opening 32 ford roadster doors

[Paul Payne]

I would like to open the doors on a Deuce roadster project. It would appear that the rear portion of the body and the cowl would have to be mounted to the chassis and interior separately. Anyone who has done this and would like to share their techniques?

[Ulf]

A friend did it on an AMT 29 Roadster in the 90s and he glued the floor, the firewall and a wall between the backrest and the rumble seat(mother-in-law hatch in Swedish..) in the body before starting.
Probably he also adjusted the width of the floor a little so that it fit perfectly to the whole(he is morbidly accurate).

See also the latest episode of Model Car Muse on Youtube, it was very hands on regarding opening up doors and hatches.

[OldNYJim]

I’ll be interested to hear some ideas on this too - I’ve been wanting to open the doors on a droptop Beetle, but if you open the doors then suddenly you have a four piece body with nothing connecting the pieces 

Edited August 28, 2023 by CabDriver

[espo]

On 8/27/2023 at 9:15 AM, Paul Payne said:

I would like to open the doors on a Deuce roadster project. It would appear that the rear portion of the body and the cowl would have to be mounted to the chassis and interior separately. Anyone who has done this and would like to share their techniques?

There is a new vid on YouTube from the Model Muss with a short demonstration on how he does doors and trunks and such. After watching how he does it I may even get brave enough to risk a kit and try it myself. 

[Richard Bartrop]

I suppose it depends on what kind of roadster you're building.  If it's stock, or a fendered rod, glue the body to the fenders for reinforcement.  If you're making a channeled roadster, you're going to have a gap between the floor and the bottom of the door anyhow, so add the filler panel to the body.   Even on a stock '32 Ford, the doors don't go all the way down, so maybe glue a length of brass strip to the sill?

[bobthehobbyguy]

Have to ask the question why would you open the doors since the interior is quite visible. If you really are set on opening the doors I would get the floor glued to the body that way without the doors it will be a stronger unit.