pics of bad chops, when good chops go bad

Is this the 47 you were talkin bout???

 

That's the one .

There was one instructor (Sumner ?) that was talking all kinds of BS about what they were gonna do to that car, ie.: chopped top, suicide doors, Camaro clip, remote door openers, air bags, auto w/OD, PS, PDB, A/C, power ass wiper, etc., etc.

Well right now it's reduced to a big pile of crap. I knew two previous owners of that car. Really was a pretty good piece to start with. Now look at it .

 

Yeah that car belongs to Sumner Huckabee "Huck".. What a waste. All they have done to that car since I been here is remove the aborted top, and chop the windshield frame. Now it sits... ALSO don't let sumner help rebuild your moms E40D ford trans... he WILL fuck it up an cost you a grand to fix...

 

I'd send the incompetent loser DeLuxe a bill or stick the tranny up his fat bubble butt looking ass .

 

This '54 Pontiac (Canadian model) was very poorly chopped when I found it in 1996. It was so bad the owner had abandoned the project. The top had been split into 6 pieces, and when it was welded together it sank. Too bad, since the side window openings and doors looked great. It was cut 2.5" in the front and 3" at the rear.



This is what it looked like a few months after I got it. I found a complete roof off a '53 Chevy 150 model 2-door sedan and grafted it to the Pontiac, after cutting the entire old roof skin off. I sold this car pretty much in this state after I bought my '48 Chevy pickup. I should have kept it, the new owner is really making the car look like a joke. (think 70's muscle-car look)

 

I did learn one important thing about professors while I was in college. Those that can't do, TEACH! Ha Ha Ha.

 

Does this count?

I think the previous builder adhered to the ole 'If ya can't weld good, weld alot...' This 'bad' workmanship was repeated all the way around the car. All of this had to be cutout and replaced.

 

This sad Buick Special had been chopped and turned as a twodoor in Finland in the early 1980's, then something went really wrong and this is how it looked when I bought it for parts a year ago.

 

Here's a pic of my first chop, on my first car. I was 15 and doing it with the help of a shady body shop that wanted nothing to do with it. Looks pretty decent in the pics, but the sunken back window leaks and the door and windshield posts aren't straight. I've got the pieces to fix it, so when I go through it again, I should be able to fix my mistakes. This car taught me a lot, and even though the car needs to be redone, the experience was worth the effort.

 

walmart, hitler of the retail world???? if i lived closer to ya id buy ya a beer!!! im always bitchin at the wife for goin there so much...i tell her walmarts the antichrist on a daily basis...... long live the dollar stores!!!lol

 

looks pretty damn good to me!!! i was still pickin my nose in public at 15, not choppin rides....killer first effort......

 

Thanks, it looks pretty good until you get real close, then you can notice all the flaws. Most people think it looks fine but the guys who know can tell it ain't the greatest. That was 10 years ago and since then I've figured out what I did wrong and how I can fix it. Don't know when I'll get to it though.

And for those of you who are wondering, yes, those five spokes were long ago swapped out. (I thought they looked good at the time, what did I know?)

 

I myself dont have any pics of it, perhaps slowandlow63 does? The WORST chop I have ever seen in my life would have to be this 51 Pontiac sitting infront of a dudes house in Western NJ...this was the car that the lexan windshield post was started about. Hands down the worst chop I have ever seen. This car makes the Jersey Torch look like a Ridler winning build....

 

Don't have 1 picture of this job i did on a 62 longbed Chevy i had but this is how it went. My neighbor and i sitting on the dividing wall between our houses 10 tears ago, looking at the truck already lowered and in primer , and contemplating what should be done next. (Oh did i mention surrounded by a bunch of empty bud cans? )
The promiss to myself was that i was gonna be
driving a vert by that summer , and it was already almost the end of Spring . Well a few more beers later and i said " Im gonna have my convertable ,RIGHT NOW!!!" , and i grabbed the sawzall and commenced to cuttin! No bracing, now measuring, no nothing, just on a mission! When it was cut off it didnt look to bad except for the jagged blade edges (that i later cleaned up by welding exhaust tubing between the double walls. to give it a finished look.
The chop was kinda half assed but the
big thing was when there was more than one adult in it , the doors were NOT gonna open! Looked kinda cool jumping into the bed to exit anyway. .

 

i remember looking at a 50s ford truck with a chopped top and a new front clip. the problem was that it was sitting at an abandoned oil refinery since the 80s. the chop wasnt too bad but the clip was awfull they had slipped it over the frame and then done some awfull welding. and of coarse it was full of bondo!
i guess the never sold it because i still see it when we drive past

i could go on forever about all the destroyed vehicles i have seen in my 14 years

 

Here's what I said in my October post:

Wish I had a $5 bill for every aborted chop job. I could contract Chip to build me a car.

It's amazing what kind of damage a few guys, a few cases of beer, a few flawed ideas and a few hacksaws can do to a perfectly good car.

The next morning the idea guys look at what they completed the night before and say, "oh shit, what have we done?".

You're proof positive that it happens .
__________________

 

I will attempt a chop and dont want to be one of those guys who everyone hates cuz they messed up a nice car. Any tips? Since I dont drink I guess I am one step ahead...

 

1. Get & READ the book "How To Chop Tops". Available, among other places, at Overstock.com at around $15.00

2. Talk to anybody you can find that's successfully chopped a car and pick their brains. Some of the best are right here on HAMB.

3. Plan your chop out. Make diagrams. Take a side shot photo of the car and print a 8x10 copy. Scale the photo and cut up the pic to see how it'll look after it's done.

4. Locate someone that has done good chops and ask them to work with you or at least take a look and offer advice during the chop.

5. Don't rush into cutting it up. Plan - think - study - discuss. Then do it again. Keep looking at your plans with a critical eye and try to find a problem that might crop up.

6. Remember the carpenter's rule - Measure twice, cut once.

Good luck, take lots of photos and keep us informed as to how you're doing.

 

Thanks for the great advice.

 

Always thought this one looked funny...

 

I wonder if this was the end result the builder had in mind

 

My buddy, Dar, bought this poorly chopped 40 Pontiac a few weeks ago. Luckily, it came with a complete top from a 40 Buick to re-skin with. The "bodyman" used whatever pieces of metal he had out on the farm to tack over the holes with overlaping welds...BAD!

 

the worse part is that you know you are unhappy, and even if everyone else says it looks great (like me) it never helps. But if everyone thinks it looks bad, for some reason it becomes something only you could ever love.

 

You knew it was gonna wind up here.

 

years ago - I chopped my ol impala -- of course 4door hehe
-doesn't looked bad but I got bad troubles with the windshild and the other glasses -- couldn't cut it and didn't find someone who could - so I took lexan -- it worked but for sure that isn't the best way
--

 

Funny story...I was talking to one of the older car builders in my area not too long ago. He told me the story of the first chop he ever did in the very early 1960s on his '50 Merc. He cut the roof across the car, and when the welded it back together, it sank in the middle BAD. He was working at a body shop at the time, and every week he'd give his boss a few bucks and take a gallon of bondo home, which he'd mix up at once and dump on the roof, then spread it with a 2x4 with the help of a friend. 11 gallons later, the roof looked right, and the car was finished. It won a load of tropies then, and is still around the NJ area.

People come a long way though. He was responsible for at least 4 beautiful cars at Lead East this past year, including a Fine 9 winner.

If you lay the bondo in thick enough, it won't crack. Joe Carloni would vouch for that