chopping a '49 Ford top for the first time

[62rebel]

can you believe that? 35+ years in this hobby and never chopped anything but a Model A top (pretty straightforward, that one..) .....

decided to rebuild one of my approximately 36 or so shoebox Fords, and found one that i'd already done a scale 4 3/4" section job on. figured on about the same amount of chop, but the amount of chop was actually determined by another variable. i cut the roof across the top at the door cut line and quartered it. i cut the back window loose about 1/8th inch above the window opening and straight along the crease around the body. i cut a donor body across the roof at the front door WINDOW back edge line and the rear window edge line, to make a filler in the roof. this piece was cut at the center, and each side cemented to the front and rear sections of the roof from the first car. by lining up the door cut line on the filler panel to the cut line on the body, the front and rear pillar cut lines are determined. the center pillar cut lines are established at this time also. it's fiddly work; it's a test of manual dexterity to fenagle ALL the bits and pieces into what looks like a car again, but it's really not that hard to do. i used some happy words because i tend to drop stuff... but it's coming along.

i took the opportunity to redo some of the less-workmanlike stuff i'd done to the car the first time, like properly dropping the rear wheelwells instead of just chopping the tops off them.... cleaning more flash than i thought it had... find a better engine for it.... better wheels, since NOW it's not a sectioned stocker.

[Guest Johnny]

There was a good article in another magazine some years ago that showed how to do it without chopping up another car! I tried it and it worked really well for my 2nd chop top car!

[62rebel]

i remember the article, but all the older magazines i had went to recycling a couple of years ago. had to go by memory... WOW... dusty in there.

[ZombieHunter26]

I remember the library of old mags.

ESPECIALLY the awesome POPULAR SCIENCE ones from waaaaay back. I got a LOT of inspiration and imaginative ideas from reading those things.

...I now start to wonder what would have happened had I read those old Hanes manuals as avidly...

On a different topic, I'm gonna have to take a look at that build next time I pop by

[Borgis]

That extensive explanation would have been even better with a couple of pictures.

[62rebel]

pics would be great, wouldn't they?

[Borgis]

pics would be great, wouldn't they?

Yes they would.

[Terry Sumner]

You may be referring to Tim Boyd's article he did years ago on chopping a top on a 49 Merc? Een though it's a 49 Merc I would think that the procedure would be pretty much the same for a shoebox. I have it scanned here.... http://public.fotki.com/tsumner/scale-modeling/magazine-article-scans/chopping-a-roof/ Hope it helps!

Edited February 4, 2012 by Terry Sumner