I know you guys are sick of seeing 54 chevy's but here is another one.Believe it or not this has been a dream of mine since I was a little kid hanging posters on my walls from my dads magazines.I always like the led sleds and the way the customizers could totally re-invent a vehicle from just a good idea.I have always wanted a 54 hardtop to build and make my own but somehow I never got around to it.I have built alot of cool shit from custom bikes to late model custom cars to rock crawlers.I am a bodyman by trade and have been in the industry for 15 years so I have cut apart plenty of cars and put them back together.About a year ago I decided that I was at a point in my life where I had the time,resources and skill to build MY dream car.i will attach lots of pics and I would appreciate any and all feedback.I appreciate your honest opinions. The begining: a stock 1954 Chevy I found on craigslist (I know its not a hardtop) although not exactly what I wanted,it was close enough and in unbelieveable shape with no rust and all trim and panels intact.And shes a virgin.Never been customized.
it took me a while to tear everything down.I was really careful not to tear anything up.After all its not everyday I take apart a car this old.I was really surprised that not one bolt or screw was stripped or broken.That made life alot easier.I welded in the bracing for the body.The usual stuff,a brace between the B's and one on each side from front to rear making sure that I could still open and close the doors while it was braced up.Then I welded some braces in the rear window to hold it from loosing its shape.This is where I let my excitement cloud my judgement.When I put my braces in I did not mark a center line on the roof and the body front and rear.While this is not the end of the world it would have made things a bit easier on the back end,but I can dig it.So I made all of my cut lines,stood back and stared at it about a thousand times and then second guessed myself about a hundred more times untill i finally said FUCK IT and dropped the blade on it.I am chopping it four inches and using the original back glass.I plan on rolling/sliding it forward to make it fit.I started by making a cut about 6-8 inches from the top of the rear window from side to side.Then I cut the front posts and then the b's.I cut the rear window loose from the package tray almost flush with the inside sill.Then I cut down the back of the quarter to the bottom of the belt line (see pic) and all the way around the belt line to the other side.Then I cut the corner of the back window out by coming forward a few inches and down to the lower belt line(pic).I then cut my sections from the four remaining posts.While I had the top off I went ahead and stripped all the old paint off.I wasn't sure what I would need and not need when I went back together so I saved every little piece I cut out for reference or use later.i also wasn't sure what bracing I would need to cut out for the back window so I cut what I could see would be an immediate problem and figured I would trim as needed from there. More in a min.
O.K, the roof is stripped,etched and ready to go back on.I sat it back on and lined up the a posts the best I could.This is where I have a problem with every tech post you ever read about chopping a car they always leave out the small but very important details.I was expecting this sort of thing but I am curious how much of it I will run into.Needless to say the roof posts were narrower than the car.So I moved down the post almost where the dash meets the cowl and made a relief cut on each side.Then I rigged up a come along and a pull strap and jacked the posts in a little bit.It wasn't alot but I have read every post and write up anywhere I could find about chopping a 54 and no one ever mentions it.Surely I am not the first to have this problem??.I tacked the relief cuts together once I got them pulled together where I needed them to be.Then I clamped the posts together with vise grips to start fine tuning the fit.I fought with this a little bit as to where I wanted to clamp it in place because with the difference in the size and shape of the top and bottom posts everything would not all line up at the same time.I lined up the sill for the windshield the best I could because I wanted to make sure that I don't have any problems with the glass fitting down the road.i can make the other stuf work.After all its only metal.... right!!!!.
Now for the fun part.I figured that I would slide the rear window frame in under the roof panel and roll it up and forward until it fit like I wanted.After an hour of putting it in,taking it out and trimming metal from damn near everwhwere in the back of the car I finally got it to fit under the roof so that i could actually start fitting it into place.This is another area not covered in any of the tech posts.they make it seem as if you can just stick it in there and roll it down a bit and,PRESTO!!!. It fits.Well,It didn't happen that way for me.I must have put that damn frame in there a hundred times trying to get it to fit to suit me and just could not get it right.Every time I got the fit right across the center of the top and on the sides, the center of the bottom was to high.I did not want the edge of the window molding to be lower than the belt line on the corners,I want it to sit just above the belt molding on the corners and run paralell across the center.I did not want the center of the rear glass to be so high that I have to raise the rear deck 2-3 inches to meet it.i have seen it done that way and I don't care for it.So after a couple hours of trying,trimming,sweating and cussing.I decided that there has got to be a better way.So I took the window frame back out and after inspecting the frame I noticed a brace at the top on the inside of the sheet metal that stuck out a couple of inches.I cut the remaining section of the old roof panel off of the frame leaving a strip about 1.5inches long on the frame,now the brace stuck out further than the roof and gave a nice little ledge for the existing roof panel to rest on.I slid the frame back into the car and i pulled up enough so that I could put a screw in each corner of the frame where it underlapped the belt line so that it would pivot form there and roll the top center up and the bottom center down but keep the corners right at the edge of the beltline where I wanted them.When the frame got to the edge of the roof it pulled the edge of the old roof out from under the new section and sat on the brace.I pulled it back about another inch and the bottom of the rear frame has a nice flush line to the existing rear body and I think the roofline came out really nice.I took the peice of the old roof that I cut off of the frame and it made a perfect filler for the roof gap between roof and the frame.I just slid it under both pieces and the aforementioned brace held it all nice and tight together.The window frame is a little wider on the sides than the roof so I had to make a few releif cuts on each side to get them to meet up but it was not hard at all.The hardest thing was being patient with all that damn welding. More tommorrow.
