I would like to lower the roof without "chopping the top" I would like to keep it all done above the windows. I think the roof is to high but i dont like the traditional chopped top. Its hard to explain in writing what im thinking but I think a single cut around the top a few inches above the windows. Then drop the middle down 2 or 3 inches. Then fold over outside edge to fill in gap then weld and etc. Has anyone every heard of anything like this before? Can you point me in the direction of someone that has done this before? Ive spent hours and hours searching and can not find anything.
***uming you have an old Ford T / A closed car or truck of some kind... - Plan A for me is to raise the cowl / tank top and bottom of the windshield. I plan some sort of "high cowl" approach for my 29 coupe, raising the cowl about 3" so that the seam between the tank top and the cowl sides lines up with the bottom of the belt line under the doors. Who knows... film at eleven. - Plan B... if plan A's mockup just looks too strange, next I'll try eliminating most of the header piece over the windshield. You will still have the chop the top, but the windshield won't be any lower. Reduce the visor proportionately, or loose it entirely? Gary
I know what you're talking about how about you give me a call at 6058684999. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I have looked at the same on my 54, the crown is too high at the back from a time when men wore hats. We did a 50 like this and pulled a piecut from zero above the vent window to a couple inches around the rear of the roof. In this case it was tied into a chop but you could do it w/o the chop part.
Sounds like a lot of work. Proportions are important. I used to think that several of my '50s and early 60s cars were too narrow. I would daydream about widening an entire car by 6 inches. I'm glad to say it never got past the daydreaming stage.
There may be a simple way to do something like this if you like the vinyl top or Carson top look. Rebuild the top the way they used to do Carson tops in the fifties. 1) Cut away the roof including rear window if you wish. You will need to get a new, smaller window from some other car, or make something up 2) Build a new roof out of strips of steel in a basket weave pattern. It would go something like this. Start with a strip of steel 1/8 thick and 2" wide. Run it from the middle of the windshield to the trunk lid. Bend it, eyeball it from the side, until you get a pleasing contour. Weld it to the windshield header and the base of the back window. Add a couple of cross strips, also bent to a suitable contour. Continue long ways and cross ways until you have a grid about a foot apart or a little less. This is the skeleton of the roof. Cover with wire mesh, poultry wire which is fine mesh chicken wire. Cover the mesh with cotton padding like upholsterers use, and cover the cotton with muslin cloth. This gives the roof shape. Cover the roof with vinyl or canvas convertible top material. O ya before you put on the top material you will have to fit the rear window. Yes it would be a lot of work but it would give a real nice, custom appearance if done right.
Yes people have taken the bubble out of the tops of cars before but I believe that it will involve more than just cutting around the perimiter of the roof and taking out a few inches then flattening down the exsisting edge above the doors and rewelding. I think that you will find that you will need to quarter the roof piece and move those pieces down and out to reattach to the cut above the windows. Then you will need filler pieces to make up the gap between the four pieces that you moved. Lots of welding with many chances of warping. But what the hell if you screw it up you can make a carson style top and call it good.
Like I said, you can do it with a simple pie cut and some work around the rear window. Your main cuts are done a couple inches above the drip rail where it is easier to weld w/o warpage.
Not sure if my memory is faulty or not. Back in the day we called it "pancaking" a roof. Just powering the top of the roof. Looks good on some, awful on others.
Does anyone have pics of this?Its a interesting idea.If you "pancake "the roof the hood and trunk will need it too ?
If you want an all steel roof the easy way is to use the roof off a newer car with a flatter profile. Cut the old roof off leaving a border of a few inches all around, then weld on another roof panel with a lower contour. Finding a roof with the right width, length and contour can be a challenge but it saves a lot of hand work. Pie cutting and piecing a roof together without warping it is practically impossible.
http://www.jefflilly.com/gallery/hot-rods/1950-ford-truck/build-process/pages/roof-pancake.html He's how a 50 Ford PU roof was pancaked to remove some of the original crown in he panel.
Chip Foose did a nice job on Wes Rydell's 1954 Belair (hardtop) roof. You can see the finished car HERE: http://www.customrodder.com/features/0703cr_1954_chevy_bel_air/viewall.html
, George Poteet's '56 chevy post was done like that . Most tri-five chops don't look right , throws the proportions all out of whack. The pancake is not as extreme.
Pancaking it is,..... I believe it was done to a 54 Ford longroof, during one of those "Monster Garage" shows. If memory serves.....i think Gene Winfield was involved. The result looked good. 4TTRUK
Did that when we chopped the top on my truck using the roof section of my prettywell used up 67 OldsCutl*** parts car and the inner cross brace from same.Pie cuts and dolly work and using the brace to reinforce and provide a place for dome lite and wiring and ended up losing 1.75 more inches along with the 5" chop.
Mercury Charlie's 51 (Sweet Nadine) has a pancaked roof. Gary Howard did the chop and "de-doming" but I couldn't get much more info outta Charlie about the process. I'd like to do it to my Merc but I sure can't afford to take it to Gary Howard's.
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