the "what have i got to lose" shoebox section job

inspired by the several great section jobs done on shoeboxes, i've decided to slim down my '51 tudor by 4" through the middle... i've had it up for sale for a couple months with no serious buyers, so i figure that if i get it finished, i'll keep it....
anyways: i settled on 4 inches because most of the really nice 'boxes see to have that much taken out. it also seems to be the largest amount of flat plane in any direction on the body that can be easily removed.... easy to take out less, closer to 5 and you're doing a lot of moving things around.
i managed to get the front clip off and the firewall cleaned off, dash back out and determining placements of cuts so i can keep the trans tunnel shape and the master cylinder mounting area that i made. tomorrow i'm thinking i'll pull the doors off.

 

Are you going to chop the top too?
I think sectioned shoeboxes with a stock height tops looks like a bit weird..
But thats just my opinion,i am not shooting your plans down.

 

Oh man...sectioning a shoebox is about the last thing I would do. Sectioning anything is a HUGE undertaking as far as labor is concerned. If it were me, I would spend that labor fixing floorboards, rockers, trunk..stuff like that.

I know you are trying to keep the $$ to an absolute minimum and sectioning doesn't cost much, but every time you look out in the driveway, you are going to see this giant pile of work that needs finished and it is going to be hard to keep motovated with all that ahead of you. (my opinion, of course..)

I can't belive no one has taken this litle car off your hands. Did you Craigslist, Ebay? I spread the word to my little circle around town, but no body is looking for a project right now. This town is kind of thin for hot rodders...my advise is to ebay it or drag it to Charlotte in the spring for the Autofair.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do and try to swing by hot rod lunch sometime. (saturdays at 11.30 Subway Rivers and Aviation.) Maybe afterwards, I could swing by and check out your little shoebox??

Holler if you need anythhing, -Abone.

 

I disagree.I think a sectioned shoebox with no chop looks sweet.

 

well; if it doesn't work out, it makes it a lot easier to put the body out for the claw to pick up.

 

been looking at a bunch of ways to do the doors; it seems that if you have good skins the preferred way is to cut the skin loose from the door frame up to the highest cut line, cut the frame, weld it up, then cut the skin down from the bottom and hammer it over the frame edge... well; looking at my shoe, the skins have rustout around the trim holes... i'm still thinking it would be best to patch each hole separately and do the "skin" thing as i described.... the bottoms of both doors are frilly with rust. thinking that might be the way to do the trunklid, as well, but a long way from that.

 

A wise man once said, "If it was easy, everyone would be doing it."

 

Sectinoning IS a TON of work.....and I just did a pickup and didnt mess with the bed so I "only" had to do the cab, doors and hood (section went up into the hood so I didnt have to jack with the fenders....that served a dual purpose as the hood is what needed the proportions corrected not the fenders)

That said....spend more time thinking/planning than just doing.....think a few steps ahead at all times.....

I would do it again!

 

A guy in high school sectioned a 49' Ford 6", yep top coulda used a couple inches off..Seen another 49' a couple years ago sectioned 4" and it was just enough that you felt it was but had to ask, car was stone stock exterior...Maybe channel it and trim and roll the bottom? Maybe if your lucky you could find the mid to late 50's magazine that had an article on how to do it; showed where all the cuts were made, not sure what shop was doing it..Maybe Speed or Hop Up..Someone on here probably remembers it..

 

Laying out the cuts and getting a Body into 2 pieces is the easy part. Making a Car out of the mess is not for those with minimal talent. I have no idea what your metal working skill is but if your in that marginal field do some one a favor and give the car away, I hate seeing good project cars turned into Scrap. I probably should read up some of your prior posts to get a feel of metal working skills. I don't feel Body Man in a Can (Bondo) is a good resource for poor skills. Better not to start than to regret it latter.
The Wizzard

 

I love sectioned Shoebox fords, I say go for it. Here is some inspiration




enjoy

 

the majority of the time i spent today after i got the front clip off was sitting on the front crossmember with a pencil, a ruler, a straightedge and seeing what would work.... six inches out of the body would be a massive undertaking of jigsaw puzzle work in the cowl. four is all i'm going to do.

the last time i ran something on Craigslist i got some shitbird who was looking for a fight, not a car.
the last time i gave away a car was five years ago. not giving any more away. i've junked a few.... but i'm not giving it away.

