I'm nervous to just start cutting the top on my '54 IHC without a solid plan of attack. Is this something I should leave to the pros? Seems like I could really screw things up if I dont have a plan on how to do it. I'm definitely not a "seasoned" fabricator by any means.
There is more to it than cutting posts...you will need to extend the roof and patch pieces in. If you don't know how to weld sheetmetal I'd you're in for a rough ride.
they way i learned is by reading magazine articles, books, looking at and studying a million pics of chops and staring at my ride for hours, i would tape up my "cut" marks and then think what the next step would be, if i could not figure it out i would yank the tape off and figure another way.. i planned my chop for about 6 months, be patient and it will come out .... by the way,that truck looks good as is....
I would enlist someone with Experience to help you. But I Do see what it would look like Chopped and I would chop it. Good Luck
I knew a kid who chopped a similar IHC about 7 inches. It is pretty labor intensive to get it right. He had to split the roof both across the length and width of the cab (4 pieces) and then patch in all that, and the tops of the door frames. He drove it as a true "rat" for several months before getting the roof done (nice thing about desert living) Plan it out carefully. get some extra tin (extra cab if you can) and a buddy who has done one before. Go slow. It can be done.
Hey, Your first consideration should be how/who is gonna cut your glass? I'd find someone in your area who knows shit from Shinola about cutting auto glass and have a long talk with him! Unlike Blue Ovel and Bowtie glass Cornbinder ''see-thru'' don't show up at swaps or garage sales too often. Plan your chop around your glass cutting plans, and not the other way 'round! You could chop this by leaning back the A posts and cowl. Ya don't only have to go the filler strip route to lengthening the top panel. Do not four-quarter the roof panel, but leave the center of the roof panel as a whole piece, and keep most all of your filler pieces to the outer edges of the roof panel. Hammerwelding 'cross the center of a roof panel is a real mother fucker! Swankey Devils c.c. "Spending A Nation Into Generational Debt Is Not An Act Of Compassion!"
Take some good pictures, with something for referance so it will be in scale ( mark the post or cab with tape) Side, back and front, view with out the visor. Even if you plan to run it after. Take the pics to kinkos and blow them up as big as you want. Now take the sisors to them. You'll see exactly where you'll need to make adjustments. You can lso tell if you can lean the posts, rather than 1/4 the roof. If you can, it's MUCH easier. Then if you think you can handle it, AND you think it looks better choped find someone nearby with some skills that will help, or at least advise.Personally I don't think it needs a chop, if anything keep it mild. Also MUCH easier. Then you have to decide if it's worth it for a 2 or 3 inch chop.
No that's my '51. I'm going light custom full frame off with that one. It will be a five year project. Here's how the '51 currently sits... The '54 I want to chop will be the shop truck/parts runner I use while I restore the '51. I want to bag it also. I dont have any photos at the moment.
Here are the step by steps on the chop I did on my 53 dodge truck. Maybe it will help you with yours, maybe not...... Bud http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=303403
I had never chopped a top before I did mine either it is a 36 ford pickup. I think the most important part is thinking out where you are going to cut. Decide how much you are going to take out. I did 7". Use blue making tape and tape off your cut lines. I made the area to be removed completely Blue. Also on the A pillars, I cut them at 90 degrees to the pillar vs 90 degrees to the ground. It makes it much nicer to put back together. Remember if you are doing a 7" chop, you have to chop the A pillar more than 7" to make them equal. Think about it. I also tack welded the doors closed, in multiple locations. This helped keep ever thing in line when I stretched the roof. I was able to use 1" square tubing to clamp to the door frame and stretch the roof after it was cut across the top. I used the drop from the pillars to fill the Door stretch. When I cut across the top, I did not cut straight across. I cut in from the side ~8" then turned 90 degrees and cut 6" towards the back, then turned 90 degrees before cutting straight across. when I got to 8" from the other side I turned 90 degrees (towards the front) and cut 6" before turning 90 degrees again and finishing the cut. This will give you something to clamp to when you stretch. All you have to do is build the patch panels to fill in. All my Glass is straight so I did not have a problem with curved glass. I do know peeps who have chopped tops without altering the glass. They did it by recessing the glass frame into the cowl. Good Luck!!! Keep us posted. JJ
Pimpin' Paint is soooo right! Glass MUST be done first: Ask famous Flame Painter/ Top Chopper Rad Powell of Salinas! Chopped '57 Rancheros were his bag, and many windshields cracked in the first month: 4 in one Ranchero! He got with a glass man, and they figured it out. No more ever cracked after that. DO lean the windshield back, or it will look 'flat-topped', and 'squashed'. The stock top has a nice convex curve, and it is next to impossible to follow that while adding a section. Good hunting.
After reading some of these responses, I might not do it after all. It's not that I am chickening out, but because I was already teedering back and forth on weather I would prefer the look of the chopped cab over factory. I really like the factory cab look on the old IHC's. Actually in 1955 they went to a taller cab, and I like the look of that one too. I think in the end I'll have my hands full with the bagging project. After all this is supposed to be the short term project to use while I restore my long term project '51.
Tex Smith's came out with a book years ago, "How To Chop Tops". Ron Covel has a DVD "Chopping and Sectioning" where he and Joe McGlynn radically rework a ‘56 Studebaker pickup - giving it a 4” chop, a 6” section, and pie-cutting the hood.[FONT="][/FONT]
my 54 GMC has a cut by cut photo's under SHOP TRUCK BUILD www.oldcarglassguy.com I cut the center part of the roof out then cut 4 ways to line up each corner added fill strips then weld the primeter at the curve. gives you very little distortion and no welds across the middle of the roof. I cheated even more and used a 55 chev 4 door roof to fill the 10 1/2 inch cab extention
Looks like a curved glass windshield there. Remember to cut the steel to fit the glass because it don't work the other way around. And only dorks have plexi windshields.
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