chop top

M

moltov

Guest
i am thinking about chopping my 55 buick 4 door special about 4 to 6 inchs. any comments,advice,anything would help.thank you
 
The best advice I can give you is PREPARATION!!
are you going to do it yourself?
if so, how good are you with a welder?
who is going to cut the windows?
are you confident in their skills?
where can you get new windows if need be?
I do not know your experience with cutting and welding and so,and dont take offence but doing this is NOT so simple!
it takes a lot of work,patience and a god of your own!
precision is one of the keys to succes and so is patience.
I have done it once,and boy I swear I WAS SWEATING BULLETS!
GOOD LUCK!!!
 
righy now i am in a welding class so i should get pretty decient with a welder. i am i am missing all of the windows except i have 2 front windshields. i was thinking i would use plastic for them. this isent the greatest car condition wise and i just want to do it.i plan on using a sawsall and a mig welder and the rear and side glass dosent scare me its just the front windshield that will be a pain.
what year/make did you chop? i really want to do this myself. and if i mess up too much ill probibly make it a confertable.
 
I hate to shoot you down but this is a HUGE job. I have chopped many cars and this would be a biggie. The glass is a just as big a concern as the metal, maybe more. If you REALLY want to do it I can walk you through here. But to give instructions now would be premature.
smile.gif


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Life long Buick fan,
1965 Gran Sport Conv.
1965 Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy P.U. with 401 in it.
 
Hey roadmouse, don't you run away!
smile.gif
If Moltov is going to do this hi needs all the help he can get!

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Life long Buick fan,
1965 Gran Sport Conv.
1965 Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy P.U. with 401 in it.
 
i wont be doing the chop untill i really know whats going on but i want to do it myself.
 
if you could give me a brief walk through to let me know what problrms im going to incounter that i havent thought of yet.
 
Chop tops are way cool but they are a lot of work......55's have curved glass for the windshield and rear window annd will need to be cut to fit into the shorter posts. The front and rear quarter glasses are trimmed with stainless. it will need to be cut and fitted the the windows after they are cut. The rear posts are another problem. They are slanted and you just can't cut a section out and hope the two pieces will fit. You will have to move and adjust the angles and make both sides match. Also, you are working on a four door and you will need to cut and remove sections from FOURTEEN posts. Front roof pillar, forward post on front door, rear post on front door, center pillar, forward post on rear door, rear post on rear door, and rear roof pillar----times two, left and right sides of your car. And you will have to cut TEN windows. This IS NOT a DIY project you can do in a hurry.

I own a 55 Super four door and once longed to chop the top. After realizing the amount of work involved, I decided to lower the suspension and install lake pipes to give the car a led sled look. The car stands 2 3/4 inches from the ground. I also installed adjustable shocks the raise the car for speed bumbs and curbs----an 18 foot long car that low to the ground will scrape, but it looks good.
 
moltov, I forgot to give you a 'walk thru" thankfully daddyo did a wonderful job. The only thing I can add is on the curved glass issue. Glass can't be modified in shape to fit the top so the top must be modified to fit the glass. This is not an easy job, you need to cut the glass and then use it (or the pattern you used to cut the glass) to modify the roof to fit it. The back glass is tempered and can not be cut (ok there is laser , but that is BIG bucks) so you have to lay the glass down or lower it in to the package tray to fit the new lowered roof line.

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Life long Buick fan,
1965 Gran Sport Conv.
1965 Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy P.U. with 401 in it.
 
thanks alot for the information. i will think long ang hard before attempting the chop but i still want to do it.i probibly wont attempt it untill i am a little better at welding and have my own equiptment.
 
I have one comment...I have parted out several nice cars that somebody "wanted" to chop. THey started and then found out they were way over their heads. Most start by cutting. Wrong! As one previous post said, preparation. Multiply that by 10 times. The vast majority of do it yourself top chops end in do it yourself ruined cars. They sit inside for awhile while the do it yourselfer asks his buddies and tries to solve the curve problems, trying to get in his mind what a pie cut is and where he needs to shrink and what hte hell is shrinking!!! Pretty soon, the car get pushed out in the weeds with part of the roof tacked here and there with every weld showing a concave or convex warp, turning orange with rust. Then, someone like myself drives by, sees it sitting there, buys it, and parts it out, except for the part that was ruined by the do it yourself top chopper. I have chopped several cars and trucks and just let me say that the 50s cars, next to a VW Beetle, are the most difficult cars to do in my opinion. The compound curves are very difficult to modify, and a 4 door would be a nightmare even for an experieced bodyman. Welding school is not preparation enough to chop a top, neither is patching panels. Welding (good welding) is only a small part of chopping a top. You will use several hammers and dollies and saws and pencils and paper more than you will use the welder. You have to be able to reverse a crown, hammer a high crown into a low crown, use pie cuts and shrinking techniques to blend two or more complex curves that do not match...I could go on and on. What I am saying is, if you like your car, chop 5 that you dont like. Finish those completely, then do yours.

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Ray Elkins
BCA member #38146
57 Special Model 48, 401-4x2
64 Skylark Sport Coupe, 401-2x3
64 Super Wildcat Sport Coupe, numbers matching 425-2x4
60 LeSabre 364-2 (okay, its not my
my normal big-inch, multi-carb Nailhead, but it's original)
ironhntr@apex.net
IronHunter's Obsolete Auto Parts:
http://www.ironhunter.net
 
Man oh man, you said it all! At 16 years old, My "first" was my truck. While it sat undone, I thought I would Chop a cherry '64 Chevy SS Nova I had.

You guessed it, it ended like Ray said. Poor Nova, it deserved better.

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Life long Buick fan,
1965 Gran Sport Conv.
1965 Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy P.U. with 401 in it.
 
yeah i realize. i now just want to make it a perminant vert by cutting the roof all the way off. how should i go abou stregthening it. would welding the doors shut be enough?
 
You are talking about a REAL car, it has a full frame. Cut it off, if you want. I hate to see that though.

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Life long Buick fan,
1965 Gran Sport Conv.
1965 Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy P.U. with 401 in it.
 
i know you would hate to see me cut the roof off but this car is missing the rear window and all the other windows are broken. i dont really have the money to give this car the treatment it deservs. im giving up and im gunna have fun with it.
 
hey would it be possible and easier for me to do an angle chop on my buick? i could cut the middle and rear pillars and bend the rear down and leav the front windshield alone? im not all that worried about glass other than the windshield cause i wont be putting any in for a while if ever. i think it would look really kool that way. fat in front narrow in the back. by the way. martinsr, are you the same guy who is in the volks rodder forum? if so thats how i got the idea.
 
i was thinking of removing the middle pillar all to gether and welding the rear doors shut
 
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