Coupe into Speedster Conversion

[John Pierce]

Wow!! Fabulous job, Justin.

Thank you for taking the time to upload all those images to give us an idea of how well it turned out.


John

[Don C]

Ditto all the above comments Justin! Fantastic!

[ukinusa]

Echo all that has been said - especially your willingness to help newbies like my self. A heart felt thanks.

[bbspdstr]

It never ends.....no top latches? Too much space at the top if the side curtain?

High bow top frame...so are they low bow side curtains? Are there two different sizes of side curtains? Augustin at A.I. says no but I sent him original side curtains with a slightly larger frame that better fit a high bow top but there really shouldn't be different openings over the doors, should there? So much that can only be explained by "made by hand."

Justin, seriously, great work that even jaded old guys like me can find informative and inspiring. Or at least entertaining. I think my subscription to your "club" has expired and I need to send more money.......

-Bruce

[Phil Planck]

Justin
Going to miss the regular updates on this project. You have shared all of the good, had and ugly. Lot's of great info in those many pages. Hopefully the good doctor will let you post some pics when it is finished.
Congrats and thanks for the great site.
Phil

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot Per! The big door is the warehouse and the man door is seperate
office space. LOL! Yep, that's the old snake room and he keeps watch until she leaves.

Thank you Drew I appreciate that and its my pleasure to help anyway I can and as I've said before even if its "what not to do". I have no doubts about how nice your car is going to be. The work I've seen so far and your attention to detail on those small reproduced items you offer says it all.

Thanks for saying so John and Thank you for sharing your hard fought restoration here.

Thank you again Don!

My pleasure Steve and thanks!

It sure doesn't end Bruce; this car still isn't finished.... but I am.
Thank you for thinking of me, that's very generous of you . You've been extremely supportive of this site in the past and I'll always be grateful to you for that but your input here keeping all of us straight is payment enough.
I appreciate the thought Bruce.

Thank you Phil and Thanks for taking the trip with me! I remember when I cut the ass end off of this chassis and your response of, "OMG Now you've really done it" Still makes me laugh.

2/9/18
Easy to forget(or Repress) just how long and rough the journey was so I decided on a condensed "readers digest" photo series since most who visit here are not going to want to pick through all 250 pages of this saga. So below are the highlights or low lights as the case might be. All the work and heartache that went on in between each photo does make my head swim.










Really thought I was looking at a Speedster the night I got this door hinged on there. Dreaming for sure...



























Just under 2,200 hours later we had a solid basic Speedster body.

Thanks again for all the nice words of support you guys!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

Those pics show so well the effort required to reach the stage where that car could go to the paint shop.

I think your resolve was outstanding especially as you had a world wide audience watching your every move. Must have been a bit like being on stage, hoping against hope you don't fluff your lines.

Also at the end, I bet when you cut those support struts your mind was saying inside your head, 'don't drop, don't drop ' And when it didn't you must have felt like saying

Great result, super job.

Roy

[merbesfield]

[Drew.s]

Hi Justin
If I'm not too late and the coupster is still in your possession, could you take a quick measurement for me.
I need to know the distance between the welded plates that have the hood attachment pins in them, as I think it is different to the convertible D dimension.




Cheers
Drew

[JOP]

Drew,
I got 1205 mm between the welded plates.
If you need more give me a hint. The 1958 is still sitting in a corner waiting for more TLC

[Drew.s]

Thank you Per
There are a couple more dimensions I need.



Cheers
Drew

[JOP]

Drew,

I got the loong distance B to 70 mm
The short A to about 46-47mm

I hope it helps you out

[JTR70]

Drew, The car has been gone for well over a week now and sorry for the late response but Here's that distance on the Original Speedster referrence car. Sorry its in inches


Definitely Roy, the last two big hoops of stress I had to jump though was dismounting it off the hoist one last time; I was scared to death that it might slip somehow and come crashing to ground and then finally cutting that Jig free. All of which, happened within a span of an hour. It made for an exciting evening.
Thanks again Roy and Mark!!!

[JOP]

Morgen Justin,
Just flip ya ruler over and we are speaking the same mm
What year is your Ref. Speedster ?
Will it be done by your buddy one day as well?

[JTR70]

Hi Per,

The reference Speedster is '57 T1A. He says he's going to build one day. I keep telling myself I need to get over there and make a bunch of reference Jigs off of it before something changes with its status. I'll add it to the list.

Justin