Sedan-Ute?

[Dominic]

Does any body have any thoughts on removing the roof/upper tray section of a ute and grafting it onto a sedan frontend/complete floor pan(the lower section of the ute is quite rusty but the Sedan is very good.)Any Ideas?

[Richard]

Sounds like way too much trouble.  Once you exclude the bolt-on parts (like sub-frame etc) how much of the sedan would you be considering grafting onto the ute?  Given the differences (especially in the floor-pans and rear subframe), I'd be on the hunt for another donor ute - anything FE-EK would do.
Just don't get any mad ideas of building one of those hideous stretched four-door half-sedan/half-ute monstrosities ;-)
RET

[Dominic]

Richard, Thanks for your reply,I thought about using the front subframe,bulkhead,external perimeter panel work(lower ie. sills rear quarters etc)and the front section of floor pan.Maybe cut through the windscreen pillars and graft on the ute roof and upper section of the rear of the ute(the upper 2/3 of my ute is good-but the lower 1/3 is just about gone!).Then just make up a new inner section for the tray etc.

[Dominic]

Richard, Thanks for your reply,I thought about using the front subframe,bulkhead,external perimeter panel work(lower ie. sills rear quarters etc)and the front section of floor pan.Maybe cut through the windscreen pillars and graft on the ute roof and upper section of the rear of the ute(the upper 2/3 of my ute is good-but the lower 1/3 is just about gone!).Then just make up a new inner section for the tray etc. My reason for doing this is I wanted an early Holden ute as a work vehicle(I am a Self employed Electrician)but they seem to be thin on the ground in N.Z.(I got the ute for next to nothing and I can buy A good,nearly complete Sedan for $800.)Do you think this crazy idea would work?

[Richard]

Look,  it's not that it can't be done.  But speaking from painful experience it sounds like the kind of job that if you don't have the time and skills to do it yourself, you're going to get screwed by whoever does it for you, to the point where it might have been cheaper and simpler to just buy a good condition ute and ditch the one you've got.
Having said that, you do sound like you know what you're talking about.  At the end of the day only you can decide whether the investment in time is going to be worth the saving in dollars.