The last Grasp Special '34 3 window build

So the next step was to decide on how much to cut the top. Intially we decided on around 3" ( 75 mm ). However we were pretty sure we would be removing more later. We just wanted to bring it down gradually to end up with a tasteful chop.
I said all along that it wouldn't be chopped as much as the model car I had shown way back at the beginning on this thread. Because at the end of the day we will be driving this hot rod on the street, so we need to be able to see out of it and also not be hassled by the law. You have to remember, Tony and I are a couple of old conservative ( yeah Right !!! ) hot rodders these days!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

The marks were made and it was on to the first cuts. Actually 2 3/4" ( 70 mm ) was cut from the A pillars. An intial single cut was made at the B pillar and around the back of the roof. We did it this way as we would be slipping the roof down into the body in this area at this stage!
The door tops were not cut at this point in time.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

With the roof removed.

We then proceed with the lower cut on the A pillar.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

To be able to slip the roof down into the body at the rear we would have to remove the necessary amount from the B pillars. As we didn't want to end up with a tapered chop (where the front is way lower than the back ) we decided 2" ( 50mm) would be enough for now. This amount just happens to be the width of the upper hinge and as this upper hinge will be totally done away with anyway. So we had the perfect place from where to remove the 2 inches. We cut the metal leaving the wood behind. Which was next removed with a tenon saw.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

We then sat the roof back on to see how things looked. As we knew would happen, we both agreed more material would be needed to be removed from the roof. We also thought now was a good time to remove the door tops.
Geoff aka wohdaky



The next shots show the rear of the roof that has just been slipped down into the body, for now!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

So with a lot of discussion and eye balling, we decided the roof should come down a further 1 1/4" ( 32 mm ) at the front and another 1" ( 25mm ) at the rear.
But rather than make these cuts we decided to move the roof to one side and drop it to the above measurements. We just propped it up to see what it would look like !
Having done this, we liked what we were seeing.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Next we made the cuts and clamped the roof back on.
We then rolled the coupe down to the bottom of the driveway, so we could stand right back and decide on our next moves.





We laid a straight edge from the base of the roof at the back up to where the roof start to roll over at it's top. From this we could see that there would be way to much slope for things to look right if we were to pull the bottom of the roof back to meet the belt line going around the back of the body. So we knew then that we would be laying the A pillars back a bit to allow the roof to move back. There was actually a 2" ( 50 mm) gap at the base of the roof to where it will join at the belt line. Our goal was to reduce this to 1'"( 25 mm ), as we had determined that this would give us a pleasing sloping angle on the back of the roof. When we pulled these 2 areas together.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

After a lot more eyeballing, admiring and discussing we rolled the coupe back up the driveway and into the garage. We replaced the jack-stands.
Our next step was to remove the roof, once more. We then drilled out all the spot welds on the inner header panel of the roof. There are 2 reasons why we are doing this. The coupe's roof has a couple of rusted areas in the area above the header panel, which required the header panel to be removed to fix these areas correctly. On removing the header panel we could see immediately why the area had rusted. At some point in time, someone had sprayed expanding foam in between the roof and the header panel. It had obviously became wet and the moisture was trapped.
The other benefit of the header panel removal has to do with the angling of the A pillars that are still attached to the roof. A pie cut would be made in the corner door jam area of these pillars. Without the header panel, these pillars easily move to allow us to get the correct angle to align with the lower parts of the A pillar on the body when these are also pie cut.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

The amount we are angling our A pillars back isn't very much. Because our chop isin't that radical and we would be laying the rear section of the roof at a new angle like I had described earlier. So because of this we would only need to piecut the A pillars at their base and not cut right across the top of the cowl, as has become common practise on more severe chops.

Obviously the A pillars on the doors would also have to be laid back. We made piecuts on the outside of the door and the inside. But we did a vertical cut in the flat area that goes up and this will be bent independently of the piecut area of the door, but will achieve the same desired result with the combination of the 2 different cuts.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Once again we sat the roof on and clamped things. We were reasonably happy, but perhaps felt the roof may needed to come down just a little bit more at the rear. But we decided to leave it for now.
We also have to play with the section of the door jam at the A pillar in it's upper section where it was piecut ,to get the curve correct. That curve has flattened out somewhat because of the piecut. But this will be no big deal to get right!
Also at the moment the slope on the rear of the roof isn't quite right. As the lower section of the roof is still sitting 1" ( 25 mm ) forward of where it will join to the belt line. Although we have used Clecos to pull this section together at the rear window opening. From this we are extremely pleased at what will be the new slope of the roof in this area!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

