This is my first chop. I am doing it alone, like everything else on my car (so far) with the help of a video which I will only partly follow. I am taking 6" out of the windshield posts. That's about 4 1/2" vertical. I do not want to move my back window forward at all. I also plan to keep the tail end of the back doors where they are at. I want to make the back door windows have a smooth teardrop taper back to tiny rear windwings. I have an extra 1950 Mercury roof I will be using for door jamb parts & smooth transition to the back window. I also plan to learn the art of lead body work, as this car is original & has never known bondo. I was going to upload pictures, but it isn't working . I'm going to post this & try again, sorry if this is just text
Also, I am still looking for some good rear door tops (window frames) to use if anyone has a pair for sale. I have the inner pieces I need.
This car has been my daily driver for the past few years since I built her. To my knowledge, it was last driven in the early 60s. Her name is Loretta. 1972 Olds 350 stock with Edelbrock intake, crankshaft machined for pilot shaft, Muncie M-21 4 speed, aluminium radiator, 74 Maverik rear end, 89 Lincoln leather seats. Runs perfect. Still needs custom rear suspension (narrowed?) and air bags all around. I plan to paint the dash & interior metal real pretty like.
Also, this car is a 1949, but seems to be a 1949 1/2. The rear window, bumpers and the rear door jambs are 1950 style. I assume it is just a late 1949.
Chris!! What the hell did you do? Perfect! Ok. If I still lived there you know I would be in the middle of this with you. That said, what I would do is brace the roof so it keeps it's shape round wise. Don't want it pitching around. You got the body stuff braced decent. Next would be removing the B pillar off the roof. Me, I like the drip rails so I would cut it so it looked like a hard top, so I could just "slide" the pillar back. Before I reattached it I would want to find my roof profile height at the rear or where ever it looks good to you. Then brace the roof to the floor so it can't move anywhere. You know now as it came down, it also narrowed. Meaning now the pillars, A, B and C are wider than the roof. Need to think on how you want to match them up. You have another roof. Could cut the center out about 6 inches from the drip rail and move the sides out to the pillars, so it would have a huge sunroof, and then reskin it over with the other roofs skin. Like peeling the cap off and putting it on the other. That way you won't have to mess with Quartering it and filling seams in the middle. Just the outer area to blend it to the drip rail. Follow? Damn, I'm proud of ya for building this car and now chopping it. Badass brother!
Hey Brandt! I still havent tacked the windshield posts. My extra roof is pretty rough for dents but no rust. I plan to use it just for drip rail/door jamb pieces for over the rear doors, and a large piece of curved skin from the center to put between the back window to above the rear doors so the profile curve will be slight & even without slicing into it to re shape the curve as is so common. I am cutting & re-angling the posts to lean in more to fit. That will help the back window flow in better also. In the video, he only cuts in a few inches from the edge of the doors to angle the posts in. I think it may be better to take about a 1/4" strip all the way across the inside of the door & angle the whole top in rather than just the ends.
My next step, after making some more cuts, is to align the roof where & want it, tack it at the center posts, check for square, then tack the front posts in place. Then I will build the rest of the door jamb/drip rail over the back doors, angling in at the base. Once that is tacked solid, I will brace the roof & move the center pillar tops back & in place. Then the back window. Then the open space in front of it. I plan to cut the back off of the original roof a few inches behind where I cut up through the door jamb & fill it in with about 2 feet of donor roof. I only did this because my glass was all cracked & needed replaced except for the back window. I bought all the window seals & channels and I didn't want to have to do my glass twice, so I figured I better chop it first.
Not to hijack, but that is what I did on my F truck chop. Cut thru the inner door to the skin. I have seen it done with just a shorter cut but I think that a full cut that leans the whole top in is better. IMHO. Of course it is more welding....... Great to see a 4dr getting a haircut. Torchie.
On a heavy chop make sure you do reliefs top an bottom on the windshield. Watch yourself, as a visual when chopping they will give an optical illusion of being peaked in the B pillar area if not cut enough in the rear. Reshaping the rear door opening helps a lot for the overall look. Nice looking Merc by the way!
I tacked the roof on at the B pillar and made relief cuts in A & C pillars to angle in steeper. I have measured in several places & it wouldnt measure up perfectly even everywhere. The right B pillar from the roof ends up about 3/16" farther back than the left as shown in these pictures. The roof center line measures true and the height is even on both sides, I figure that's where it counts. When I made my initial cuts on the front posts, they did jump a little & I had to lower the right rear tire a bit by removing the plywood I had put under it to level the car, then it all lined up while the rear was still attached. I will do some more measuring before I tack the windshield posts.
OK, it sits more squarely than I thought. The doors were throwing me off. Im gonna work on fastening the windshield posts now...
when sliding your B pillar forward another trick is to cut it under the gutter about level with the top part of the door jamb. then you dont mess up the gutter or the roof metal. You add a little piece to the center to fit back up under the gutter and all your welds are hid in the jambs.
Lining up the windshield posts is looking pretty good. I need to remove about 3/32" off the back side where they join for a tighter fit. I took about 1/4" V notch out of the bottom post, as the 4" chop video took 3/16" I should have only taken out 1/8" now I have more gap to fill. I will need to do some detail work on the jamb side to make a smooth transition upward.
Sounds like a good plan for the B pillars Matt. The rib between the doors may get in the way a bit. Would be even better if I am able to get the spot welds free somehow.
This is exactly what I was getting at Chris, when I said I like to keep the rain gutters and roof alone. Matt knows his stuff... Sand or wire brush the spot welds then drill them out.
So, I tack welded the front posts & they looked pretty straight. Then I made a plywood template of the outer half of the windshield opening to check all the pieces for flat. It also showed me any uneven between the 2 sides. I re-did the passenger side all together to push it outward at the center cut and did some piece work to make the door jamb flow smooth through the lower 2 cuts. I dont want to weld it solid till Im sure its perfect (+/- 1/64")
Good plan..I did something similar. Symmetry or your eye sure as shit will go to the akward. Any more pictures? Even shots of boring stuff is cool!
I will post pics on Sunday/Monday when I bring my camera home from work. I should have the front like I want it by then & start marking the donor roof for cutting. I finally just bought an original radio for $85. I plan to have it converted to AM/FM/Aux. I also just got a '63 Mercury Monterey horn button with a Mercury head on it that looks awesome with the clear Hitman steering wheel that I paid too much for. I will post some pics of those this weekend as well.
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