MIDWEST HAMB CHOP-COVERT ACTIVITIES/The cats outa the bag...

rear roof area wide open.

 

rear roof area side view.

 

Last pic from me,come om Atch lets see what you got.

 

Ryans right-I need to clarify that the****le of this post shoulda read ZOR CHOP instead of Hambchop....[appologies]we just had a narrow window of opportunity and a limited time base/transport/shop space as well so us- a local group of Hambers planned this [off the board] to fit Zors schedule....he's going into the NAVY in January, so this needed to be done early as possible so he can get it back home-*****oned up before then.It May not be a Hamb Chop-[that would be a minimum of 6" chop ] but it got done and Zor got the amount HE wanted removed ......... all of us involved agreed that we enjoyed the GOOD time we had doing the top chop with him.

 

ok,

when i got home last night i downloaded my pix from the camera to the puter and crashed (big time). tonight when i get home i'll try to put a few of the best ones on here. there are over a hundred of them. guess i'll have to learn about starphoto or something.

there are some really good pix. when we started i set my camera over at the side and told everyone there to take a pic whenever there was something to shoot. i can't give credit for who took what, 'cause i don't even know.

first i've got to defend myself: i normally work days, but for the last 3 weeks i've had to be here at work from 6pm to 6am m-f. friday we did 5-5 instead of 6-6. so i basically get home at 5:30 or so (that's am, folks) and shortly thereafter headed out to choprods' place, which is about an hour and a half drive. by lunch time i was trashed and the pic they showed of me on the floor was where they left me when they all went to lunch. i gotta give 'em credit, though, they brought me some lunch back. a couple of hours later i was back on the road to work again. this time we only worked 6-2 and i was able to get a few hours sleep before heading out again for choprods'. i thought i was going to go to sleep and run off the road a couple of times during the drives, but all turned out well. as of today i'm back to "normal", or at least working days again.

the cast of characters (or, "now for the credit"):

kenny (choprods) supplied the shop, the heat, the electricity, the tools, etc. but the most important thing he supplied is the knowledge, skills, and experience to not only scope out the chop and do the largest share of the work, but the patience to teach the rest of us what he was doing and to give us a chance to do a little hands-on work.

d. j. (zor) supplied the car, the enthusiasm, and the determination to make it happen. he also did LOTS of the actual physical work. we won't discuss his age here, but let it be known that he is YOUNG.

reggie (scarliner) & i were the other hambers there. reggie did a lot of work, too. i mostly supplied a camera and held down various chairs and a pile of carpet pad.

ed (& joan); ed lurks occasionally on the hamb, but has never signed on. without ed the car could never have gotten from st. louis (where zor lives) to elmer (where choprods' shop is) that's about 200 miles each way. ed not only transported the shoebox, but had to be in the st. louis area saturday night to take care of other committments, so he made two round trips. joan came back with him on sunday. counting the miles from ed's to zor's, i'm sure he put over a thousand miles on his truck in two days. none of this would have happened without him.

jimmy; the local "kid". according to kenny, jimmy is the "other gearhead" in elmer. they apparently are the only two who know or care anything about mechanical stuff in the area except for tractors and combines. jimmy turned 18 friday. that's right, 18. he did a lot of the physical work on the chop. it was obvious to me that this wasn't the first time he held a grinder in his hand. we need more younguns like him around. btw; he's got a '50 chevy pick-em-up truck and an s-10 frame that he's gonna put together.

so there it is. it happened. it's done. it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. and as the old saying goes: "a good time was had by all."

ryan, i'm sorry if you object to the terminology "midwest hamb chop" being used for this past weekend. earlier this year there were efforts on the board to make a "midwest hamb chop" happen. seems like folks wanted to talk about it, but no one wanted to make it happen. well, this may not have been "sanctioned" by the board, but it came about because of the hamb. the specifics aren't that important, but in short the hamb drew this crowd together and without the hamb this chop would never have happened. what it wasn't was a fund raiser for the board. what it was was a group of guys getting together to get one's car chopped. just like it should be. the way hot rodders have been doing things since the beginning of the automobile. (only an explanation; not a rant)

like i said, i'll try to post some more pix tonight.

 

i bet the biggest expense for Zor to chop his top was the CELL PHONE bill to keep in touch with NADS during the process!

looks good, nice conserative chop.

 

i'll post a few. bear with me, please. the last pic will be of zor driving the shoebox to the trailer for the trip to st. louis.

i'll start with the back glass (we just cut the rubber gasket on the front windshield and took out the glass), which we protected with several layers of cardboard and duct tape.

 

OOPS!!!!! (or "too late now" as kenny makes the first cut)

 

what zor looked like when he saw kenny making that first cut

 

there are lots of ways to cut metal and we used several. this is one

 

ed, zor, and reggie remove the back glass and frame from car

 

zor using another method to cut steel

 

reggie using yet another method

 

IT'S OFF!!!!

 

zor in his new roadster

 

sorta looks nekkid or sumptin

 

setting the top back on for the first trial fit

 

it's done! oops, my bad, no it's not

 

"minor" fitment adjustment

 

this is how far the roof slid forward

 

comin' together; at least at the front

 

still a long way to go in the back, though. that looked to me like where the most work was.

 

another minor adjustment

 

startin' to look like a car again

 

filler pieces

 

jimmy showing us his touch with a grinder; reggie, too

 

atch making lots-o-sparks without really accomplishing much

 

the first of several applications of plastic

 

the guilty parties:

atch - mike atchley
choprods - kenny baker
zor - d. j. zor
ed - ed thornton
scarliner - reggie baker
jimmy - jimmy nolte