Anyone done one before, I head it's a ***** and my budddy got a $4g quote to do the work. Is this real? Is it that tough? Got any pics of a finished job? Thanks my bud will appreciate it. Jared
Depends on how much you wanna take out. If just a few inches, you can line up the back of the cab, relief cut the windshield posts and line 'em back up.
The age of the cab shoudl have littel to nothing to do with it. It's the ammount of work involved. The '37 cab has a multiple compound curve top. Not an easy chop, but $4,000 sounds a little too expensive. But if it's a body shop doingthe work it's not far off either. If they only charge $60/hr it's only 66 hours work and that's likely not enough to do it right.
This is my buddy Laurie's (ratstu) 37 Ford. I think he chopped it 7". PM him, I am sure he could answer any questions you have.
Give Jesse a call over at www.lordzofkustomz.com. Been doing that stuff for years and does great work too. KNUX!
Gonna be doing one myself in a coupla months.....Gonna take about 5 out but don't want a mail slot rear window
i just finished a chop on my 37 pickup it was my 1st full chop by myself i have helped a fuew friends with chops before so i knew what i was doing i, choped it 5 1/2 inches, i didnt want a mail slot window so i took 2 3/4 inches out of the window itself and also droped the window down 2 3/4 inches, so i still had a rear window to look out of, i have seen a bunch of chops on these trucks and i think it looks like dog **** when the a pillars are leaned back, i ended up cutting my roof down the midle and and moving the a pillars to match up and filed the about 2 inch gap in the midle. there is a diference between the cabs that you have to be careful with on the earlyer cabs 35 36 37 38 the front winshield is not level with the side windows so if you look from a side vuew it dosent look like as much of a chop as if you look from the front. on the later 39 and up the side windows and the front winshield are level so you can get away with more of a chop and still have a decent front winshield, my chop at 5 1/2 inches verticly is almost to much my front winshield is almost to small. sorry if i lost anyone ile post some pics of how i did mine
whith 5 1/2 inches taken out of it you can see that i still have a rear window that is functional the top is just siting on in this pic
i cant find any resent pics of it finished on my laptop here at work, but ile post some when i get home of the rest of it, here is a side shot to give you an idea of what it turned out like
and here is the front winshield thing i was talking about, it is almost to small, when i cut the roof and moved the a pillars forward it also made the winshield about an 1 to 1 1/2 bigger but you get the idea for thoes of you who dont see it this is a pic looking out of where the drivers seat would be the dash and the header board
I helped a friend and his son chop this top. Not my first attempt, but I'm far from being an expert at it, he isn't either. But after we got done with this one we knew more than we did before we started. It was my inclination to do the doors last, make them fit the holes because that's how I did my last one. Of course it's his truck and we did the doors first. As it were, I think I've been converted. We cut the rear window out of the mix first because he didn't want a smaller window, wanted one approximately the same size that the windshield was to be because he plans to tow a trailer with a racecar on it so he wanted the visability. I was skeptical, but the end result was *****in' and the visability is great. My problem was 'get-er-done' , his was be very cautious, together we got it done, quite right I think. I'd be proud to drive it were it my own, wouldn't change a thing. Don't worry about doing it, when you get done you'll know how. Plan each cut. It's just sheetmetal, so if something goes ary, cut it out and do it over. How much did it cost? Three weekends and as many cases of beer, through the welding. Grinding and such, Me? I went home, been there, done that! ...
First have a tree fall on it.Then get a sawzall and have a ball.It depends how far you want to chop it.This is chopped 7". I cut acros the top from side to side instead of leaning the posts.I always do it this way I prefer it to moving the posts,just my opinion.That price sounds a bit high but is that including body work,paint,gl*** and interior trim?I would shop around first and find someone I trust first before I worry about the cost.Most of the time you get a cheap price and it becomes a " we will use it for a fill in" project for the shop that you may never get back when the shop goes out of business.I have see it happen to a few friends before.I'm not trying to scare ya but remember good work aint cheap and cheap work aint good.
I chopped mine 4.5 in back about 3/4" more in the front. I split the top in half about 10" back from the windshield .the roof had to get 1 5/16" longer. I live in a really wet area so I had to keep the drip rail this was kind of tricky.When Igot the roof back on with the windshield frame it was too small .Now I have it setup with a glue on windshield looks good. Having done this job ,$4000 in primer with gl*** is a pretty good deal.The whole top of this roof is a compound curve and you have to weld it all the way across.
Heres the one I've been working on, it got a 1" crown, and 2 1/2" outs of the windows. The drivers side surved section of the cab was completely ****ed up, and the rest of the rear of the cab was beat up pretty bad, so I used the roof, inner structure and door tops of a donor cab. 4000 grand is a bit steep and quite a bit more than what I charged to do this one.
Do any of you guys have any advice for chopping the top on a 37 Ford PU? My dad & I have a cab we're looking to chop 5-7 inches. Any advice or things we should look out for? Or is this the kind of project we should leave to a body shop considering he be myself are mechanics rather that fabricators? Nemo me impune lacessit.
I chopped my 47 International cab 4" in the doors and pancaked the roof another 3" for a total of 7" chop. I chose to lean the windshield back instead of stretch the roof. I think that when you leave the stock angle on the windshield it looks out of proportion and stands too straight up. If you search KB chop you should be able to find it. I had to cut the windshield off at the cowl to change the angle. It is a huge amount of planning and work to get it done right.
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