The next move was to mark out the sections of the rear upper door jams that will be moved rear-wards to suit the lower rear section of the door jam.
With the right side marked and then cut out. We clamped the removed section back into it's new position to see how things looked.
Once again things were looking pretty good. So after a lot more discussion', eyeballing and admiring we decided to call it a day ( this was actually the third day ). We were very pleased with our progress. Considering how hot the weather was and we had been taking things pretty easy!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Something that I didn't mention earlier and perhaps should have.
Because we were going to be removing the upper door hinge on each door and we knew the other hinge pins were a bit loose, as well as we would be constantly open the doors during the chopping process.
With the doors gapped and closed we tacked welded a piece of RHS to the chassis touching the bottom of each door. So every time the door was opened and closed it would go back to exactly where we had orignally set the gaps to.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Next morning we only did a few little things on the coupe. But we did roll it down to the bottom of the driveway once more, to view it from a distance. It remained down there for most of the day, whilst we did other stuff in the garage.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

After looking at the coupe and taking it all in for a while, Tony and I went back up into the garage.
Tony wanted to put his chassis jig inside, as Chris had returned it; after setting up his A coupe chassis.. Tony just wanted to roll the jig in, but I suggested we pull it apart and put it up against the wall. All in the interests of space efficiency.
After lunch Tony and I once more went out onto the grass to look and day dream about our 3W.
Around mid afternoon Renee', Sam, Spencer T and Jude arrived. Back from their weekend in Adelaide at a Kustom Kulture event there. We all sat out on the grassy nature strip talking about all soughts of stuff, with Tony's roadster beside us, my well worn old pickup across the road and the beginnings of another hot rod ( The Last Grasp Special) across the way in the driveway.
That night we all had a really nice BBQ dinner outside in Rita and Tony's patio area.
Ah does it get an better than that?
Geoff aka whodaky






PS That Spencer T has such an expressive face. He always makes me smile when I see images of him. I think Jude is going to be the same, he does look the part with his arm hanging out the side of the lil push car!

 

The next day ( Tuesday ) was going to be really hot, so Tony and I only did a few things out in the garage.
Firstly we moved the front sheet metal clip of the Spinner off the pallet ( the pallet our 3W body had arrived on from the USA ) and onto the floor. Then with Rita's help we placed the front clip back onto Rita's Spinner.
Tony will be finishing off the Spinner in the next couple of weeks. The pallet will be broken up and a lot of the timber from it will used to make a new coop for Rita's chickens.
Tony and I then hung the cowl we had previously taken off our 3W up into the rafters of the garage.

 

It was now getting later in the morning and very hot. But before going inside I took one last lot of images of the coupe. I actually balanced one of the door tops on the roof for the images, so I could move it into postion with photoshop to see how things will look.



All in all we are very pleased how our chopped coupe body is looking. We are still in a position where we can do a lot of fine tuning of the chop, as nothing is tacked as such. Whilst there is still a lot to do on the chop we were happy with what we got done. We also have something different we want to try on this chop, but we will keep that under wraps for now.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Where have I been...this is a great thread!!

 

Tony and I now went inside and watched various hot rod TV programs for a couple of hours.
Around 3.45PM I said my goodbyes to Rita and Tony. I then jumped in the pickup and headed home. I arrived home around 8.45 pm after driving during a very very hot afternoon. But I did enjoy the drive and of course I had spent time with good friends and working on the Last Grasp Special.
I will leave you with various randoms images I took over the weekend, virtually all feature Tony's stunning roadster.
Geoff aka whodaky




P

PS Don't ring that number, it's the number for a block of land, not a '32 roadster. It seemed like a good shot at the time.

 

Still a great read, Geoff. thanks.

 

The coupe is looking killer Geoff.
I'm looking forward to more progress pics.
Keep up the good work boys.


Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

Thanks Geoff for a truely inspiring thread. I've just read the entire thing from start to finish and feel enlightened. I love hotrods as much as the next man and a 3w '34 is hard to beat but what I like is the real story of you, Tony, your friends and family, if that isn't what life is all about then what is?
Great stuff, subscribed and looking forward to seeing and hearing more of the Last Grasp Special and it's builders.

