Customs De-crowning '46 Ford Coupe

Forgive me but I was exactly where you are with my Model A coupe. The car was great but I really wanted it to look like a '32. I finally realized that the car looked good for itself and that it was better to change cars than to modify something that already looked good. Happy Easter!

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There is a book titled How To Chop Tops by tex Smith that covers how to chop these fords and diffrent ways to go about geting rid of the hump without doing a full on chop. Check it out

 

Here's one of the 46-48 Ford coupes I've done. It's actually one of the more difficult chops to get right in my opinion. A lotta men tried... Many have failed.

 

Jeepers criminy that's beautiful!!

 

Ok. Please disregard my previous comment. That looks amazing! I does make more of a difference than I thought.

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Pinstriper 40's chopped coupe looks awesome...

The OP was looking to reduce the hump... unless you're going all the custom like Pinstriper40, I'd say leave it alone!

 

Pinstriper40 nailed the rear roof line. That roof line, no chop with drip rails would be the perfect ‘46-47 long door in my humble opinion. They already have good window-to-body mass proportion at stock height but I’ve never liked that hump either.


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Thanks fellas

 

Here’s a pic I found of the 46 I used to run , car went to Australia when sold

 

Chop I’m working on, way more radical than most like but..

 

Are you going for the hardtop look ?

 

Bob, I get where you're coming from... The long door coupes have that 'football helmet' hump, used no doubt to give more headroom for getting into/out of the back seat. Ford went to a lot of trouble to try to 'hide' it too. Notice how the distance from the top of the window opening to the drip rail increases front-to-rear. Neither the short door coupes or sedans are proportioned like this. And when guys chop these it's pretty often that they cut more in the rear attempting to 'fix' this but that usually screws up the window proportions.

Now personally, I like the long door coupe... except for the 'hump'. But I've thought about this a lot; if my metal skills were up to it or I had deep pockets here's what I'd do...

First, use a sedan roof. These have even less 'hump' than the short door and for a longer distance. Assuming no 'chop' (unmodified windshield) I might nip about 3/4" out in the rear, mostly to get rid of the 'wedge' in the window openings. I'd want the drip rail parallel to the lower window opening line. Next, I'd reduce the width of the catwalk and move the rear of the roof/window back about 1.5", then lay it down a bit more. Finally, reconstruct the quarter window opening keeping the top of the opening equal distance from the drip rail, maybe even extending it back some.

A lot of work, but IMO would give the sleekness of the short door without the 'abbreviated' look those have.

 

Yes I am

 

You nailed it with that look. These cars only look good chopped hard like that. Either whack it good and hard, or leave the stock roof. In between is a miss. When it's done right like these examples, it really makes a beautiful swan out of an otherwise ugly duckling. Killer.

 

Crazy Steve do you have rendering of your concept if would like to see.

 

If I knew how to run photoshop I'd have one, but for now it's in my head...

 

See if Moose here on the HAMB will do it for you. I would be interested in hoe it turns out. Frank

 

many many years ago i chopped a 53 dodge panel (wheelhouse panel) took about 1.1/2 or so ABOVE the driprail and over onto the top of the windshield ,never touched anything below the driprail just thinned the roof and lowered the upper windshield , really looked great difference was stunningly subtle ,, and as far as chops go was pretty simple , no glass work accept flat windshield ,,,,
fabricator john
miss you dad

 

I know how you feel about the hump. But giving it the taildragger stance kinds of takes your eye off of it. One day ill chop this one. Wifes got me remodeling the house right now. No shop time for me

 

I've taken some liberties:

Indeed?