Chop Progress, and a problem!

Alright, been working on the rear window portion of the shoebox chop, and things have been going fairly smoothly until tonight. Made all my templates, got to use my new shears, panels were going in relatively smoothly. Then of course after i get everything in and back up to check out the profile, I noticed a hump that wasn't there when I had everything mocked up with the cardboard templates! I'm posting a blurry picture of the problem area. Any suggestions to flatten out the area?



I was thinking I should do the finish welding on the sides and cut the middle below the window back out and put in a bigger piece that goes further towards the trunk. Or maybe I can do some relief cuts to flatten it if I can just figure out where to make them. Last shoebox I did, I did the back window completely different than this and didn't have to add this much metal below the window, but since I lowered the rear window a bit when i moved it forward and leaned it, I ended up with this.....Maybe I'm just freaking out becuase i've been working on this almost all day with little sleep and alot of caffiene and cigarettes.....

Heres another blurry pic.....

 

That first picture looks to me like the bottom of the rear window is sitting too low, thus causing a peak at the weld on the catwalk. As painful as this sounds, I'd see if I could cut the weld at the bottom of the window and get the extension to sit level with the original catwalk, then adjust the window accordingly.

 

I have the same Problem.

 

I really don't think cutting everything apart and reworking it again is necesary. I think I'll fucking cry if I have to do that.
I've got everything flowing pretty nicely besides this one area, and it's pretty much only in the center section right between the trunk and window. I know if nothing else, I can do a little more welding and then cut out the "humped" area and put in another piece of sheetmetal across that area. I'm just looking at all my options with this post. I'm hoping someone can tell me something I haven't thought of yet! This kinda shit is exactly why i try I try to stick to painting! I'll try to take some better pictures tomorrow when the sun is out. My camera won't take a clear picture when it's not really bright out for some reason....

 

I hate to offer this up, but my first thought was that you need to cut out around your entire rear window, move it up, and lift it at the trunk opening, then redo the trunk filler area to match, and fill in as neccesary- with more of a slope into the trunklid. I can't see any other way of getting rid of the "hump" If you add to that area between the trunk and window, it only makes it more of a "hump" I would think.

Just my opinion of how I would attack this if it were my car...good luck...

 

After sitting here and dwelling over the pictures for a few minutes that probaly is the best solution even though I don't really want to admit it...Guess I'll weld the side panel more solid tomorrow, cut all the tacks on the bottom filler panels, and cut around the rear window again...damnit. It only need to come up about half an inch to get rid of the hump i believe. Looks like doing 5 inches instead of 4 made things a little more tricky back there....

 

I agree the rear window has to go up. Thats the only way to make it look right.

 

Don't freak quite yet. Get ahold of some of the others on the board who have experience chopping these. I'd PM Brickster and have him look at the photos, he might have some suggestions. Choprods and others might have some input as well. I wouldn't dive in welding and cutting quite yet. Figure out the problem and best way to handle it...save yourself another headache by doing something quickly just for the sake of doing something.

 

Yeah, I'm definatley NOT going to rush it. I'm taking it nice & easy with this car. All my past cars have been pretty stressful becuase they were my drivers. This is one is not, so I'm taking my time trying to make it as well as I can. The blur the picture has going on make it look a little worse than it actually it. The hump is only there in the area in between the trunk hinges. The area off to each side should be very smooth once I hammer-welded them. I'm gonna go relax and shoot some stuff on my xbox360 and try to keep my mind off of it. I'll pick up some more sheetmetal on my way to see Snakes On A Plane tomorrow, and then see what i can figure out!

 

Looks to me that you should move the bottom of the window back 1/2 inch. In effect raising the bottom of the window to the height of the hump. then you wouldnt have to completely cut all apart. The bottom filler would then need a little trimming and you would have to make little filler strips on the sides

jeff

 

like everyone else stated above... the rear window does need to go UP.

lay a straight edge on that rear panel so you can guage how much it needs to move.

 

Ya cut and move..if ya dont its one of those things that when your finished you will look at it every time you drive the car and think, damn I should have moved it...

 

I guess the trucky part is gonna be deciding where to make the cuts so I can move it with doing as little damage as possible eh? This BLOWS. If i raise the bottom, I'm pretty damn sure it's gonna fuck up the area above the window and I'm gonna have to recut/weld that too.....I might as well just cut everything back out and start from scratch it seems. I think they're another shoebox shell at the junk yard I can scrounge another roof from if necessary.....I should've just stuck to chopping it the way I already knew how!

