Some of the old timers on here might remember my build thread Torpedo Attack all the way from the UK. Having the Pontiac on the road for seven/ eight years now, I feel it's time for a part two. Although I can't say it's never let me down, I have no complaints over that time. All the gremlins have been chased out and I've done a lot of miles in it plus racing at various VHRA events many times. In the first build I don't think I hit the mark of a radical period custom, and although a great car, a little too subtle- a mild custom. The Pontiac isn't a particularly well known model over here in England, meaning a lot of the modifications are often overlooked. Sometimes I think I spent a lot of time converting a Pontiac into a Buick! Enough reminiscing, down to business. I decided a three inch chop and repaint, then at the last moment decided on a pillarless hardtop- I will let you know if that was a good idea. A lot of research and preparation went in before the big day- the car had to be totally stripped to a bare shell, body braced, wheels off on level blocks under the ch***is, plus of course paint and Dynomat removed in the action areas. Most of my projects in the past started on a wreck of a car, so it's a bit weird stripping an up and running car, but on the plus side there's no rust and seized bolts to contend with.
Almost as scary as the pics of my chop (the avatar '33). The difference is you knew what you were doing; I had to make it up as I went along.
7th picture, what a way to make a bathtub. Last picture, looks like a beer break was taken. Yes, keep the pictures and write up coming.
Very Cool! Keep up the good work! Those Pontiacs had a pretty cool side profile from the factory, but I am excited to see where this chop takes (elevates) it too.
AWESOME work and skills folks! Yes kindly keep us posted on this build And thank you kindly for sharing
Heck yea man, I can already tell this is going to be a kick *** project ! Thanks for sharing version 2 with us.
Oh yeah! I know what you mean about being too subtle. I remember seeing some (seriously OT) late model VW at a show. Apparently it had the complete front sheetmetal from another model. I couldn't tell. I'm sure there was a ton of work in it, but it looked stock to me, being as it was totally out of my wheelhouse. I guess that's how other people see "our" cars too. Maybe the best we can hope for these days is that people will think it looks cool, even if they don't know why.
You blokes got it going on!!!! That is a gorgeous car to begin with but the work you’re doing is past top notch. I wish I was a fly on the wall so I can hang out with you guys and get me an education! Definitely subscribing and keep the updates coming!
Thanks for all the replies and encouragement. I'm a bit further forward then this first post might suggest. I'll start posting regularly to bring it up to date. James D How other people see "our" cars can be quite amusing sometimes, it is so far removed from "normal" motoring now.
I’ve finished welding the actual roof, which hasn’t turned out too bad- no disasters I’ve now started on all the tricky little details. First one up is aligning the roof and quarter panel around the boot aperture.
Next piece of the jigsaw is returning the curves to the rear quarter windows, after the chop they now finished in a point. The drivers side was formed by splicing together pieces of the door posts, but this turned out to be very time consuming and fiddly. So for the p***enger side I used a hammer former made from a bit of s**** wood, this also turned out to be very time consuming and fiddly.
Before removing all the temporary bracing a few jobs inside needed some attention. The rear parcel shelf was now 1 1/2’’ too short to realign with the rear seat support. This was soon sorted by cutting and splicing in a strip the full width of the car. The seat end bracers were cut out during the chop and these were easier to remake rather than weld together the six pieces I had saved. Although I've never really attached much importance to the rear parcel shelf, it actually puts a lot of rigidity into the rear section of the roof. I also took the opportunity to complete a job I have talked about for years, raising the prop tunnel a couple of inches to stop the prop banging on the floor when fully loaded, and enabling me to lower the rear a little bit more. Easy job with the car gutted. I made a couple of rollers with an old acrow prop and it worked surprisingly well. All bracing removed now and no alignment problems, so that was a relief!!
Very Kool craftsmanship. Thank you for sharing the "How To" Process. Hopefully it will inspire others to cut them up.
Now on to the start of the hardtop. The first piece was where the door meets the A pillar (door top). The jury is still out on whether I will keep the roof gutter, ok in California, not sure about East London. Once the decision was made I soon made short work of the gutters, it made life a lot easier to weld the door tops in place. Welding up 38 trim holes around the perimeter was a bit of a chore Doesn’t look much, but all the fabrication and welding is now finished on the p***enger side. Bit of a slog being a repeat of the drivers side but that hard top look is really beginning to take shape now.
The Jalopy Journal
