Gents, I'm chopping my '33 roadster 2" and want to lay the stanchions/windshield posts back about 10 degrees so when the top comes straight down in the back the front of the top fits properly on the posts (which also ends up giving it more of a 2 1/2" looking chop). I've been told that's the easiest and best way to chop an early roadster. Cutting up the top bows can cause problems if you plan on having a working top (which is the plan). Soooo, does anybody know the best way to lay back the posts? My initial thought was to make a small pie cut on the back side, about an inch up from the base, and heat up the lower 2 inches of the post, gently convincing it back until I get the correct 10 degree additional rake, but I've never done it before. I'm using original posts so I can weld on them (unlike the cast repops). Any thoughts? Ideas? Pics of a '33 or '34 roadster with laid back posts?
I ran across the same questions you have when I was doing mine. My original windshield was already chopped some time in the early 50's (it has 6 3/4" of glass-barley "legal"). I then chopped my posts to match the chop of the windshield. The easiest and best looking way to lean the windshield back is to take a grinder and grind on the top backside of the windshield post's pad. This part comes in contact first with the body, so just relieve that area and around it, and lean it back. I leaned the hell out of mine, even so much that I had to grind the bottom of the windshield frame to get even more degrees. If you were to pie slice the posts, they look really weird, plus its lots more work. Here is a pic of my roadster that I built to show you the amound of lean that you can get. Good luck man
Man, that's inspiration! Beautiful job. Your approach makes perfect sense - thanks for saving me from myself. Another old heap is about to get a haircut . . .
Sinisterspeed, somehow I missed your car at LARS. I saw pictures of it the next couple of days in exactly the same places I was, but never crossed paths. Too bad - it surely would have been my favorite of the weekend and I would have snapped pictures 'till my camera screamed! Way to beautiful!!!
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