Hot Rods Time to chop Edna......3", 4" or 5" what would you do?

Ok....the time has come to chop my 1928 Sedan (Edna)

The plan:
Chop the top
powder coat wheels to match trim
drop axle up front
reverse eye spring in back
Stromberg 97 with intake and header from Gear Drive
I will drive it with the banger it (for now)
It is my daily driver in the summer
I am 6' 1" tall and my family will ride in this with me all summer.

If this was your car, how much would you chop it knowing it's a 28 sedan?

 

Not an inch! Especially if you intend to leave and enjoy the four banger. Hop Ups of the thirties and forties that were driven didn't get chopped. SCTA and some of the other organizations didn't let sedans and and coupes even run until the late forties and early fifties, and that was deep into the flathead era. Racing would have been the only reason that car would have been chopped.... Don't do it, it'll be a fish out of water.

 

How 'bout if you be really different and don't chop it at all! A healthy lowering job done in the traditional ways with trim-colored wheels and blackwall bias ply tires would make this little 'banger complete.

 

I agree with chip. The chop would look out of place.

 

Please don't cut that car,it looks great just the way it is.

If you want a chopped car sell this one and buy one.HRP

 

I agree with them......not an inch. Traditional lowering, trim colored rims and a happy family. Gary

 

Not every car needs to be chopped - yours is definitely one of them, IMHO.

 

Don't do it.
The gods will be angered.

 

well so much for that idea. those sedans do look nice the way they were born.

 

Very nice car by the way.
I would suggest lowering the car with a drop axle ( search my posts and others on how to do it with retaining the stock mechanical brakes) and T-rear spring in the rear and drive it awhile before chopping it. Some blackwall Firestones would look less like an old man just restored my Model-A and would make it look more like a hot rod.

I am not a fan of full fendered cars with chops, my model A coupe has its fenders and it unchopped

 

Well....I'm glad I started this thread .

 

Just a suggestion on my part but lowering the car would be a big improvement. HRP

 

If you did chop it, I think somewhere around a 3 1/2" chop would look good. I think 5" would look way too aggressive for the car and not fit the over all style that it sounds like your going for. Here's a good thread about different chop options.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/28-29-model-a-sedan-chop.724317/

That being said, it looks pretty killer the way it is.

 

Nice car as it is and I must ask why do you feel you need to chop it. I feel too many get the chop because it seems to be the thing to do. A lot of cars get the Lakes look of chop but the rest of the car doesn't fit the style and I feel this will be the case here.
You have a killer looking A as it is, just adjust the stance. JW

 

Granted it's not a Sedan, these cars do look great unchopped when still running full fenders. I'd be inclined to lower it and call it a day.

 

Fix the dent in the door and call the body done. JW

 

Here's one with a 4.5 to 5" chop roughly. I thought it was cool. 6 footer also....sitting on the floor. Channeled the frame width. I dunno'.....I like your car as is too.....but you can always buy another stocker and do the same.....plenty out there.

Seeing how ye' are THE tool supplier.......I say chop it to manhole cover height if you wanna'. The tool man can always unchop and rebuild it if he wants to......

 

Normally I am a fan of chopped cars, but I wouldn't chop yours.

 

I can't tell you what to take out and throw away.
But I can tell you what to leave, so it fits the golden ratio
Give the photo shop guys a try .

It will need more chop if the fenders go

 

Here's Dave Colliau's 3" chop with fenders circa' 1996

...and again with a 6" chop


....some yahoo named Jack Chrisman had a 5" on his....


HAMB pics

 

I can't describe the noises I just made when this filled my screen.... Awesome! Awesome, awesome.

Baliegh, Do this stance on your sedan, paint the wheels body color and find some other place for those *^%$ing white walls and the world will be at your feet. Sorry for the strong opinion on the white walls, but I just don't get them.

 

Fix the dent in the door instead.

 

I'm in the don't chop it group. Get the stance down with a 3 or 4 inch dropped axle, reverse the spring eyes, and remove 2 or 3 leaves from the rear spring. That change will be dramatic and all the car needs.

 

drop it about two inches less than that black coupe, and it'll look pretty good. Might try painting (so you can change it easier than if you powdercoat) the wheels a different color...the brown may be ok, the red doesn't look too good, and blackwalls might look better. and it needs it's hood.

 

We are usually on the same page with stuff, but when it comes to losing the fenders with a radical chop, that just isn't necessarily so. Thing is, these DID get heavily hammered, and do look awesome as such with their fenders intact. But the motivation for these chops was many years past the era where four banger car would have thrived, in the early to late fifties running big engines at the drags in Comp Coupe/Sedan classes. At the time, it wasn't allowed to remove the fenders and streamline the living hell out of stuff, but chops were okay. Pulling the fenders and such would have put you in an early Altered class, where there would have been almost no hope of being competitive, or at the lakes and Bonneville. But Comp Coupe/Sedan, in the mid fifties for bit, chopped sedans with all sorts of wicked engines set back as far class rules would allow were the ticket to success. Think Jack Chrissman...

 

Where you and I usually agree on most stuff on the hamb, I like the whitewalls so my opinion cancelled out your strong opinion! HRP

 

Ya HRP, and truth be told, the whites might not look too bad on any color wheel but red. I'd like to see that car with the stance down and the wheels the color of the body stripe both ways...

 

I thought we did this already
Heres mine from the 70's at 4 1/2" You decide!

 

Hell Yeah!!
I though I was saying that IF the fenders went, that it would need as in a must have more chop. At least that's what I meant.

Chop with fenders, the aprons add a lot of visual weight and girth to them so almost anything looks good. That 333 sedan looks as good as Shane's, different but equally good.

 

Since the question is what would you do then I can say I wouldn't chop it at all. It stands out like it is, if you chop it, it looks like a million others. If you do decide to cut the roof, no more than 1 3/4 I think.