 

It looks like if you follow the curve of the decklid up, the bottom of the rear window's too low. If you remove the hump and replace with a flatter piece, the "flow" from the decklid to the rear window won't look right at all. It'll curve up from the rear bumper, curve forward towards the back glass towards where the hump is now, and then "FLAT"!!!!! Picture this in your mind and it should look pretty wrong. I'm not a body guy, so i can't suggest how to correct this, just that now is the time you DO.

 

I Photoshopped this picture to show how easy the fix is. All that I did was to cut out around the perimeter of the rear window leaving approx. 1/4" of material around the edge. Then I just slid the rear window up slightly (maybe 1/2") and pulled the bottom edge of the glass up a bit to align the tulip panel with the decklid. I know that's it's much easier to fix in Photoshop than in real life but you will forever kick yourself if you don't fix it now and make it look right.

 

"THIS" looks good

 

Thanks for that loogy, you just cleared up the bullshit that had been fogging my mind. I can just cut the tack welds on the inside of the filler pieces, and then go all the way around above the window. Move window up desired amount,then I shouldn't have any new gaps to fill, just a slightly bigger gap at the bottom.

Thanks for the picture and explaination. I'm taking a break from it today, I might start working on it more tonight.

 

Thats an easy fix for Quasi's hump.

Good Job!!!

 

Looks like you got it under control. My buddy Kelley chopped his 52 buick that once was a four door (he used two door doors and moved the pillar back) like four different times, I went with him to junk yard every time he needed a new skin, (sux being the closest one w/ a truck) He kept chopping it until he liked it. What was bad is that it looked good all the other times.

 

Yep, that's pretty much it. You may need to pull the bottom of the out/up just a hair to make it all look good. This would leave you with some small wedge shaped gaps between side fillers and the window frame but they should be fairly small.

I would suggest taping a yard stick, or something similarly flexible, down to the decklid and the tulip panel. This will let you know when you have raised the window enough to have a nice flowing arch from the decklid right up to the bottom of the rear window.

 

why is there suck a large filler panel. Did you move the rear of the roof forward?

 

Yeah, moved the window forward, leaned it some, and lowered it some (apparently too much). I just leaned it last time and that required me to make big filler panels above the window, and warping the sheetmetal around the crown of a roof just isn't fun so I figured I'd try it this way. I just did what i could remember from the chop Bob Bleed did on the mad fab vol.3. Makes where the roof meets the trunk look kinda like a business coupe.

 

Before ya get ahead of yourself try this.....Cut the [most] REAR weld line across ,corner to corner. with a thin cutof wheel.
Then cut a slice front to rear[panel edge to window] at the center of the filler panel. then you can pull the hump down and flatten the area that is HEAVED up from heat..... this will most likely give you an acceptable line of flow.....good luck man!!

 

Alright, got it worked out, actually wasn't too bad....well besides the wasted steel....

There was no way for me to just "relieve" the hump tehre, so today i went out and cut all the tacks holding the filler panels in place, I started to cut around the window, I cut about 3-4 inches up from the sides of it. Then I thought I'd ssee what ahppened if I just tried to raised the back of the window up. It went up just enough to correct the flow with those little relief cuts and it didn't affect the flow above the window at all! So I claped the window in place and began making new templates. The I went over to the welding shop at the tech school a mile from my house and got some 18 gauge sheet and cut the new panels. I just came in from test fitting them, and tacking one of them in, and these fit better than the old ones did! So it looks like the fucked ended up being totally worthwhile!

I should get the new fillers all in place tomorrow, I'll snap some more pics so we can compare them to the old ones.....

 

Ok, getting things back together now, still have to make one more small filler panel and get it tacked in. Then I can move on to putting the curve back into the windows. I'm just tacking everything in place, then I'll finish weld it all when i can buy some bottles for my torch setup. I'm just trying to get it put together enough to move it into the shop without things shifting on me.....

Heres another shitty picture. It's flowing alot nicer now, got a few areas I'm gonna have to work smooth, but nothing major so far....



As soon as I get the last filler panel in, I'll set the glass back in and take a picture to show the difference between the first pics I posted and now. Looks alot better....

 

Ok, heres more pictures.....

Heres the "hump" picture.

After I redid everything.


Couple more pictures just becuase.....




Still got alot of welding, grinding, and metal moving to do. But at least I've finally got the rear area solid again.

To be continued....

 

Looks mucho better! You'll always feel good looking at that problem section not seeing an eyesore.

 

Yep, that turned out nice and has a good shape to the back o the roof!

Way to stay after it and do it right.

Man, I can't tell you how many times I thought I had something together right and then spotted the fatal flaw and had to cut it apart again. But that's all part of the fun, right?

 

Mucho bettero homebrew!

 

I agree, much better. Nice work!