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32 partial channel job

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by 39cent, Sep 16, 2008.

  1. 39cent
    Joined: Apr 4, 2006
    Posts: 1,569

    39cent
    Member
    from socal

    Anybody have or done a partial channel job? Like 2 or 3" They look good, but don,t see many.
     
  2. 3Mike6
    Joined: Jan 2, 2007
    Posts: 704

    3Mike6
    Member

  3. 39cent
    Joined: Apr 4, 2006
    Posts: 1,569

    39cent
    Member
    from socal

    Even 1", makes it look different but ya can,t figure what,s different!
     
  4. DrJ
    Joined: Mar 3, 2001
    Posts: 9,419

    DrJ
    Member

    Random thoughts...

    The first thing I think when seeing a channeled Deuce is "Tupperware kit car" since the have been so available for so long.

    It's an "East Coast" look, confusing the area of the build here, but that seems to have become a fad all over I guess.

    I no longer see any point to doing anything to a car that doesn't pass the "20/20 test"
    (If a pedestrian can't notice a modification from 20 feet away as the car drives past at 20 mph, it's a waste of energy making the change.)

    I wouldn't take a car apart and cut the floor out and section the firewall just to do a hardly noticable channel.
    Now if you are building from scratch from a bunch of unassembled parts that doesn't apply I guess.
     

  5. SinisterCustom
    Joined: Feb 18, 2004
    Posts: 8,277

    SinisterCustom
    Member

    I personnally like '32's to be channelled....I like the East Coast "look". If I had one, I'd channel it @ 4", so the frame reveal was just visable....I just like that look. There was a red one built by SoCal in TRJ awhile back, Hemi powered, that was channelled *I think* 3"......wicked.

    IMO....5W's look better channelled anyway....because the straight door conflicts with the frame curvature when it sits on top....fenderless. 3W either way, as the leading lower door edge has that curve that compliments the frame....
     
  6. Kevin Lee
    Joined: Nov 12, 2001
    Posts: 7,582

    Kevin Lee
    Super Moderator
    Staff Member

    Interesting... I would always assume the opposite at a glance – that a channeled car was real. Fiberglass cars always seem to be built as highboys.

    I don't think a channel alone makes an East Coast car.

    Completely disagree on the 20/20 test and last point for multiple reasons. Most pedestrians wouldn't know roadster from coupe so?

    Funny how different tastes can be.
     
  7. turdytoo
    Joined: May 14, 2007
    Posts: 1,568

    turdytoo
    Member

    Mickey Smith's 3 window is a partial channel. It's the Hilborne injected car that Dupont has been using quite a bit in their booth and adds.
     
  8. It's like the guy I knew who thought chopping his car 1" would be the height of trick. Either a 1" chop or a 2" channel is just not worth it time & effort.
     
  9. 31whitey
    Joined: Jan 2, 2007
    Posts: 2,214

    31whitey
    Member

    I see a channeled car and instantly I am drawn to it....

    you know the builder spent many hours, like half a day...hahah...working on the channel job.

    I think the east coast look SCREAMS hot rod....

    very rarely will I stop to look at a high boy B/C most I see up close are glass

    I can only think of 1 channeled 32 glass car....I would love to see more DR.J

    to me a high boy, even chopped, looks more like an antique car than hotrod...
     
  10. gnichols
    Joined: Mar 6, 2008
    Posts: 11,345

    gnichols
    Member
    from Tampa, FL

    WHen I see a channeled car I don't think East coast, I think aero mods / land speed racing. Gary
     
  11. metalshapes
    Joined: Nov 18, 2002
    Posts: 11,138

    metalshapes
    Member

    That makes absolutely no sense to me.

    I dont build Cars for pedestrians....
     
  12. This is what I was thinking too. My grandpa had a channeled '33 5 window around '53, is California the east coast?
     
  13. DrJ
    Joined: Mar 3, 2001
    Posts: 9,419

    DrJ
    Member

    As I said, these are/were just some random thoughts.

