Technical TO CHOP OR NOT TO CHOP THIS IS THE QUESTION

A finished 1946 Ford Coupe has a lot of style and good proportion in the original design.

Hello,

Having driven around as a 5 ’11” inch teenager in a variety of hot rod cars during our cruising days, one actually included a 1946 Ford Coupe. It had the best looking Purple paint and chromed reversed wheels. that was enough to stand out anywhere. But, the long trip down to South of the border to get an all white tuck and roll upholstery job was a good trip to see if we liked long distance cruising in a custom car.

There was plenty of room and when the upholstery was done, it was pretty outstanding. The look and feel of new rolls pleated made the seats very comfortable without squashing the style and build. The roof liner had the white upholstery material and the trunk also got the full tuck and roll treatment.

It was one heck of a good looking daily driver and weekend cruiser. But, the ride was a little different than in my 58 Impala. The view out was higher, but as a two seater, a little cramped. My Impala had good all around vision and sightlines. So, the majority view was out of the front windshield. It was good as a stock version. Looking across the Purple hood was like riding around in a show car, yet it was a daily driver to high school.

Jnaki

Many years earlier, having seen plenty of chopped hot rods and even riding around in my first chopped Ford F100 Truck in 1956 was a fun thing. But, back then, I was little, everything was fun and the view was always good for a little kid. When we got older in our 20s, a good long distance driver was mandatory for our new direction in life. I got a new 65 El Camino and I could not ask for a better all around vision.

As we got older, the styling mattered, although, it was the view out of the windows that was important. So vans were out as a daily driver. First, you have to decide if you want a full view of your surroundings as you drive daily or on long road trips. Or, a cramped view straight out your windshield. It will feel like someone dropped a boulder on top and the whole roof collapsed with a minimal view out of the front. Some aspects of a cramped view for everyday driving is not conducive to enjoying your drive.

Sure, the chopped top looks radical on show cars, but most of those we see/saw at shows were not daily drivers in all sorts of weather, but brought out for the show or event. Then we ooh and aah at the custom chopped top and whatever draws our attention. Those chopped cars do draw plenty of attention. Like a similar neighborhood statement… “It is a nice place, but I would not want to live there…” in driving a cramped version of your own hot rod, comes to mind.

Have our resident expert @themoose do some stock, slight chop and a third radical chop of your 46 coupe in painted form. Not to your rusty shell, but the finished red coupe from above. That should give you an idea of the proportion of what the chopped top does to the overall design.

Start with this finished version and get two other chopped versions, a mild 1-2 inch chop and then a final third model, a 3-4 inch chopped version to see how the proportions of the original stock body has already been played in the design. Then see if it looks proportional to the wide body. As each version of the chop goes, it starts to look squashed. It then becomes out of proportion and from the inside, hard to fathom taking it on longer road trips.

I am 6 feet tall and old age is compressing my bones. So, the sight lines and comfort are very important. But, being inside of a chopped sedan delivery or any chopped hot rod, just did not agree with me and my driving comfort. As cool as a chopped sedan delivery was outside, the view from the inside was not worth it.

Unless, the chop was not as radical and less inches would improve the compressed view everywhere. I doubt the cramped outward vision would make any road trips enjoyable. It improves the driving safety of you and your passenger, with a full stock window version, too. YRMV

 

That is how we used to do it.

Just a second option is to slant the B pillars instead of chopping it. This is actually a stock chebby roof but slanting the B pillars is an acceptable custom mod and is a little easier than chopping a pontoon fender car.

 

My favorite chop on a similar Roofline.

1946 Ford Short Door Business Coupe:


From this thread, last updated 2016. I wish the owner would post an update. He gave the B pillars a slight forward slant and kept the rear windows from shrinking into port holes:

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/choppin-my-46-ford-business-coupe.1009152/

 

One of the best of these chopped that I have seen

 

Yea, that one is just right!

 

I agree with both of you, it takes a bit of the Ford rear crown weirdness and turns it into a MoPar Business Coupe style roofline of the same era, which rules.

