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How to chop a car roof.
By chopping just the front of the a pillars and the cap of the roof on these trucks one can actually end up with a 4 inch chop without ever touching the doors side glass back glass or jambs.
The previous cuts will allow you to see where the metal needs to cut from inside the vehicle.
Seriously if the doors don t fit right before you cut the roof off a car i can assure you that they won t fit after you weld it back on and the results could be permanent.
This is where the quality of planning for the chop shows up.
By pete sanchez aka 49flatty.
Basically here it was quite of a raw way to cut the roof do it when you are falling short on the budget but you still would want to do something new to the.
Ben cuts along the beltline swage line.
Cutting away the roof skin for many chopping the top is the pinnacle of coolness and proof that you ve built a real hotrod or kustom.
This resulted in the top being slid forward in compensation for the 3 inch drop in elevation.
Read this before you chop.
It takes one weekend to chop the top and tack weld it back on.
Finish cutting the bottom metal from the t cut.
Material was removed from the c pillars until the rear of the top dropped to the desired profile.
While every type of car is different the lessons here can be used on any car from technical points things to look for and things to take into consideration.
How to chop a top page 1 want to chop a top.
Any fool can do this.
Finally it can take up to a year to finish the bodywork on a bad roof chop.
As much as i love a good chop it s not always what the car needs and that s the key in my opinion to a perfect build.
Next the a pillars were cut along the bottom tape mark and the roof panel was lifted onto the car and aligned at the a pillars.
The a b and c pillars were cut most of the way through from the outside leaving just the inside to cut with the air saw when the time came to lift the roof this ensures the car stay contiguous.
After this the parcel tray needs to be cut away from the window lip.
Use the electric grinder with the cut off wheel and start a cut on top.
It takes a month to finish weld the chop.
It took over a year to finish the roof chop on my car.