I have searched for chops on here, trying to get ideas for my Buick...but they have all been 2 doors. What about a 4 door chop? I'd like to know how to do it, this is my first chop and I don't want to screw it up too much! I'll be doing the work in my dad's machine shop, so tools aren't a problem, but the lack of knowledge and expertise! If anyone could point me towards other websites that show a chop step-by-step, or show me your own chops, I would appreciate it. I have no idea where to start! Help! I was thinking a 4" chop would be good. Let me know what you think, I am open to ideas/advice/opinions! Also, I'd like to use the original glass all the way around....so I'll need some pointers on that as well!
well there are plenty of chop threads in here, but if this is your first chop don't rush into it. take some time before and think about it first. some of these guys make shit look easy and i can tell ya its not. from the picture if thats your car. i would focus on the little stuff first like lowering, getting the driveline set up and making it a mild drivable custom before i would even consider chopping another car. just my 2cents though
You have curved glass at both ends. That makes the chop 1000 times harder than a flat glass car. What you propose is for experts only. Please just enjoy a fine old car and just do tasteful upgrades. It is very pretty as it is.
with any chop the first thing to do is figure out what to do with the glass. a good glass guy should be able to cut the windshield, the problem is in the rear glass. the simple solution would be to go with a smaller rear window like a 49 52-ish Chevy or Ford. get the glass and surrounding sheetmetal also. as a general rule when you chop the whole roof goes forward, then the back glass gets laid down. some people are able to sink the glass down into the body on a car like this. remember your choices with glass are to either cut it or break it. metal can be bent, tiwsted, stretched, shrunk, cut, welded and cut welded stretched and bent again until it all fits together.... so do the glass first
I'm going to echo what the others have said,, The chops on cars like the '53 Buick are not for a novice,,car looks good as is just stick to the simple mods and you will be enjoying the car much quicker and still have money for gas. HRP
Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it. I'm definitely not rushing into it, just starting to think about if I really want to take it on or not. I'm thinking on like a 3-5 year timeline...for now, just getting it to the point of driving is the main goal. I agree, I want to enjoy driving it right now, do a few simple custom things, and have money for gas Research, research, research for the chop...that's all the further I'm going with it right now. I don't want to get in over my head! Thanks again!
Might want to consider converting it to a 2 door before a chop. It would go a lot further in making a cool custom if the extra doors were lost, than lowering the top, in my opinion.
Blacktopbuddha, I was thinking about doing that actually, maybe next winter. I like the look of a 2 door. And you're right, I might just stop there and not even want to do the chop. The more I look at the car, the more I realize how difficult the chop is going to be... Thanks for the replies everyone!
Man, you will never learn if u dont try, Ive been in the process of finishing my 51 chevy styleline 4 door, and its going great, Ive had advice and pointers from Ian Berkly on here. He has alot of good chop pics and info, id say go for it bro
I am not an expert, just stubborn. This use to be a 4 door Oldsmobile, same body as a 53 Buick. Took the doors off of a convertible and used the rear door as a large "patch panel" to fill in the rear. The original curved rear glass was not going to work for me so I ended up using a 40 Merc rear glass. I have real glass all around, i cut the windshield by sandblasting it. This thing almost made me quite cars all together. It took 3 attempts to get the chop and proportions right. Because I have had this car since high school and has other sentimental values i decided i was not going to give up on it. Would I do it again...... no. The black picture is how I used it in high school. Then I painted it blue and rolled in it for a while, then tore into it. Good luck.
Not trying to hijack your thread but I am in the same boat as you are. I have a 53 Pontiac four door that is way beyond saving that a friend gave me for free. I drug it home solely for the intention of doing a two door conversion and a chop on it. It's just a practice and gain skills project. If it turns out decent I can always cut the top off and put it on another car down the road. I would also be interested in some pics of a similar 4 door chop as you requested as well as some info/pics on this sinkin' the glass trick. I just cant seem to find much info pertaining to what I am after and yes I have also done a ton of looking around here on the site.
I'm with rat pup... the experts had to learn somehow. You don't learn anything sitting on the couch and not taking chances. Go for it bro.
^ agreed! If you want it choppped, it can be done. And since you're not jumping in right away, but planning for the future, I'd say you're thinking right. Doing other mods first will get your feet wet on the ins and outs of cutting crap up and putting it back together in a manner not envisioned by GM. And 4 inches sounds just about right from a state a way, but I'd either photoshop the chop or draw it out to see what different amounts of chop will look like.
