Chop help!

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anothersteveg

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 17, 2012
Messages
45
So I'm working thru the issues on my Frankenstein project. Today's fun is the chop. I'm mating up a '27 Dodge cowl to a '27 T Coupe back half. A previous owner had cut and tacked the windshield frame of the Dodge cowl. They did a pretty crappy job. This will set the height/chop for the rest of the car so I've got to get it acceptable before I move on. This is also my 1st chop (I know, bite off more than you can chew) and I'm struggling with fixing this.

One side is pretty close, the other is not. I'm wondering if this is repairable or not? Start over or ?

Pic's to follow.

Thanks!

Steve
 
This is a shot of the driver's side. I've been working on grinding down, and redoing some of the welds. It was cut in 2 places. The bottom cut looks like a relief cut, didn't go all the way thru. The actual inside frame the window rests on (no idea what you call it) was way off at the cut. I took out some more on the bottom so they would line up, and have been working on getting the channel to look right. These pic's show the red areas I'm worried about. They are much better than when I started, just don't know how much more I can do with them? How much can I correct with body filler (ugh)?

I've filled in a couple of areas where previous grinding (?) made it uneven and filled in some holes and door latch openings. I'm going with suicide doors.
 

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These are pics of the right side. This side was actually welded back together [S

I haven't done anything to this. The yellow line shows the window frame opening I mentioned in the last post. After a lot of work, I got the other side to be pretty close. This side looks tough.

The red lines show the alignment issue I'm worried about. I'm thinking with some well placed relief cuts and hammering/heating, I can get it back close?

What say you?
 

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PS. Made my own doors, suicide hinges and latches, and B pillar. Got a lot of work to do on them as you can see. The pictures make the alignment look kind of goofy, but it's pretty straight in person.

Have to get the windshield right. Then I have to figure out how to chop the back window to match, and make side window openings. This build is parts of 3 different cars, so it's a bit of a challenge. Never done a chop before so I'd love some help!

First thing I learned is never buy a car that has already been hacked by someone else![cl
 
It is hard to tell by the pictures. But around here we say,"it's only metal". Meaning if you had to start over you can. Metal is the one thing that can be added to, or cut away from, bent, shaped and formed, then scrapped out and melted down to make another car.
If you take your time, you can shape what you have to look straight, even if you have to cut it a little first.
 
Most just seems to be cosmetic.Looks as if you need to build up the "V" at the joints with welds or filler metal.If necessary cut out the bad spots and replace.On the sunk in places if you cant get behind them you may can do a vertical cut and heat and a flat bar bring it out and weld back up.
 

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Alignment looks to be an issue on the one set of pictures, I think that is the biggest issue I see, cutting and re-aligning the vertical sections of that front window channel area would probably be a good start in my opinion. The other areas can be ground smooth, and if there is an area that looks too deformed, cut that area out and form a new piece to go in.

Using straight edges to guide the chop alignment can be a great help as well, even clamping to a heavier piece of angle iron to keep things aligned while welding.

Looks like you have a great start on your chop!
 
Just a follow up:

I took Dirtyrat's suggestion, made a few cuts and used angle iron and some clamps to redo it.

Before:
 

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Clamping, and the afterwards.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Still got some grinding to do, but I'll get there. I posted this as an encouragement to everyone doing their 1st chop. It wasn't really that big of a deal to fix.

I've spent a little more time on the driver's side and it's looking great. (Well great to me anyway)
 

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27 dodge

i have a 27 dodge 4 door sedan no floor cross members cowl sides and rear panels are all there i have the body. also 27 dodge picup body everybody starts some where like to seepicture of all of it thanks i need to find out how to post pictures. is there abook telling how to post pictures i have lots parts i could sell
 
Looks good these old cars are a learning experance thats what make it fun
and the guys here seem to be pretty good at helping, just joined yesterday and think I will enjoy it here keep up the good work
 

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