Spent a few hours out in the shop tonite working on the top chop. Got a long ways tonite considering i'm doing this alone and having to lift and maneuver this lid on and off myself. The great part about this chop is having an extra roof. I put the extra roof front section on the cab, cut it longer than the old front and did not have to add a patch panel in the center. Worked sweet and i only had to cut one relief cut on each side of the roof to get the lines to come out right. front cab section has more rust issues, but still very solid. Added some pics below of the progress. next step is to work the doors and then the front windshield opening. Gawd this is fun!!!!! BUD
Looking real nice. A good chop with the right proportions always looks good. A chop just for the sake of a having a chop never looks quite right, usually overdone in those cases. This one however looks right on the money!!! Keep the pics coming
After The Top And Doors Were Chopped, The Windshield Needed To Still Come Down A Little More To Make It Look In Synch With The Doors, So Out Came The Sawzall And I Cut The Upper Windshield Opening Out And Lowered It An Inch And A Half. Man, That's A Lot Of Work For Only A Little Bit Of Height Difference, But It Sure Made The Chop Look Better and it got rid of the roof seam on the front pillars too!! Another Set Of Pics Uploaded Of The Progress. Bud
You the man Bud. Looks good. Great work. I wish I had the nuts to chop my panel. Keep the up dates and pictures coming. Mopar or no car!! Keith
looks like it could stand for the top to be decrowned maybe an inch to inch and a half to kill the top heavy look.just my .02
all the welding done on the front and inside, the rear is now tacked and all the lines are good, the doors fit well too. Should be done welding by the end of the weekend.
I finished the welding on the cab tonite and ground the welds down, tomorrow I finish the doors. here are a few pics of the rear welds done and some profile pics of the chop. Bud <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
finished the doors today so this will be the last post of the chop on this thread. next project is putting a 49 plymouth dash in it. wish me luck!!
Ok, old thread resurrection! Incredible work on the chop. Going through all the pictures I saw about 3 things immediately that highlighted issues I had with doing the chop on my '53 (and why its not done!). I had thought about going back and chopping the front more already, this pretty much confirms I need to go back and re-do a few things. But that's what happens when 15 year olds chop something for the first time. Fortunately I stopped before I really screwed things up. I've learned a lot about cars since then, but this is awesome. Thanks for the how to on how it really should be done!!! What did the final chop end up being? Looks like 5.5" in the front and 4" in the rear on the posts? Plus another 1.5" on the windshield?
I'm watching this one too! I am getting ready to chop and drop my c-series dodge as soon as I move to my new garage (late Nov.) Im drooling!
l have a 51 dodge truck, a chop the way you did your's is how l want mine, but l can't weld anymore because a work injury and none of my friends can do as good as your's looks,,, also might sell mine as l may have too many projects and put the money in my 29 ford roadster... dicisions, dscisions,,,later
Makes me want to get my pilothouse project moving again. Every time I start it seems like life jumps in the way.
Hey Bud, This is a great looking truck you have got. They really do look smart with a roof chop. I will be watching as you get further along and get this bad boy going. Hey Bud, any chance you could post up that picture of my chop top to see the comparison with your truck please, i still do not know how to post pictures yet. Thanks, Kenny.
How you coming on the truck Mopar man? I just saw the thread after the new guy on the other side of the world bought it back from the dead.
sorry MR48, just saw the post, I am plunking along slowly. got the motor running, got the underside of the cab sprayed with raptor bed liner, my son and I will put our heads down and really go at it in January. He is a bodyman too and he is moving over here near us.
...nice work on the truck, it's gonna look great....here's one a friend of mine did quite a few years ago, lots of work has been done besides the chop,raised fender openings, etc....just needs a nice set of wheels/tires...
thought I should post an update. I haven't been working on the truck for a while due to the restoration of a 1964 Aladdin trailer I bought, but now that it's done, I am back at it. been working on the doors. both doors are now finished, all the **** s****ed out of the inner panels and covered in Ospho. Today, I grabbed the left front fender and s****ed all the old undercoat out of the underside, ground out around the rivets cause I knew it was poorly repaired, cut the dead stuff out and replaced both the outer skin and the inner strengthening plate. For my tastes, I did not replace the rivets, just spot welded the holes for the mounting plate to the strengthening plate. Then I found some rust at the back edge of the fender (one rust hole had been leaded in!) and cut that out and replaced the nasty piece with a good one. I have part of a back cab that I got the replacement pieces from and the curvature was almost perfect. Got all the welding done and then covered the inner parts in Ospho. RT fender is in my sites next. Tried to post some pix, but it says I am missing a security token????
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