My brother bought a 30 ford coupe on craigslist. The previous owner did a terrible job chopping this little thing. I think its almost the worst I have ever seen. I have never chopped a car but I feel I am decent at welding and fabrication. But I need some help. Some ideas and opinions on what to do with what I have. I probably have no business trying to take this on but you learn by doing..... Thanks for any help. Coming home from Dayton At home in the driveway This is the p***enger cab corner. They used a piece of sheet metal and sheet metal screws to hold the chop in place... Go figure Driver side cab corner. Its about a 3/4 of an inch gap at the widest point. Ridiculous! Took the cab cab on the Chevy Luv ch***is... lol. Put it on my motorcycle lift for easier access. I welded in 1x1 tubing to keep everything as square as I could.. What ****s is I have no idea what the PO did while trying this chop so I have no idea if anything is square to begin with. One of my biggest hiccoups. How in the hell do I make this window frame look ok? I am missing the lower corners. Please help on this one.
I am afraid that you have your work cut out for you. Try to find another 30 A to look at for the corner detail and try to fabricate a piece to gill the gap.
Sell it as a "Rat Rod" workmanship like that could make the center fold of a magizine. Option 2 buy a top section from a car with a rust out bottom, raise the new top to a reasonable hieght.
The good thing is most of the stuff you can't buy is there. It all looks very fixable to me but you're going to end up with a pretty hard chop doing it. (if you don't add material) Of course I'm not seeing that as a problem at all.
Window bottom corners could be hammer formed, how do you feel about carving wood? The chop(?), I'm a rookie at sheetmetal, but I'd lay tape over the HACKED sheet metal and recut nice clean lines and span with fresh, new metal bands. ***uming the posts line up (which I'm sure they don't). Good luck...I'm sure with perseverance, you'll figure it out. When the going gets tough, back up, squint, and remind yourself, well, it kinda sorta resembles a chopped A. Just take away what is not right. How's that for some zen schitt?!
I would look for a rusted lower regions coupe or even two door sedan, that had the top pieces you can trim out and use. Best is it should be reasonably cheap to find. You might even be able to raise (lessen) the chop amount, and start fresh w/a better upper roof. People used two roofs often, when chopping mid 30's Fords.
I hear yah guys. Its pretty f'ed up. I am hoping with time and patience I can make something cool out of it. Its going to be a lot of work. And one hell of a learning curve but I feel like I can fill the gap one way or another but the window and door frames are another story. I think finding a donor cab might be the only option.
Your going to essentially find the widest gap in the existing chop which you say is 3/4" and use that as a basline. Cut out of posterboard a 3/4" strip then tansfer that onto the body cutting out the existing chop line giving you a clean crisp matching parrallel line for the top to meet the body. Weld away, of course the top gets lower another 3/4" but is the easiest approach. You can always do this and add in a 3/4" filler strip or a larger filler strip to raise the lid more to your liking. As far as the back window it may be easier to find another to cut up for the piees but it looks as though there may be enough left with what you have to make it work.
the model a has to be the easiest car in history to chop. wow what a bunch of animals. they really ruined that car.
Here are some pictures of the lower parts... This might actually be considered a parts car to some. But I feel confident in my abilities to weld in premade panels. The skweemish might need to look away. lol. The bondo that was removed from said corner.. Lower Cowl Roof Cap. WTF? I have no idea what they were trying to accomplish with this one.
Man... I'm kind of disappointed. You guys seriously think the only way to save this is with a donor? You don't think somewhere down the line you'll be able to find another back window? Or window corners? Reasonable height? Jeez. I guess we don't really know what OP's brother really wanted, but I am ***uming since he spent the money that something about this car spoke to him? I ***umed it was the general shape of the body, because I hope to god it wasn't the yellow paint or the Chevy LUV ch***is, haha.
