I saw the orange coupe at Bowling Green a few years ago. As the raised contour in the roof seems to match the roll bar hoop, I'm wondering if there might have been another reason, like a rule book, that required the blister in the roof - as if the hoop had to be X high and the roof was only Y high. Still, it looks nice. I'd suspect the owner is a HAMB member... wonder what his thoughts are? Gary
I didn't read this whole post....just breezed through it. I gotta run out the door. You might wanna reconsider... I'm 5' 7" and chopped and channel sucks... looks cool, but if you wanna drive this piss out of it....its kinda uncomfortable, and vision sucks. Yeah fun, but you will get tired of it. Look into Dan Collins truck, think its was a 35/36. That truck is bad ass...
This thread is AWESOME!! I'm 6'7" 250lbs with a 34" inseam. I don't fit well in any regular vehicle, let alone any of the older cars I had. I had a bunch of Mustangs.Including a '67 GT350. I cut the seat riser pan up on the floor and moved it back a bit just to try and help. It was still cramped. Especially with that big wooden wheel in it. I'd get my knee smashed between the wheel and the door panel when closing the door. Every car or truck I've owned, I had to modify something so I could fit in it.I tried the 30's hot rod thing in my 20's thinking they were the $heeet. I had a '34 Plymouth 4 door PE chopped it 5" blown small block big carbs, lowered, no channel. It was a very good looking car. But I hated driving it!! Not only was it too small inside. I couldn't see anything out of it. I did the whole sit it the shop thing trying to make it comfortible. It was ok in the garage, but out on the street it was a royal pain. You never contort your neck till your brain goes numb while sitting there sipping a frosty beverage thinking of how cool you are. It got to the point when at an event or in traffic. I had to open the suicide door and poke my head out to see the traffic lights. If you got too close I had to get out. I guess it all depends on your make up. My body grew so fast my bones couldn't catch up. Leaving me in dis-comfort alot. On top of that I race vintage flat track bikes and I broke my tail bone a few years ago. Now I can't sit anywhere with out being in pain. My wife and I have a '56 Buick Gasser now. Stock body with early Mustang seats. There is a ton of room in that thing. With the seats on the floor and the front end up. I can finally know what it feels like for the little guys. I can't see over the hood going down hill, or over a crest in the road, HA!! The tall list was very funny! People always ask dumb questions. Especially the whole "You must not be afraid of any one being that big" When them subjects come up I tell them, the only thing I fear is ceiling fans. You should experience trying to be cool on a first date with her family in the room and you stand up with out thinking and BLAM! 5 blades to the head. Blood on mom's light grey carpet and white leather sofa, globe light on the bottom busted, sparks coming out of the fan and everyone spazing because her cocky little brother stood up at the same time. Now everyone thinks somebody hit somebody,etc. I still get the willies everytime I'm around one of them things. Short people got no reason.......Ha!
Ceiling fans...that's some funny shit. I'll never forget the first time I tried putting a T-shirt on my 6'6" bod while standing underneath a ceiling fan, whap, whap, whap, whap...four blades broke off and flew straight into the TV screen. What a freakin mess. My wrists hurt for a week. That one cost me around $600 back in the early 80's. Tried drinking beer while sitting in a go-kart once. Had to roll out like an inebriated walrus after everybody else left the shop. Spent the morning gutting out a T-bucket dash one time and got stuck in the fetal position, took 2 guys to get me out of that car. The odd part was it seemed fairly comfortable. I'm surprised my forehead isn't completely flat, considering how many times I've walked straight into the arms of our asymmetrical lift. I really like convertibles because when the top is down I can actually see the traffic lights change from red to green without having to wait for the dude behind me to honk his horn. We occasionally build motorcycles for fun at our shop (Yes, sometimes it is nice NOT to build hot rods when you do it for a living), and every time I sit on one smaller than a big v-twin, the owner of the shop feels it is necessary to remind me that I look like a monkey f*cking a mail box.
Im 6'10" and im building a 32 chevy truck with a 4" chop and 6" channel and I fit in it great. Getting in and out is the hard part.
I just remembered one I left off the list When they say hows the weather up there? Respond with .. Its raining you little son of a bitch and spit on the top of there heads Yes runin's with the fan's are ass
A while back (10 years ago?) Gary "Chopit" built a sweet little heavily hammered and channeled red pickup. I recall that he did some amazing floor work to maintain leg room. It would be worth checking to see if someone had some pics. I believe he's a Beatnik, maybe Franco or Pocket could hook ya up? Been a long time, but I recall being impressed.
Pickups have very, very limited front to back seat movement. You would be a lot more comfortable in a car.
You could stretch the wheelbase, move the firewall forward, and keep the hood shut to hide it. Or lengthen the cowl. Both are a lot of work, but would give you more room to stretch out. No matter what, being tall isn't always an advantage.
