Hey guys! I'm planing a chop on my 30 model a 2dr sedan body. I have the body in pretty good shape, doors shut and are aligned pretty good. Just wondering if any of you have any tips for me, this will be my first chop! I am a mechanic by trade and have done some light body work and fab work, but kinda nervous about chopin. don't whant it to look like some one who didn't know what they were doing did it.
there are a couple of good threads on the Hamb with Model A sedan chops. Suggest you search sedan chop
Well I did a search and just got ALOT of pic of model A's already choped. Im looking for pics or tech on doin it.
Very timely indeed. I was at a friends yesterday when they started chopping a '30 A Coupe. The week previous one of the guys took 5" out of his A sedan by simply taking the cut round the top of the A pillars then through the centre of the B pillars and windows etc. Problem was he cut the top door hinge out which he now has to reinstall. The other issue was that the hinge point for the windscreen pivot was still in the original place and when the screen closes the pivot arms hit the roof as they fold in. A little more thought went into chopping the coupe. The A pillars were again cut at the top were they meet the roof. Roof was removed. The A pillars were then cut vertically, seperating the outside and inside skins. The outside skin had 4" cut off the top, the inside skin had 4" cut off the bottom. This meant that the inside section with the door hinge mounting point and windscreen pivot could be lowered down to meet the body (there is a need to do a little pie cut and open the bottom piece of the inner skin to mate up to the body... it'll become aparant when you do it. The rest of chop was as per normal, removing the 4" straight through the B pillars and windows. I will post a link to their photos as soon as they put them up and hopefully it should help explain the idea a lot better. .....here's the thread of the car being built, keep an eye on it as I'm sure they'll do an update with pics. They had a camera taking time elapse shots too so it'll be well worth checking out. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=433752&page=5
Depends on how much you are taking out, but you should leave the back window full size. The back window is already smaller than the side windows.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=406782&highlight=model+sedan+chop&showall=1 this thread has a sedan chop that looks right ... dont over chop a sedan ...
Here's my '28 tudor chop thread. It was my first chop, I did it at an angle; 3.5" in front and 2.5" at the rear; it came out pretty nicely. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377233&showall=1 Once you overcome your fear of cutting 80-year-old virgin sheetmetal, it's amazing what you can accomplish!
Hey Thanks guys!!! that is just what I was looking for!! I have some questions though.... Could you tack weld the doors to the body then chop everything and tack it back together then cut your tacks on the door??? My doors are aligned and open and close good now. Also, why does every one make a cut straight down behind the rear side windows and then back to the rear window and then back up to the rear window? why not just make a straight horizontal cut all the way around? I know there is a good reason for this I just don't see it.
If I understand your question I think it is to keep the rear window the same stock size. I'm not a fan of mail slot rear windows. When I chopped my '29 Tudor I cut about two inches out under the window and dropped the window section down. If i could draw a picture rather than type the discription this would be clearer. Good luck with your project. I gas welded and hammer welded the beads on mine.
Although it looks as if you just chop and drop, there's a bit of difference between the top and the bottom, so the chop line is following the areas that will line up the best. Even then a little pie cutting may be necessary. The idjit that chopped my tudor several decades ago just cut straight through all round and welded it up. The mismatch has required some amount of filler on my part to correct it.
I love chopped '30-'31 sedans, my brother has 5" taken out of his and in my opinion it's perfect. Just some random thoughts: I have never seen a Model A chopped that still had the swing-out windshield function. Also, I love mail-slot rear windows, and thusly think retaining the stock rear window is both a waste of time and hurts the look of the chop. Unlike '28-'29 Model A's, the posts are tapered, requiring a little more work to get the upper and lower half lined up, but it ain't brain surgery. Although it's not necessary, make sure you have a glass shop cut your side windows, they'll roll up and down much easier due to the weight loss. Just for reference, here's a shot of my brother's '31 sedan with the previously mention 5" chop.
