****41 ford chop....shop build pics ***

Jeff, please continue posting photos of your projects. What you and others might call nit-pickers is what I would call a very welcome set of extra eyes to give a new look at things. I sometimes hate it when I proudly show a new Photoshop designed custom to some of my friends and they start to "nit pick" on it. But I have learned that if I get to close to a project I forget to step back and try to get a fresh look at things. And usually this nit picking will get me back on track and makes my project much better in the end.

Not sure if you have watched Koolkemp's 4 door rust bucket to perfect 1947 Ford custom coupe thread. Well I was an enormous NIT PICKER on his project. He had done a lot of work to get his top chopped and his rear quarter windows in place, and all welded up. And he was happy with it.... until I started to pick on him. I know it was my opinion about his project. But he had showed some samples of 1940's customs and told us that that was his goal with his own project. Well I thought his efforts were good, but not close enough, and with his skills he could do better.
I did the "nit-piking" on his project on the boar and by PM's.... and he sure did not like it. But it did make him look at it from a different perspective. And he did decide to cut the top off, and completely redo the rear quarter windows and flow of the top to trunk. And now he is much happier with the end result than he most likely would have been in the first place. I did have a hard time doing the "negative comments" but I'm glad I did it, and he decided to change it. Now it looks like he will have one of the best chopped 47 Ford coupes made in a long time.

"Nit-picking" is never fun when it comes at you... but if you are open for it it can lead to a very interesting discussion and most of the times to a better end result.
Just my opinion of coars.

 

You got how many questioning comments? Give me a break!

If you post pics of work you have to expect questions about what you're doing and no, not everyone will slap you on the back either.

 

Hey Jeff,

There is more good then bad, but one of the bad things of the HAMB it has always been
a" opinion" board and everyone has to have an opinion. (Remember the square headlights
on the stude. Krap I shouldn't have brought that up again...ha, ha, ha) Everyone that is anyone
knows that your one of the best young builders out there. You will be one of those guys
that will carry the torch and teach younger guys how things are done. It is very important
to post the in progress pictures to be able to show how Kustoms are built.

If ya don't post pictures, I'll have to drive by your shop on the way home everyday to
checkout the progress. Ya don't want that to happen....

Pictures have a tendency to play tricks on your eyes and don't do Kustoms justice. You
know, I know and all of the other guys that have seen the '41 in person knows that your
doing one hell of a job. When the koupe rolls out of your shop it will be another drop dead
kustom that everyone is going to talk about.... Keep the faith brutha.

Happy Trails,

Mick

Happy Trails,

Mick

 

The people that have seen your work know what you're capable of doing...keep posting progress.

 

Come on Jeff, keep posting, its guys like you that give me the inspiration and motivation to continue on. **** these ***holes with their nit picking ******** that cant see the forest through the trees (I dont even know if I used that saying right). Keep posting! I dont mind wading through posts of horse**** to get to the good stuff.

 

I'm hoping you are only on a 'Bad Bob' break and will be back to the action soon. I heart your work! You could be rattle can painting a llama and I'd still be interested

 

nice job........cool car

 

I don't need others to slap me on the back, i work hard and serious, and get **** done, my work speaks for itself. AND all the kustoms I build are done after running a business and working 50+ hrs a week. I am not a metal finish type of guy that only pulls off 1 car every couple years, I use rage and none have fell apart yet. so yea, you all are right, here are some update pics, I still have work do do so keep that in mind, right now trying to decide on driprail or no driprail. what does the rikster think ? he has a good eye that I respect...........

 

heres some updates........fixing the flatspot, this is how I do it, the other metal was tacked in just to hold it in place while I worked everything else. i always save the fun part and center of roof for last.

 

Jeff, I am glad you decided to keep posting pics. It will definately be another cool car to roll out of your shop. That is NOT blatant ***-kissing, I have no reason to do that.

And for what's it worth: I vote FOR driprails. (Considering that you said you were going for an early look)

 

side shot after welded . now ,it is hammer and dolly time, but first I need to decide on driprails, I know it is traditional to not have them but it does make the door tops look funny compaired to the quarter window,

 

heres what I was thinking on drip rails.......will be welded solid and molded in , I know not so traditional but does help the flow of top. I think I'm going for driprails.

 

You are definately right it needs the eyebrow for flow. Looks great.

 

Is the drip rail going to be like mcphails old purple chevy?

 

I'm for the drip rails. You just pointed out to me what always seems to bother me about these chops, I always feel the quarter window looks off or too small compared to the door and thats because the door seem throws me off, the drip rail seems to bring it together, just my opinion.

