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Hello, long time lurker here. I'm an actual customer of Drake Customs, the outfit in AZ that converts coupes to fastbacks. Let me first just say that Ray Carmody, the owner of the shop, is one of the nicest, most professional and ethical small business owners I have ever worked with. He not only does coupe to fastback conversions, but builds other recreations such as the Shelby GT500, as well as over a dozen Eleanors. Because of his quality work, he is backed up with orders, both from the U.S. as well as Europe and Australia.

Why did I go the coupe conversion route? First of all, I'm not a purist, just a guy (like most people) who really loved the Eleanor car from the movie. In fact, as most of you know many purists will turn their noses up at Eleanor conversions. As it says in Drake's eBay store, "many consider it reckless to take a matching numbers fastback and convert it to an Eleanor." Coupes, on the other hand, are cheap and plentiful. Personally, I see little difference between starting with a coupe or a fastback, since in both cases you have to cut up the car (obviously moreso with a coupe) and add a lot of fiberglass parts to both, but that's a matter of preference.

Now most people who don't have the amazing skills of the good folks on this board have a few options: (a) buy a turnkey from one of the big Eleanor builders, which can run anywhere from $80k - $190k, or (b) get a used one from eBay which still cost a bundle, and some have obviously been driven to the ground. That's why I like Drake: their prices are very competitive (especially since they start with coupe conversions) and the quality is outstanding. Yes, the resale value will be lower, but it's more than a wash considering that I spent less than half of what many folks do.

So what we did was find a 68 coupe that had seen better days but still had good compression and add $5500 on the fastback conversion, for a total of $8000 for a running donor car. That's half the price of a Dynacorn, and it was a driver. We are now well into the process of converting it to an Eleanor, from this:

to where we are today:



We're in the process of upgrading the engine, brakes, suspension, transmission, interior, etc. so that this will be a showcar when done. Speaking of which, here is Drake's showcar, a 720 HP beast (that's my 3 year old standing in front of it):



Anyway, obviously this is not for everyone, and if I had the time (4 kids) and talent (which I greatly admire) of the builders on this board then I would love to do what you all are doing. For the rest of us though, this is not a bad option.

Keep up the good work and the more photos the better!

Thought I'd add a couple more photos of the coupe to fastback/Eleanor conversion process. Ignore the dates in the first few photos, they forgot to change the date on the digital camera. Project started in January and is due for completion in March.

Thanks for the kind words. It's funny, I've been part of many forums and half expected to be flamed by now for going with a coupe conversion. I remember a while back being roundly attacked at the Ferrari owners forum for making a comment I thought was harmless, but in fact offended some hardliners. Much more supportive group here.

All glass is included with the conversion. I bought a full interior kit from Laurel Mountain that includes every interior piece (I hope) for around $1200. I didn't go with the fold-down rear seat although it was an available option.

I do have some questions. I'm going with a NOS Go-Baby-Go option, although not too much boost--probably another 50 hp per squirt. On nitrous, do most of you have this? Is it worth the $500 extra I'm paying or would that money be better spent elsewhere? Also, I went with the side exhaust, but I'm curious what the downside is on that option for long-term owners? Finally, I went with non-functioning side and lower scoops. Is there some kind of trim I can use to make them look like they are functioning scoops?

Again, thanks to all for this great board.

Regards,
Ray

Ray just told me to order all the interior parts and he would take care of installing them, so I don't have the specifics. I'll be sure to follow up with him.

Still on the fence about the NOS. I would think that a working system would increase the appeal of the car, although on the flipside, I can understand a buyer's concern that I may have hit the buttom too many times.

Just getting a standard non-folding back seat. With the 4 kids, I will definitely need the backseat, as I did with my old Mondial (although it can barely be called a backseat, just look at how cramped my poor little girl's legs are against the driver seat):

Funny thing, once I got the muscle car bug my previous obsession with Porsche's and Ferrari's just faded away. I remember a line from Jason Giambi in the (now lamented) UP episode in Rides, how his teammates ignored the Ferrari's and Lambo's in the parking lot when the Eleanor drove up. I can relate...