Lookin good. I have been debating on keeping the wrap around when i do mine or putting a different rear glass in it.
Lookin great,I especially like how the belt line flows around,almost looks stock.I've seen a lot of those jacked up,but yours looks great from hereKeep up the good work,and keep us posted
Alright the rear deck is done.That wasn't so bad.I always try to expect the worst that way if it comes out any better than that , its a win.Now, on to the sail panels.As you can see from the pics when I cut the rear frame out originally I left about a one inch strip of metal on each side of the frame.I did it so I would have a good platform to shape my new sail paneil with.I took the piece that I originally cut out of the car and cut a bunch of relief cuts in it so I could bend it easily but it would still hold its shape.I tacked the top of it in place and bent it around until It looked right to me.Then I marked where it met up with my existing belt line and I cut it out so that when I tacked the new piece in it would flow into it.I just let the back end of the pie cuts overlap the edge of the window frame and I tacked them all in place to hold the shape.I cut a piece of metal that fit from the back edge of the body line on the corner piece and under lapped the window frame and tacked to the frame on the inside.Then I tacked each piece of the pie cuts to the backing plate at the body line.Once the pieces were all tacked to the backing plate I cut off where the pieces overlaped the frame and used some vise grips to clamp each piece down to the backing plate so that they now were flush to the window frame and I had a good base to weld to to fill up the gaps in the corner piece.While I was at it I went ahead and cut the drip rail off.This was a tough decision because I like them both ways but what the hell.Just go for it.
Next up was rebuilding all the bracing on the inside of the quarters.This turned out to be more of a job than I had initially anticipated.It wasn't really hard,just time consuming to get it the way I wanted it.I don't know how most people do their cars, but I planned to reattach all of the original bracing.I have a 3 year old and a pregnant wife that will be riding in this car so strength and safety come first.I would also like to thank flop for taking the time to show how he did it in his car.He is the first person that I have seen document what he did as far as internally strenghtening the car.I actually wondered if anyone even took the time to do it right,or at all, since I have never seen a pic or even heard it talked about.Istarted by rebuilding the brace that conects the rear deck with the rear frame.I just made little cardboard pieces then transfered them to sheet metal and welded them in.I am sure I could have just thrown some square tubing or some other stuff in there and it would have been a bit faster but I am kind of anal about putting it back as close as I can to the way it was.Once that was done I made a piece that underlapped the inside lip of the new window corner and underlapped the brace on the window frame and ran down to the brace in the quarter panel and also across to tie into the new rear brace that I made earlier.Now all three pieces are one again.I plan on the rear windows to still roll up and down on my car so next was to remake the channel for the window to slide in.Luckily I still had the entire corner piece from the passenger side so I could use it for measuring and visual reference ( this helped out a ton).I measured the width of the channel on the old piece and cut a strip of steel to weld into place.The inside of the quarter opening is bigger than the outside so I tacked the strip to the top of the existing channel and measured how far it need to be from the outer opening and welded it in place.I welded it on the backside so that the channel would have no obstructions on the inside.I then cut the remaing piece of the old corner and inner quarter free from whatever was left and shaped it into place the same way I did the outside piece.When I welded it to the new channel I welded it to the backside for the sam reason.I also had to pry apart teh inner and outer pieces to keep an even gap front to rear for the window to travel in.I then cut a two pieces to tie all of the remaining components together and cap it all off nice and clean.I also etched and undercoated everthing before I put the last two pieces on.I am relly happy with how it all turned out.It damn sure doesn't show the time that I have have in it but I know it will be safe. More later!!! Ben
Thanks alot hvychvy I am pretty proud of it.I just wish that I had another on to drive while I was building this one.I just liked driving it around when it was stock.I felt like the king of the road. Ben
I had a 54,one of my favorite cars,but I never had the nuts to cut on it, before I got rid of it. You'll be drivin her in no time,keep up the awesome work
In all fairness.I have not done all of this work since the first post .I was working on it for a month prior.I just did not want to drag out the post over 2 months.I figured that it would be easier to follow if I was pretty close to having it done when I started posting pics. Ben
Dont sweat it Ben, we kinda figured that when the post would come at night, but the pics were in daylight. Believe me, we understand how these things go....and you are doing a kick ass job.
Looks great!! I love it with the wrap around window and the fact that you kept the belt line. In my opinion this looks so much better than when the window dips below the belt line. I'll be watching this thread to see the completion of it.
Now on to the a pillars.i had to stare at this for a minute to get my plan of attack.Because of where I chose to cut the posts the top section is about an 8th of an inch narrower than the bottom section when the window sill its at its best alignment.So I made a vertical cut a couple of inches long up the inside of the post in the jamb area.Then I made a horizontal cut from the outside in, almost to the edge.I bent that piece back so that I would have access to the other pieces of metal on the inside of the post.When I got the pinchweld lined up in the sill and the pinch weld in the jam lined up I welded the outside wall that faces the inside of the car ( if you understand that).I did this on both sides so that it would be locked into place while I worked on the rest of it.I also went ahead and welded up the relief cuts on each side.Then I welded the pieces on the inside together through the window that I made earlier.i made a vertical cut up the center of the top section of the post about 3-4 inches long and I took a screwdriver and tapped in the cut at the bottom to open up the post until the body lines aligned and I tacked it all in place.Once I got the screwdriver out I hamered it a little bit to make sure everything was where I wanted it and welded the hell out of it.Then I hamer my little widow back around and welded it up and PRESTO, time for more grinding (yay).
