Almost done with my 52 chevy. I bought it about 9 months ago. The guy tried to do a chop on it then saw how much work it would take and knew he could not do it so he cut the top of it off. He used a sawzall which looked like someone used the jaws of life to cut the top off! He added no support or extra framing so it was very weak and not solid at all. He just left it that way and listed it for sale. I was the sucker that bought it! This was my first ever project and have a huge amount of respect for you guys that do this! Was so much work, time, and money but learned so much! yet still have so much more to learn! There are some things I would do differently but am happy with the final outcome. I'm not done with it but getting pretty dang close. Wanted to put up a few pictures to see what you guys think. Will make a built tread when I am done with all of the pictures when it is done. What it looked like when I brought it home. And what it now looks like. Sorry for the picture with me and my lady in it. This is the only one we took with the new white walls. Will take some good ones this weekend.
Thanks Guys. As for the support I added a bracket right behind the doors on the inside. With out this bracket you could make the whole car shack by shutting the door. For the frame I adding a H crossmember to support the center of the car. When I have time I will get under it again and figure out a way to add a little more.
just needs a white tonneau cover over the rear (behind the seat) to look complete (like a top is under it).
Good save you did there. I've been eyeballing a 53 Ford that has a terribly hacked chop job done to it with the idea of redoing the top so it appears to be a carson style top. I'd have to come up with something that my buddy couldn't live without first though.
From what I understand the converts had considerable bracing under there. You might want to stop over at chevytalk.org and look around. I know this subject has come up and there were a few photographs of the stock convert chassis floating around. It might help you out. ~ Carl
Thanks guys, I took the car to my local car show on Sat. night which brings in around 250 cars a weekend and it brought a lot of attention. Over all most of the people liked it. I did hear a set of old guys say I destroyed a good car by cutting the top of it off! ha But it's all good as I know I did not do it and tried to save a car that would have end up in someone's back yard rotting away. By the way I bought all of my interior from EZboy and will do a full write up on my thoughts of their products. Which was a great kit by the way! Thanks for the advise Carl, I will for sure check them out and see what info I can find on the matter.
Also, I built a carson "like" top for it which I covered with fiberglass. I'm still finishing it but it should be painted in a week or two. I'm painting it a flat white.
Carson top should finish it off . F W I W my 50 chevy vert had a really beefy X member. factory made & the frame seemed pretty beefy also.
Here is another pic that we had made. Hope to have some pictures of just the car next week. Just fixed the rear main seal so I will have time to get it out and take some pics.
The Jalopy Journal
