man that sux, just got burnt pretty bad with a motor so know how it feels. I'm with scotty though, if they fucked the roof up that bad with no floors in place I'd also be worried the whole body is now out of shape? On the plus side even with the bondo and primer it looked like a pretty average chop so now you get to make it awesome .
This why I do not chop tops!{I don't know what i'm doing} I had a buddy who was chopping a 40 ford truck,had everything lined up & tacked--until a young gun welded it all up for him during a lunch break
Yeah? Duh, you have to look on the inside of any old car to see the REAL condition of the body. Never trust the fresh primer.
Here's my 37 that I chopped back in 85 when the car was built.......It's not that bad if planned out correctly.......
WOW just WOW! my favorite photo is the B piller and drip rail alignment with spatter welds, Yikes. Mudder up, nobody will never know. Except everyone on the HAMB .That's great you found a donner body .Good luck 37's make cool rides.
The new body looks like the "fix". I like those better than the slant back. I'm sad to admit that in the early stages of my hot-rod learning curve, there may have been some "questionable" body work like that... Brian
I've heard stories of local guys mixing a gallon of bondo on the roof and spreading it out. Maybe this is one of theirs....
As mentioned, bring a magnet when looking at a car. Look from the inside of the body rather than the outside. I also use my hands like calipers, placing my fingertips of each hand outside and inside the roof, quarter, etc. surfaces to determine panel thickness (bondo). That body is far more work to correct than start fresh. I'd pull it and replace it with the donor body, then do a correct chop. The chopped body is now for parts. What a shit job. From 20 feet away, you can see they squared off the right hand corner of the right rear window opening. It's right up ther with that 36 3/w and 49-51 Merc chops that were cobbled together.
If I ever paid 7K for that car, you'll know I found a couple billion dollars and had some of the Worst drugs EVER! I've seen many horrible chops. People just say they haven't seen worse because they've never been to a big car show, or most people just don't remember every single pile of dogshit they see. Is that the worst chop I've ever seen? ...I can't remember!
Been there - I have more hours fixing the chop and re-squaring the body on my 34 chevy than other complete builds. Rather than lean the A pillars, they added a filler panel via pop-rivets to extend the roof line. They then bashed it all in to create a huge crater to which they liberally added about a gallon of bondo. A donor roof from a 4 door provided pieces and parts - but what a headache. Good luck...That will be a great looking car when done - unfortunately "done" seems a little further away
I don't understand what people are thinking when the bare sheetmetal looks that bad... I'm guessing they are cutting, welding, and patching with the mentality that "This will all be covered by body filler and the fact that I'm a complete hack will remain a secret..."
seen so many, my suggestion has been on unfinished or even finished cars is don't buy them expecting to change them. there is always (well 94.77%) things you don't want to see. "let the buyer beware" I don't remember the latin version
I looked at a '39 a couple of weeks back in a sadly similar condition. The guy who had it rescues some real shit piles - and it was too bad for him. I passed on it at $1600. Anyway, could have come from the same builder. Same crappy welds, same alignment issues.
Have any pictures of the work n progress? We have some Ideas on how to do it right with only one seam but any help would be aprieciated!
We are just going to cut the roof section off the donor, starting at the cowl and at the rear seam and put the car back to stock and then re-chop 3". The donor floors are gone and about 6" up all around is missing and the door jambs are all f'd up. Got it for 600.00 The chopped body has excelant floors and the rest of the body is very solid with most of the work allready done. Yea maybe I paid too much to start but find a good 37 with a done MII chassis, good fenders and what you thought was a good chop and its not that bad of a price. IT'll be worth it in the end. This is going to be a driver car, rain or shine 60's style custom.
It could be worse, I bought a hard tail Harley that looked like it was welded with a coat hanger. I look forward to seeing it come together! Subscribed.
No way, not my style and it's gonna get fixed! The chassis is solid, prob someone else did it. No the inside "looked" ok, i know the window would need fixing and the door tops were mis-shapen, but it just metal, it can be fixed, I "Thought" Like I said Im no expert, I just like to build cars.. I also know when to get help with something i might fuck up!
Like others said, it could be alot worse. And for those talking about what was paid for the car, ease up a little bit on him, aint your money.
I have seen some really bad chops in the past. This one is bad but I have seen much much crappier chops than this one.
bad chop. not the worst posted here. anybody rememebr the guy who chopped and widened a 51 Chevy sedan and put it in a Caprice (?) chassis? that was the worst chop ever. he posted it here and people actually praised the guy, he ended up getting banned.
It would if the posts and rear windows wern't so f'd up. Also the w=indow opening are bad too. Who ever did this chop was way underskilled and over thier heads! I have been asking around to try find out who it was just for my own satisfaction. It'll come out someday, this is a small town.
Yuck! Think I'd cut the top off and make a 2 dr pheaton and if the donor body is good enough save it with a proper chop. Then you could swap bodies back and forth.
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