I plan on welding in 1" channel from DS rear to PS front and another piece from PS rear to DS front. I think this should be suffice? One chop I was reading about, they had tacked the doors to the body, then cut the tacks afterwards. I sort of liked that idea, so I think that's the way I'll be going with it.
Just did a search and found Hot Rod Secrets Revealed! Chopping Model A Coupe Windshield Posts! looks like he's covering a couple things that are useful for a quality job. I'm sure there are a ton more.
Thanks, I just did a search and found it right away. I've seen this guy before, he makes some good content!
I got the car to my parents place where I’ll be doing most of the work on it. I removed the windshield frame and rear window, rolled the rear windows down. I threw welding blankets overtop of the window Incase sparks make their way down and burn the glass. I used 1 1/4” angle to brace the body. I made a large “X” and then one piece in the front keeping the “A” pillars in place. I tack welded the doors to the body because I’m chopping everything at the same time. I was extremely nervous, never have I done something like this to something this expensive. But after we cut it and got the top sitting back on the body I took a step back and thought how awesome it looks, it was worth it. However, I have some more grinding to do tomorrow to get everything sitting perfectly. I sort of want to take another 1/2” - 3/4” off the top. I like it right now, but I think a little more would be just right. What do you guys think? Little more? Or just right?
You are going to get opinions all over the place, so make yourself happy. I would suggest rolling back out of the garage and looking at it from a distance, though. Take one of the sections removed and see if a local paint shop can match it. And practice welding on the cut parts before doing the body.
I like it too…perfect! If you can, sit in it at seat height, and look out the windshield…Before you are tempted to slice it more.
Thank you everyone for the kind words and great chop information. It’s coming along quite nicely. Getting the pillars lined up and sitting as flat as I could get took some time, probably had the roof on and off about 5-6 times. Where it’s sitting now, I’m pretty happy with. I rolled the car out today and looked at it in the daylight for a few minutes and I still wanted to chop it more. I would have liked to sit in it before chopping it more, but the doors were tacked shut, the big X welded inside the car may it too difficult.. ah well let’s go for it. I marked out a half inch around the car, may have ended up taking 5/8” more off after I was done. With the roof back on I like where it sits. Started tacking the front A pillars and doors together. Moved to the B pillars, got them tacked and just started to play with these welding clamps some people here suggested I try out and I realized I had to shut it down and get the kids off the bus and get ready for work. Tomorrow I hope to get some more welding done and get it all lined up. Thanks for all the good info and encouragement.
Looking great! Please document any vertical cuts and the surgery required on the posts etc. I love seeing how everyone does it different
Today I made some good progress with the time I had. I got a few racks on the rear quarter panels. I started with a tack on the side windows of each side of the car, then went and tacked either side of the rear window. I kept going back and forth from the side window on the DS, then side window on the PS, to DS rear window to PS rear window and kept tacking until I needed to add a relief cut to the center of the rear quarters. The PS rear quarter panel was a bit out compared to the DS so I ended up adding a relief cut on the body, as well as two on the roof. The gap on the DS rear quarter was a bit larger then the PS, maybe a got a little happy with the grinder I’m not sure. So I cut strips off a sheet of metal that was lying around, held them on the inside of the car and am using them for some added meat to weld to. I think it’ll look fine once the welds are grinded down nicely and the car gets an interior. Tomorrow I will finish welding the rear quarters and B pillars. I’ll hopefully have time to add relief cuts to the A pillars and get those welded as well. Additional note - those welding clamps work pretty good. Helped a lot getting everything lined up. I think I paid $18 for 16 of them, that’s Canadian dollars too!
Thank you very much, I’m really happy with the way it looks so far. The whole process in general has gone pretty smoothly. Will do, tomorrow when I get back at it I’ll try and get some better photos showing all my cuts. I procrastinate lots, but my dad has a project of his own he wants to start and wants his garage back so I’m trying to get the chop done in a reasonable amount of time!
