1947 Ford Tudor Sedan Build

Here is a 1947 Ford, that I'm working on. I've worked on cars for a long time but recently went back to school to learn everything I could from Cris Boggus, at UVU. I've known Cris for a long time he installed the grille and the headlights in this car years ago.

Grille is a 47 Olds and 54 buick headlights

This will be a slow build as it is limited by funding.

Here is what I started with, a very solid early 1947 Sedan.

 

I normally take everything to the sandblaster before starting but this one was in a rush, to get started.

Here we are laying out the chop. The idea came from a "Custom Rodder" January 1994,with a 48 Merc 4 door sedan.

The entire top and trunk will be maintained in one piece. It will be moved forward and the rear fenders will be shortened. This will maintain that flowing roof line. The bottom of the trunk will be shortened to finish the chop.

 

I can't be the only one waiting for more pics. I've got a 47, a sawsall and all winter.

 

More pics please!! I am gettin ready to do the same chop using that same magazine article...except I am a glutton for punishment and am doing a 4 door...most likely 4 inches, please take lottsa pics of the rear of the body . I have to finish fixing the rot before I can start the chop

 

Very cool build, can't wait to see progress. Chopping one of those sedans is not easy!

 

Any updates from this past weekend?

 

thank you.. for not F'in this chop up..

I watched (in horror) as a well known customizer recently chopped a 40 sedan.. he must have cut the top in about 10 parts..
and a magazine published it!



your method as shown in the old kustom rodder article.. and it will look right..

is mucho better

 

I watched (in horror) as a well known customizer recently chopped a 40 sedan.. he must have cut the top in about 10 parts..
and a magazine published it!

Please share, what magazine??

 

Bump

 

After we marked out all the cut lines everyone, and I mean everyone, came out of hiding to cut along the line. Yes we even got a girl involved.

The b pillars are going to be kept straight to maintain the function of the rear windows. I like the slanted look but, in this case function won. Also if you keep the posts straight it gives a good balance between the door and rear quarter glass.

I've also got a few tricks to keep the rear from looking too heavy, which is what most (of these) tudor sedans suffer from when chopped.

 

Cool thanks for the update! Cant wait to see the rest of the cuts that you have planned for the trunk area.

 

Hey, this is a project that will be cool to follow!

 

I cant agree more!!

 

Hopefully we will get another update from this weekend !

 

Ok you need a few more pics of the rear.

The strange thing with this chop is the roof will NOT have any cuts in it. I'm just moving the entire roof and trunk forward. The rear fenders will be shortened to fit the body. The floor in the trunk area extends out be hind the frame (on the 46 this would be a tool storage area) this section will be removed. Then to finish the chop, the trunk will be sectioned at the very bottom to accommodate for the chopped roof (windows).

This should:

1 keep the factory roof line flow from the front to the rear.

2 retain the factory curved glass rear window.

3. lighten the heavy feeling on the rear by decreasing the surface area between the rear window and the rear quarter window (the best part.. IMO) This will be because the rear window will stay in place as the rest of the body will be moved forward.


Here you can see the relief cuts I made and marked. I only ended up needing the bottom cut.

I've also left out all the little details like the measuring, bracing etc.... (that if your doing this you should already know how).

 

Keep up the pics please Are you gonna use the orig trunk support arms and relocate them? I guess that you are gonna lean the A pillars back a bit so you dont have to stretch the roof.Take some good side pics of the 1/4 panel area when you get to it please. Thanks again eh!

 

Nope I plan on upgrading to some gas shocks like a modern car. But you could use the original stuff if you wanted.

Nope I'm NOT going to lean the A-pillars back. Infact I put the angle finder on them before I started to make sure they didn't move.

I AM moving the entire roof and trunk forward. The rear quarter window will stay in position, it will not move. This will help the rear not feel so heavy. You can see this in the previous pics.

Any more questions??

 

Any more questions??


Yes lets see some more pics please!!

 

A few more pics

 

couple more of the "bobbed" fender

Obviously more metal work to make it work but it's going in the right direction.

After I got it down it looked a little too low in the back and I raised it back up a 1/2 inch in the rear as you can see from the gap. No problem because I was going to make a new radius-ed panel for the rear anyway.
You can also see in the second pic how far the body was moved forward by the numbers. It came out to about 3.75 inches.

I have the look I was going for, to me it looks good.

 

Looks very good, very clever chop. Looking forward to see it all back together and with the car a bit lowered.

Thank you for keeping us posted on this project.

 

Hey, I saw my old photoshops lying on the fender in post #10, that's too cool! This is some really inspirational stuff, for sure

I'm really digging the profile of the car. Have you been able to calculate the amount of front/rear chop yet?

 

Looking great ! Did you end up taking the same amount of length out of the rear fenders as you did the body when the top moved forward?

 

Chrisman yes your photoshop pic was a big help. I borrowed it from this thread.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=308708&highlight=47+tudor+chopped

As for how much of a chop I took 3" out of the A pillar. Which works out to be about a 2.5" vertical chop. The B and C ended up being a little over 2.5". Although I moved the rear window up (into the body) just a little bit to make the window opening the same as the door window. This gives the window opening of about 11.25" on both windows and makes the rear feel a little less heavy. The rear ended up being 4" inches lower because of the body being moved forward and the slopping roof-line. That's 4" at the back seat height. Which works out to be about 4.5" (ish") at the trunk. So I will be sectioning the trunk 4.5 - 5 inches. This will all be taken off of the bottom so nothing changes on the flow from the Front A pillar to where the trunk ends.

Hope this is understandable for everyone. (I know , I know just post more pics)

I also made a cut in the wheel well ( I'll get a pic later) besides the obvious cut to move the panel foward. I made a cut above the fender (from front to back) to let the panel tapper more to give it the correct flow for the (now) shorter panel.

Thanks for the positive feed back.

I've been looking at this for a while now and although it looks nice I think it needs something a little more WOW. Maybe if I Section it..... or Maybe some Loooong fender making some sort of fin or.......

Stay tuned ........

 

I'll join the ranks and say THANK YOU for posting all this info and pics...I know I'll be falling back on this thread, eventually, if the car I'm looking at right now becomes mine.

Keep up the good work!!

 

Hope this is understandable for everyone. (I know , I know just post more pics)

Lol ! Demanding arent we! Did you take any pics from the inside, the parcel tray/trunk hinge mount area ?

 

I haven't yet I'll get in there this week and snap a couple for you..

 

Hey Dragon:

I love your project and will be passing through your neck of the woods when I return from hiding from the cold winter down in Arizona.

Can I come and visit your project??

I have a '46 2-dr that needs the same treatment. Please email with a string on how to get to you.

Thanks

Russ V. rverbael@gmail.com

 

hows the chop coming along?

 

i like this way more than i thought i would chopped sedans like this usually lok sqwarshed