This bracing is left in until the car is fully welded at the end. The rear window is heavily braced with supports welded horizontally and vertically, and to each other to ensure the frame retains its shape so that the stock glass will fit the and factory rubber will seal later. These mark the cut lines either side of the rear window. The part of the C-pillar with the tightest radius is located and marked – this is done for both sides. The part of the roofline curve with the tightest radius is located and an area either side is marked out – somewhere within this zone is where a cut will be made in the removal of the rear window. Ben’s demonstrating the increasing thickness in the roof and the aim of the chop is to get rid of this fullness. The same is then done for the other side.Ī chop doesn’t just lower a roof, it also removes the hump caused by the way the roofline turns into the C-pillar. Two pieces of two inch tape are wrapped edge to edge to ensure four inches is evenly marked around the pillar. The visualisation lines are taken off and Ben applies tape at the narrowest, straightest section of the A-pillar. The top green horizontal line indicates the new door frame the blue line is the edge of the new window, while the thin green lines show the gutter and the shape of new rear passenger window. With that in mind Ben suggested a four-inch chop at the A-pillar.īen uses tape to mark out visualisation lines or as he calls it “visually spit balling” the amount of drop. The last thing we wanted was to end up with something we avoided driving because it was uncomfortable over long distances or too hard to get the bub in and out. So while we wanted it to look totally badass, it needed to be practical. My wife and I clock up about 400kms a week in the shoebox with a baby in the back.

Right from the start it was decided the chop couldn’t be too radical. This is a brief guide to how he and his crew did it.

Without even drawing a breath he turned to me and said, “I’ll do it – let’s chop her at the Christmas bash.”Īnd true to his word Ben did the chop at the 2015 Lucky’s Speed Shop Christmas party a couple of months later.

When Ben asked me what plans I had for it next I told him that I was a bit tired of people thinking I drove a restored vintage car and that I’d like to chop it some day. The twin spinner had been on the road about 18 months after a rebuild which saw rust repairs, new paint and a change of powertrain from a destroyed flatty to a 351 Cleveland. I’d driven my 1951 Ford over to Lucky’s Speed Shop to say hi to owner Ben Erdahl. THE chop started like most good things do - with two blokes shooting the breeze.

How to chop and section a car