    I was thinking of the several Speedway "Lowboys" and similar cars around here.

    A channel certainly doesn't say West Coast! (Not that it was never done, just wasn't typical.)
    I think East Coast cars got channelled because the floors were rusted away anyway so why not? (That was for humor)

    I guess saying pedestrian was the wrong word...I was thinking more like "car guy" standing on the sidewalk.

    I understand what metalshapes is saying too.
    He does many things just to please himself.
    That's an honorable way of doing most things.
    A lot of people do, but a lot more build, or have built, and drive custom cars just for the "look at me factor", and minute details and invisible changes aren't that important to their scheme of things.
    That's the excuse of why the headlights on NASCAR cars and Funny Cars are decals.

    Take the guy who chops a top 1" and no other changes.
    The restorers give him hell for fucking up a survivor while the rodders want to know why he bothered without taking out 5" and the rest just want to know "What kind or roadster is that?"

    On the partial channel... I think the cowl line at the firewall overlapping down over the frame causing a visual jog would irritate me, unless it ran full hood sides that overlapped the frame too, but that would require a jog in the hood somewhere or pinching the frame to the inside of the radiator and losing the horns.
    On a sometimes-hoodless rod, I like them when the body at the firewall meets the frame (visually) at either the top of the frame rail or level with the bottom of the frame.

    I'm aware that the Deuce body overlaps the frame some already, but this other cowl to frame alignment point gets to me on some cars.

    Also, are you going to reverse Z the rear frame horns so the gas tank will fit or move the tank?
     
  14. alchemy
    Joined: Sep 27, 2002
    Posts: 20,407

    alchemy
    Member

    When I see a channelled car I think "old hack job". Sorry, but that's just usually the case with old channel jobs. Like they couldn't lower the car the correct way.

    But, that's not saying I would never own a channelled car. Most of the time I just prefer highboys.
     
  15. metalshapes
    Joined: Nov 18, 2002
    Posts: 11,138

    metalshapes
    Member

    Yep...:)

    Sometimes a car needs something radical.

    But often a small slice here or there looks more "right".
    A 1 1/2 or 2" Chop is still a lot of work, but sometimes that can really help the lines of a Car.

    Or carving up the complete front of a Chassis to drop the top of the Grilleshell.
    ( I did that to my Roadster a while ago...
    It didn't flow, and it was bugging the crap out of me.

    A 3/4" drop is all it needed...) :D :D
     
  16. DrJ
    Joined: Mar 3, 2001
    Posts: 9,419

    DrJ
    Member

    And all this kind of stuff would be necessary to pull off a 1" channel too.
    39cent, if you're up for that, just for what amounts to bragging rights among the few excessive/compulsives amongst us (Yea. I'm one, but Im trying to cure myself with this logic talk) Go for it! :cool:
     
  17. Shaggy
    Joined: Mar 6, 2003
    Posts: 5,207

    Shaggy
    Member
    from Sultan, WA

    Phil weind had a pretty slick track T with a 2" channel

    I'm doing it on my 27 t, should be easy just tossing the subframe for the floor from the body and and attaching the bracing straight to the frame

    People will probably argue about frame flex but i think it should work fine
     
  18. 39cent
    Joined: Apr 4, 2006
    Posts: 1,569

    39cent
    Member
    from socal

    there's channels and then there's subtle channels its something more [or less] than hacking it down to the ground. I see there arent many who have seen a small channel. it isnt done very often for reasons pointed out. I myself wudnt do it to a steel car but if I was doing a 3 window glass car I would surely try. Its like if it was done like to a car at cruise or car show, would catch your eye and make you look to find out what they did.
     
