Im gearing up to start on my 54 and this is the thread I need to motivate me .....Im wanting to chop mine 4" as well so Post lots of pics(im a visual learner) Im 32 and from the looks of it I can learn alot from a 11th grader.....Get me some pics and ill piggy back your build Keep it up what im starting with
thats a sweet ride man, i like the trim level! and thanks, i'll try to get some pics up on here for ya, and if you have any questions or anything, feel to ask me, i'd love to help ya man!
Yeah i gotta say that thing looks sick!!i have a soft spot for those cars too.stick with it your definitly on the right track!
here are some pics from real early on in the chop....this was when i cut 4 out of the front and 5 outa the back.....BIG MISTAKE....so i had to weld an inch back into the back (long story short of co****) but here i mainly wanted to show ya how i kept that rear window frame (along with those nice C pilar curves that the sedans have) all attached to the body instead of takin em off with the top. i'll show ya in the next set how i took em off... but the important thing was to keep those nice C pilar curves cut out seperate from everything... i later took pie-cuts out of em and closed them up to fit but thats a few steps ahead...
didnt mean for my post to seem like i was giving you greif just a question.you are only 16 holy **** i was barely wipeing my own ***.thats awesome kid keep it up
"are you smarter than an 11th grader?....heck no I'm not..." very nice work, Caleb. You have one very sweet ride there. Tim
wow and I thought I was a grump, excuse him, he's got very un-traditional seat belts in his ride so he can't talk...
I think your work is all the back up you need. You don't get nearly 5,000 posts next to your name in 2 years by thinking before you type. Pete
Looks killer sitting in the dust on the floor and the chop is infreakingcredible...the back window flows so well...can't wait to see the finished product
Caleb, I thought I was the shiznit cuz I had my '67 Camaro done by your age. You got me beat HANDS DOWN. I would've never had the confidence at that age to do what you've done. TNJ--Top Notch Job. And don't listen to those that give ya grief about the bags....I want bags too. It's usually either they live on the computer and don't even have a car, or they have to have "rules" to go by cuz they lack imagination. My Dad was a havoc on the streets in 1950 with his 1948 Mercury Coupe. And as he said to me recently, "So even the rule-breakers have rules now?" It was one of those questions that didn't need an answer...lol Don't misunderstand me though, I'm in no way dissing those that do 'traditional' for the history sake of it, bless 'em, cuz they keep the flame lit on what it was like 'way back when' and frankly they provide me with 70% of my own motivation, I'm only talking about the ones that don't live by 'Thumper' rules, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". Keep at it and keep posting pics! Also, if you have any color pics that seem "a bit off" due to being taken with your phone, email them to me. I can Photoshop them back to life. I've done it for quite a few HAMBers on here in the past. And MAKE SURE you have someone take pics of you working on the car too!...not for now, but for 20yrs from now when you want to show what you were doing back then to your own kids! It's easy to forget. I only have a handful of pics of me in the Navy and only like 2 photos of me building my 350 '72 Vega when I was 18....and I regret it! Keep at it! (holy ****, I wrote a friggin essay!..lol, sorry Ryan, Caleb's build got me all excited).
hey thanks guys, i really appreciate it, and thank you very much Fish Tank, im gonna look through my pics to see what all colored ones i have and if any are out...thank you again very much, i really appreciate the praise!! caleb
hey a few of you guys were asking about some different things on the chop that i did to get the flow, here are a few pics of what i had to do to get the "rear hump" of the roof skin to flow with the rear wrap around gl***. i probably wouldnt have needed to do this step if i wouldnt have laid the rear window down so far, but i wanted "that look" and was determined to do whatever i needed to do to get it. when i cut the roof skin away from the rear window frame in the very beginning of the chop (was actually the first cut into the roof!) i left some metal there to weld the skin back to...i made sure it was a little before the inner brace so that i'd have some hammer n' dolly room (and i thank my dad for that idea!) the first attempt at welding it back together failed.....it coulda been saved with some bondo but i hate to use alot of it in my work. im not sayin i dont use it, but i just try to keep it at a minimum. so to save the flow, i made templates of the rear hump of the skin, and transferred them to 5 pieces of sheet metal. i formed the pieces BEFORE i cut the old sections out of the roof, because i wanted to make sure they were as perfect to fitting as possible. and when i laid them out on the roof to check fit, i held them lightly with 2" tape instead of clamps. you can make anything fit (or look like it fits with clamps) but as soon as you start welding, the "truth will come out".....so i made sure that all the pieces would lay on there flat and perfect to shape before any clamps were used. i started by clamping down the center piece and spraying rattle can over it. then cut it out and tacked that in. (then worked my way out on them, you guys get the picture im sure) but after pieces were welded in, i spent a ton of time hammering and dollying to get every thing flat, then worked everything with ******* file and the torches. i honestly cant count the number of shrinks i made in that roof hahaha... but i hope the pics help you guys out that were asking so before i cut that back out,
hey thanks ttarver! glad you like the back window, i wanted to use it from the start, glad i stuck it out!
not before I put him and his dad up for two weeks on the other end of PA to work some magic on mine...hahahhaa.... keep up with the updates....
Beautiful work on the chop.It is hard to chop one of those years and have it look right.Looks like you will have to pie cut the hood to keep the look right.Keep up the great work.
plan on pie cuttin' the deck lid, but im gonna leave the hood alone (other than making it one piece) and thanks for the kind words guys! will keep the updates comin
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