Stickylifter's Chop Progress Part II

Hi all! This weekend is the continuation on the chop progress of Stickylifter's Chevy. If you missed it, it was here, about a month ago. T-Shirts, food, and great people:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77976&highlight=GMB

When we last left off, approx 4" had been sliced from his roof pillars and the entire rear trunk surround. This is the only way to do these cars, and to say it came out "right" is an understatement. The car looked good to me and a lot of others before the chop, but now it just looks "right". The top was expertly chopped, and all the panels were welded back together. Overall, it was left in the "rough" stage late on Sunday night of the chop weekend. More welding and grinding was required, but as as far as the actual "chop" was concerned, it was a done deal. I offered a warm place to finish the job (and maybe get my bodywork skills brushed-up) and a date was set.

Friday night, Sticky brought his car over to my place, after driving about 15 minutes in the dark, in 20 degree weather, with NO WINDOWS! And when I say that, I mean NO WINDSHIELD as well. Sticklifter looked like the Red Baron when he came to my door, all scarfed and goggled up with a cherry red face from the cold/wind. Talk about ********...did I mention that he spent most of the day Friday in his driveway welding in the neccesary filler pieces on the inside of the car that didn't get finished during the original chop? The high temp Friday was 26 degrees...a man on a mission!

We moved my Merc out and covered it last night, I cleaned and straightened up my garage, and this morning we went to work getting his Chevy ready for finish bodywork. 62 Wagon came by and the three of us worked pretty much straight for 6 hours or so today with 2 compressors, one welder, and a lot of supplies/tools between the three of us.

After today, a little more grinding and it will be ready for dough.

Highlights-
-The trunk lid for some reason (even though it was tacked to the rear end during the chop), didn't want to cooperate with the opening. Too high here, too much of a gap there. We played with it for over an hour. We ended up m***aging the already rounded trunk corners to more smoothly match the contour of the rear trunk opening. I think it came out well.

-As a whole, we basically "fine tuned" all the welded areas on the car, grinding and welding where neccesary.

-We taunted death by explosion when we tried to smooth a high spot in the quarter with a torch- right next to the fuel filler neck.

-About the time Sticky was about to permanenly remove his front fender antenna hole, by Mig welder's bottle gave out. Time to call it quits.

All in all, a very productive day- as usual there was more work to be done than we planned on. More welding, more grinding, more "Hey this don't look right, now what?", But for one days worth of work, I think Stickylifter is pleased with the progress. I know I am.

Stay tuned, I'll update again tomorrow night. Hopefully this thing will have some primer on it... To be continued...

 

It's looking really good!

 

Here's a shot of the chop, taken late Friday night for an overall view of the car:

 

The Chop experience continues! The over all flow of that chop was great. It saved a ton of work by sinking the deck instead of sectioning it. You guys are making it finish up smoothly...

Tim

 

I dug this up...here's where it all started, and where we are now:

 

Pics from today's progress, and unnessesary comments provided by me. (Keep in mind there are some inside jokes in this post- after you work 10 hours with someone, you kinda start getting that way-

We worked from 10:30 A.M. 'til 9 P.M. We got a lot done. Pretty straightforward...mix filler, apply filler, sand. Repeat as neccesary. I think Marc is getting the hang of mixing...and sanding My garage looks like someone exploded a 50 lb. bag of flour. Nothing the cover of darkness and a leaf blower won't take care of here in suburbia.

We only had one bit of a fiasco- we spread Duraglas over everything that had been welded to ensure a good foundation for the topcoats of filler after cleaning the welds really well, but we discovered that the varying temps in the garage combined with the need for more hardener had created the SLOWEST curing Duraglas I have ever seen. It was kind of a lesson in Thermodynamics...the stuff we spread 4 feet off the garage floor cured well. The stuff that was 2 feet from the floor was not cooperating, despite our bodies feeling "warm". At one point, the garage was warm enough for T-shirts. When you got down lower to the ground, you could feel it was cooler than the air 3 feet high and higher, (or 5 feet high and rising) so I repositioned the fan to direct the heat lower which helped a little. Just a tip for you guys doing bodywork in 16 degree weather in a "heated" garage. We buzzed it all down and it cured faster when exposed to the open air... note to self, dream garage needs (besides a floor drain & a hoist) RADIANT FLOOR HEAT.

For those that were at the original chopping session, and are wondering how Marc was going to get the two sides of the trunk/quarter areas symmetrical, we're using my contour gauge to make sure that they are both equal. Marc has checked, re-checked, double-checked, and triple-checked the contour several times (!) during the filling process as he was going, and I have to say, they look identical standing behind the car. I would consider this chop a big success. For fans of this bodystyle that wondered what it would look like, a tasteful chop is most definitely possible.