 

Go ahead and take some off the top...use those mad skills....

 

It’s a hard car to chop. However, you can save it with a Carson top, if you screw the pooch on the chop. Those coupes are as ugly as man ass, stock. So go for it.

 

Personally, I do not care for the stock roofline of those cars. Post #33 is a 100% improvement. That is why I chose to build a 41 Plymouth. It has a much better profile, IMO.

 

To me That series of Fords is the hardest top to get right when you chop it.

That was my first thought, If you have to ask others opinion, the answer is no.

That is just about as close to getting the profile right on a long door as you can get.

I saw this one for sale at Vintiques NW nats and at a local swapmeet later and to me it is real close to being the perfect chop on that body style that is beyond hard to get right. The car was priced pretty decent for all it had on it including OT drivetrain and suspension but The truck tires and wheels would be gone an hour after I got it home and I'd be hunting a pair of skirts for it. Damned good thing I didn't have the money to buy it or place to keep it properly this time around.

 

^^^^ Notice the drip rail to the flow of the roof and quarter window, that's why you need to be able to step back 20 feet or so or roll it outside. A shade too much of a cut for my taste, top looks a little flat. I always prefer to retain the drip rail line, although a favorite trick is to blend it into the roof ala 34 Ford. But this one has to sharp of a bend at the belt line. Everyone has to make the first cut, you had the guts to get this far to make it a coupe. A hair cut is not out of your wheelhouse. Anyone can luck out and do it right the first time, but it takes commitment to fix a boo boo! At least you're not hacking out a cherry floor and trunk pan to put an air ride chassis under it! lol Larry

 

Craig Naff did this chop for a friend.

 

Sounds like you're relatively young and may not have a garage to work in, which makes me think, "If this kid tries to chop his car there's going to be a '41 project listed in the classifieds soon for CHEAP." Then I saw what you started with and I thought, maybe I'm wrong.

For what it's worth, here's my experience: I know my way around custom work enough to get me in trouble, but when I wanted to chop my car I took it to a friend's shop and paid him to do it while I spent the week with him helping out and watching what he did. It was an awesome experience, I learned a lot, and by the end of that week the basic chop was done.

If you know someone chopping a top, hang out with them and watch/pitch in where you can. If there's a local shop that would let you be a fly on the wall and watch them chop something maybe in exchange for sweeping floors or whatever, do that. YouTube is cool and articles are great, but actually seeing it done in person is invaluable. And if you do decide to go after it on your own, BRACE THE SHIT OUT OF IT. Then at least if you completely screw the pooch on the chop, you still have a solid car and can build a Carson-style top for it.

Good luck man.

By the way, my car is a completely different body style from yours, but if you want to see some step-by-step top chop stuff, here's the thread I did on it. There might be something useful in there...

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tech-week-chopping-a-pre-war-gm-coupe.1229309/

 

I like a chopped top as much as anybody, but that 46 is chopped too much, it makes the body look fat and tall. Sure, it’s got good flowing lines, but flowing lines aren’t everything, you need to maintain a sense of proportion between the top and body. That’s why a simple 1” or 2” chop looks better on some cars than a 3”,4”, or more chop does. Now if that car was sectioned 2”, it would be much better proportionate, but that’s a whole nother can of worms….

 

Some cars would be easier to section than chop.

 

Always chop.

Figure out how much chop is too much, and do half of that.

 

I found this pic on Facebook. He said it was a 3" chop and took out the crown. Anything more to me doesn't look right and I might not be able to fit.

 

Lower the seat frame and move it back.

 

Not enough rearward slant. The straight down actually makes it look like a forward slant.

 

For a cruiser or tail dragger, the roof needs to flow rearward

 

Done correctly the look of this body style chopped is hard to beat... Do it! (correctly)

 

That chopped 41 in the class was by no means Mikes ( Gas Axe Garage) first rodeo. Here's mine which Mike has admired and used as an example on another one and maybe this one

 

I'd like to see the finished side profile of the OP chop. I've held 25+ chop classes all over on all sorts of different body styles. I cover aesthetics, design, proportion, sail panels creation, metal shaping, and proper welding techniques. If anyone is interested, send me a message or check out the link in my signature...

