I am thinking about chopping my '37 Chevy sedan. I think I might like the sloped B pillars like a coupe. My questions are: 1. Is the length of the door the same on a coupe and 2 door sedan? 2. Are there other year doors that could be used as doners for their top sections? 3. Does anyone know of a coupe body rotted out on the bottom with two perfect door tops, a great roof, all the garish moldings and delivered to SE Michigan for $25? I believe the best way to do this would be to get a coupe body and cut across the roof on both sides of the B pillar, graft this section to the sedan then weld front and rear lowered sedan roof sections to the coupe 'roll bar'. This lets the A and C pillars remain their original angles. Any thoughts on this? If anyone has pictures of 37-38 chops, Post 'em up! Thanx, Bruce
thankfully 37 -8 coupe parts are very scarce and expensive,as your plan to use a coupe roof" in the middle" or your sedan chop is ...way off base..... just slant your B pillars and door tops ya have and enjoy the simplicity of it all..... If chopped properly your roof skin will end up virtually uncut up on majority of it's top area...... sure anything is possible,but sometimes it is the long way around the barn if you will.....
Never been known for doing things the easy way. I'm aware of the coupe's value and therefore would not cut up a savable car. I saw one a few years ago that had been in a fire. Couldn't find the owner and when I went back it was gone. I find it hard to believe that forming the slanted posts and garnish moldings wouldn't be harder than adding those sections from a donor car. I'm not a body man by any stretch, but I think I could cut and paste this together as described above.
A good rule of thumb here is -if it is ten times the work doing it one way over the other its probably just the wrong way..... not the hard way.
I believe the width of a coupe door is a little narrower than a 2dr sedan which is just over 44"w. As far as other years, the body lines are ths same for only 37 and 38. It is good to have spare parts. If you need a passenger side sedan door, I do have a workable one in the barn. I built my sedan 20 years ago. The suicide door idea was a lot of work but well worth it in the end. Sold the car in 2000 and ended up buying it back in 2011. Wasn't sure I would ever like a chopped car. Fell in love with it as did my wife and kids. Was sad when we sold it but happy to have it back again. Now our grandsons get to enjoy it just like their mom and uncle did.
Choprods, I appreciate what you are telling me. Do you really think that it is more work to graft the two roofs together and use the factory angled pillars and door corners than slant the original pillars and make them look like something the factory might have done? I asked because I wanted opinions, and to see if anyone else had tried this before me. I am too old to reinvent the wheel, but young enough to wonder if round is the only shape that will work. Thanx, Bruce
Hi Bruce, It seems when we type sometimes it comes out much different that an actual conversation would.......sorry for that. I do think that ANY splice across your roof much less twice across in the middle is a lot of work for little gain. doing your chop on a sedan will involve some lengthening sure, but that can be accomplished using your one roof and just doing the cut across either at the rear roof near the window cuts above rear glass OR evn cutting it just at the crown of roof just above windshield and then back along the crown to the mid of your door jambs..... .'this is much easier as it would both times be working on a compound curved area and not across in the "flatter" areas as you suggested using the middle of a coupe roof... MUCH easier.... believe me you dont wanna make this job any more work than it actually is.... SINCE=in either my case or your suggestion the B post will need to be cut loose and moved to a new location, you could use the coupes B pillars and door tops alone sucessfully ,but I believe you will find they are harder to find and costly too..... Here are a couple pics of an installatio of the coupe B pillars and door top parts on a sedan length door. It is on a mildly chopped 37 chevy sedan delivery which I have added the longer sedan doors and moved the door jambs/posts back to match..... hope this helps.....
If YOU listen to THE man (Choprods) you'd thank him for the free EXPERT master craftsman's advice. You will find the going HARDER if you do not.
That's it! I see your reasoning on the flat areas. I sure like the way that chop turned out. Definetly will slant the posts on mine. Thanx
Here is a cool site that has car show pictures of basically every classic car broken down into different makes, years, body style, chopped, etc. Check it out This link is just 37 Chopped 2dr Sedan pics - http://www.carnut.com/photo/list/chev/chev37/c37s2c.html
VonHorton, That is really a cool site. I only saw a couple of cars that I really liked, but it helped me to solidify my thoughts on my chop. Gave me a couple of good ideas on paint, too. Thanx, Bruce
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