GREAT JOB 021k26rr..... I'll keep an eye out to see ya finish up this chop. I have a 53 Belair and always think about what it would look like chopped, But I don't have the experience to tackle a job like you and others do, But PLEASE understand ,I love the way you did yours BECAUSE it looks like it was done at the factory level........ Does that make sense to ya ? Thanks for all the time it takes to post the information,The post are very enlightening.
Seriously, Im going to have to save this thread for when I get the time (and balls) to chop mine. Your extensive coverage of this will def help guide me. I love the way that rear window works too. Im more inclined to use a different rear window, but your way definitely accentuates the original flow and quality of the original manufacturing style.
alot of folks here dont like the stock rear window..but i think its the best way to go..heres a pic of my 54 with the wat i chopped mine i need to get some better up to date pics ..these ara old..but it shows the rear window on how much i layed it down...i love it but others hate it..
I did mine straight but in hindsight I kind of wish I would slanted them just a touch,but not more than an inch offset.I dont like it when they are really slanted,maybe just a bit offset. Ben
UPDATE: My first move on the b pillars was to figure out where and how to cut.I started by cutting the roof brace completely out untill a later day.Then I cut the inner brace completely out of the inside so that I had full access to the post.It was pretty easy.I used a air saw and it did a nice job.I made a vertical cut to the top of the jamb where the roof meets the door jamb.I drilled a hole big enough for my air saw blade to fit into at the end of the cut.I cut front to rear along the inside of the 90 degree angle back to where the raise part of the window frame is.I cut about a quarter inch back into the frame.Then I located where I would make my cut in the frame itself and I cut vertically up all the way through the body line and halfway into the second section of the frame.I drilled another hole so that I could now cut rear to front.I cut up to where I had stopped My previous cut and drilled a hole so that I could make a vertical cut up to meet my first cut.Next I had to make a relief cut on the lower half of the post.I try to make all of my relief cuts in line with the belt line so that I am not trying to line up parts that are pivoting from different areas.I originally cut 4 inches out the post when I had the top off,But in my efforts to get the rear window where I wanted I could not get the full 4 inches and I was not willing to sacrifice the look that I had in mind just to get that little bit more.I took the section the I originally cut out and cut the outside of it off and used it as a sleeve to help line everything up.The post bent over very easily and once I got the top piece trimmed to fit I tacked it in place at the top and rolled it down into place.I clamped it together and used a 8inch straight edge to get everything lined up properly.I tacked it all in place, stood back and took a look at it and jumped in and welded it.Next up was the bracing.I took the original brace and cut off the rear section so it would fit.I cut a window in the front of the brace and the back of it and peeled it back so that I had access to the inside of the brace to weld it up.On the lower section I grabbed the old section that I previosly started to dissect and cut the window channel out of it and welded it in place to fill the gap.I had to remake the front section of the door jamb out of some sheet metal and rebuild the bracing on the inside with some sheet metal as well. More later Ben
UPDATE: I put the doors back on and removed the latch assembley's so that I could make sure that they were lined up properly without sagging.I did not want the latch to be holding the door up in place since I will be setting my top door gap with it in its current position and I want to be able to duplicate the doors position later.I cut the top of the door off and cut it in the center.I went ahead and stripped the paint from the belt line up just to clean it up.I had to make a relief cut at the front and the back of the door to lean it in to match the pillars.I leaned them in and tacked them in place.Then I sat my rear section up against the door while it was closed and eyeballed where I needed to cut it.I cut and trimmed it to fit and tacked it in place.I did the same with the front half.I took the section that I cut from the front half and cut the outer skin off of it to fill the gap in the top section.I lined up the body line in the center and tacked it in place.Then I could hammer it around and make the rest line up.Now for the inside gap, I took the leftover chunk that I had cut from the front and trimmed it down to fit the hole and welded it in place.Once these to pieces were in, I ground down the top of the new piece to match the existing door frame.I also had to grind down the back section where it makes the bend it is a bit to long.I took a piece of metal and made a 90 in it on the corner of the frame machine and put it in place to finish out the inside of the frame.Once I got all of that ground down and cleaned up I used a roll of tape to make the radius to cut the corner off of the door.I used my air saw to cut the corner off of it because with the narrow blade and I can follow the line accurately and not lose to much metal. I lined up the body line on the quarter and tacked it in place,I cut a piece of metal and put it behind the corner at the top to fill the gap between the roof and the corner.I closed the door to check the gap and when everything looked good I welded it all up.I ran a bead along the edge of the door and smoothed it down.I cut another small piece of metal to fill the gap between the door and the jamb.I made it small enough to recess it behind the corner so the when I welded it it would not affect my gap.
Well HOLY COW, I did it.My goal with this chop was to make the car look custom but not extreme custom.I wanted the top to look like it was always supposed to look that way.I am planning to use ALL of the trim around the doors and windows because I like it and I have not seen it done.I have a ton of work ahead of me still, just in the stainless but so far i am thrilled with how it has turned out.I chose to post this chop here because when I was looking for info on chopping a 54,I found a lot of info but no one really told all of what they did.I hope that buy me posting this up that maybe it will help someone else out down the road.I ran a piece of tape around the car to highlight the beltline so you could really get an idea of what its gonna look like.Please post up and let me know whatcha think good or bad. Thanks for reading and looking Ben
Nice job. The chop looks great. I like the fact that you are putting all of the chrome back on the car
I opened up this post thinking "great, here comes yet another new guy who is going to screw up a really nice old car". Didn't take long to see I was off-base. Nice work, and good progress shots. Thanks. Keep going.
Thanks alot fellas.It means alot to me coming from people on this site because you know what it takes and what it should look like. Ben
thats a very nice looking job, and your posts were very well done, are you going to have to do much cutting to get the rear window to fit?
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