Had some trouble aligning my doors. Got a little su****ious of the door post near the bottom hinge. Looked like someone had done some work. So I slapped the front left quarter panel from the inside with a hammer and the hole **** came loose.
Some might call it patina. Well-earned scars during the years of hard work. But no, had to clean this mess up before I could proceed.
Aligned the door first. Then fixed up the inner structure, and shaped the new panel after some pics I found on the net. Think its close to what was there originally.
After I got the door aligned I could proceed with the doorframe. Almost finished welding up the chop. Sure takes hell of a more time than it did In Photo Shop.
I picked up a '48 F1 awhile ago and hope to get it on the road for this summer as a daily driver. When I see the work some of you put into a chop and other body work I applaude you. I'm going to keep mine stock as far as the body goes, I just want to lower it about a foot.hahaha!!! Frank
Timebandit, how much of a chop did you go? Do you have any progress pics of it? The reason I'm askin is my buddy is working on a 48 F-1 for his wife and is planning on choping it. thanks later plmczy
Findin' mud in an F1 brought back some distant memories. I had a '50 F1 daily driver some years ago. Stock as a rock except some centerlines on radials and a heinous maroon velour interior. It was burnt orange and very wavy. I always threatened to tear into it, even screwed together a 302/C4 combo to drop in and 12 volt it. Someone nailed the front right fender in my work's parking lot, which left a 1 and a half inch chunk of good ol' bondo laying on the blacktop. That was enough for me, I slapped some new filler in there, spot primed it, and sold the poor old abused hauler. Nice chop job, by the way, no small feat.
Sorry but I did not have the camera at hand the day I cut the top down. I removed 3 3/4" off the rear post and backpanel. Kept the rear window size stock however. Cut a little less off the windshield post, and made cuts to slant the bottom post backwards/ top forward. Not too easy to describe. Took about a day to cut and tack it together. Spent rest of the week to weld and straighten it up. I put some lines on a photo to see the cutlines. The blue lines are cuts to ease the alignment of the sheetmetal.
The top looks good. An I'm not real big on chopped F trucks (through about '56). You rust is pretty common. They need a drain hole or two. But then you still gotta keep 'em clean. Anyway, I like to see 'em repaired right. Rightous work
Thanks for the help on the lines. He has a little bit of an idea how to do it. We looked at a 48-50 at a show last year and it had a bulge about a quarter to half way up the windshield post. It looked like he didn't lean the bottom part of the post back but moved the top post out to line it up with the bottom. Thanks again.later plmczy
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