Wagon-izing a US sedan?

Mikey

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Are you wanting to play with the doors or just turn the trunk into a wagon rear end?

Off the top of my head, I can see cutting the rear portion off a van. Basically just the rear side glass, roof, and door. But I think the rear side glass on minivans tends to be taller than the side glass on the sedan. So you'd end up with huge rear side glass and smaller front side glass. If that makes sense.

If not then I think the only other issue you'd run into is the rear hatch itself. Again, height being an issue. If you lined up the roof of the van with the roof of the car, the hatch would be too tall. You COULD cut/fab the hatch but IDK if structural integrity would matter or if cutting it would weaken it, as they tend to be slammed so over time, it may bend or break. Then again, I know little to nothing about body work. Could you, or would you be opposed to, snatching the rear hatch off of a civic or other wagon?

I know where you're going and why you wanna do it. I'm not gonna lie, I've had thoughts like that before. However, and maybe I'm just not as "creative" as others, when practicality goes out the window, I tend to re-think my ideas, lol. This could be done. Maybe not easily but you never know. I'd like to see the outcome if/when it does happen. I think it's a great idea, conceptually, I just dont think it's wise from a practical standpoint. But it's a creative ideas so it doesn't necessarily have to be practical.
 
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Rymel

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Practicality wise I could just buy a real wagon, but where's the fun in that? I was actually eyeballing the RDX hatch but I'll have to see if an EK hatch is wide enough to fit the bill.

One idea I had for the side glass was to just slope the roof earlier and just use the coupe's rear side windows. It's very much an early idea, and I'm in no rush so I'll figure it out soon enough. In the meantime, I think I'll scoop up that sedan and begin the repair process
 

Mikey

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Eh. Using the coupe windows or cutting the roofline earlier will give it more of a fast back look which is what the coupes already have. Granted, you could then go more of a 3-door hatch direction instead of a wagon.

What if you still used the honda van back half but used another van's glass. Im sure some older vans used smaller wide glass. Or hell, couldnt you have pieces made?
 

GoldnKnight22

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Since apparently you have some amazing fab skills, I'm interested in seing some of your previous work. Care to post it up? :rolleyes:
 

Rymel

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Trying to work from existing pieces rather than scratch. There's already enough to fabricate without having to worry about hatch window frame integrity.

I never said I'd be doing the work personally, though I am picking up a TIG to learn this summer. I got a friend who welded back together an Evo III after shipping it here who will also be doing some of the work on my planned sol conversion. I trust his skills.

Time, or money. You always pay with one more than the other. This case would be money. Also, your sarcasm sucks since I never mentioned I was a "master fabricator". Just another forumite with an idea and no fear of pursuing it.
 

talontsiawd

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First and foremost, I don't think it's fair to get mad at any Accord owner who has any opinion as this is not something that even the most knowledgeable members on the board would have a good idea of how to do it. It's going to be an incredible amount of trial and error on your behalf no matter how you slice it. Go on an autobody metal fabrication sight if you want to hear anything but guess, it's going to be hard, or it's not worth doing.


That said, I would compare a 5th gen wagon to an 6th gen sedan. I think the Odyssey would look really off and way too big/chunky. The 5th gen is probably slightly smaller in every way but if you can do this yourself, then that should be absolutely no problem for you.
 

Rymel

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Well, the sedan might be getting sold to someone else so I might just write off the idea. But for the sake of discussion, what about the cross tour hatch?
 
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