Hot Rods Chopped Correctly ?

have an interesting question, i recently bought a 30 Ford 5 window with a 4" chop the car looks ok for a project, the thing i noticed the "Chop" appears to have made the rear window pillars come inward maybe 1/2 " or more when i look at other chops i don't see this issue, any advice or repair options? can add pics.

 

Gonna need pictures..

 

Cant see thru a monitor...

NEED PICS !

 

It was just sloppy fit up and weld shrinkage. You could re-slice those spots at the quarter window edge and pull them straight before you reweld. The back of the panel would probably best be fixed with a hammer and dolly.

I'm guessing those welds were done with a MIG welder, which makes a hard weld that doesn't really like to be hammered on. Sometimes they crack with hammering. But you gotta try, cause you can't have a half inch of Bondo on your car.

 

i appreciate you, yeah don't want that much filler for sure !!! i thought the welding was poor as well.

 

I think if I had that, I'd be taking another 1" out of that roof to get rid of that really rough seam and sticking it back together in a much better way.

 

That looks like my first chop, a '48 Ford pickup. I welded it back up with an oxy/ac torch and coat hangers...way too much heat.
My suggestion is cut out the bad welds and chop it one more inch.

 

Can the mig be softened?

 

That looks like nothing more than a real sloppy welding job. It looks like they hammered the weld in as they went figuring to cover it up with a lot of body filler.
You might work most of it out with a hammer and dolly and probably some heat to help shrink it.
The better fix is probably as the guys said, get a 1 inch wide roll of masking tape and see how well you can pull a line over the weld (s) decide if you want to cut and go for the extra inch and get out the cutting tools. Then you can fit and work the seam as you go.
I used to run around with a guy who other guys in Central Texas called Bondo John in the 70's and that would have been the way he did a lot of his work. Cut and weld it leaving room for mud and mud the hell out of it and get out the cheese grater.

 

Looks just fine if you want to have a car with a back yard chop job. If you want a car that looks nice, you're gonna have to fix it.

We have no idea of your plans for the car.

 

i thought about that, the more the chop the harder to see those darn red stop lights.

 

Some lower profile air cleaners might help with that too

 

Maybe it’s just the angle of the last pic, but that roof looks a bit lumpy too. I’d cut it apart and chop it a little bit more. It’s nothing that can’t be fixed. Good luck.

 

Find someone who knows what they are doing to take another inch out of that thing. Model As are pretty simple to chop, but if you have never done one, it might be intimidating. Or, you can hit the search button for chop threads and give it a shot yourself. Take your time a be patient and you should be fine.

And don’t worry about stoplights.

-Abone.

 

Are you sure it was chopped 4"? It might be camera angle, but the windows look pretty tall to me. My '31 has a 3.5" chop and looks shorter than that. Probably just me, though.

 

Cut loose and fix.
Poor fit up and weld technique on your car.
Looks like you have a great learning opportunity

 

Iwas told by ther seller it was 4" it would be great if it's just 3" bonus if i have the chop re-done. question, do you know stock window height ?

 

As has been said, what kind of finished ride are you looking for?? If you want a relatively low dollar fun car that can’t even smell the Ridler award a little plastic filler goes a long way….

 

The problem starts with the bodies being wider and slightly longer at the top than at the belt line when you remove material things don't line up anymore. Tack it here and there wherever it does fit then beat the rest into submission slap some filler on and call it good. Works much better to take the material out in the center of the window openings as they did but then come in an inch or so and drop down to just above the belt line and take the metal out from that area. Too late in your case. As mentioned by others as long as the welds are solid filler is not the end of the world.

 

Heat, beat and repeat. Take your time, plan out what needs to be done and in what order. Probably some cutting and re-welding will be needed. You have nothing to lose and will likely surprise yourself what can be accomplished with little cost, just time spent. It looks to me, it was banged in some in prep for filler. Prioritize getting the body lines, edges, gaps, etc. correct and everything else will fall into place. The more time spent with a hammer and dolly will reward you with less filler being needed. Good luck!

 

I measured a stock one. Rear window opening is 10 1/4", quarter window opening is 13" and the driver/passenger openings are 13 1/2". All measured from center point of openings. I didn't get the windshield measurement. Wasn't sure where to measure from.

 

wow!! thank you!

 

Please let us know what yours are....I'm curious to see what it is! Hope it works out for you though. You got a lot of work ahead to fix that. But it IS doable.

 

i've chopped several A's and they are almost vertically perfect no matter how much you take out. to get that kind of messed up job you would have to try really hard

 

...hell, it's already chop'd, put the sob together and drive it....picky, picky.

 

I'd recut the pillars and pull them out straight and re-weld, and maybe cut out a filler strip in the sunken areas in the rear corners, possibly with a couple relief cuts if necessary, and re-weld to get less of a deep pucker. But I see no real need to take any more height out unless you want it chopped further.

Taking out another inch gives you one less seam than a filler strip in the rear pillar area, but it doesn't really save you any work in any of the other areas. If you want to cut it down more, then now is a great time and it'll be slightly less work that way, but if you want to keep it at it's current height, that little bit of extra welding will be worth it for headroom.

 

That's what you get when your not qualified to do the job. Read that "should Not own a welder or hacksaw". Someone should add a lock to his shop door with him on the Outside.

 

You could try to put a TIG or torch on the seam, get it nice and hot, and then hammer and dolly it from there. If the chop is straight up and down but just bad from the shrink pulling the metal in, I'd be reticent to rechop the car, especially since that is the salvage option if the hammer and dolly route doesn't work.

 

I've been driving this 5" chopped sedan for over 30 years. I learned a couple of things. 1. Most, if not all, traffic signals are across the street. You can see them. 2. I can't even see the visor from the driver's seat. Putting holes in the visor (may) is an aero enhancement and does nothing for visibility unless you're bird watching.

 

Fill it.