Doable or disastrous?

[Glytch]

Inherited a 1996 ford explorer sport 2 door 4.0L RWD.......

I am currently removing the roofing cargo plastics and sanding away rust pockets. When finished the roof will be mostly rust free...

My further desires for some reason are as follows:

-Lower stance
-Chop the top
-Somehow add a rear hinged extended cab style doors behind the initial driver and passenger doors.
-5.0L swap w/exhaust upgrade etc.
-Along with then having a flat black ratrod style exterior appearance w/ old school rims and possibly white walls.

So far these are my far fetch at the moment desires.... anyone care to chime in with any ideas, leads, experiences or opinions? Please feel free. Would rather know before I get half way into a disaster and cannot go back. This was my Aunts Explorer before she passed, so getting another one to replace it wouldn't be a viable option to me....

New member, but have been reading the threads for a while now. Happy to have joined.

Chop top concept (not to scale)

 

[Rick]

I've seen a chopped Explorer Street Truck before and it looked pretty cool. I would actually love to see this project move forward.

In your sketch it looks like you raked the windshield back some and didn't just chop it. Is that correct?