Hi! Does anyone have good project pics of chopping the top of the `63-65 Buick Riviera? "Golden Riviera" ? Jimmy Vaughan´s ? I think that OZ is having one project too ? PLATU / Primer Magazine www.platuart.com
no pics, but i chopped one several years back. not one of the easier cars to chop. the basic rundown for chopping one of these is to "quarter"the roof. use the front right and rear left corners of a donor roof, you need to both widen and lengthen the roof, so use the donor parts so you only have one weld seam in each direction. the smart way to do it would be to get a SECOND donor car(easy to come by in finland, right!) to donate the entire roof skin, this way you keep all of the weld seams around the perimeter of the roof and not right across the middle of it, not to mention the hole left in the middle from quartering the roof that requires a filler piece, so the donor skin reduces the amount of work greatly, it's easy to work the edges of the roof, the center sucks! you can of course wheel a new skin as well. and IMHO the most important advice when chopping a riv: keep it mild! 2" is about perfect. any more than 3 and it starts to look squashed.
Yeah, thanks for tips Ray! I agree that 2" is the limit. These two Rivieras have beautiful chop. The Golden one is chopped 2", I´m not sure, but maybe Vaughan´s Riviera was chopped 1,5". We have lot´s of Rivieras in Finland, but I think that they all need their roofs.....
I think these are one of very few late models whose styling can actually be improved by chopping. I think these could become the "50 Merc" of the 60's with respect to popularity for chopping. Where are the magazine article how-to's?
I would love to get my hands on one of those at some point in my life. They make the perfect mild custom...gasp, lowrider.
I have a donor roof if interested. The car is going to the scrap pile after it is parted out.... of course i see you are in Finland... so that might be a bit of a shipping dilemma
Here's a few more. The first one is a local car I captured at a car show. It's one damn fine Riv !! I'm trying to find a pic of Sal Vega's Riv as well, funny enough I was just reading the Custom Rodder it was featured in today.....
Hey, DO NOT QUARTER THE ROOF PANEL!!!! at least the center of the panel. Yes, quarter the header,cant, and backlight rails, but not the center of the panel. This way you will only be adding and shaping metal in the front, sides and rear of that roof. All of these areas are much easier to get to and weld than the center of that roof panel ever will be. Also, this method will not require a second roof panel to complete the chop. Swankey Devils C.C.
Hey Nailhead, that´s real beauty!! Really nice roof line. PLATU from Primer Magazine www.platuart.com
After almost four years, any news on this topic I´d love to see pics of chopping the Riviera top, or something similar.. Thanks! J
OK Richard D, I like a small chop on this style of Riv. The roof is just to tall, the ability to do it right is the question. But since I can not do a guality chop......How did you lower your's? Nice job ! Mine is a 63.
1: I totally disagree, I think '63-'65 Rivieras are among the best proportioned cars ever designed. A lot of people agree: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=323509 2: Shitty airbag job done several owners ago, but thanks for the compliment. The car was kind of a mess when I got it, but I'm slowly sorting it out.
When I chop this body type I cut the whole roof skin off about 2 inches away from the edge,throw old roof panel in scrap pile because it will be too small after the corner and inner structure pieces are altered for the chop. i use my English wheel to role out a larger panel or if you don't have a wheel you can find at the junk yard a car with a large roof for the new skin. Just don't get one that is too dome shaped.This way you are only welding around the edges,not warping the hell out of it ruining the whole job. I found re skinning is the way to go,much cleaner job .
every single old car isn't worth saving. it takes parts cars to save the rest. i've sent a few rivs to the crusher myself. one i did use as a donor for a chop years ago. the other was a wreck that i saved the 425 and a bunch of clean sheetmetal from. their parts live on, but yeah, i crushed the damn cars. the good sheetmetal will fix the rusty 63 that is my current daily driver, if i ever stop driving it long enough to do bodywork. as for chopping a riv, study your favorite riv's rooflines carefully, you may be surprised at what you see. what "makes" the riv chop is the amount of work it takes for such a minor cut, which makes all the difference in how the car looks, yet nobody notices.
Really, if you follow the Vaughn car lead w/ 1.5" max out of the top, you can not go wrong. Color? And it should be as low as possible to stay in proportion.
I totally agree with Richard. To me, the '63-'65 Riviera is a car that you shouldn't do much to because it is so beautiful from the factory. I have never seen one with a chop that I thought was an improvement.
Ok, thanks for Your opinion guys. My opinion is, that almost every car needs a chopped top And I have no intention to use 2 cars for 1.. I was just wondering if the chop can be done without widening or lenghtening the roof? Is the main problem the side windows, or cutting the windshield (no problem here.. ) Thanks! J
Hello mrjynx, is there a problem? Am I not allowed to have my opinion? I thought this was a custom car/hot rod forum? Is there a list of cars one can customize, and list of those one can´t? J
No you can chop the crap out of anything and there will always be a bunch of guys behind you shouting fuck yea.
A lot of Sixties cars can benefit from what I call a "sneaky chop," about 1.5 to 2 inches. If you look at original concept sketches of most of your favorite cars - pick one - the tops appear chopped and the cars appear to be lowered. That's because that's the way the designer intended the car to look. And then the ergonomics people, the practical engineers, etc. got involved, and the cars end up with higher roofs and suspensions. After all, Bill Mitchell designed the original Riv - and yet his own personal Riv was chopped. Think about it.
I was just about to post this very thought. I saw the Bill Mitchell Riv in the Sloan Museum years ago and the slight chop really improved the car, and this is the way Mitchell liked it bacause this was his everyday driver.
Fuck you Nads, you never chopped anything. I've seen the Bill Mitchel car, I don't like it. I just feel for the most part, late 50s-up cars don't look good chopped. Even coupes from the 20s-30s, I prefer the "East Coast" style; channeled with no chop. Just my opinion, and there are always exceptions.
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