Before I begin I will say I am not a photographer and when I took these photos, I never intended on using them to do a “Tech” but it sounded like a good idea to give it a try. I will do my best to present and offer solutions to the problems we faced while doing the chop and help others prepare for some of these issues if and when they ever face doing a chop on this style of car. We did clean up on the car once the chop was done and did the tail lights, hood, handles, fender wells and headlights but for this thread, I will just concentrate on the chop. There are many reasons why we chop cars but for those of use who do, its usually because we can, it needs it and its just plain cool. Lots of cars look good chopped and the options are limitless but the elusive search for the "perfect chop" is what we are after and there are few cars as interesting, fun and challenging to chop than the 53-54 Chevrolet Bel Air/210. The curved wrap around rear glass provides a unique problem in that it cannot be cut with alot of success. So there are only a few options. 1. Lexan replacement (in my research I didn’t find a lot of options in this area I felt comfortable with or wanted to spend the money for). 2. Sinking or "traying" the glass down into the body. (The problem with this option was the corrosion that could come from facing the problem of properly sealing the window. After exploring this option I didn’t feel comfortable with this option.) 3. Replacing the molding and glass from another car. (which is obviously what I felt was the most economical and solid answer the problem at hand.) Once I chose the option of replacing the glass, the challenge came while doing my research, in that the looming question of “which glass do I use??” While doing my research I found many rear windows had been used by other guys with success, some of which I thought looked nice but others seemed to “just not quite work” into what I felt was a natural fit. So I began some research to search down, measure and check the natural curves on lots of different rear windows. I also began to research the placements of these different types of rear windows that has been used and tried to define what my obstacles would be. A buddy of mine had a copy of an old book that showed rear glass from every car and every model from the 40s and 50s called “Cars of the Fabulous 50s” and “Cars of the fascinating 40s” and I used these to do my preliminary research (I posted a few pictures of these below). I searched out and found a few that I thought would fit nice and tried to check around some of the local shows and find cars where I could get a closer look at what these where. With some permission from owners and some care I got to look really closely at some of my choices and narrowed it down. <br> <br> Once I was done with my research I decided on the early 49-52 Chevrolet/Pontiac rear glass, specifically, the Sedan Deluxe or Chieftan because it came with stainless from the factory and had a similar belt molding to my 54. I also chose this window because of the natural curve of the glass, although different, was still close enough that I felt it could be made to fit well and dropped down to meet the beltline to keep the original design idea of the 54 window. I showed the comparison below. Here is a pic of my rear window and a pic of the window out of the books of the 52 Pontiac rear window. <br> <br><br> I went looking around and after about 4-5 months of searching the HAMB, junkyards and every resource I could come up with, I found a 1952 Pontiac Cheiftan, not too far from my house. It was down in the mud and the car was a little rough but the stainless window, glass and the metal around the windows were all there and in great shape. <br><br> Once we had the Pontiac out of the mud and back to the shop we got busy preparing everything we would need and layed out our initial plan to begin our chop. I would like to add at this point that I was blessed enough to be a part of a really great car club. Having the help of guys who love this as much as I do and who have a tremendous mount of experience made all the difference in overcoming the obstacles and conquering this mountain. So having friend and knowledgable friends during this process is not what I consider a plus…..it is a must. I am so thankful for all these guys added to this process and how much more fun it is doing this sort of thing with some friends and fellow Hamber’s. So here we go….. <br> <br><br> Remove Pontiac glass, metal and molding and prep it for installation. Mark out the chop on the 54 and get it prepped for the chop. We marked the front pillar in the middle leaving the curves of the windshield. <br> <br> <br> In the rear we decided to remove the rear curve and let the roof come all the way down to the bodyline. This would show the natural line of the roof and give us a good idea of where the car naturally wants the new rear glass (see pics below this post for more reference). <br> <br> <br><br> As you can see in the picture below, we left the inner moldings on the inside of the door and rear passenger windows and just made sure our cuts wouldn’t go through a screw hole. This way the inner moldings would fit the chop perfectly and naturally and save us from more measuring later. Please forgive the mighty mouse pose, I was having fun and it’s the only one had where the inner moldings were clearly visible after the chop. You can see them on the floor on the right of the car. <br><br> In this picture you can