  19. Shaggy
    Joined: Mar 6, 2003
    Posts: 5,207

    Shaggy
    Member
    from Sultan, WA

    A T is too short to go hiboy on 32 rails it looks out of proportion with the tall rails under it, but with a full channel you loose footroom, with my t and the slight channel i shouldnt loose any footroom
     
  20. 39cent
    Joined: Apr 4, 2006
    Posts: 1,569

    39cent
    Member
    from socal

    some of the old T,s in the day, had a drop down floor, [something like a sprint car]where the body was channeled down inside the frame,and you sit lower. tube frames work well this way. And I see some with the dropped frames too.
     
  21. Kilroy
    Joined: Aug 2, 2001
    Posts: 3,227

    Kilroy
    Member
    from Orange, Ca

    "A GENTLEMAN never does anything to excess..."
     
  22. Oldsmopile
    Joined: Jul 13, 2008
    Posts: 54

    Oldsmopile
    Member

    Channeling on the west coast wasn't typical! I guess your vintage magazine collection is way different then mine. Look at the old Hot Rods, Customs Illustrated, Rod&Custom, Car Craft, Rodding and Re-styling, ect, ect.... They are chalk full of channeled cars form the west coast. Not to mention all the Don Montgomery books. Granted channeling was very popular on the east coast, but it started on the west coast by all the dry lakes and salt flat racers. I love channeled cars, but the proportions have to be right. There are a lot of things that differentiate a west coast car from an east coast car other than a channel job.
     
  23. JimSibley
    Joined: Jan 21, 2004
    Posts: 3,848

    JimSibley
    Member

    I like cars.
     

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  24. LongFord
    Joined: Sep 13, 2008
    Posts: 49

    LongFord
    BANNED

    dude....wyotech gives out Ph.D's now?
     
  25. krylon32
    Joined: Jan 29, 2006
    Posts: 9,397

    krylon32
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Nebraska
    1. Central Nebraska H.A.M.B.

    Check So-Cals website under hotrods, they did a red deuce 5 window with a partial channel job.
     
  26. gotwood
    Joined: Apr 6, 2007
    Posts: 264

    gotwood
    Member
    from NYC

    I am new to the 32 stuff and was just last night scouring through old Rodders Journals looking for ideas. There was a red 32 in a pic with a yellow one. The red sat a little better in my eyes. It was built by SOCAL.

    When I read the article it stated that Pete C doesn't like channeled cars and did that one as it was only done to the lower frame reveal and they raised the wheel openings to match. I think it looks sharp with the addtl mods.
     
  27. Oldsmopile
    Joined: Jul 13, 2008
    Posts: 54

    Oldsmopile
    Member

    Real funny there Spencer !
     
  28. VAPHEAD
    Joined: May 13, 2002
    Posts: 3,257

    VAPHEAD
    BANNED

    I channeled dawifes 32 truck 1 1/2" ,
    cab will clear fenders at cowl.

    (apart and shoved in corner now)so can't take any better pictures.
    The pick ups hang over the frame a bunch more then coupes/roadsters.
    Just wanted to do it.
     

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  29. oldebob
    Joined: Oct 21, 2008
    Posts: 782

    oldebob
    Member
    from Spokane WA

    Just had to get in on this one I guess. '27 is channeled 1 1/2" over narrowed Z'd 32 frame. The drivers side floor floor from the seat to the firewall is dropped down inside the frame. I left the pass side up level with the sills to leave space for the exaust without it hanging below the frame. Many west coast T's were given this partial channel treatment. A good example being the Jack McGrath & Manual Ayulo track roadsters. Those cars as pictured in Veda Orr's book were the inspiration for this then East Coast guy to build this car.
     

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  30. pasadenahotrod
    Joined: Feb 13, 2007
    Posts: 11,775

    pasadenahotrod
    Member
    from Texas

    PARTIAL CHANNEL? What the hell is that? A channel job is a channel job. The difference between any one is the modifier used before the term...as in 2" channel job, 6" channel job, up to the point of "dumbass" channel job.

    IF anything could be called a PARTIAL CHANNEL it would be a car that is channeled only in the front which usually gives the car that early-mid-60s broken-backed look.
    And NO, I didn't say "Brokeback Mountain" Look although many will read it that way.
     

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