Dirty T-stopped by and gave us his seal of approval...so we thought we were headed in the right direction.

Very productive day, but like all projects, it's taking longer than we'd (Marc) anticipated. I'd say we're at the 65% mark. Since I'm a perfectionist and Marc is too, kinda, We haven't gotten into Primer Application Theory 101 yet, but that's another round of a lot of work after the filler dust has settled. My house is now his car's new home for at least the next week, we'll pick up on it again next weekend. Stay tuned for further updates...same bat time, same bat channel.

...And as for Marc- He coined this phrase when asked if he was ging to shave the door handles. They are "functional ecoutrements" and need to be saved; not "shaved!"

 

Couple more shots. These were taken as the first round of Duraglas was applied to the rear quarters, and it dawned on me that I should snap a pic:

 

thanks for posting the pics and info.

The car is turning out real nice.

Congratulations Marc.

 

is this a pinhole? If it is, you might wanna finish the weld first, if its not, ignore my comment

 

Looking good guys, and yea this is about the worst weather for trying to get duragl*** to dry.

 

Actually, I asked the same thing while we were welding/grinding.

Marc has come up with a Kustom taillight treatment comprised of Chevy grill pieces...and began mocking them up before this weekend. Those holes were placed there as he was mocking things up and I was told not to weld them shut!

 

Unfortunately, my lack of experience with cold weather Duraglas prevailed today. Never had a problem with it before, but then again, never used it like we did today...now Marc is questioning my abilities, it's a big mess...

 

I'm very pleased to see the car progressing. IT looks like you guys are doing a fine job and the finished chop will be something to be proud of.

 

You Michigan boys ROCK. I met some of you guys at Billetproof this year. Can I be an honerary michiganian?lol

 

The finish work is looking great.

Care to explain the little red heart on the window?

 

hahaha i stuck that on there at about 11:30 at night sunday when we were allmost done chopping it.

 

Looking good guys! We certainly missed you two at the calenders stuffing gig but understand "The Heap" comes first. Stick to it and he'll be done in no time.

 

Nice continuation of the first weekend session. When ya get to slingin' mud you know you're on the way. I'm looking forward to seeing it in primer.

Nothing like doing a chop to get a real appreciation for doing a chop, is there?

Keep up the good work.

Charlie

 

So it was you! I thought it was 62Wagon. He was doing a lot of window decorating that weekend... Wasn't he responsible for the "I Love Unicorns" grafiti on the Eldo?

Anyway, Kevin, thanks a million. I definately got me some edumacation this weekend. And, of course, it's not done, so thanks for letting me leave it at your place.

For those of you that ain't seen it, Kevin has a '51 Merc that he did a ch***is swap on. You can click the link in his signature to see it. When we get my car out of there, I definately owe him a couple days of work on it.

functional accoutrements... you know, like door handles and trunk latches... and spotlights that actually work. I like door handles.

Stay tuned...

 

Sure! Technically you are, since Ohio is the armpit of Michigan.

 

Looking....................really sweet!!!........ good work boy's!!

 

Looking Good! The Chop party was great, Keep the progress going.

 

That's lookin' awesome!

Can yall refresh my memory as to what the plans are to make the windshield fit the reduced opening? (The curved gl*** windshield is the main roadblock to chopping my 52 sedan.)

 

Since my original windshield was junk, I'm going to buy a one-piece and have it cut down.

 

Keeps on getting better. It's gonna blow em away at Autorama.

 

Great job guys! It looks great! I thought I smelled bondo dust blowing in from Royal Oak! Wish I could have stopped by to help.
Dave

 

Lookin' great Marc...can't wait to see more pics.

Olson

 

Stickylifter....

If you don't mind me askin, where are you getting the one piece windshield and what car is it out of? My chopped 51' still has a cutdown two piece, but the p***enger side has a few cracks and needs to be replaced. I was thinking about a one piece.

 

Yeah, I'm going one-piece. I'm getting it from Bob at Cl***ic Auto Gl*** in Portland. He's a HAMBer - 40Hudson? I can't remember his handle exactly, but here's a link to his ebay store. Call him up and be sure to tell him you're a HAMBer, he'll give you the HAMB hookup. I can give you a full report after I get the gl*** and let you know, but he seems to be on the level. I'm sure others have used him, so maybe someone will chime in. I couldn't find him in the HAMB-o-Dex, but I'm about to call him, so I'll tell him to list his services.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1949-52-CHEVROLET-CUSTOM-1-PIECE-WINDSHIELD_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ80740QQitemZ4595319268QQrdZ1

These are stock size, so unless you're in Portland you gotta find someone to cut it up for you.

Oh yeah, his phone number is 800-624-2130.

He's 440Hudson...