49-54 Chevy Frame Question

Honestly if the profile is good and front and rear gl*** fits decent chop issues would be relatively easily fixable. And like said without a headliner if you aren't seeing m***ive amounts of Bondo bleeding through id say it's ok. At that point you could fix any issues yourself as practice

 

Yep there's no headliner.. I'm convinced it's going to be bad news haha.. I will take some photos in a little bit and return back..

 

Thanks, yep the profile to me looked nice... that's what caught my eye.. I figure it could be worked with but I'll take some photos and circle back shortly.

 

Main areas to be concerned with are all the posts. The type of welding Moriarty was talking about there could take an otherwise usable chop and turn it dangerous. Though it can still be fixed by a hobbyist welder. But must be fixed if not fully welded

 

@fastcar1953 knows his way around a chop on a 54 Chevy. Not a big fan of chop tops in general but his 54 looks good.

 

As I'm reading the latest developments in this process, I have to ask:
If the chop was properly welded, and an original frame updated with the MM2 front suspension, without the notched rear frame, but had a decent interior (not the best of the best), that would make it a great driver, and it all could be done for say 5-7G more money, is this a car you could find yourself cruising around in for a few years? Could it be a great driving custom in primer and still check of enough boxes for you to have fun with it?
My reasoning is, 'they' say it takes 3-4 tries before most guys really understand how or what they really want a car to be, when its done. This is your first go around. After a few years of driving it, there may be things you would really want to be done differently. You could then build the next ride closer to what you have figured out you really want your car to be. A few years of actually driving time may make this one much more valuable then it is now, as a big question mark. You could drive it, enjoy it, learn from it, and build the new ride. Then after the new ride is road worthy, you sell this one to recoup your money.

 

Yeah that's why I always get itchy when guys talk about a whole bunch of modifications all at once. My own 53 build has evolved quite a bit since original intent

 

Realistically, I think my last build (completed in 2022), my 49 Dodge pickup, is probably my 12th build, most of them from a pile of s**** to a daily driver! Some were built based of the material I had access to, the skill level I had, and the purpose or need I had for the vehicle at that given time.
Each ride I built showed me something I liked, or didn't like about my then current project for what ever came along next. A few of those rides were driven for several years with lots of miles, others were only driven for a short time, or very short number of miles. One ride took 2 years to build, and 2 months of driving before I determined it had to go, where one of the others took 9 months to build that hung around for more then 13 years and was driven 100,000 miles! My current truck has been driven over 30,000 miles since July 2022.

Each new ride is a learning curve.

 

Yeah if you've seen my Monte Carlo in this forum I had no idea I'd get sentimentally attached to a front wheel drive car lol. But I've had it 14 years and despite being parked 7 years I put over 150k on it lol

 

So back to the idea of me coming to help. Would depend on a few variables and willing to wait a bit. Would have to be after school let out and if my 16 year old went to visit family in Arkansas. Another if is if I stay at my current job. Last if is if wife is willing. That would give time to collect parts. And realistically as the 54 would be the main thing I'd be focusing on id be able to get it to something workable and safe to drive in under a week

 

I’m super flexible and not in a rush if we ***ume this car is worthy.. pics of the chop coming momentarily.

 

Also have you made sure the ***le goes to the actual vin on the car? Sounds like a silly question but often they were registered to the Engine. And it's common in frame swaps to register to the frame

 

the ***le vin matches the vin plate on the a pillar albeit the ***le is a New Mexico ***le.

 

my chopped 53 owned from 2013 to 2019. Mustang 2 front end (from a junkyard mustang) cut coils and airbag in the back. Sold it for $14,500 like a fool… the 4 door aspect drove me up a wall though and I thought I could find another 2 door eventually… a shame I sold it!



Then in 2021 I bought a ford Torino and sold it a year later concluding that car is just not me!!




Then I sold that and bought a chopped 50 ford from Canada sight unseen! I had to import it into the US and deal with tricky issues. That was wild… sold it a year ago not liking the flat sides and wanting a 53/54 Chevy again:




Here’s the car I would say is dream car if such a thing exists





My c10 rust bucket I’ve had since 2016.. it’s seen some cars come and go next to it in this garage and I’ve kept it because it’s so useful!





You would think after all this time I would have a welder and have learnt. The truth is I’ve put a lot of work into my house with my own hands and I think it was a wise decision given how insanely expensive everything is in San Diego… that and I have an ultra demanding career that takes so much of my energy and time up.

to answer your question… for the mean time I guess I could live with cut coils and lowering blocks if doing a frame swap to invest less upfront.

I’m just not sure if I’m going to lose a lot more money moving forward if this car is not worthy vs just selling now as is and cut my losses whatever they amount to.. I got this delivered to my house for free.. I blew $4k getting the ford shoebox to San Diego … so if I lose $4k on this now it’s annoying the previous seller got away with what I paid for it because of my stupidity but I could deal with it to prevent a bigger future loss… but I probably will quit on the 53/54 idea for some time haha….

 

Alright here goes I took a ton of photos… question is how horrible is the chop job? I like the proportions and when I finish fixing the shifter linkage I will pull it outside and get some photos from a distance so we can judge the proportions and flow. From the one photo I took on the trailer it looked good.

my eyes see a couple of rust holes on the rockers, a ton of imperfections and gaps and such on the chop (and gaps by the rear window where it meets the body just around the rubber window seal.

I looked at photos again that I took of this 54 Chevy a couple months ago that was chopped by a metal fab shop with no body work done to it yet and I saw a lot of similar imperfections so I’m guessing some of this is taken care of by the body shop doing body, paint, interior. A fellow HAMBr showed me photos of a car that got body, paint, interior and fixes for a couple metal issues for a total of $20k. I’m hoping to follow the same path with this one eventually.

here are the photos.

 

More photos

 

Example of the gap I was referring to before….

 

Thanks.. I don’t think any body work has been done just the metal work.. the seller mentioned to me to do body work to it one panel at a time so he implied just the metal work was done.
The overlapping sail panel seems to indicate bad work though as you said.

I’ll get this back on the ground and try to unload it at a loss….

 

Is the easy to find where there is heavy bondo using a small magnet? I can feel a small magnet sticking in all the areas where the panels and chop work was done thus far. Is the trick to feel where the magnet doesn’t stick as strong? There isn’t anywhere that the magnet is sticking thus far when checking.

 

with a weaker magnet I can feel where there is a little bondo but it’s definitely not where the sail panel overlaps on the inside.

 

that’s what I see… this is similar to what I saw on my chopped 50 ford shoebox only it had the chrome trim with felt between the gl*** and outer body… that one was not meant to be left outdoors..

I imagine the same thing was intended for this one as well.

the two other chopped cars I had were fair weather cars and could not be driven in the rain..

 

At least the welds that are showing are quality welds. The gaps can be filled with steel rod or opened up with a grinder. You seem reluctant to learn to weld. If so then maybe selling is the correct choice? But! I don’t think you need to loose money on it. I can see it in that condition being worth the money. A guy in his garage could fix the issues reasonably easy in a reasonable amount of time. In less time than a home chop would take.

 

That’s super encouraging and I’m rather upset right now but this makes it better.

of course I would like to learn to weld.. if put on a new frame and driveable I could make the fixes to the chop if it can be done by someone without tons of years of experience.

im glad you think it doesn’t need to be sold at a loss.

I still think the chop profile looks good so it seems the chop doesn’t have to be dismantled…. But the gap by the window gasket in the back does make me wonder how that would be dealt with ..