Wanting to use the original rear back light(window) in a chop any insight on sinking it into the trunk, or other ideas?????? Pics would be great if anybody has any.. Thank's Ryan
Hey, It's tough to get the rear window to seal well, once sunkun into the quarter. If you're goin for a light chop you can jus' kick the stock one forward. I thought someone was makin laminated back glass for these, in which case chop to your eyes content. For a medium to heavy chop, most are usin' a shoe or bowtie coupe window. Swankey Devils C.C.
Here's how I chopped mine leaving the original rear screen unchopped. The chop is approx 3 & 3/4 inches. I am not a panelbeater nor had any formal training. I,m just an enthustiastic amateur who's read far too many books and thought..:I can do that" ! I have posted some of these pics before but I hope these help. Here's how I found the body First mark and cut. I chose this point as it left me enough steel to work with, and was far enough forward to miss the roof support on the underside. Make sure you brace the body well. I used the plasma cutter to seperate the screen frame from the body. I cut here so it'd be easier to hide any problems once the body trim went back on. I re-attached the front pillars then trimmed the rear of the roof till the screen section slide forward and the edges mated. Slowly hammer welded the two sections back together. Avoid heat warpage at all costs. Weld in very small bursts and transfer from side to side. added filler panels to the rear parcel shelf The cars still a long way from done, but hasn't come up to bad I think.
The car above rules.Its one of the few chopped 54s that has the wrap around window sitting correctly on the parcel shelf.Usually the windows are cut down or leaned forward creating an upsweep into the backlite from the trunk.To make matters worse,they end up with the corners of the backlite sunken into the beltline.......the belt line that fades into a sea of mud or filler strips.So what of it doesnt have the roof line of a chopped merc or box!Its a 54 Chevrolet.The idea of customizing in the 50s was to update not pre date.However if that sweeping roofline is what you desire than use a 150 back window.
Hi Mack, The points you mentioned were exactly what I was trying to avoid. The rear panel between bootlid and screen bottom flows exactly with the original panel. No rise between the two areas. I spent a year planning this chop before I lifted my saw. I could not find a satifactory way of dropping the corners of the screen below the body line, that I felt would A: Look good and B:would seal properly. cheers Ian
Did you just lengthen your front doors or are they standard 2 door doors? Nice work by the way. Purse from pig's ear, I'd say!
Hey choptndropt54, Do you have any finished pics of the back with the fillerstrips etc... all done. Looks really good
Hi Punkabilly Here's some pics of the Two dooring and Hardtopping I hope LRS30 dosent mind me hijacking his post I had to lengthen sedan doors as two-door doors are not availalble here in New Zealand. The cost of importing a set was prohibitive. I decided I'd try two different methods to lengthen them. Many thanks to the HAMBer who supplied me with the correct two-door measurements. I purchased 6 very rusty doors and had to do a lot of extra repairs once they were lengthened. Sorry for the upside down pics, the body was on my rotissere. First method was to cut the original door and insert a filler strip Whilst the door came out great, I felt that method wasn't the easiest as there was far too much hammer welding with both seams running down the door. So for the second method I used the front half of one door and the rear of a second door. The hard-topping was pretty easy. Just a bit of fabrication and smoothing. The roof line was made up from parts from 3 doors. I kept the original frames and added a piece from a third door.
You did a nice job chopping that Chevy. I like the details where the door meets the bodylines both at the back/top edge of the door, and at the front/top of the door. But in that post, all I see is a body. Do you have the rest of the car too? lol.
yep, Ive managed to collect all the rest of the parts I need. All the body panels are away being blasted. ( It helps having a good mate who's a soda blaster) The chassis is being built by another mate. Using Series2 Jag front end, Holden ute diff, Engine is a 270 GMC inline 6 for which ive got a supercharger. Frame will be z'd so that it lays frame with the bags.
Thanks to all who replied, great help. I have a lot of window trim pieces for 53-54 Bel-Air cheap if anybody interested, also a mint rear backlite also....Thanks Again, Ryan
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