This is being done for a customer of mine twinturbo496. He brought it to me all the way from oregon so I could fix the chop on it. I have chopped one before that has turned out very well so far http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=568646&highlight=choptvan and he wanted it done close to the same but a lower lid if possible. Now this car had been chopped before. Unfortunately not done very well. So what I am doing is unchopping/ rechopping to have a somewhat fresh start. It was a bit to rough to deal with. So first I went out and found a good donor for a decent price. Has all the doors, and even rear window in it already. For $300, that can't be beat! Once aquired, I began lots of measuring. The hard part is to get it all measured the same between 2 different cars. A real trick. With the chop it had recieved in the past, the sides of the car were actually pushed in to reach the pillars after the initial parts were removed for the old chop. Problem is that I had to begin cutting it, just to figure out where the car was supposed to be. I also have more supports to cut that were built in after the chop was done tieing the "B" pillars together at that angle it had recieved when the sides were pushed in that I have to cut to make it all correct. Over 1 inch difference between the 2 cars just between the pillars from side to side. This is after I cut the pillars. We began markin both cars to replace the roof. Take note, that at this point I have NO bracing in the car. With the previous chop, I have to refit the roof, brace it, then chop it to make the measurments correct. I have about an entire 2 pages of measurments written down, But as seen in the previous photos, I have to figure out what is wrong first. The roof was most of the problem with all of the pushing and tweaking it recieved, it had to come off first. then it was off with the old... and on with the new! At this point I still have a lot of fitment issues. It is not just cut it off and weld on a new one. So it has a lot of gaps that I have to figure out and a lot of cross measuring to go before it fits correctly. Hopefully soon I will have it tacked on so I can begin cutting it for the chop. It will get a 7 inch front, 8 inch rear chop with a full sized back window. More pix to come as progress continues.
the rest of the yellow car is also setimental ( did I even spell that right?? ) to him. His first I do believe. That has to stay. She is not that bad. It is all built for racing already, so changing the body over, would have been a lot more difficult that it seems.
Helping to bring back a guy's first hot rod/custom...cool. I bet he's lookin' forward to this. Keep up the good work.
did you see the link to the tech thread in the beginning of the thread? Check that out. I think you will be pleased.
I found out that this body style is not a good one to use as a first chop attempt... especially when you don't have any training, experience, or help.
I have heard that the short door coupe is easier to chop. Why is that? Because of the difference in the quarter window?
Stop right there and nail it in place!! Those cars always look better down low at the frame and stock height on the top! Seriously though, it looks like your in the midst of a great save and it's good to see an ugly chop fixed.
Thank you gentlemen. Means a lot. Got to have gas to get this thing done, and stuff like that being said will get me going real well!
Wow!! that's cool, but one question... wouldn't have been easier to just use the new body? Or was it pretty bad on the lower part?
That explanation was listed earlier on in the post. This was his first. And the whole bottom end floors, trans tunnel, everything had already been built to this body. Considering I have less than 20 hours so far into it, I would say not. Besides, this shows some skill and proves you can " unfuk " practically anything with a little thought and some time.
Dead serious!!! That orange car would be killer with some tweeks to make the hood fit, trim replacement, better color, different wheels. Honestly, I'm just not a custom kinda guy... And a chop on a car with a blower or tunnel ram poking through the hood just seems confused to me. Do dig seeing a good save from poorly done stuff though!
Me too. Fat fender cars with a chop just seem to be customs to me, not performance hot rods. I hope you can talk him into a new hood with no hole in it, and original hinges.
have you seen what sticks through the hood? No nole is not an option. This is a race car. Getting rid of that would be wrong. When it is closer to done, I am sure we will post pix of the engine bay. As for the hinges, when you see what is under there, you will know why.
Drip rails look nice on a fat car chop but it is sometimes easier to make new ones than try to re-shape the stockers
The Jalopy Journal