Hey guys,bear in mind that the back of the car is sitting about 3 inches higher now than it was before I tore it down.So if the roof line looks wierd that is why.It took me a while to get my head around it at first.If you look at how much of the rear tire is showing in the first pic and how much is showing now you will see what I mean. Ben
Don't sweat it Ben, we understand. It sure is lookin kick ass. I'm definitely following this thread. Keep at it!
looks like you're on your way to a decent chop. It flows well in the last profile pic. glad to see you moved the rear window forward a couple inches, that does wonders for the flow of the roof.
Have you seen this thread? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=239775&highlight=pontiac+chop The guys member name is flop. Theres tons of pics and info in his thread
Ben ... the back window looks great! ... could you elaborate on your plans for the windshield? Cole Foster's '54 HT
The rear window looks great. Are you going to cant the "B" pillar? I'm interested in what you are going to do with the windshield as well. This could be your biggest problem.
When I was first looking at the profile pic I didn't even take the height of the rear suspension into account. If you ask me the rear needs to go down a little more to achieve more of a tear drop shape. I'm not a big fan of keeping the wrap around rear window while chopping these cars. Not to say it can't be done, because I've seen a few of these cars where it looks good. That being said I can count the cars it looks good on, on one hand. Obviously it's not my car and you can do what you want. Just food for thought.
LOL I agree, that some little points sometimes are overlooked on posts, but what do you expect for free. Mine was already chopped, but I had to do a lot of finish work. I also missed the relief cuts on the windshield, but I forced mine together and it's lining up ok. Looking good to me, I'm going to cut my rear window back out and play with it. Mine looks to fast backie for me. Thom
NO NO NO! Don't tear drop the roof! That always looks like shit. Make it look nice and subtle, take any of the "hump" out if you need to, but don't tear drop it. keep the rear window. The goal of chopping a top shouldn't be to make it look "radical" or whatever, it should be to clean up the lines. make it look like a factory custom...something the designers would have penned, not something a rockabilly would build. in my opinion.
quick question why did you use a lap weld on the back ???.. woulda came out much cleaner with a butt weld just my .02 cents worth. nice chop though
Silveradoman4: I have been following flop's thread and I appreciate all the time he has taken to show how and why he did the things that he did on his car.I cannot wait to see how it comes out. fordcrager and hemi 32: I am not going to slant the b pillars.I thought about it,but the more I looked at pics of each I think for my car straight is the way.As far as the windshield goes.I called around and finally found a guy locally who can cut down my glass for me.I am going to let him cut my stock glass first and then I will turn him loose on my new glass. Thanks for the replies guys.
Cretin: I don't really care for the cars with a extreme chop in the back.Don't get me wrong,I think some of them look really good,but I also think some look like shit .Its all subjective though.My moto for this build is "this is my version of cool".I do hope some other people like it too.I am hoping that it will look custom but not overdone.I dont know if you ever go on 50chevy.com but they have a 54 on the home page that I think has the perfect chop for the car.I am hoping that mine will come out like that.That thing is bad.My hat is off to whomever built it.
Flop: The reason that I welded it that way is because there was a gap between the 2 pieces and the sleeve filled the gap and put the two pieces of metal on the same plane.It also makes for a stronger joint .It is the same way I install quarters and clips and stuff at work.Its also out of habit to I guess.thanks for the look.i am enjoying following the progress on your car and thanks for being very descriptive. Ben
If you are talking about the black one with the heading "nice 54" I would agree that car looks great, and is one of the few that looks good with a wrap around rear window (in my opinion). I totally respect your "my version of cool" moto for the build, I think thats how everyone should build their car. Based on your profile pics, it looks like you have a bit more hump in the back. I don't think I explained myself very well the first time, but it was late night and I had a little bit of the sauce. I didn't mean you needed a more extreme chop in rear, just to make it flow a little better. As I said comparing the pic from 50chevy.com and your profile pic the difference is small, but we all know that sometimes that small difference makes a huge affect on the finished product. We also all know that a picture doesn't always do a car justice, just my opinion on what I see.
O.k.,here we go again.Well I am finally done welding and grinding the roof.patience is not one of my virtues and I was definetly tested on this part of the project.It all came out good and I am very happy with the results.As you can see the sides of the window frame were a little wider than the roof panel.i cut a few relief cuts in each side and it opened up nice and flowed nicely into the window frame.i was also very happy that baceause I was able to splice the roof so close to the window frame I had only a very small amount of warpage and it did not creep away from the welded area.I will need to put in a little hammer time here and there but I am very happy with how it is coming along.As you can see,now there is a 4-5 inch gap btween the existing rear deck and the bottom of the beltline.This is a simple fix.I am going to make some cardboard templates and transfer them to some 16ga. sheet steel that I have and weld it in.I will cut a section about 3inches wide and place it to the under side of the existing rear panel and tack it in place.I can then lay my new template on top of the sleeve and it extends to the window frame and slide under the bottom of the widow frame.
Now I had to finish filling the gap in the rear body.I had to make a few relief cuts on each side of the body where the quarter rolls over to the rear panel.It worked out well except I had to cut through the lead seam on each side.I just welde d everthing like I normally would and as I got close to the seam areas when the metal got hot and I cleaned all of the lead out of the lead away and welded up the hole.I got a little impatient when I was welding it together and overheated the center section and it sunk in.I didn't really worry about it.I just finished welding the whole thing up so it was all good and strong.Then I got a large dolly out found out where I need to relieve the metal and ran a small bead on it while I re shaped it from the bottom side and it came out saweet.
I am sorry the pics are not that high quality but I keep forgetting to take my good camera to work so I am just taking the pics with my I phone. More tommorrow!!!
I usually don't care for these Chevys so much, I'm more of a 49-51 Merc/Ford fan, but I'm really interested on the progress. It looks really good from here.
Looks Great. Can't wait to see a profile shot once you get the sail panels in. keeping the wrap around window is cool too. Not too many cars can pull it off. Good Luck.
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