Hey guys, just curious if anyone has done or seen a early 50's chop without cutting down the windshield? Kind of just laying the back roof down, giving a better flow. I have a '54 and the back half has a pretty decent hump to it. Was thinking about sinking the back glass and probably cut two inches out of the b-pillar and possibly end up with maybe three at the rear? Any thoughts?
I've seen a roof pancaked to give a chopped appearance by lowering the crown whilst still retaining all OEM glass and other cars chopped with glass lowered as well but not this.
I've seen several '55 Chevys with the top chopped (pancaked?) above the top line of the windows with stock glass and they looked OK. Leaving the windshield alone and tapering everything towards the back sounds like a tail dragger.
I don't know about the fitting up but I think that in those years hardtop and Convertible windshields are an inch or two shorter than Sedan or Wagon windshields. That would go a long way on a mild chop if it worked without a lot of windshield frame mods on the Sedan. Just like Aaggie I'm not a fan of those hard slant rockasilly chops That tend to show up in event coverage. They usually look like the person who did them didn't put a lot of thought or time in on them.
If anything, I like the top angled down in the front a bit just to get away from the look you are proposing.
not sure about 53's and 54's, but 49-52's the curve is different and you can not put a convertible/hardtop windshield in a regular car.
I think the end result would be like the old farmer said about the woman that used too much makeup......"I can appreciate the time she spent putting all that makeup on, but she's still ugly as snot"...........A friend used to say, sometime we put a lot of work into something that shows people we are stupider than we look......just our opinions
I pancaked the roof 2 inches over the windshield, then chopped it 5 1/2 in the rear. The windshield and vent glass were not touched. But my stock windshield is 2 inches shorter than yours from the get go. BTW it's a 1950 Nash
I saw a 49-51 Ford woody wagon done with the windshield at stock height and the rest of the roof lowered 2 or 3 inches, looked really good on the wagon since they have kind of a bald-forehead of sheetmetal above the windshield on a stock roof. What you're suggesting would be a great photoshop exercise, post this in the photoshop thread and get a better idea of what it'd look like.
Indeed. Get thee to "the photoshop thread to end all photoshop threads"! Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I found this video in the $5 dollar bin at wall mart . Ian Roussel chops a 54 Chevy exactly like you are talking about. retained front and rear uncut original glass. Cool video ild have paid $6 for it! Looks like a alot of work . Car come out real cool . Got a few interviews with Gene Winfield, Brad Masterson, and Bill Hines too. Sais throttleTV.com on the front if wal mart don't pan out. Good luck
I knew there would probably be a catch there somewhere. On the DVD that the Goose showed above in his post. You can go to the link he gave, click on cars in the header and then GO to page three where the dvd is listed at the bottom of the list. I bought the three custom car dvds listed on that line.
Or go to Half.com and search "Kustom cars." I got the 2-disk set for $3.95 plus a couple bucks shipping.
It's real hard to get the proportion right by doing it that way. There are a select number of cars that you can do that on and get away with it. Most of the time it's a lot of work for not much aesthetic gain.
What do you mean "the curve is different"? At the top corners, or something about the whole shape of the windshield? I have a '51 coupe and I've been planning all along to do a mild chop using a hardtop windshield.
Seriously? Why on earth would GM do that?? This is throwing a serious wrench into my plans for my '51.
Thanks guys, I'll look into that video for sure. Website has three of the same titles though? All part two, one extended,one two disc and one regular?
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