 

If my vote were to count, and I realize it doesn't, I'd vote no on the sectioning. I never think that sectioning helps with body proportions on anything after about 1940. There's plenty of other fun you could have with it.

 

That Craigs list sure seems to bring out the Clowns don't it? What kind of shape are your floors and rockers in?

 

Man, I wish my "details" memory was better, but I remember a guy in high school, when a 50 Ford was a used car, not an antique, who sectioned a a 50 tudor sedan 4". I seem to remember he cut it 3" first, then went back and separated the sheet metal from the frame work of the top cut about an inch up from the cut. Then he went back and cut the 1" off the top parts frame work. The result when he put the top part back to the lower part there was a 1" flap of body skin that over lapped the cut lines. If I recall he POP RIVETED most of the over lapped area and covered most of that with a wider chrome strip (Buick, I believe) Look at the flat side horizontal trim and you can envision how he did the over lap and the side trim cover up. What I sure don't remember was how he handled the trunk area. Food for thought. BILL RINALDI

 

Every time I look at the back view of a shoebox I think "now there´s a car in dire need of a 2" section".

 

I thought you had the shoebox for sale? No bites?

 

James D is right, section it!

 

I think a four inch section is just too much. The "ART" to customizing is to make subtle changes for the sake of cleaning up lines and smoothing out areas. A four inch section is too drastic. It will grab peoples' attention in a negative way because they will see something obviously different (not necessarily better) than other shoeboxes they've seen. A two to three inch section will make them shake their heads thinking, "is there something different going on here?"

My opinion............. no charge.

 

Who's is this orange one?

 

It is copper color, it is currently owned by Steve Frisbie of Steve's Auto Restorations. It is the original Valley Customs shoebox comissioned by Ron Dunn. Incredible survivor.

 

Please take lots of pics !! I would probably do 3 inches but thats just my preference ...looking forward to following the build!

 

three inches might make the jigsaw work a little less intricate.... i need a can of white primer and a sharpie.

 

I bit, but never heard back? My daughter even lives in Charleston.

 

There is a pretty descent shoebox in Japan that is sectioned and chopped that merc john did a few years back. Think I seen it on the mooneyes thread over there...its a satin black with flames

 

Personally I think sectioned shoeboxes look awful, but if you've got to do it, what ^^he^^ said.

 

Personally, what I always liked about old cars was their "thick" bodies especially when combined with a low (chopped) roof. I think sectioned shoe boxes were popular in the 50's/60's because it gave the car a dramatic modern look. But these days that look is in every car you see, and a sectioned shoe box just ends up looking too much like a modern car, or one of these.

 

Why would you want to do that??? I know you got the car for free right?

I have sectioned a few cars, you are alrready going about it wrong, especially for your first whack job. You need to lay your cuts out prior to removing the front fenders. You want the fenders to line up with the doors and the doors to line up with the body. Remember the side of that car is not flat.

Next before you remove the doors build yourself a sliding frame inside the car. That will hold the top up while you cut as well as keep everything in alignment when you lower the top of the body down.

If you want to keep your proportion from looking like something from roger rabbit 4" out of the belly almost requires a little off the top. I know that valley customs built some with a 4" whack but when you read those articles you never see the car parked next to a stocker and they never say of they took a little off the top or not.

I guese it is no biggy, whack it settle it somewhere near ride height and then step back and take a look at it. If you are happy run with it and if it lookes out of proportion take a little off the top.

Something else to consider is that a sectioned car usually needs the seats lowered so that you are not sitting too high in it as well as a little taken off the tops of the seats, if you dont shorten the seats the tops stick up so high that it looks like an '80s street rod.

I am not trying to discourage you just trying to give you something to think about.

Ah hell who much to you want for the bitch? Maybe someone here will want it.

 

Hay porknbeaner, I just read the for sale add on the Car. It says the floors are Rusty. Most likley so are the rockers. Would you do a section job on a Rusty foundation? How will anything fit correctly after the Slice if it don't fit before?
The Wizzard

 

Just make sure you butt weld everything,
not a lap joint,
or everyone will really get on you!

I'd also see if there was a shoebox model out there.
Then do some mock up lines on it and do a rough miniature of it.
Just to understand the cut lines.
If you can't do it on a plastic model,
than I would hold off on the real thing.

That goldfish orange one is bitchin,
so is the black one.
But I'd chop the top too!
TP