36 Ford Bobber Build

[DozerII]

Coming together real nice. Doing a chop is a real jigsaw puzzle.

 

[willyD]

I got the other side in. Now I have to figure out what to do in the middle. Somehow, it seems like there is more metal on the front side of the cut than in the back! Obviously they had to have been the same when cut but I'm thinking that the cut relieved a bunch of stress and therefore strain in the material that was left over from the roof being caved in and then beaten back out. I guess some of it could be from my patch pieces too. If I didn't have them exactly the right width, I could have pulled or pushed things around a bit. I'll have to play with it awhile to see if it will go back together as is or if I will have to relief cut into the front part to get it to lay back down.

 

[bob w]

When I chopped my grandson's Chevy truck the top dished so bad I could have raised gold fish in the dent.

 

[Willowbilly3]

Maybe you can get it back down with a shrinking hammer. I've never owned one and my neighbor loaned me his. A very nice to to have.

 

[CORPO]

metal does crazy stuff sometimes.. I too would probably approach it with a relief cut or two..

Good luck keep at it

 

[willyD]

I ended up making a single long relief cut. That got rid of the bubble. I'll have to beat on it a fair amount to get the roof reshaped after all the welding is done since a bunch of the waves and dips showed back up after cutting it.

 

[forbigpicture]

What chew talkin' bout Willis............looks good ......

 

[soltz]

Good work, turned out nice [cl

Like corpo said, steel can be difficult at times, the sprint roof is 13 pieces thought i'd never get it back together.

 

[kenny c]

When I chopped mine I had some funny wavy spots because the welds shrinking and pulling the metal. I got rid of them by hammering the welds. I think it would have gone better if I had welded a short way and them hammer it. I hope this helps.

 

[smallfoot]

It's looking pretty good to me. If you're going for shiny, you'll have to finesse it. If you're building a rat, remember that beating it with a hammer is the norm...

 

[willyD]

This ones definitely not gonna be a waxer! I was expecting to have to beat on it after the chop. I already spent quite a bit of time with hammers on it since the roof was fully caved in when I got! It'll have plenty of "character", I'm just hoping to get it as smooth as I can with hammers and whatever else is handy to beat on it with

 

[skull]

pix

you have any front on/windshield pics[P

curious to see how low the chop looks from straight on[S

Later

 

[willyD]

I'll have to take a true straight on front shot. On page 11 there are a few quarter on shots that give a pretty good idea of the windshield height in the mean time though.

 

[willyD]

Here's a front shot as it sits right now. A pillars are next on the list.

 

[smallfoot]

Shoot...finish weld it and get on with the rest...heheh![cl

 

[skull]

nice, looks like a good to me,

Here's a front shot as it sits right now. A pillars are next on the list.[

thanks for posting the front shot pic, l like the chop, just about perfect, low enough to be cool & still enough windshield height to see out of really good.[cl

Jimmy and l thought long and hard about chopping the 1948 dodge truck of his, but when he passed we had not got to it, so it stays the way it is, BUT, where you re's is about what we had in mind.

Later

 

[Old Iron]

[cl [P

 

[willyD]

I had my buddy come look at the chop this weekend to give me some pointers on the A-pillars. While he was there, he noticed that I overlooked the fact that my roof has a slight reverse rake to it as it sits. When I did my layout, I measured along the A-pillar the same length as I cut from the vertical back. I forgot to account for the angle of the A-pillar Anyway, it's fixable and I haven't started on the pillars yet so that's good. The worst part is that I may well have to re-split the roof and stretch it a bit more. We'll see once I get the pillars trimmed. I'll setup and tack my door tops first so that I have them as a guide for the roof. You can see the subtle tilt up in the first pic. I set the door top at 2 different levels as well to show the window opening and how the attitude is effected by the change.

 

[Willowbilly3]

Reminds me of how I do things. I cut stuff apart and completely redid it because something was a little off. I had my frame built on the 29 and just didn't like the wheelbase so I cut it apart and added a couple inches. I wonder if you could cheat those front pillars enough by pie cuts and tipping them a little instead of cutting the whole roof filler back out.

 

[peabody]

Awsome
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