Don't cut the coupe!, was : New Member Nick Arnone

[dardal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Nick, welcome to the club.  You got a very nice car (coupe) but the green 
convertible still looks just fine.  Curious, why the driver side 
fender "Imperial" emblem is installed on the wrong place? 

We all understand these are your cars, and you can do what you want with them.  
The interesting deal with the convertible is that they tend to reach high 
prices, so even if you do a proper/complete restoration on it, you may still be 
able to recover the cost (or at least a good part of it) if you ever sell it.  
A close to perfect convertible, may reach as high as $15K or more.  As Mike 
said, its unlikely a buchered coupe will get anywhere near there.

Fuerthermore, I can see the coupe as a much user friendly vehicle.  These cars 
are great cross country cruisers, combining comfort, performance, and 
handling.  The ragtop sacrifices a lot of these qualities.  The noise from the 
top at highway speed totally sacrifices the comfort part, while the higher drag 
of the ragtop at higher speeds sacrifices a big part of the performance.  
Finally, the lack of protection from the heavy gage steel roof sacrifices much 
of the safety portion.  Unlike most people owning classic cars, I like using my 
cars as transportation, especially for long drives.  This is what these cars 
were designed for.  I do not know how you drive/enjoy your cars, but if your 
method of enjoyment is similar to mine, it would make little sense to torch the 
coupe.  If you can afford it, you could try to keep both.  Restore the green 
convertible for show, and keep the white as is for practical everyday driving 
and/or long distance all-weather cruiser.  If you cannot afford to keep both 
and really have got to have a ragtop, you could sell the white one to finance 
the restoration of the green car.  A car in the condition of the white one 
could be sold for $5,000 or $6,000 if you are patient, may be much more.

D^2, 68 LeBaron (sick transmission), 68 Sedan.

Quoting "imperial67@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <imperial67@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> Nick, wait!
> 
> Please don't cut up the Coupe!
> 
> First of all, a convertible is not a coupe with its top chopped off. Its
> floorpan and numerous other critical body parts are reinforced to
> compensate for the lack of a structural roof. You will end up with two
> parts cars, your rusty convertible and the Crown Coupe you cut in half
> horizontally.
> 
> Second, it will cost you far less to buy a convertible in restorable to
> good condition (heck, even an excellent one) than it will to make this
> car even half right (and believe me, it will never be more than half
> right because it will be a coupe with its upper body cut off). Your
> comment that "It will be much more complex then it sounds" is the
> understatement of the week! (For one, the '68 is a Unibody.)
>