 

Thanks for the responses guys.
Nifty I am glad you find this inspiring. It is also that for me. Occasionally I will go back and read the whole thread. One tends to forget stuff. But when I read and see the images it all comes back as if it all happened yesterday.
I probably am going into way more detail about stuff other than our coupe. Stuff that most people probably don't care much to read. But I wanted to present this thread to show people that this journey of building The Last Grasp Special is the same every day life journey that we all go through doing various things in our lives.
Of course this is only a small snapshot of Tony's and my lives. But I think it shows that we are just everyday guys doing some of the stuff we love.
The fact that it has engrossed other people we know ( and don't know ) has been a real bonus. Because I think they are getting as much out of all this as we are.
Tony and I are very fortunate to have been able individually, to each put together a pretty desirable collection of cars and parts. This 3W coupe body, probably being the icing on the cake.
You know there were times during that last weekend we were chopping the coupe, that I just stopped; stood back and just couldn't believe what we were doing. It is something I had seen done in many US magazines over the years. Guys chopping a '34 3W. But here we were doing it ( you have to understand that 3windows are pretty rare here ), as if it was just any old body. Yes I know we have the skills and abilities ( we have shown that, in some of what we have shown in this thread ) to do what we are doing. But actually getting in and doing it, was a little overwhelming at times.
Ok enough of all that. Nifty you also mentioned the people and families I mention and show.
Well my sister and I have been renovating our kitchen ( I have mentioned this in another post ). Tony's wife Rita has given us a bit of imput on colors and materials. Some of which we took onboard. Well, on my last visit, Rita gave me a gift for the kitchen. A gift in the form of a black cookie jar, full of home made cookies ( thanks Rita they were yummy ). Black fits in with some of the decore and accessories in the kitchen. Rita also suggested that maybe some striping on the cookie jar could work. Well, I did some of that striping tonight!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Thanks for what continues to be a great read Geoff.

 

In that last image, there is a whodaky beside the one on the cookie jar. That is actually on one of the glass features I did on one of the kitchen doors.
I have given the 2 kitchen doors a real make-over using a lot of my hot rod skills and creativity. Actually Rita was the one who suggested black for the doors. So here they are!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Geoff & Tony great job on the chop, it's looks great, well done cause it was really hot that weekend. I have done a some work on my coupe it's progressing well.Geoff the kitchen looks good you done a great job on the doors & the striping looks killer well done love to see all the write up always a great read keep it up.

 

Wow guys! Hey this is jason from the U.S ( the dude that you bought the '34 from) Man it is looking great! really fun to read this thread and see how its progressing- Im glad i sold it to the right guys! its preety cool to finally see it chopped- yep someone at one time had filled the header with foam and the doors too -all the way to the window sills! I had a hell of a time scraping them out! Oh and i moved away from california to colorado- working at a hot rod shop called custom auto get to build some really nice traditional hot rods here. Good Luck! Jason James

 

Thankyou Frank. Tony and I are very pleased how the chop is progressing. Tony has been keeping me informed as to your progress on you 5W. And your desire to finish the welding on the chop. It will happen, don't worry.
Actually this past couple of days I have been doing a lot of house keeping on my computer. I have been looking at the images of your chop. It really does look good and we have had a good time doing it. I look forward to our next attack on it!
Hey Jason. Tony and I have been wondering how you have been going.
I am sure the move to Colorado is a good thing.
As you can see we have been making good progress on the 3W. Again we thank you. As I said in a couple of my posts, owning a '34 3W window is a bit of a dream come true, especially for Tony.
Obviously because I live so far away from Tony's, progress is a bit slow. But it works for us, because we are always so fresh and keen to work on the 3W when I get down to Rita and Tony's.
I have been messing a bit with photo affects this morning. So here are a couple of old timey sepia tone images.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

My vote, 32 shell.....

 

Hey Brant. Great to hear from you. How did I know you would like to see a '32 grille on our 3W. Nice avatar by the way. I think DOC on here my have the original.
Actually the 3W is mostly likely going to get a very modified '37 truck grille.
But seeing as how we may be dreaming about what could be. In your case a '32 grille, Brant.
I think for Tony, if he was building the 3W by himself. It may look something like this.



Actually that is a 1/18th diecast model I built as a gift for Spencer T's first Xmas.
So how would I build the 3W if it was mine. Well one of my all time favorites is the late Jim Ewing's Superbell coupe. So I think it would be something like that. The 1/18th model below, I started many years ago. Still yet to complete it!
Geoff aka whodaky



Geoff aka whodaky

 

Geoff,

Knowing you and your talents, this car will be epic.