This coupe was a pile of parts i picked up for a local guy back in November, the owner put the majority of the project together himself. I have been working on getting the roof sections installed and chopping the coupe. I will get some more photos loaded up and info later on today.
Wow.....this is the guy with the 36 Ed Pink coupe build, amongst others. He's tall enough.....so to speak. Excellent website man.....living the dream it looks like.....great work. Have fun, and I'll be back...thank you very much. Yet another Hamber to envy......looks like everyone's is bigger then mine. Sheeez.
My 28 Sedan had a 5 inch chop. Driveability was not bad as I sat on Camaro buckets. Only problem is I got older and my knees could not take it any more. I like a severe chop on cars but I always worried about roll overs and not being able to get out if the doors would not open. Looks great.
The only other rod I've seen chopped that severely had an aircraft engine in it, and the driver looked out through a hole cut in the roof. Big Al, I think it was called, as a reference to the name of the engine, an Allison. I spent an afternoon talking to the builder, who lives in Hawaii, now. You truly can say, without blushing you have a 'mail-slot' chop. It looks like something I'd have done about age fifteen, to impress myself. Damn! Going to be a bitch in traffic. Ever heard of 'static display'? I still have to say, I like it, and can't explain to myself why.
Wasen't there a rule of thumbs, regarting windshield hight. No less the hight of a bill, or it was not legal for the streets? But I can't remember what bill. 10? 100? 50? This is cut to the max ( or minimum), and I doubt it would be good in modern Traffic. Is this gonna be streetdriven car?
Here in Cali, there was never an inch law, (but at the dry lakes, they spec'd 7-1/2" inches at the center of the windshield, way back when...) Street legal here was worded, "adequate visibility". Height in bills was said to be an eight dollar bill, or "two fours". Heard that someplace...
As an aside, Jim Lytle, creator of Big Al, passed away in Dec. 2011.......a true genius of automotive creativity.
Have you thought about sectioning it to get the proportions back if you are not gonna channel? check out the golden rule. by the way if that was my car my wife would be the only person driving it. She is 5'. hope you are short too. or set your seats for a serous lean back.
This coupe was a salvaged coupe, if it wasn't for some UPAC parts it might still be in pieces, the owner of this coupe as a few other five windows and since this car is basicly put back together with a few new parts and some salvage quarters why not give it a hard chop, the owner and his helper put the base of the car together and then brought it over to me. I put what roof section we had on and from there proceed to chop it. Sneaking up on the chop the one door he had was chopped at 4" so that was the first cut from there we decide why not and cut it some more the front is chopped 7 3/8 the rear is 7" i will have to double check those measurements tonight the center of the front windshield there is 2 1/2" of glass. The rear window itself is left a little larger. I have chopped a few 5 windows in the past but never this hard the look is growing on me but when it comes time to chop my own 5 window it won't be this hard. the plan is for cowl steering a roll pan more of a dry lakes type build. and a lot of louvers in the roof which makes welding it in a bit of a pain but as long as i don't paint it thats fine with me. A pair of bomber seat that i made for the car awhile back. Working on the rear roll pan now. I will take some updated shots of the car tonight the roof is metal finished out now one low area by the last row of louvers that is giving me fits so i moved on from it for the time being. I didn't work on the car much this last month but hopeful September i will get my end of the build completed. The owner will drive this car some it won't be a cross country car for sure but it will go the friday cruise nights and local shows. Cowl steering and red ram motor is the plan as of now. the chop is turning out great in my opinion the quarter windows and the roof lined up a lot better than i though they were going to at that hard of a chop, some folks might not like it but to each there own.
The Jalopy Journal
