The Hardcore Heavy metal slide show of the Coupe build. Produced and edited By Brendan Hall - Mr HQGTS.
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This one just rocks!
Crank up the volume!!

This is what we started with - a slightly unloved FC sedan. Previous owner lost many parts he sent away for refurbishment, like the chrome and some interior bits and as a result gave up on it.

This poor old four door and too much roof sedan was bought for $500. There was no shopping around- I went and bought the first one I saw. The guys were good enough to chuck in some extra doors in the deal. No motor or box, but later I found it had a HR front and rear end. Lots of spares were sold off to pay for some other bits I needed.

This car was bought in 1996 about April. The back end in standard form stripped of all its goodies gave me some idea of what I wanted to achieve. At this stage I knew I would chop and two door it.

The first order of the day was to remove the centre pillar for the two door conversion. I started this one easter (1996).

Roof's off- and four inches removed from front pillars.

The two dooring commences. I removed 6" of door and added 12" on - astute observers may notice that this is not the final shape we ended up with. (The nature of customising means trial and error rules) Note jack stands keeping it all level.

Roof is sat back in place for a photo opportunity.This height is a bit low.Leaning in of pillars commences. NOTE I do not slice and dice the roof to line up the pillars- its far better to move the pillars by relief cuts at the base and using a ratchet tie down strap as a 'come-along' ... Also note the door frame is not chopped as yet.

Roofs on and rear door cut, relieved of excess inches in lenght and is welded up. Note headlight work has started here too.

Here the headlight (EH & 1953 CHEV TRUCK & a piece of sheet steel) has been blended into the front guard. Sad part was the originals were not rusty. The entire front sheet metal came from the donor FE I bought for $175. The car I was building ended up with most of this FE in it. A bit like the original axe- five new heads - four new handles.

The tailights are base formed from FC door tops welded together to make a tail fin. Rear panel is removed and replaced with one from the donor FE. Take note on how many parts from this donor FE end up in the mix.

Hmmm two door pillarless any one? Here you can see the Celica seats mounted and right side needs filling in. Note one headlight is completed and one is not. Got some altitude reduction via spring removal until I could afford dropped stubbs. Rear screen has been laid foward at this stage.

Here I am oxy welding the centre pillar- (gee I have aged well since this picture!) I no longer use this type of Comet torch, I now use a Henrob 2000 torch for oxy welding. I have also done the custom aerial at this stage.

Ahh my lovely Kiwi wife. She has aged even better since these pics. (Well I've got to say that now havent I?)

Kerrrhist...look at the flamin ugly centre pillar!!! Glad we did away with this eventually! Some of my designs got chucked out. You got to let a wine sit to develop the flavour (a kim -ism)

Tailight profile. I would take these pics to peruse later to determine if I had "the look'. Good thing I did because this pic helped me determine the yet to be built conti kit and extended rear bar. This was the first rendition.

I was still relatively happy with the profile at this stage... good thing good taste took over... as you will see much later.

How cool is this pic? The Model A in the background nearly finished (327 Chevy powered) FC Kustom in fore ground being worked on. Ahhh them's were the days!