Do NOT use a backer sheet of metal. Now you cannot use a hammer and dolly to fix any waves, dents, or shrinkage. And, after the surface is smoothed over with filler, you will get shadow shrinkage since the metal is a drastically different thickness. If possible, always scribe and cut joins to be welded with ZERO gap. And if you need some backer to bridge a gap for sloppy welding, use copper or brass that can be pulled away after the weld is done.
Here I thought I had a good idea.. Thank you for mentioning this. Today my attention was on the A and B pillars. Next time I get to work on it I’ll see what I can do about the rear quarters and removing the backer pieces.
I did get some work done on the PS A and B pillars. I thought I would get more done today, it’s a slow process and I want to take my time and try to do my best. I think these are pretty close to done. Maybe just a little final welding and grinding, but I think the PS is close to done. I won’t be able to work on the car for a few days now so updates will be limited. I had to roll it outside though to take a photo of the progress so far. I’m pretty happy.
Here’s another tip I hope you take with good nature, not meant to be hurtful: when grinding the welds, only grind the bead down. If you hog away and cut into the surrounding metal you will thin it too much and make it even harder to straighten. If you align the panels perfectly before welding, only the weld will stick out. Grind it off with the edge of a cut off wheel at 90 degrees to the bead, a little at a time. Like a surgeon would.
Thanks a lot, point taken! I've never done something like this before so this is useful information I will be applying next time I get to work on the car. After you mentioned this, I looked at the photos I posted above and you can tell where there is a bit too much material taken off on either side of the weld.. I'll see if I can do something about that next time.
carter auto restyling youtube channel. He just did a door handle shave, and the results speak for themselves. Lots of effort from someone who knows what they are doing.
No update on the chop. I work shift work and have a hard time juggling life and hot rod building. When I’m back on nights in a week I hope to get the chop completed and car brought home. Other exciting news, I picked up a few parts I’ll eventually need when I get my front end assembled. I got some round back spindles, perch pins, backing plates and new drums. I’ll need to press the hubs out of the old drums and get everything cleaned up. Now I’m on the hunt for rear brake parts. Hopefully I can get everything finished up for spring.
I went in the garage this evening to try and get the studs out of the old drums/hubs. I started by drilling the studs out with a 1/2” bit and breaking the rest of the stud off with a hammer and chisel. A bit of drilling and a bit of hammering, I didn’t get any out. I didn’t get carried away with the hammer because the kids bedrooms aren’t far from the garage and they were sleeping. I’ll wait until I have a chance to cut them with a grinder. I took the perch pins and wire wheeled the old paint off and realized these pins aren’t the same. We had already agreed on a price and he threw these in after the fact so Im not upset. One looks to have had the shock mount and/or mech brake mount cut off and grinded smoothly. The other looks nice and smooth, the hole size and length seem to be the same. The thread length is a bit off.. I could probably use them..? But for what it’s worth maybe just buy one to match either of them, or two other ones that match each other.
If they are the same bore size, shank size, thread protrusion through the nut and others deem the rework acceptable I'd run them. When they're painted and installed it'd be hard to spot...mind you if there is any difference in position of pin location even if small it could be a problem...So many death wobble Threads here and the components are all suspect when things go wrong... Are you running lever shocks as there are tube mounts that go on the bottoms of those and longer Threads are preferred for those...
I don't think you would notice once installed, but I'd hate to have the front end all painted and reassembled, go for a drive and have to rip it all back apart because of the perch's.. I would be ticked. Ill likely end up using my original Model A ones and then cutting the ugly stuff off of them, they do have new bushings in them at the moment.. Is there a difference in length of the perch's between the years? Or would I need an aftermarket perch in order to attach the shock mount to the bottom of them? The car currently doesn't have any shocks, it's a pretty bouncy ride.. I just bought a box of random parts of ebay and in it are F1 shock mounts. The rear setup I have yet to figure something out.. I think Irontrap has a video of rear shock mounts made from 2x2 square tubing welded to the bottom of the axle, I thought it looked easy enough, maybe something like that?
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