 

yes. it will be like that.

 

go with the drip rails.

 

That drip rail style will look good. No drips always look like something is missing and def ****s with the way the quarter windows look. Dig it

 

good call. and not just cause thats what i did, as you know they dont look right on all builds.

 

I made a comment on what visable in the photos you posted. I dont think I made any personal judgments on you or your work. I pointed out things you may not have been aware of at the time.

You checked out who I am and what I do and then made this post?

You post pictures of your work on this forum for all to see, and some see more than others.
No matter what level you work to, be it entry level or Elite Show Cars your work in on display for all to see and make comment on.
The higher you climb the more people look to find things that have been missed.

I have over 35 years of building all types of vehicles, and am always interested in other peoples opinions on what they may see in a job that i could have missed.
Being to close to a build sometimes blinds you to something others see imediatly.

 

Jeff you are right with the drip rail and the not being early period perfect.
The late 40's early 50's style for these cars where shaved drip rail, and smooth all the way.

Its really hard to make a good judgment using the photos you show here. I do not have a perfect dead on side view of the whole top/or whole car. Which is really crucial. These cars are very hard to chop, and get right.

The fixed top over the rear window looks very good, but I still feel that the new shape of the rear side windows are not working with the rest of the chop. The longer teardrop shaped openings you had earlier on had a much better feel/look in my opinion. I know that shape was not finished, but all it really needed with those where a nice rounded corner at the back.
The shape of the side windows now is to flat in the back, making the whole top look stubby.
In my eyes these cars need a rear side window shaped based on the stock shape, but just reduced in height and slightly shorter. But the overall shape needs to resemble the original window shape.

If you add the drip rail.. and there is no problem with it - they where done like that in the 50's as well - then the space between the drip rail and the actual window opening on the rear side window needs to be the same as that space at the door. (X) Or at least nearly the same. Towards the back of the rear side window that space can be slowly getting larger. But with the photos you show here. it looks like this window opening shape is not following the drip rail with the amount X. The only way to do it is reshaping the rear side window to follow the new drip rail shape... And only if the drip rail shape follows the shape of the top of the roof, or at least flows with it. (Also hard to tell from these photos.)

The photo below shows (I hope) what I'm talking about.

 

I love it Jeff!!! DRIP RAIL!!!!!!!

I'm glad you are still posting, WE ALL LOVE TO SEE WHAT YOU'RE UP TOO!!!

Your work does speak for itself!! **** IT!!!

 

WHO are you? !! you have no info about yourself or any pictures. so everybody go check out this guy, what do you think about his work. I don't need your help, I have plenty of others that have never done anything like this before and I don't need your experiance either.

 

rikster, thanks, I know what you are saying, and I'm still working on the quarter windows. I'm not happy witht the shape either, but I dont want them big, I never appreciated the smaller windows until lately, I used to like them bigger. but the older period style was smaller thats why I did it. I would leave the rail off but it really distracts from the shape of the door and window. It will just take time to get what looks right on this car.

 

Jeff I wonder if the door corner was rounded the lack of a drip rail would not be so noticeable. I always find that when you have that sharp corner back there it leads the eye and begs for the rail but if it is rounded there is less of a point for the eye to catch and you tend to follow the shape of the door rather than continuing towards the back looking for the driprail. Just my 2 cents.

 

Can you give me some samples of older cars with shorter rear side windows?
All I can think of are older is longer, and in recent years we have seen the to short rear side windows making the cars looks stubby.

I'm thinking Jesse Lopez 1941 Ford. Gil Ayala 1942-46 Ford these all had wonderful flowing long rear side windows.

 

I Love the lopez with the longer, but I was trying to avoid the small corner in the rear like some have, not the lopez car but I have seen others that way. the jack stewart car is small.

 

whos car is this? I like the size of this quarter and is what I'm shooting for

 

Jack's 41 is ofcoars a different short door body style, but I would still consider those rear windows long.



The other car you showed is Jim Baker's 1947 Mercury... very nice car And yes those are shorter than the Lopez Ford, but still they have a much smaller radius on the rear corner than what you have mocked up on the 41 Ford.
And to me Jim's rear side windows flow much better with the top.




Here is a sample of a short rear window. Still looks good if the shape of the opening is right. But to me it looks much more stubby than the longer side window samples. And to me it takes away from the reason to chop a car, to make it look lower and longer.

 

Thats Jesse Lopez his 1941 Ford... its all in the angle of the photo.
The photos below where taken in the early 1950's when Danny Larres Owned the car and had Barris extend the hood trim and added the Barris crests.