I have never chopped a car but I feel I am decent at welding and fabrication. But I need some help. Some ideas and opinions on what to do with what I have. I probably have no business trying to take this on but you learn by doing..... Thanks for any help. Get the body square on a jig or straight frame. Practice your sheet metal welding and fabrication doing the lower cowl, quarter, door patches and floor. Leave the chop rework for last... Meanwhile, start looking for some coupe 1/4 and rear window sections. They occasionally pop up. You can then re-chop the car starting with straight, uncut panels. If you end up going with a more moderate chop, you may be better off starting with a couple of fresh doors instead of stretching the ones on the car. It'll be a good save and you'll appreciate what you've accomplished when finished. Keep us posted on your Rat Rod to Hot Rod conversion.
Put an ad in the wanted section for the cast away cut off pieces! There is probably a model-A a week getting chopped around here, somebody probably has the pieces marked in a shoebox on their shelf. get those pieces, clean up the top edge and bottom edge of what youve got, and set the height chop you want!
I agree to look for the cast off pieces from other car chops. I would call some of the better know hotrod shops and ask to buy them. There is a guy in Missouri who does lots of chops, try him. Here is a link to his website: http://akathechopper.tripod.com/Index-2.html
Holy **** thats probably the worst chop job your ever going to see, a little paitence and know how and it can be acheived though. If you continue with what you have though its going to be one hell of a chop though, I would be inclined to s***ch in a couple if inches of new sheet metal myself though and make it a little more user friendly. I guess that all depends on your height and what your wanting to accheive. Best of luck
Hey I have the parts from a chop I did on a coupe, wont help on the rear window but will do a hell of a lot for the rest of it! Send me your addy and I will send ya the parts, that will get ya started! Jim
Yes! I finally found a chop on a model A worse than the one done on mine... I think it can be fixed without a donor....
Why not cut the window and door frames out altogether and start with some donor frames? I know it isn't traditional, but drastic cir***stances often require drastic measures. For example, maybe the frame from the rear window of a Superbeetle? It wouldn't be the correct shape for the window, but you could patch it in after cutting itto whatever height you require, and them have gl*** cut to fit. It would be easier than trying to salvage someone else's botched job, especially when they didn't leave you enough original steel to make it right. EDIT: Wasn't suggesting a Superbeetle SPECIFICALLY, rather for demonstrative purposes. What I meant was, find a donor car with a flat smaller rectangular rear window as a donor. It isn't written in stone anywhere that the side windows have to have a certain shape either. Find a donor that would work due to the dimensions, and run with it. Couldn't be worse than what you're starting with.
The top on my coupe was smashed on one side and I had no problem finding parts to fix it. Set the thing aside …. don’t get in a big hurry and look for some parts….you probably won’t need to scratch build anything.
Ok, here is my two cents. The car was in rough shape before some useless f*** ruined the top. I see a firewall(maybe) door hinges, and a decklid. I am all for saving early iron, but seriously: no ch***is, no top, no bottom. Maybe look at this as a donor car for a better body that needs quarters or a firewall. I hate to say it. But that looks like a lot of work, regardless of the satisfaction of doing it.
Hello Everyone...I am the brother that bought this botched coupe...but as one poster said, I saw something I really liked and even more than that I know we are up for the challenge! Don't really know the direction we are going exactly yet, but no matter, the sheet metal needs fixed first. It's gonna take new parts and old parts to get it back to decent condition and I hear we can get some very useful info from the folks here
That body is about the condition of my 28 tudor. Bad, bad chop and all sorts of rust and missing pieces. Took me a year just to sort out the body, but I learnt a hell of a lot! One thing I learnt is that no Model A body is exactly the same on both sides. 80 year of use, abuse and rough roads, plus original factory loose tolerances have combined to make them definitely not perfectly symetrical.
i wouldn't complain about the sheet metel screws!!!! just be thankfull this clown didn't start welding
car can be made nice. just be patient should be able to find back window from a sedan. let me know if you need one i believe i have a few laying around. on the other hand is it just me but my pet peave is when jack***es break out the spray bombs and try to make a project look better. havent they disgraced the poor thing enough without making it look like a total pos. maybe it was one of those i am not going to sell i am going to restore it someday projects went bad. reality slapped them in the *** about there building skills. fukk it up then sell it.
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