I found a 56 ford project that is chopped. The question I have is that the guy split the roof and added about 2 and half to 3 inches down the center instead of leaning the pillars in. It currently has a lexan windshield and I wonder if that is because he cant use real glass? What are the ups/downs/pros/cons to this? Since its a wrap around windshield, is there a way to put real glass in that wont break the bank? Its a pretty cool project but if you cant get a real windshield in what does that do for the car? Is it a waste of time to proceed on this?
Short answer. By making the roof wider, the builder pretty much killed the chance of getting real glass to fit the opening. The fix. Cut it all apart, undo all the crap, have a windshield cut, and then fit the windshield to the redone chop. Good luck. Stu
The idea of adding the material to the top is you dont have to lean the A-pillers, that all you have to do is trim the top of the windsheild to fit the new opening. good glass guys can cut the curved glass, but it does cost. the guy here in Phoenix charges 350.00, plus the cost of the glass, and it it breaks, than he will charge you for another peice of glass. cost me 400.00 for my 68 pickup....and he still cracked it...The key is finding the right glass . My guess is, that why it had palstic windows, cost!.
I have been cutting glass and windshields for 48 years and my first response to a chopped car with no glass is to run fast and don't look back. now if you love the car and can get it for less than scrap metal prices and can do the work to re do it yourself. if you are planning to pay someone to fix it. forget it! on a 55-56 that is chopped over 2 1/2 inches you have a real problem. if you look at a stock ford windshield from the front. it is wider at the bottom than the top. now draw a vertical line at the bend in the glass. come down 4 inches and you will see the curve moves away from the A pillar. splitting the roof you move the bend of the top the oppisite direction towards the A-pillar it takes alot of metal (and mental) work to correct that
This was my first thought alslo, but I really do like the car, and the price isn't bad really. It needs a few other things as well but the chop job looks very good and aside from the glass issue I don't think it needs to be redone. It appears to be a quality chop job. Its just the glass issue that makes me second guess it... also, its a 4 inch chop, if that makes a diffrence. I also had the idea that you could cut down 2 windsheilds and seam them in the middle as a last resort... but again I have NO EXPERIENCE with glass. I do not want lexan is all I do know.
Every person I've ever talked to who ventured into this area and came back alive, and every book I've ever read, that I took seriously enough to remember, always began the discussion with this caveat: cut the glass first, and do the metal work to fit it. (Flat glass is easier, because you can use templates for replication.) Metal can be shaped. Glass, on the other hand, is fragile and does not lend itself to the plastic arts of sculpture as well as other materials. And, make no mistake, lowering the greenhouse is an art form. Some just like to hack away, until they end up with a pill box, (you know one of those things where they stick machine guns in the movies that guys attack with hand grenades and chocolate bars) while others, who use the restraint, that all great artists keep in their bag of tricks, know when to use a scalpel instead of an axe. And, having re-chopped a top that was done by lunatics recently escaped from an asylum, I can tell you from experience fixing someone's mess is like taking over for Sisyphus for a week: the rock seems to get heavier, the further you get up the mountain, because whatever sanity you had at the outset is wasted on questioning why you ever started the job in the first place. My suggestion is to run like hell when you see something like this, screaming at the top of your lungs so the people you were talking to will be afraid to screw with you when you come back for your car.
Whack all the Mickey Mouse work off and start over......As said before, cut the windshield first and make the tin fit the glass.
plexiglass ,if properly cared for, will give excellent service for years---rain-x, no wipers---the car will still be hard to sell later---lots of old vettes with plexiglass rear windows...
I did a 57 lincoln with a 4 inch chop and you need to take over half off the bottom corners to lean the glass back enough to touch the top pinch weld. doing that make the glass narrow and you need to split and widen the A-pillars. I've seen the two windshields split v butted really looks bad
If a poll/survey could be taken of all the people who bought chopped, curved windshield cars without glass... well, It won't happen because pride would prevent them from participating. Noname, excellent explanation of how the roof curve changes as we go down the surface of the windshield. Hadn't thought of that part before.
How many cars have YOU chopped or done serious modifications on? You'll need more skills to fix someones fuck up than you'd need to chop one yourself.
This is why bubble top customs were invented. If you can get it cheap enough and want to have a go at fitting a glass windshield. Get a windshield and cover it with fibreglass to make a duplicate you can cut up. Then, trim and cut the fibreglass until it fits or as close as you can get it then modify the body to fit the windshield. When you are done the fibreglass makes a pattern to cut the windshield.
Check TX vehicle code, but I bet Lexan won't pass. Fast forward when the car is painted and fully finished. You get pulled over and are cited. Now you're really screwed. Only way I'd consider buying is if you have the ability to set a stock windshield (does the owner still have it?) on the cowl and see if it will cover the windshield opening so you can have a glass man cut it. If not, then run-NO price is good and rechopping is more work than starting fresh with a stock car.
this was 01/2012 I talked with Ron Lubsen of Desman Corp.in SC. 864-225-2580 What an education I received on glass. You supply an exact pattern , they will make a mold of that pattern and craft the windshield to that mold. He said $1200.00 - $1500.00
I know of a 1961 2-door Imperial for sale that the owner says is complete and priced at $1900 dollars...except for one thing. Its been chopped! and guess what, no glass has been put in. Wonder why. They just killed that car.
The Jalopy Journal
