I'm forging ahead finishing the 5.5" chop on my new '50 chevy business coupe. The A pillars are welded up, the front body mounts are fixed and the doors close much better [WHOOT!] Moving on to the B pillars, There tipped forward right now and tacked in. Speaking from experience What have you guys done with yours, or what would you do differently if given the chance? It looks very aggesive with them tipped forward and the patches wouldn't be very big to finish up. However the window work would be a BUNCH easier with them straight up. I'm wanting to have working rear quarter windows. I think there's enough room for them to fully retract either way. Thanks for your time Thom
OK. The door windows wouldn't be to tough. But how about the rear 1/4 windors? Have the gl*** tracks parallel to the B pillar / / I suppose one could tip the regulator also......... so that it's parallel to the new tipped tracks.
slanted looks great, but i put mine straight up, just because slanted is more work, but i think mine look ok to me, its my car it's what i like that counts
Forget the whole roll up deal on the quarter gl*** and go with a pop out back gl*** like a Studebaker. The whole idea of getting the back window open is for ventilation right? The pop out back gl*** will draw more air then a wide open window because of the draft going past it. its easier to set up just a couple of hinges on the front and a latch on the back and its different from the rest of the crowd. Oh yea getting back to your original question I think the canted b pillars look better also, it tends to ad flow to your new roofline.
Most all chops are a bit different from each other and what works great on one can look odd on another. I like slanted B pillars on cars with the roof chopped into a "fastback" (with the rear window area lower and flatter than the car pictured.) I also think an angled B pillar looks best if it is a mirror image of the angle and shape of the A pillar and not just some who-knows-why angle that accidentally happened during the chop. It needs reason. It needs design continuity. It needs the radii of the opening top and bottom "finished" so it looks like it was meant to be angled and not just cut and squeezed back in. The B pillar/rear of the door of "Copperhead" shoebox is a good example. I think the conservative shaped, relatively straight down chop of the pictured car would look best with a straight up and down B pillar. Visability can be an issue too, the drivers side vision gets blocked by an angled pillar. (That can be a plus if you're an urban cruiser too, because it obscures your head as a drive by target...) Cutting and making the B pillar verticle would probably be less work than monkey****in the rear window regulator to work
I'll dare to be different here. Slanted post do tend to look aggresive but must match the front post and carry on the continuity of the rear window aswell or it works against the "flow". Otherwise it looks like ****. My preference has been straight. I feel it doesn't work against the lines of the car or that "looks fast sitting still" idea. On a modest chop straight tends to look more like the way the factory should/would have done it. But of course, as always..... opinions are like ***holes. Everyone has one and nobody cares about any other than their own.
LOL "monkey****in" is that a techinal term It sounds like I'm WAY underestimating the kind of work involved in making the windows work. I've been searching, but not much pops up... I see what your saying DrJ, Fastback as in more like this pic, taken when I was unloading? Also your comment about symmetry with the A pillar is interesting. I'll have to do a little measuring tonight to see just how close they are to each other. Right now it's just wherever it landed is the angle.
Straight up posts usually make the quarter window look too small and interupts the natural flow from front to rear which is the basis of a good custom design. If you want to post a larger side shot, I'll Photoshop it to show you the difference.
I prefer 'em slanted too, but you've got to get the angle right to make it flow. I think DrJ pretty much summed it up...the B pillar mirroring the A is important, but it can't conflict too much with the C pillar. That's what tack welding is for...if it just doesn't look right no matter how you slant it, a straight pillar or a HT is the way to go. I attached expamples of each that I think work well. Bryan
Like during the chop, no can do. The pic of her on the trailer is how I found her. The a and b pillars are tacked, but the rear window has a skimcoat of bondo on it, which I may or may not have to remove (that will be my next post) I'd be happy to snap you some of how it sits now. PM me your requests with your e-mail addy and I'll send some bigg'uns along. BUT You'll have to help me figure out how the boxes of parts go back on Bryan, The black one is a new pic I havent found yet, thanks.
After this thread poped up from obscurity http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38270 I've got a chubby for the slanted B pillars so I'm going that way. I guess this pic makes me a "monkeyfawlker" :flipoff2: I removed the inner rear quarter panel off the drivers side. This will let me add a bunch of reinforcement to the pillars, and make room for window guides and power window motors.
so how does the gl*** work in a curved rear? instead of going up does it go at a ( type motion? pics would rock if you had them
LOL I have no idea YET! I drilled the spotwelds out and removed the inner quarter panel last night. Mainly to be able to re-enforce the b pillars. I'm thinking the gl*** channels (front and rear) will be running parallel with the B pillar. The rear of the gl*** will be guided by about 6" of gl*** below the curve. Of corse the regulator will be parallel with all that. I'll try to do***ent my way along and make a new post, but don't hold yer breath. I've got B pillars to weld up, floors and rockers to replace ect. Thom
I've been studying chopped 49 - 52's for a long ****ing time. slant the post. I have never seen a chopped 49 - 52 that would look better with straight up and down posts. the rear window is laid way down in a proper chop. to have that post sticking up at 90 degrees is just plain wrong.
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