Last year,I bought a car off of a lister.He was 6'2".It worked ok for him.I'm 6'4" and I couldn't get my leg on /off the clutch pedal because of the sterering wheel.The car was channeled 4" and had a 2" setback. Finally I figured it was easier to change the steering wheel.I still got other problems but I'm getting there. Before you chop it ,you might try putting a styrofoam block overhead or even a box to compensate for the loss in height.See how it feels.Channeling is going to raise the floor on you.Moving the seat back helps.Here's a friend's 29/32 rails that they added 3" and it made a great difference.He's 6'6".
thanks again for all the replies. the truck finally comes home on saturday, about time. i also picked up a decent 8ba and 3 speed for cheap, so at this point, even if i dont fit, i'll sell the cab but keep all the running gear
I'm not even that tall, 5'9" or so. I have a '31 AA truck that is pretty complete, both doors on it, seat in it (bare springs), etc. So I sat in it to see how comfortable it might be. I decided unless I could find a seat that was 1 inch thick, it wasn't going to be that comfortable to drive. It didn't bother me but there wasn't any legroom to spare. If I was on a long drive with it I really wouldn't be able to stretch or anything, unless I stopped and got out of it. Now later on we got the remains of what had been a '31 Plymouth tudor someone cut off and made into a truck cab, they just put the back tin flat across the back of the door openings. Even with about 4" just plain gone off the bottom of it, it was long enough I could sit with my legs flat outstretched on the ground, had tons of room for a seat back, and I still didn't touch the firewall. Plenty of headroom, too. It could have been made into a comfortable rod. That tells me that at a minimum if I build an A it needs to be a coupe. I don't know how much bigger a '38 truck cab is going to be but they don't look much longer than the older cabs. Or you can chop and channel that truck and put a sunroof in it, so you can be like Alonso Bodden Monday night driving the Fiat 500 on 101 Cars You Must Drive, and just stick your head out the top.
the engine and trans was pulled from a '51 ford truck, so i was told. it has about 60,000 miles and has been sitting in a dry garage with rags plugging up all the holes and choke closed. it is pretty dry and clean for a start and turns over, i was guaranteed that it will run. the trans is a non O/D 3 speed fromt he same truck.
All this talk of being able to fit in the car, but not being able to SEE out of the car has me thinking that something similar to the overhead windows like the "Back Seat Betty" had might be in order. This might be pretty easy to pull off with an earlier body that requires a filler panel ... hell, maybe tall dudes can resurrect that vanning fad of the 70's and graft an Olds Buena Vista station wagon bubbletop roof into their ride! I'm only kidding, but you get the idea.
Voice of experience....you need to mock up how you want to sit. Stack up phone books or something against a wall until you're satisfied with the relationship between your feet and your ass. Then, measure where your head comes to and what your eye level is. Then translate that into how much chop and channel (combined) that you can stand. I have a chopped and channeled A coupe, and I can tell you that 36" is a bare minimum floor to roof, even with Kirkey bomber seats. I'm 6'0", and kinda long trunked. i.e. stubby legs.
this is what I have been thinking on a 39 buick coupe. the trouble with the old cars is the frame. they had pretty stout frames, and sometimes had X members. I know from trying to get in and out of chopped/channeled cars that its just too cramped for me and i,m only 6'-2". I was lookin at my old 82' chevy caprice wagon with full frame and it,s channeled with sunken floors. It has plenty of room once you get into it, the chevy malibu's of that era were the same. So that may be the the way to go, start with the frame and try to get sunken floors in your build. check out how the modern cars are built.
TALL SUCKS Girls dont fit Cars dont fit (cant build the ones youd like) Pants dont fit Hit your head on shit (scars to prove it) Nightmares about shit close to the ground that need picked up (not low cars) Every body wants you to get high shit down ( your one chance to be the hero) People generally think you want to kill them Others just want to pick a fight. Go in the military, your in the front (so everybody can see you get shot first) do you play basketball? all the fuckin time<!-- / message --><!-- sig --> __________________ this is the the fucking truth i 6'3" 260 lbs and when you are this big you think you are the same size that you were in high school. my 32 chevy is 45 inches tall.people freak out when i get out of it. i wear a size 12 eee shoe and i have to run a automatic trans .no room for a clutch. little people have imade and all they do is bitch the they dont get any respect from anybody. but it is fun spooking people out when you can just look at people and they think you are going to kill them. thanks for the post it made another big guy laugh in this shity world
Loving the list too. When I'm in the mood to really answer the "Gee, it must be great to be tall" stuff, I ask if they have kids (most do). Then I ask them if they spent any time in a 3rd, 4th or 5th grade classroom (depends on the size of the person asking). They get a funny look, then say "that's how it is"???? Must say that the view on low cut blouses can't be beat, though!
SoCal uses/sells a seat made by Glide that allows the seat back to tuck under the rear panel in front of the trunk lid... it really makes a difference in getting leg room in a Deuce. I used to promote a swap meet here in town and one year a guy brought a really beautiful '40 Chevy p/up to sell. A stunning truck that was chopped and channeled. The problem was no one could fit into it if you were over 5'6"... and the guy who built it (this was the 2nd owner) said he never tried it out before it was all done... Great ride... but almost undriveable.
i finally got a chance to plunk my ass in the cab just to see, and there is tons of room to work with, im not scared at all. i would say it could be chopped about 4" and channeled maybe 3-4" and i'll be ok. since i am 6'4" and only about 160 pounds, its not hard for me to squeeze into things like that. my legs also had a decent amount of room, not really stretched out, but moderately comfortable.
where I worked, inside the plant there were many low 'headbangers'. When I first got there i whacked my head a few times, but thanks to thier safety program i was wearing my hard hat. Still could jam yer neck pretty good. After awhile I was more alert and didnt get many 'bangers' anymore. Most of the tall guys are watchful, you get programmed pretty quick. The guys that got it the hardest were the shorter dudes who were used to zippin around, they were haulin those guys to emergency all the time.
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