I happen to like heavy chops and mailslot rear windows. The first chopped car I ever saw was the "Big Al" 34 sedan dragster at Garlits museum. I think that had a lot to do with it Anyways, I chopped mine 6" and with my long wheelbase (115") I think it works pretty well. Over chopping can make these suckers look a mile long. One thing I ran into is the A pillars taper at the top when viewed from the side. So when I lined everything up after the chop there was about a 1/4" gap in the front of the A pillar with the back (door side) lined up. I simply took a wedge of the A pillar I cut and filled in the gap. To make the car somewhat comfortable I actually sit in the rear footwell which meant I had to make the steering wheel removable. Would I chop one this much again? I don't know, I think it turned out pretty cool for my first try but I would most likely go a little more conservative next time around. Here's some pix, hopefully you can see the wedge deal I'm talking about on the A pillar. I also used about three small relief cuts on the rear roof corners to get things lined back up. Good luck.
Two reasons for chopping anything. Look. Drag reduction. For look, photoshop it to where you love it, then do it. Little things like fitting glass and moving door hinges to accomodate the chop, are........... little things.
Pie cutting the pillars on the inside is the hardest part, not hard but a little time consuming, but you gotta do it. Other than that, it's cut and drop, very simple. Good luck
Really? Around here you rarely see one, without a functioning windshield. That shit's gotta be functional, otherwise the builder was just lazy.
Well, the guy who chopped my brother's cut the pivot posts clear out (he bought a bare, chopped body to start with) and a few years ago I bought a chopped '31 body that while it still had the pivot studs, they were in the wrong place so the arms would bind if you tried to open it. Since then I've looked at lots of hammered A's and none have been working, although lots of guys simply remove the nuts, slide the arm off the stud, place the windsheild out, then re-attach. Not that it matters to me anyway, I always hated the look of the windsheild swung out, and thought even less of dust, dirt and bugs being directed right at my face and eyes during the whole time my Model A was my only car.
A buddy (Mr. Ford) and I chopped his coupe 6 inches which is a pretty heavy chop. Instead of cutting a section out of the A-pillars, we decided to get rid of the top door hinges and just took off the top 6 inches. That way you don't have to pie cut them (as Chis Casny said) and make the skinny tops match up with the fatter bottoms. This has the benefit of giving the A-pillars more girth and kinda makes the chop a little meaner, BUT, we had to narrow everything that goes in between! The wooden header panel, the sheet metal piece that goes under it and even the visor had to be narrowed slightly. The only thing that didn't get narrowed was the windshield. And yes, it's functional. You have to have a functional windshield!
While I appreciate your thoroughness, I wouldn't have done it that way. I mean, is narrowing the header, filler panel and visor really easier than slicing the posts to make it fit? But hey, you got it done and I'm sure it looks great.
Well, it wasn't about making it easier, it was about the look. But I guess a non-functional windshield is easier too.
28/29 A pillars are tapered too. So are the garnish moldings. I you intend any generation of A to be chopped, there is almost as much metal work to chop and fit the garnish molding as there is to wacking the top. The rear glass of an A Tudor is about 2" shorter than the side glass before being cut. A cut above the beltline, horizontal, dropping the lower of the back glass, has a change of appearance with the chop, 2", making the back and side glass almost all the same height. IF THAT is what the builder wants.
Well, to the guy trying to get advice on chopping an A, here are my 2cents. Trust me you want that windshield to slide open, when you want it to. There are times when it get's hot in there, you need that option, and there are times when it get's cold, again you wanna have the option. To make it work, you need that 5/16" stud, riveted to the A pillars and the screw/hole on the windshield frame at the same height to make it work. On my car thats about 2.5" from the bottom of the windshield frame. You have to cut that bracket loose from the windshield frame and move it to where it needs to go, same goes for that 5/16" stud on the A pillar. When you chop the car, make sure you take that upper hinge into consideration, I opted for keeping mine and all three hinges are now "almost" equally spaced out, it works and it looks good I think. Good luck.
Chopped my Tudor 5 and a bit inches and also had to narrow the header. I marked the cut around a swinging windshield. Drilled out and moved the pivot pins to where I could use a full hinge without interference. It locks up nice with the top of the hinge right at the top edge of the windshield frame. So now I still have a demister and air conditioner factory fitted.
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