Has anyone evr seen a 41 Buick Fastback chopped?.........Ive seen some Chevy Fleetlines chopped but have never seen one that looks right.....I have drawn a buick chopped fastback but I still havent gotten anything that looks better than the stock roof. anyone got even any photoshop pics?........
Janne did this one for me on a 48 Buick a couple of years ago. The body is very similar. Its a 2" chop and a 2" Section. The car is in progress but the car is winning. There are some real issues in the window openings as well as the deck lid. I'm at the point of actually thinking the door will need to be done from scratch. Its in this thread. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=163203&highlight=48+buick+janne This is one of those who is really up to a challenge...... and I'm not giving up.
That's what I'm wondering..... The roofline is so perfect unchopped I can't see how chopping it would make it any more perfect....... Lee Pratt's is beautiful with a stock roofline......
I am a fan of '41 Sedanets and have a couple. I agree it would be difficult to improve on the stock roofline. In my opinion, the car would benefit most from a moderate section of the body.......maybe 3" to 4" max.......the '42 thru early '49 Specials (and '41/'42 Century) used the same body shell. I prefer the '41 short front fender over the ''42 up fadeaway, but really like the Caddy style door 'pontoon' on the rendering. The rendering version is BEAUTIFUL!! Ray
I love those aero-styled bodies, theres an old Buick sittin in the woods not far from me And i think about draggin it on out of there. A good friend has the chevy version, unchopped and it is sweet. I'm just more of a ground-pounder guy and those cars are best with a sweet inliner.
Hey, That tail shot of the Caddie really shows the amount of work necessary to be done to the deck lid on your Buick. Sinking the oem decklid and reshaping the quarters to match ain't gonna fly! The quarter windows look abit pinched and kill the "Aero-Flow" of the GM design, again from this rear view. A complete rework of the drip & cant rails and quarter windows would be required to nail a more organic & congruent design. " Al great truths begin as blasphemies "
The Caddy in the pic shares its fastback body with the Roadmaster . Our Buick is a Special which shares the shorter wheelbase with the Fleetside, 88, and Pontiac. The window openings are also very different between the long and short bodies. Regardless of which body we are discussing , the issue to overcome are the 3 dimensional arcs of the body. Moving any one section disrupts all of the vertical, horizontal, longitudal and arcs.
Ah, same design problems, on a different scale! Lots of photoshopped photos, taped & layout lines and many hours of head scratching.....
Makes one understand how much talent the metalcafters of the past possessed especially those who built the custom bodied Delahayes, ECt.........
Hey, Yes Larry, it does- The design of most coachbuilt vehicles was the work of one or two strong designers, not committee or consensus!- kinda the way great kustoms are built! As the world in which the coachbuilt/custom changed some of those designers went to work for ''The Big Three-Four" and you can see their strong design still alive and well. Some of the more headstrong/independent designers chose to go down with their ship as their businesses failed. " There is in manufacturing a creative joy that only poets are suppose to know. Someday I'd like to show a poet how it feels to design and build a locomotive." - Walter P. Chrysler-
I have a 48 Roadmaster and 47 super sedanette's the hood of the Roadmaster 18 inches longer than the Super. and the wheelbase is 8 inches longer. which leads me to believe the proportions of the longer body will be better on a mild chopped body. both cars and the same from the fire wall back. they share the Cad body and have the factory fadeaways the Specials are more like Chev and Pontiac's with Buick class
I was inspired by the early customs thread...... but I'm just not seeing the Buick chopped. Jeff was thinking about a mild, 1 and a half inch chop, but I'm not seeing the point of all the work if the top is perfect already. I think I'll save the money for other niceties........but the early style with 16" wide whites is the direction I'm going to go......Thanks for the help fellas.............
I'm drawn to cars that I think are proportional in the first place. That I don't believe need major body mods. I had the same dilema with my '38 Buick. I have gotten a lot of pressure to chop it. I just don't think it needs it. I agree about the '41 as well. Just don't see it as an improvement.
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