Thanks for all the ideas guys! Like I said before, just getting advice and ideas...doing something that difficult is definitely above my head right now, but after climbing all over the car and doing other mods for the next few years, maybe I will feel up to tackling it. I definitely want to do it at some point....it may not be for years, and it may not even be this car, but it will happen I am just stoked to have the damn thing lol. After helping my brothers, boyfriend, and watching his friends wrench on their own cars, and going to car show after car show and checking out other cars....this chick FINALLY has her own car to work on! hudson hot rod, if I find anything online I'll send you the link...I did find one website that showed the progression of a chop...I'll try to find it and send it to you sometime this weekend. Sounds like we ought to bug Ian Berkey... fbama73...I'll try to get it on photoshop and start playing around with it...great idea. Keep the replies comin'! It's helping me out alot!
This is a long and steady process, make sure you measure, tape, measure, and tape one more time. Then after all of that is through and you have the roof off and piecing everything back together guess what else happpens. You got to actually add metal and use your imagination to the fullest. My first chop was my DeSoto and Im super hooked now. I can chop anything now. LOL, but your first one whewwwwwwww, enough said. Cheers bro your going to need it.
Oh yea a great book to pick up is by Tex Smith, "How to Chop Tops". Its very, very informative. My wife bought it for me after my chop was already three quarters of the way complete. That book will open your world up to this awesome world of doing a chop. Once again good luck!!!!!
Chopped my 2-door '53 Buford and man it was difficult AND my first chop!! My advice.......brace the insides of the car like a mother f'cker and like the fella said earlier use an early chevy rear window-not a curved one. FYI.......this year of Buick has some of the most detailed pillars so be prepaired!!
My good friend and fellow club member, Matty just chopped his 53 Olds 4 door, which is a very similar car..and it is coming out awesome. This car will be a knockout when it's done. BUT, Mat is very talented and he really thought the whole chop out, drew it up and planned for every contingency several times over before a saw ever touched the car. BTW this car is staying a four door and I back it to the fullest. Then- Now-
JVK54...your friend did an excellent job on his Olds WOW! Thanks for posting the pics! I'll be referring to them often...and I'll probably be bugging you to get the specs, how much he chopped, what all he considered in his planning, how he did the windows etc....
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=498959 The thread on his chop. With more pictures.
What would make a big difference without as much work would be to take the big bubble out of the roof. Especially at the rear window area. That where it balloons up. I'm not good at photoshopping but maybe someone could take a stab at it. Put a smaller window in the back and make a cut from the front window to the rear and take an long v out of the side and just lower it to the window frames. Then you wouldn't have to mess with the window frames ...just a thought.
The window frames are the easy part. What you're talking about seems to me like a ton on finish work for a small outcome. It would look good in conjunction with a chop IMO.
Thanks for the link to Matty's chop BigPoppaPump, I'll definitely check it out! TexasDart...I think I agree with BigPoppaPump, if I'm going to do that much work to it, I may as well do a full chop. Twochops....thanks for the photoshopped car! It looks great...how much of a chop would you say that would be? I like the look of the shaved door handles...and I definitely am digging the whitewalls. Thanks for putting in the time to do that and posting it, it makes it much easier to picture what it would look like.
That "bubble" you talk about was what I was having a hell of a time with, what I ended up doing was getting rid of the rear glass all together and moving the "catwalk", thats what i have heard it being called before (the area where the slop of teh roof end and the trunk begins), forward, and cutting sections of the the roof enough to fit the 40 merc glass, this made the roof flow better. I moved the entire "catwalk" forward about 5 inches, again i am a novice at this so it was probably an easy way out for me, because I would have had to rework all the metal around the rear glass, if i wanted to keep it, to make it flow better. There are a bunch of threads on this, if it weren't for the HAMB, i would probably have never figure it out. If you compare pictures of the blue photoshopped version to my car in the pic you can pretty much see where the work was done.
It's kind of like take the bubble out of a hood or trunk lid....makes it look much 'smooother'. I would think the 4 door windows would be the tough part...you have to worry about all the trim etc...but what do I know...I have a convertible... To me the proportions look pretty good execpt for the bubble on the back. Good luck.
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