I finished my first mild custom, another Shoebox, last year and have been itching to start something new since. My dad had this sitting in his yard with no plans to do anything with it, so I convince him to let me have it to tinker with. My main goal is just to learn as much as I can while working on it and improve the skills that I learned on the first one while pushing myself to step outside of my comfort zone. I started out knowing that I wanted to chop and section it, but I don't really have anything else set in stone. Here's progress so far. I sectioned it 4 inches and chopped it 2, and I'm working on getting everything lined up and looking good before I weld it solid and clean it up.
It actually wasn't too bad. I made sure to measure everything about 3 times before and after cutting. The worst part was the back quarters. They're so far gone that they're really flimsy, and it didn't help that someone had cut out the quarters to accommodate wider tires.
A section and chop isn't a project I'd like to be jumping into BUT I would love to be jumping into a sectioned and chopped car like yours when it is riding time! Looking good.
It's been sitting for a little bit. I started working on a project for some else to make a little money on the side. That, coupled with being incredibly busy at work, has kept me from being able to work on it. I've still got plenty of plans for it whenever I get time. Hopefully I'll be back on it in a month or so.
Finally back at it after awhile. Got some things done this last weekend, and I'm hoping to do a little bit more this next one before work sends me to training for 5 weeks.
It looks like it is coming together well. Take a look at Titus's section job as well. I think you are doing fine, and it is very good of you to push yourself.
Just found your thread Young Thiel. Looking good!! I love sectioned cars and yours is coming along great.It's starting to get real interesting with your rear quarter treatment....I'll be following for sure subscribed
Thanks guys. I may have one or two more work days on it before I have work training for five weeks, but then I have three weeks that look pretty open after that to work on it. I think my next real big step is getting some fenders for it. It didn't come with any, and I toyed with the idea of converting some 56 Chevy fenders to fit, but I think my best bet to make it work AND look good is going to be getting some old Shoebox fenders to use as a base to build on.
check out this ...57 chev headlights on a sectioned shoebox..the pics are from the Kustomrama website. Awesome site too.
Those headlights look pretty sweet! The rest of it is pretty cool, too. It's just cool to see that a similar idea to mine works and looks really good.
Got back from work training and started right back in. I got the quarters attached, so I started building the lower back part under the trunk. Once I got a piece made and put in there, I made the channel to go around the bottom of the trunk opening. I started relaxing the curve of the trunk inner support tonight to fit the curve of the new quarters, and I'm hoping to have the inner supports of trunk done by the end of the week. This means I have to make a new support structure for the bottom part of the trunk(which I also started tonight) and blend it in to the existing supports in the next few days. It's actually starting to take shape. I'm pretty excited about it.
It's been awhile since I had an opportunity to get out and work on this project. Life seems to always get in the way of working on the fun stuff. The good thing about a prolonged break from a project is that it can give you new perspective. I realized the back window needed to slant forward a bit more, which meant I need to lower the back end of my chop a few more inches.
Keep going !! Don't let life get in the way ( easy to say, but.. ) Lock the garage door from the inside, take the battery out of your phone.....
Got out and did a little more work this weekend. Got the driver side cuts in to match those on the passenger, then once everything was in place I got it welded up. Earlier this week CB_Chief was messing around with a pattern for the back sail panels, so I used his pattern to cut out some sheet and shape the panels. Once he and I had them pretty close to the correct shape, we cut out the excess medal and tacked them in place. I have to say, it doesn't look too bad for the amount of time it took.
The Jalopy Journal
