Customs How Industrial Chassis Chops a Merc Four Door

outstanding , i enjoyed the top chop photos , and fabrication , good stuff

 

If I may add to Steves reply. The Clecos are only for alignment of panels, they are then scribed and cut to a perfect butt joint before welding. No laps were used here. Laps are for ships and dances.

Loooks good Steve, real good.

 

that is good information, and I never thought of using them like that. Extremely nice work guys!

 

Awesome work, looks great!!!!

 

Looks even better in person!

Very nice work from Steve and crew. Just waiting to it finished.


jerry

 

Pics do not do the metal work justice. You have to see it in person. And the profile on the chop is spot on. Well done once again industrial chassis

 

Nice job...you make it look easy!

 

Here are a few shots from this morning.

Not used to this humidity rusting the crap out of everything overnight!

Interior shot showing the weld joints



This is how we cut the doors to lean them in and match the top.

 

BOB MAXWELL'S done in 1980-81

i know it has mud and its uneven side to side

but it was pretty rad for its day.....

I like your" civilized chop " very much thanks for the show!

 

Great chop, keep up the good work!

 

Amazing keep up the work.

 

That looks real good! Very nice craftsmanship. I can't wait to see it finished.

 

That looks real good! Very nice craftsmanship. I can't wait to see it finished.

 

Nice work Steve! From chasis, brakes, suspension to chopping 4 doors!!!

 

Looks good Steve..Thanx for sending the pics earlier as its helped my buddy with the start of his 4door cut alot...Lookin forward to seein some off this work in person in Nov!
Eric

 

How about some pics of this car finished? Is it done yet? I know I am dragging up some old threads but I am going through my subscribed threads and finding some I like! Jim

 

Nope, it's getting some rust repair and finish body work at I.C. right now as we speak. When I was over last week, Steve was running the helve hammer like a wild man shaping up a pair of custom flush mount skirts for this car. It will be cool!

 

Cool, tell him I would love to see some updated pics! Awesome car! Thanks for the update. Jim

 

Will do!

 

x 2 :d

 

I'm not sure how I missed this one the first time around but wow, what metal work and I'd sure like to see some updates.

 

So what's up with that Stude Hawk in the background? Where did it go?

 

I had some setbacks on the project.


The green Stude GT is at Competition Autobody getting body worked and painted by Ray, and he comes in from 4 to 8 to work on this Merc. We had to replace nearly the complete bottom 6 inches of car. But forward progress is being made and I will update this soon.

 

Ok, got a little time to update this.

the last 12 months sucked for this car. I have had some serious problems but now seem to have things worked out and we have steady progress and new people.

Last September we discovered while trying to get the doors lined up that nothing would stay put. The frame looked good but something was amiss. We could get the doors on the driver side to match the roof but the passenger side wouldn't line up. So we push things around on the pass side then the driver side went awry. With permission from the owner we pulled up the sill plates and chiseled away undercoating to find a horror show.

This had to have been an 80's restoration by an amateur. Panels pop-riveted and brazed in place. Paper mache, chicken wire and bondo hid the evidence well. The decision was made to pull the car all the way down to it bones guts and feathers then sand blast everything, EVERYTHING!







What we got back was even more horrifying, the car barely made it back from the blaster in one piece. The rockers were mostly missing, all six pillar posts were missing.

 

I had Wes blast paint on the frame and etch prime most of the exposed sheetmetal that was salvageable. We put the body back on the frame and shimmed everything as best as possible and tried forming a plan of attack.







I had the owner track down as many pieces as he could. The first set of replacement rockers were plain shit. 20 gauge paintlock crap that looked no different than a rain gutter for your house. And they were nearly $400.00 for the pair! I wish I could remember the brand names on these, but the second set was much better and cheaper to boot!

While we were waiting for parts, Wes started in on some of the easier to repair sections like the trunk floor.





Parts started trickling in.







Wes started creating the floor and inner rockers and attaching the mid rocker and new B-pillar sections on the driver side.

 

WOW! I know the feeling, when I got to the bottom of my car I was really suprised at what I found, or didnt find I guess I should say, I have spent the last 3 months building a bottom on my car..... I think the car is in the right hands though, I would say you guys will do just fine with it! Keep us updated! Jim

 

Hi Steve, I saw this the other day when I had the 50 in your shop. Must have missed this thread in the past. I had no real appreciation for what you went through, even though you told me, till I saw these pictures. Unbelievable work.

 

All four door bottoms were trash, some compromises are going to have to be made to keep this build under the quarter million mark







Some time after that last picture I was told to take a holiday on the car by the owner so we could regroup. I lost Wes to a back injury and floundered to find someone to help me finish this car.

Owner imposed break on the car was over and I had one killer employee for about a month. Brian Bay, very good metal shaper and very fine welder. He got the left rear fender on the car, fixed a ton of rust around the left rear fender well and just did a killer job straightening out the left side rocker and doors. I had to let Brian go at the beginning of Summer this year because of other customers not paying their bills, then I hired Ray Butler. Ray and his brothers own Competition Auto Body on Grand Ave here in Phoenix, they had been working on the '63 Studebaker Gran Turismo I built earlier. Ray wanted to work with me to help his metal working skills along further. And he was willing to work within the new arrangement I had to make with Richard, the owner of this Merc.

Ray got the passenger side rocker installed and fitted the passenger side doors and finally we could get the car aligned and it would stay put. Now we could get down to customizing and finishing the chop we started over a year ago!







Richard and I discussed the drip rail situation and we agreed that the rolled lip like I had done on my personal truck was the right thing to do for this car. I would have liked to put stock style rails on it but this was a better situation. We could close up the random factory door gaps around the tops of the doors much better.

 

And that's about it for right now. Ray has fitted the belt line trim and the trunk lid. It's amazing how much effort goes into making this stuff actually fit the way it should and how bad these (or at least this) cars fit from the factory.



Currently Ray is working on the fender opening on the left rear and he and I are making new flush mount skirts. The rockers are going to come off again! because the shape just isn't right. It's the way the manufacturer made them, they just fit like shit, so what was done will be undone and then done correctly.

Sheesh!

New pictures soon.