 

The short door coupes are far easier to chop compared to a long door. I've contemplated a chop to my long door avatar ever since I bought it, but the degree of difficulty has kept me from doing it. Well, that and the cost of paying somebody to do it and get it right.

Ford 'crowned' the roof on the long door to give more headroom so the back seat passengers wouldn't hit their heads on the roof when climbing in. Ford worked very hard to 'hide' this crown by spreading this change out over several places and didn't do too bad of a job, but even though the differences aren't large your eye 'sees' those differences nonetheless. It doesn't need chopping so much as it needs to be 're-contoured'.

If you do some measuring, it quickly becomes apparent what the problem is. Ford crowned the roof about 2" higher as you move towards the rear. It's common the chop the rear about 1.5" more at the back to compensate for this, but this fouls up the window sizes. What you'll find (all measurements are approximate) is that at the divider at the vent window, it's 13" from the bottom of the window opening to the top. From the top of the window to the drip rail is another 2" for a total of 15". But at the rear of this opening, it's now 13.5" and 2.5" to the drip rail, a gain of 1". The quarterwindow shrinks back to 13" at the front of the opening, and the distance to the drip rail increases again. This is why when doing a 'standard' chop the quarterwindows usually end up looking smaller and too 'teardroppy'. The remainder of the crown is in the roof itself.

After looking at the various roof panels used on these, it appears to me that using about the front 2/3 of the 4-dr sedan roof panel would eliminate the excess roof crown as well as eliminate having to modify the door opening at the drip rail (look at the top flange on the door/door opening to see why this is needed). Bring the drip rail down to parallel the lower window openings, and chop the door to get the same parallel glass opening. At the back, most guys widen the catwalk because the roof has gotten shorter if using the coupe roof, but I'd narrow it instead and lay the rear window down more. Getting the right 'sweep' on the drip rail will be critical. Cut the entire quarterwindow opening out, recontour it to follow the drip rail and chop it to reduce the opening-to-drip-rail measurement to the 2" that it starts with at the front. Whew...

If I were doing it, I wouldn't even chop it at the front, all the work would be in getting the 'flow' of the window openings/drip rail 'right'. Too much chop and you get what that Merc in post 40 is.

The short door coupes don't have this 'cheating' in the window openings/drip rails, that's why it's an easier chop. The one flaw with the short door coupes IMO is they end up having a 'big butt' with the wider catwalk. I'd be curious to see a photoshop with 4-6" taken out of the catwalk, cut down to the side trim line and then forward to in front of the fenders, then back down to the rockers. Move the entire rear end forward that distance. Shortening the frame/wheelbase would be needed. I think that would improve the proportions of the car considerably....

 

Not the answer that I wanted to hear, probably the one that I needed to hear.

 

Another thing to consider. If someone tells you the car is chopped, say 4". What does that mean? Did they cut out a 4" chunk out of the A pillar or is it a 4" vertical measurement? It doesn't really matter as much as the final measurement you end up with. Make templates of the window openings so that the left side ends up the same as the right side. When you slice open the back end, prop it up and stand back a long way to get a good look at the proportions and see if you need to take out more or take out less. I remember I was young and stupid. Went to a rod run at the beginning of summer and chummed around with these leadsled guys. Came home and cut the top off and ruined a perfect summer of cruising.

 

A few to ponder on

 

2" chop and 3" channel-

 

If your over 6 foot tall I would suggest no chop but if you don't mind driving with your head leaning forward by all means chop it!

For me, I's 6'4" tall and have owned 3 chopped cars, a 39 Ford convertable that wasn't bad, a '32 Ford roadster without a top so no real problem and a 'hammered '32 Ford 3 window coupe,

The gentleman I sold the coupe to was 5' 4", exactly one foot shorter than me and he fit in that car like a glove. HRP