The Jalopy Journal

‘If it was so easy that anyone could do it, then it wouldn’t really be that cool anymore’, or so the saying goes. Correctly chopping a convertible top is right up there on the customizing difficultly list with body sectioning and fender fading. To get the geometry right takes a thinking man like Keith Tardel (yes, the Hot Rod Revolution co-founder and Ryan’s better looking brother). There is a good reason most customizers in the 50s went with the Carson top on a chopped convertible: It was a heck of a lot easier to get the right lowered profile with a padded and fixed top than to actually cut up the folding structure, re-angle it, and make it function properly.

Keith’s work has just begun, but you can already see the extra care given to reforming the A pillar’s profile after the 3″ chop, pie-cutting the header above the windshield, and making each cut as clean and efficient as possible. Stay tuned for the final results from Rancho Tardel with a little off the top. He’s off to a good start, wouldn’t ya say?

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