clearly see the fit after we set the roof back on the car. Two fellow Hambers and fellow Road Kings members helping me make a dream come true. You can also see in both of these pictures how we chose to stabilize the car with the straps using a 3-point harness method and I must say it worked beautifully. <br> Once we had the roof back on we knew we were going to have to move the bottom section of the rear pillar out because it is skinnier than the belt line base. It was mild enough it only took a little push, maybe ½ inch, which we did with a port-a-power. <br><br><br> <br> As you can see in the picture above, we left the top edge of the original rear window tray, it will add a lot of stability to the rear of the car and provide a substantial support for the new addition. You can also see the natural line of the roof with the new 52 Pontiac window sat in and how it gradually into the rear of the car, providing the look we were going for. You can also see where we pie cut the pillars to modify there fit and make them ready for welding. With a little clean up of the paint on the 54 roof, we are ready for the next step. <br> Once the rear window is set, the left and right bottom edges must be trimmed down to provide clearance of the body line of the 54. This is a tricky part so I am gonna take a few moments to make sure I explain this clearly. There is a narrower curviture on both sides of the donor 52 window then on the body of the 54. So we decided it was best to move the donor window in until both right and left corners of the window met up with the belt line of the 54. This means that the center of the donor window is higher than the 54 and the outer edges of the donor window is lower or more inside the car than the 54. We knew we were going to replace the metal on both sides of the donor window, so that wasn’t a problem but this also presented the next problem in fitting the donor window into its proper place…..modifying the curviture of the body on the 54 to meet up with the center of the donor window. Modifying the body of the 54 to fit the natural curve of the donor widow was a bit of a challenge. The goal was to divide the beltline down the center, using half of the donor window molding and half the modling of the 54. So we decided to modify the body as seen below. <br><br> Making cuts to the body above the trunk and molding it to match up the beltlines was a perfect solution to a difficult problem. Thanks to the know how of a couple guys who have more experience than I hope to learn....thanks Mike and Rich!!!I think we all like to use as few pieces as possible and we felt using 3 would get us as close as we could to using as few seems as possible and still be able to successfully navigate making the curves fit and it seem natural. So we used 3 pieces of sheet metal and bent it around as we tacked it in and the finished result was what we felt was a successful fit (see pic 3 below) The last piece of work left on the rear besides finishing the welds was tacking and trimming up the donor window on the inside of the car so that it doesn’t present a problem with interior. I didn’t post pics of this because its pretty self explanatory. To finish the chop we needed to move the A & B pillars into place (see pics 1 & 2 below) by pie cutting in the appropriate places and moving the pillars into place and tacking them in. There are several options on the B pillars and after my research I felt leaning the pillar forward gave the car some natural flow and with the style of chop, it was the better fit. I didn’t plan on how far to lean the post, we just pie cut them where they needed it and moved them to fit and let the car dictate naturally where they would land. If it had been to much naturally we would have modified it accordingly but since we didn’t need to, I wont go into any details about this here. I will post a few pictures of the body work and the finishing process of the car but I think this covers what we did when we chopped my 54. I hope it is helpful and can add something to any chop fellow Hambers may face. Thanks for giving me the place and opportunity to share this stuff, it sure was a thrill of a lifetime. I hope it can be of help to someone. Sorry I am not more of a writer or photographer but for what its worth, I had a blast anyway and I hope you do too!!!!! Any questions you guys can hit me up here on the Hamb, I would be more than happy to help in any way I can. Thanks for reading.
Scotty...Actually I gave it to a buddy who plans on using it on his chevy. And for Riverrat.....we all have our differences of opinions. I loved my 54 before she was chopped but i felt the work done to her only adds to that original beauty. I agree with you that they are beautiful cars but this one is mine and I am glad I was given the opportunity to chop her and learn a great deal in the process. I prolly would have done it just to learn all that I did.
Man I like it,wish it were mine. My favorite picture of it is just after it was painted in the shop and not put back together yet. Like a new born baby. Very nice.
Very nice job! The car looks very clean with all the mods you've done. I like it! Makes me miss my old 53 though!! Tony
Very nice, very well done. What happened to the rear bumper off that Pontiac? It looks half decent and I'd sure like to have it for my '51 coupe!
Nice man, I've always loved your car so I'll be filing this one away for later when I get to my '54....just in case I decide to chop it.
The Jalopy Journal
