member with V-8 motor mounts and headers with room for the steering shaft to pass through or cutting away fender wells for headers to pass through into the wheel well. I don't know how committed you are to the early Valiants but the later chassis post 1970 is much easier to install V-8 engines and might WB men house a late Hemi!? but still need K member modifications or replacement. Cool bodies though! I think a Tesla'd early Valiant would be very cool!

AhBNormal said:

In reply to golfduke :

Don't short sell that one! The humble Valiant was the bones for the Barracuda and many bits bolt on! I believe the first year Barracuda was labeled a Valiant with a special grill and that huge back glass. The real problem on  The 60's Valiants is that the earlier one we're very much engineered around the 6cylinder engine and installing any V-8 typically  requires special bits like K member with V-8 motor mounts and headers with room for the steering shaft to pass through or cutting away fender wells for headers to pass through into the wheel well. I don't know how committed you are to the early Valiants but the later chassis post 1970 is much easier to install V-8 engines and might WB men house a late Hemi!? but still need K member modifications or replacement. Cool bodies though! I think a Tesla'd early Valiant would be very cool!

Oh yeah, that's very much just a pipe dream for me.  I don't have the fab skills or the time (yet)to undertake something like that.  I don't much get into classic shapes for some reason, but I saw a retro-rod Valiant at a car show several years ago, and fell in lust.  The body lines to me are just perfect for the era, in my very humble and uneducated opinion.  

Saw this today and it made me think of this thread:

No Time said:

Saw this today and it made me think of this thread:

How can the first letter of an acronym BE the acronym?

For those of you that have driven some of these 60s-70s cars, how bad are the interior rattles? The thing I hate about my 86 Trans Am is that there is so much plastic in the interior that it is a rattletrap and is annoying to drive because of it.

my assumption is that the older cars would be better because more metal and less plastic interior...

NVH is NOT a strong suit of these cars, to put it mildly.

On my '65 Mustang, the front end squeaks, the hood and trunk shift around and bang a bit, but mostly the door windows rattle INSANELY bad. If you care about rattles and you find a two door, make sure that it's a two door post sedan with the full upper window frames rather than a two door hardtop otherwise the unsupported windows will drive you mad. Although, if you're really just after a down and dirty muscle car, you'll have to live with a fifty-plus year old beat up body and the noises that come with it I imagine.

The wind noise is probably the most irritating part of freeway driving my '66 El Camino. I did have a '68 Cutlass 2dr hardtop that was quiet enough to have a regular conversation driving down the freeway so ymmv.

Cheap, down and dirty but refined is a pretty tricky combo

"Cheap, down and dirty but refined is a pretty tricky combo."

I've YET to come across that combination . . .