What a kool article to cure the Kustom blues. Have you studied the shapes of rear quarter windows? You will for now on. Lol! A few weeks ago I was browsing thru some of the photos I had taken at the 2009 Mercury Gathering at the Sacramento Autorama when I Looked at the Wally Welch Mercury and how the rear quarter window on it has been shortened during the chop, which gives the car an very mild chopped look. I then got the idea to collect some side view photos of the early chopped Mercury’s to compare the rear quarter windows. On all these early ’49-50 Mercury’s the rear quarter window, as well as the sail panels has been treated in a different way. On the first chopped Merc, the Jerry Quesnel Mercury, Sam Barris cut out the complete rear quarter window, and moved them around until he was happy with the new profile with the angled forward and reshaped B-Pillars. Sam did the chop and rear quarters quite different on his personal Merc which he chopped shortly after Jerry’s. The rear quarter window on his Merc has a much more conservative shape. Around the same Time Al and Gil Ayala did the Betancourt, the Welch, and the Alcorn mercury, and all those three had completely different rear quarter window treatments as well. The Welch Merc had the rear quarter window corner moved forward several inches, which gives the car an less chopped look compared to the others. The Betancourt mere has the complete opening reshaped and all reveals molded in. And the Alcorn Mercury has angled b-pillars and a chop that almost looks like a flatline top, and the quarter window was reshaped to flow with that. The Sonzogni Mercury, which was done I think a little later than the others in this list is the only one that has the rear corner reshaped to almost a point, instead of rounded like the others…. The first two photos show the Welch and Sam Barris Merc rear quarter window up close, the rest shows more of the body to compare the impact of the different shapes. For more kustom articles check out his web site.. www.customcarchronicle.com
Cool write up about a very crucial part of any chop. Make or break type stuff. Gotta say Sam nailed it the very first time.
Awesome post! If I can most humbly add my experiences, I was one of the guys who tried to chop a Merc back in the stone age, using nothing but the old Weesner drawn Street Rodder article. That led to a bunch of issues, none of them good. The ONLY funny thing about that is that at every KKOA or KOA show I've ever attended, I can spot the cars chopped using the "instructions" in that article immediately. Whenever I've asked the owner if that was his guide, the answer has always been yes. It's that same window that gives it away. And they don't look like these pics, either. Thanks for the post and the pics. Beautiful lines on all those cars.
The closest I'll ever get to chopping a 49 Merc is the AMT 1/25th scale kit and I still haven't finished it after 30 yrs but I love that most of those shown have the fadeaway body pressing ....with a chopped top that extra feature just makes the cars.......thanks, andyd
Great post. Because I have a four door, I think this subject also applies to them. Here’s my favorite, the Voodoo Hawaiian. I think he nailed the proportions, which could have gone very wrong.
I personally like the length of the one in the green car, but like how the top of the purple cars window is rounded to follow the roof line.... though i THINK if i squint my ears, the green cars window IS following the roof but the top of the trim doesnt, its straight.... ill admit thats a nitpick many probably wont notice... so, in conclusion... the green cars profile, with the rounder purple ones trim would be it for me my personal opinion is the roof should go longer the further down it goes to stay proportioned, ive never been a fan of that flying saucer canopy look of business coupe roofs.. i think the longer window helps with the illusion of the roof looking longer even if its not
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