Customs ANY ONE CHOP A CONVERTIBLE TOP ? late 50's early 60's LOOKING FOR ADVISE & spy pics

were chopping my wifes 64 cadday , its a 3' chop on the a pillars and 1 7/8" strait down drop . the a pillars are done and we cut the old glass to make sure its all good to go . the convertible top has to be stretched 1 3/4" ( so far ) . at first i thought we'd be able to drop the whole mechanism down 2" and forward 3/4" extend the front section of top 1" and we'd be done . now that we tacked it in place i have my doubts i can see a problem with the back seat ( thats enuff for me )

it will work ( think ) if i moved the back seat forward as well , BUT i dont want to move the seat . the top will be down most of the time and the interior is going to be a big focal piont as well as the paint sceem .any ways the top needs to funtion because its my wifes car. if it were mine i would do a carson top because i dont like how most convertible tops stick up when down , they look to balky to me with the cover on them.

sooooo tomarrow we will start to cut and extend what we must to make it work . just looking for advise it would be nice to have a plan
thanxs

glass cut


top mock up


click the pic

 

Not trying to be a smartass, but maybe call Bill Hines? I hope to do a 47 Ford convertible in the future so I'm interested in how this goes.

 

no your not being a smart ass bill would be the to go guy , this is a bridge we need to cross at our shop basicly realized there IS no easy way and we usaly dont take the EASY route at our shop if bill wasnt so far from me i would have already went and seen him johnny d told me yestarday bills doing a 59 impala right about now might even already be done .

we will figure it out and i will post our progress thanxs

 

I chopped my '40 Chevy convert 25 years ago or so. The biggest problem I saw was that the top had to lengthened slightly which involves getting the the fold pivots in the right places so that the top fits back in the well. Mine is so close that the point on the front of the top just kisses the window when it's all stowed in the well. Mine was about a 2-3/4" chop which allowed adding the length in front of the first pivot. Any more than that would have meant adding less in front of the pivot and a little behind the pivot. It was also about the limit for gettting the side windows down without getting into the door skin.

You'll get it.

Charlie

 

thanxs

 

Hows it going? i'm in the process of doing exactly the same thing to my -61 cadillac.. i'm converting it from a 4dr fleetwood to a 2door chopped convertible with working top.. I'm not as far as you guys are in the process.. great job.. Love to see more of this work..