Can you cut the glass on a '53 Chevy sedan?

What if you where chopping the top on a '53 Chevy and wanted to cut the back glass, in order to retain the wraparound glass, do you think that you could?

 

Nope...it's tempered...can't cut tempered, it'll shatter!

R-

 

What he said ..

You either have to 'sink' it in the package tray if you wanna retain the wrap around glass, or change it all together to a different window.

 

Are you sure?...........

Caution it's a loaded question








I would like to get a few different responces and I'll post pics
stay tuned!

 

I was fairly sure 'til you asked me if i was sure..
Ok, lets see..make me a believer..haha

 

Here is a car a fellow HAMBER did that is the way to go......stock rear opening is "rocked" forwards [with the corners below body level] it looks great and solves the glass deal....

 

why not lay it front?...seems it would give nicer lines then a stock angled, cut glass?

good luck
zach
*i got beat to the punch!*

 

you havent figured a way to waterjet cut it have you?

 

it could be done but you have to bake the glass to untemper it cut to shape bake glass again to get temper back

 

Of course, none of us are exactly sure...or positive..we just base our answers on what's been done in the past...and in the past you cannot cut tempered glass unless you do it like Slag Kustom said...and that means $$$$$.

So let's hear it...I wanna learn how to CUT tempered glass!!!

R-

 

I'd like to hear how to cut it also.

I hear it's under extreme surface tension, designed to shatter into small pieces. Small enough so you can't get stabbed by a piece. So how is it done?

 

When glass is Tempered,they heat it to the proper temperature,
then cool one side much faster than the other.

This sets up residual stresses in the glass,
so that any additional stress will cause the glass to shatter.

Tempered glass can be annealed,by heating it to the appropriate temperature,and cooling slowly.

Of course,this isn't something you can do in the kitchen
when your wife isn't watching.

 

I'm signing off for tonight but keep the guesses coming. I've now learned more then I used to know about tempered glass. I promise I'll put your minds at rest tomorrow but I hope your not disappionted.

Viva La H.A.M.B.

Brick

 

I will kiss you with tongue "in a totally hetero way" if you got a cool plan. I want to chop the 54, just dont want to lose the wrap around rear window.

 

A buddy of mine i work with basically told me the same thing as Unkl Ian...He use to cut glass waaay back and from what he has told me sometimes the shops still call him in to do the more complicated jobs...He has offered his help on mine when i'm ready so i cant wait to work with him and learn some old tricks.....I believe it can be done as well,,,but what the hell do i know?

My tools box has 'plastic play school wrenches' & my car isnt mobile but my home is!

I'll find out one way or another....

Dirty

 

or else do it in the kitchen with a plastic rear window just like the dudes who did that moonglow chebbyyy

but beware fumes and brunted hands... just stick half in the oven and take out and turn around and have other halv in, rush out to car and form to opening...

 

Now I am not exactly sure about this so be nice in your replies.

It may not even pertain to tempered auto glass but I read somewhere that you could cut glass with a plasma cutter if you lined it well with aluminum foil to create the arc. I have not tried this nor do I personally know anyone that has. I was planning on experimenting with it one day just to see if it was true. Has anyone else heard about this method before or could it be something that I alone had the dumb luck to stumble across.

Ok, I am ready to look like a fool now. Have at it.

Marc

 

I have tried ALL of the above for over 30 years, with NO LUCK!!!!! I have never seen an example of "retempering" curved glass! And am sure it can't be done, once it has been tempered its DONE..............OLDBEET

 

I'm with old beet, it cannot be done, and I'm pretty sure no one's going to invent a method so that the few of us that do stupid shit to our cars can be happy.

FWIW, I tried a million ways to Sunday to retain the original back glass on my '54 and couldn't do it. If you lean it forward you get a huge gap at the bottom which is uglier than hell.

 

I've been cutting windsheilds for chopped car for a long time. Even do it for "glass guys".
Can't cut tempered glass. Period.
Dave Simard, the metal master, and choptop guru in Mass. once held classes on chopping tops at Lead East. He DID find a way to have glass un-tempered, cut it and re-temper it. This was for doing late model pickup trucks (vent windows). There was a lot of research to do, like finding the factory that made the glass, and know what the tempering temperature was, so you could use the correct temp to un-temper it. Other than that, I haven't heard of anyone else having success.

 

I've had three backglasses that I got in a cleanout last year, no idea what they fit all are pre 1955 with stainless trim. If anyone wants them to practice on I can bring them to the Road Agents meet next month.

 

What about the sandblast method? I have heard of guys masking off the shape they want to keep, and then sandblasiting the edge along the cut line until you get to the plastic sheet in the middle. Then you flip the glass over and do it again and cut the plastic center with a razor.

 

That will work fine on a windshield, but not on typical later model side glass and rear windows that shatter...

 

I don't think it can be done.



http://www.cardomain.com/ride/848462/1

the above is a 54 that a friend chopped and the solution was to lay the glass back.

Another method may be to sand it down (at the edges) but it would be extremely painstaking and probably take forever to complete.

 

bttt

 

i dont know if someone already said this i tried to red through all of em real quick, but i hear you can sandblast the top of the window off....

 

Someone already mentioned that... It'll still shatter apparently.

 

C-MON God damn it Brickster-- which is it bake it ,or freeze it! ?

 

That works with windshields,not with tempered glass.

 

Well I wish I could say that I came up with an easy cheap way to cut tempered glass but I haven’t. Let me first say that I am by no means trying to take the position as an authority on chopping tops. At my current place of employment I’m lucky enough to see about 100 chops a year from planning thru to the end of the rough metal work. Some come out better than others, some should never have been done at all. In the last three years here there have been two car models that have always been the most challenging. They have been the 1953-54 Chevy’s and the 1942-49 Customlines, Fleetlines and the other fastback GM models.

The 53-54 have always been won or lost at the back window. We have done donor windows, slanted and sunken glass, Lexan, just about everything you can think of. We always have had to approach the back glass as one of the largest considerations for this chop. Back in January my boss told me about a shop selling new factory back glass for the 53-54 Chevy except it’s laminated and that is the new breakthrough in chopping this particular car. The thing is there is nothing new about it, just like so much of our hobby it’s about taking a know proven process that applying it to something else.

The process of the chop was fairly straightforward. It was a 4 vertical chop front and rear with straight pillars. When we began the process of the back window we approached it like you would if you were going to lean the glass forward at the top and allow the corners to dip below the package tray. With the stock height (aftermarket) glass in place we used the belt line to decide how much glass to remove. With that information we sand blasted the cut line just like you would a windshield I want to mention again that this was not a tempered piece of glass it was a replacement back glass for this model car that happens to be LAMINATED and D.O.T. approved. With the glass its’ new smaller size we are now in the process of making the metal frame fit the glass. In the last picture the glass is not exactly in the right place. If you read Nads response he is right on the money about the gap between the glass and the belt line. Because the glass tapers in width from the bottom to the top as the glass is sunk into the package tray or in this case cut, it becomes effectively narrower in width. We will be cutting the bodyline out at the belt line, “tweaking” it and reinstalling it closer to the narrower glass. We will also be “adjusting” the belt line trim in order to retain it.

As we progress through the remainder of the metal work I will continue with additional pictures. Sorry that I couldn’t have come up with a way to cut tempered glass but at least there is one more option for 53-54 owners.

Oh yea the glass is available from http://v-butt.com/pricelist.html

I would love to hear any suggestions you guys have, sorry to keep you waiting for a day.