Projects Recreating the jesse lopez coupe

Oh, I should have added that the b/glass opening became smaller because of this. The gasket and stainless had to be trimmed to fit. The glass was curved so it had to be replaced with plexi.

 

Jer im following this build just as i did your last. im sure you will do it and make it right. sucks that top is so "cut" up, feel it could have been done with less "force" but i never done one of these myself, im sure they are not "easy"; but hey, i know you will get it right! and ill be looking for updates along the way.

thanks for building this car!
Yaril

 

Hey Yaril, thanks for checkin' in. You've stirred up my innards. It's interesting that the word force is being used here. Bob did says that the top was in a "bind". This is after the "thrash" to fix that top after gettin' caught doin his own thing.

The use of the word "easy" is interesting to me because I used to find an excuse for doing the easy things and avoiding the hard stuff. With a clone of course that has to be thrown out the window. You have to do what you have to do and I've discovered that the things that intimidated me before, dont anymore. So where does that leave me? OH, THE POSSIBILITIES!

I'm stirred up by this because I remember the mountain that you climbed with your build. Sometimes easy, sometimes not but, you kept putting one foot in front of the other and got to the other side. Very inspiring.

I wish I was just 10 years younger.

 

Wow they really fucked up that chop...there are quite a few pics on my build page of the chop , it wasn't too difficult but I spent a lot of time thinking before cutting, I also had to change the roof from the 4 door to the coupe before chopping so maybe you might see something that will help you out....

 

Steve, are you trying to unload that top?

 

That picture is EXACTLY why I haven't tried chopping a top! And THOSE guys are PROFESSIONALS???

Sent using the NEW Droid HAMB app from atop my toilet.

 

This is what the back of the roof looked like when Sam and Jesse let the top come down from the 8" w/s. Sam hammered the crease out and sliced the panel to get it to lay down and start the process that would eventually join it to the upper area.

Compare it to the previous pics that show how Bob dealt with it.. While not authentic, I do like it AND, I'm definitely not going to cut the crap out of everything to change it back.

This is how I'm callin' this one. LET THE SLICIN' & DICIN' BEGIN'.

 

Some of the one i chopped....hope it helps

 

More

 

A few more

 

Last ones

 

Looks great.

 

I would like to say its been fun but, I can't, so, bye bye. We're going to turn our back on this part of the story and move forward to something MUCH more gratifying.

 

OK, we're getting ready to install this for the last time after doing all the trimming and "fitment". Notice that there are no drip rails and the B pillars are "set aside" as per Jesse with NO chunk taken out of the top.

 

finkd, that quarter window is almost a perfect match in shape. Your chop looks a little less than Jesse's. Also one can see how Jesse's back window was definetly chopped in this side side comparison.

 

When its just you by yourself you gotta" get creative.

 

That new roof cleaned up nice.

 

sure did clean up nice....

 

Easy does it.

 

The w/s opening is 9" with the old dried up seal. This should make it a 8 3/4" shield with the new seal. Just like the Zaro car.

 

Really impressed that you're tackling the chop yourself. Wow!

 

cool beans, I can't imagine what that whole struggle must have felt like... I would have had kittens.

 

Cool, my 46 Mercury will be getting the close to same haircut....great learning thread.

 

HAVING KITTINS???!!! Yeah, might be pretty close.

 

A whole litter of kittens for sure!

 

Jer, is this how the car sits currently or are you just catching us up slowly? No reason for asking, just curious.

Sent using the NEW Droid HAMB app from atop my toilet.

 

I'm about 2-3 months ahead of everybody. I'm the most comfortable doing it this way.

I think its best if you think of it as a football game you recorded. You're careful to keep from knowing the score so you can enjoy the game your self, on your terms.

All is well.

 

great thread so far , love the updates , cant wait for some more

 

Okay, that makes perfect sense. I guess I was thinking that when you encountered a problem we wouldn't be able to contribute much, but seems you also jump major hurdles in short order. Makes more sense now. Carry on, I have nothing to offer someone of your talent except for oohs and aahs.


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OK, I guess in the spirit of full disclosure I need to say that MOST of the things I'm doing here I've never done before. I've been around this all my life and except for '65-'85 I've been in the office. I would almost always have a project going over in the corner of the shop. I would sometimes team up with a like minded tech to do a cool project. This would last one time. Nobody wanted to be involved in non production work.

Now, at this time in my life I'm doing all the things that I avoided because I thought they were out of my skill set. I've discovered that there isn't much I can't do. I do consider myself an average skilled guy as I've said earlier. So I DEFINATLY feel that if I'm doin" this stuff the average guy can do it.

I'm ALWAYS coming at this with the idea that the average guy can do this if you take the mystery out of it. That's why I do these threads with lots of detail and pictures.THAT INCLUDES THIS TOP. I guarantee you that you will be able to do this top when I'm done if you can weld, work/straighten metal, shape filler, prep and paint AND, I do expect to hear some success stories.

Oh, there is one more thing. If I'm doin" this for you, you need to know that I am going to need some help from time to time. As I have also recently said: I DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING. There, now I feel better.