Thread: chopping the top

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Thinking about chopping the top on my 34. I know its alot of work and theres alot to take into consideration. any one with a few tricks or tips they might want to share? what might be a good chop for mine 1.5 , 2 inch?

Classic Motorbooks has several books that show the process. Study them to get an idea of what's involved, and even if you decide it's too risky for you to attempt, you'll be informed enough to be able to interview someone to hire. Make them tell you how they're going to do it and if it doesn't sound like what you've learned RUN away...............a bad chop will make a car practically worthless. http://www.motorbooks.com/cgi-bin/We...woa/wa/default

Most of the one's you see around that are chopped normally are 2 1/2 or 2 5/8" (yeah, an eighth can make a difference). Some have a "slant" chop, meaning slightly more to the front than the back. When you learn how it's done, you'll need to decide if a slant back windshield suites your tast, or if the stock incline is better for you. It's a taste thing, so only you can decide. With your car being channeled, you wouldn't likely want to go the "subtle" chop route, that would be somewhere in the vicinity of 1", give or take. Some folks do that to make the car look different without being obvious that it's been chopped. More than the 2 1/2" range it starts to take on cartoon proportions, and if you're tall, it makes seeing out a pain in the neck (literally), especially with the channel taking away most of your seat bottom already.

If you're good with "Photo Shop" you can do the various renditions and determine which one suits you. If you're not into the computer thing, then have multiple prints made and use scissors and tape to make your mock ups. Keep track of your proportions and you'll be able to calculate the amount of cut, where, and what variables you want to include.

Yeah, what Bob said. I like 3" on a 34, but they do get a bit tight on the headroom. A 2" chop is probably a bit more common on a '34, and they look much better with a touch more out of the front, like Bob said.

When planning a chop with pictures I use 2" masking tape on the windshield posts and the back of the roof then cut it out of the picture to get the right proportions for a 2" chop. You could make chalk lines instead at 1" intervals to try different amounts of chop.

hope it helps....

Go to your local book store and pick up Tex Smith's How to Chop Tops. It pretty much covers anything youll want to know about on the subject. BTW 34's look better ,at least to me, with around a 3.5 inch chop in back and around a 5 inch chop up front and the widshield posts heavily raked forward.

I like the pain in the neck height, myself!!! What did you use to do that, tree??? Great job, thanks man.

They all look good to me but i'll vote for the pain in the neck since it's not my neck that's involved.
Hmmmm. Now let's lean the grille back about 7 degrees.

And YA! I like that one 2 , but just like Bob said , I don't know how much "real" room you'd have .

And I also didn't know how he wanted the back window so I just left the stock length ....

If I could get a good side view, I could play around with the rake

Great thoughts and ideas , you guys have been around and seen what looks good on different cars and can speek from experience , I'm soaking it all in. I'll get some measurements to see how much headroom I might have depending on the chop. Thanx for the input