Build Thread: Kustom Chopped 41 Plymouth

a lot of people on here have been a lot of help with my '41 Plymouth coupe, so I thought I'd start a build thread to keep everyone updated on what I'm doing. I'm not that far in yet so sorry it's not a little more exciting. As always questions/comments/criticisms/insults are welcome. Here we go...


Here's the car, mocked up with the fenders on the first day I got it home:




here's what i started out with this morning. The camaro stub is just tacked on at this stage- I wanted to mount the body on to make sure everything was kosher before I welded it all up.






as I suspected, the front fenders wouldn't go on because the subframe was too long in the front. So I cut it. There's just enough room to bolt the steering box on.



after that they fit just fine. (you can tell from this picture that the pass. fender is tweaked. It didn't want to straighten up, but i have a spare anyway)





since the body was mounted and braced with square tubing, dad and I decided we'd start on the chop. We started by cutting out the 1/4 windows so that their shape could be retained.






at this point i have to admit that i was pretty nervous. Notice how the rear fenders are out further than normal. I decided to widen the back of it to fit my 10's under it, and i just like the fat-back look.



my main concern with the chop was that i wanted to retain the shape of the roof in the back. Dad suggested that I cut from the rear window area right down the back of the car and slide the whole thing ahead, then take up the rest of the slack in the tray area between the rear window and trunk. It's hard to explain but maybe you'll get the idea from the pictures.






(that's my dad holding the fender up)


here's a shot of the front after the chop:



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VERY nice,,,i used to own one of those and always wondered how it would look chopped,,,,,now i dont have to wonder, , , it looks fantastic,,,,

 

Nice work. what motor are you planning on running in it?

 

thanks. I pulled the ford 392 stroker out of my '67 Cougar before I sold it... i think i'm going to use that. I thought about selling it for something cool and collectible, but in the end i decided faster would be better.

 

are you gonna run those big fat tires on the back????
just wondering cause your thread says Kustom chopped 41 plymouth

 

uhhh yeah... are you trying to pigeonhole me??? haha. There will be skirts in the back you won't really see them.

 

Whew...that was a close one.At first I thought you were gonna screw up a pretty good ol' Plymouth,but it looks damn good. Nice work!!! Giz'

 

Dude, you're off to a great start with that coupe, 'very nice work. Keep us posted with progress reports, er pics. FYI, I was at the Karb kings show today in Balt, with my '46 coupe. It was interesting how many people checked out the car and several wondered why there aren't more of the old Ply coupes at shows, they thought these old cars are very cool and way overlooked.

 

Wow that was way more progress than I had expected to see. The car looks great. Anymore pictures of the subframe going on?

 

no, sorry i didn't think to take any pictures while i was doing that. It was WAY easier than i expected, though... with the plasma cutter it took about a half hour. The best part was that the "experts" i talked to were wrong: there are no fender clearance issues at all.

 

Looks good chopped. Nice work man.

 

Gotta love it when a plan comes together. The car looks great. Keep us posted.

 

found out today that my mom took some pictures yesterday too.

here's a couple of the subframe going on. Like i said, it's not all welded together yet. We just wanted to make sure it was going to work.

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we smoked the grinder

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okay here's the roof coming off. THat's me on the right.

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these show how we cut down the back and slid the whole deal ahead... this will leave a gap in the back that we'll have to do some fabricating to get rid of. This will cause the fenders to go out past the back of the car, i'm going to french in some '59 caddy taillights into them.

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p.s. anyone know where to find '59 caddy taillights? i imagine someone makes a repro...

 

they are all over ebay,,,,

 

Man I love the way you guys are working. It's great to see a car coming together like this it's looking great. I've always loved the fat fendered look, if you can keep it looking elegant as well you're onto a winner......keep up the good work.

 

EXCELLENT! just subscribed.
Keep the pix coming.
Cheers from Amsterdam

 

Oh man, Im gonna need a profile shot!!!!

 

Car looks great. Not to knock you ideas but I would suggest you don't do the frenched '59 caddy taillights they are so over done and cliche. It is very rare that putting them on improves the look of a kustom and don't look cheesy. There are a ton of different lights out there search for something else and ask for opinions here for ideas.

 

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yeah i know, i'm gonna need one too! I've been relegated to the tiny back bay of my father's garage, so i haven't even been able to stand back and look at the whole thing yet... which is kind of important. As soon as i can roll it out i'll put some up.

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thanks. maybe i haven't been paying enough attention, they may be cliche but here on the east coast i've never seen a car with frenched caddy lights. I'd consider something else, but it needs to be something barely noticeable when frenched. I want the back of the car to be clean with nothing on it.... any ideas?

 

'56 Chevy tail light lenses.

Available repop for the resto crowd, priced reasonable.
Less common on customs than the Caddy lights.

 

i kind of agree on the 59 caddy lights...
You could put lights in the bumper guards like on the matranga merc

 

Nice work so far.
Do NOT put '59 Caddy lights on that thing!
I'm sure you are already thinking of this, but you are going to box those frame rails, aren't you? Those things look like...well, they look flimsy as all heck is what they look like.

 

My thoughts exactly! The Cad lights are over done. My first thoughts are lamps in the bumper guards like above. They would/will look so much cleaner.

 

hmmm.... you know i love the matranga merc as much as the next guy, and i really like that idea. BUT, in trying to unclutter the car my plan is to build a roll pan and go bumperless. I'm sure that idea will be as well received as the caddy lights idea (ha), and honestly i'm torn between making it look traditional and making it "super-smooth". I'd love to hear more people's ideas because honestly i'm not sure mine are the best, but I do have a general idea what i want it to look like. Honestly i doubt i want anything stuck to or hanging off of the back of my car.

seriously though, i want all the input possible on this. Show me some more pictures you guys.

 

I guess you don't get out much...



there's at least 7 or 8 at one of the local cruises here...

 

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7 or 8? Haha we'd be lucky to have 7 or 8 cars total at most of what goes on around where i live.
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in case anyone cares, i'll tell you why i'm considering the caddy lights. They're pretty much the narrowest lights you can get (at least that i can think of), and i think if they were frenched in completely they'd take up the least surface area on the back of the car and be the least noticeable. Looking at them from behind the car, i doubt you'd even see the conical shape of them.

 

Nice to see you working with your dad, and nice to see a young guy ask others for help. So far the car looks good, I like 40-41 Plymouths.

 

i have an idea but i wont do it on my Plymouth cause im going stock outside custom inside
i own a 47 Plymouth and the third brake light on the trunk would make great tail lights they have a Plymouth symbol in them if you could french the glass i think it would be sick looking

 

okay truth time. You guys got me thinking about this and i've had a change of heart. The caddy lights are dumb and your ideas are much better.

not really. Seriously though, i was thinking about it so i went and found what i thought were the stock 41 Ply lights... they were too big and the glass stuck out too far. Suddenly i realized that they didn't look right. I dug a little deeper in the box and found the real stock tail lights. I don't know what the other ones are but these are perfect... they're small and very simple. I'm going to use them. This is what they look like:

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you like them yes? i do