Knowing it would be a slow week before we get out for Christmas break I decided to drag out the 41 and chop the top. Most of my students are into pickups and had never seen anything like a tail dragger. We watched a couple of videos and looked through tons of pics to get them all reved up and ready. We started laying it out yesterday, measuring and remeasuring. A few posts we found said something about taking out 5 inches so thats were we started. The back ended up being somewhere around 7. Please take a look and tell us what you think. I know getting that quarter window can make or break this car. Its all tacked and just has paper covering the back window area to get the flow of the top. Again tells us your thoughts.
One more pic with the door frame taped in place to get an idea for the door opening. I tried to get a slight downward slope from the front to the back. The drip rail peaks just behind where the vent window woud be tapers off about a half inch at the b-pillar.
Nice auto shop project! Back iin my high school days we did mostly mechanical stuff, basic maintenance and repairs. Not any hot rodding.
I like it Bad Gas, I especially like the small radius you have planned for the rear end of the quarter window. Too many guys turn the back end of the window into a half circle and kill the looks of the chop. This is one a friend of mine bought chopped and then had up for sale when he moved and it's a prime example of how not to do the back quarter window.
Is that the Delahousey Auto Shop complex? I can't believe the district would allow that work to be done. Many years ago they wouldn't allow anyone to work on anything but "customer" cars, i.e. late models and granny cars from admon relationships. Back in the 50s-60s hot rods got built in the old tinshop at the of PHS.
I bet before this, they all thought a "top chop" was some piece of shit '80's car that someone sawzalled the roof off of and added some Autozone portholes and dubs.
Somewhat finished out quarter window. Slow going this morning. Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
Looks great. Wish I was in that high school growing up. A lot more fun than fixing a mower. Ha. Thanks for sharing.
Hope those kids are reading this thread and understand what a special opportunity they have. Very nice work!
That's cool! I wish we had a teacher like you. We use to work on his tractors, bushhogs and planters.
same here.if they had that going on in my h.s. i wouldnt have played hookey so much.lol.when i was in school nobody was really into cars as much as i was so i was kinda the outcast.mainly because i didnt own a pu truck..oh yeah, i had long hair too.and a earring. in 1974 small town tn.
Finished the second quarter window this morning. Wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to reproduce. I just made a cardboard template and built around it. I think I lost the students somewhere around the 900th tack weld. Oh well their gone now, Christmas Break!! Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
Love it. Would love to do work like this at the school I work at. Just started teaching auto so I might take baby steps. Keep up the good work.
The Jalopy Journal
