1972 chevy c-10 chop

[cornfield customs]

i have been working on the chop for a couple weeks. let me tell you this is probably one of the more difficult chops i have done. for people that dont know much about these trucks, the roof is double layered. it has the roof skin and an inner skin that is the steel head liner. so that creates a problem when it comes to hammering and dollying everything smooth. plus for some reason the sheet metal is super thin so welding it back together is no fun.

so the customer wanted a 1.5 in. in the front and 1 in. in the rear vertical chop. so after some math and template making i determined that to get the 1.5 in the front vertical, i needed to remove 1.875 in. linear. and 1.0625 in the rear. i braced up the cab and the cutting was on. had a buddy come over to help with removing the roof, and i let him do some cutting since he had never chopped anything







cut and put back on



here you can see the gap where the roof needs moved back on the rear



and here is where that became an issue





so i decided to split it at the factory seams to make it look factory and keep out the inner panel more



moved the rear of the roof back and tacked it up



then had to move the rear of the door post back, also split at a factory seam

 

[cornfield customs]

then started filling the gap on the outer skin









the hole on the inside



fixing the gap in the door jamb



i then took of the outer roof skin to finish filling the gap and metal work it straight

 

[cornfield customs]

back on the inner skin. used the factory seam and butt welded it the flanges together like it was from the factory





undercoated



inside looking better



have to patch the sides where the rear posts were moved



patched



then came a ton of welding and grinding to get the rest of the chop done before i put the outer skin back on

 

[cornfield customs]

i will keep updating this as the truck progresses. man this thing is a ton of work for 1 inch lol

 

[GJunktionMike]

There is nothing fun about those cabs. Excellent work on getting rid of that back cab seam, looks better than factory.

 

[Sam_Fear]

I hope you are getting compensated well! SO, how about the front glass? Are the sides flat glass? I don't recall.

 

[BillM]

Fantastic.....thanks for taking the time to post the pictures and describe your approach. I admire your skill.

 

[rust-a-must]

Ditto on the skill[ Great job[cl Keep us posted on the front glass

 

[Torchie]

Great job and great pics showing how you did it. Not for the faint of heart...
All of the issue's that you overcame just help to show the reasons why as the newer style cars and trucks became available there was less body mods being done and more customising by paint.
Please post some pics of cutting the curved glass windshield as well. Always an adventure.
Torchie.

 

[cornfield customs]

i wont be dealing with any of the glass work luckily. all i am doing is the metal work. he is going to have to send out some stock wind shields and have them cut down on a water jet or a diamond belt sander. the rest of the glass is flat

 

[soltz]

I can appreciate the amount of work and your skills and that's a big job for 2" [S
Water jet glass cutting, have to think about, maybe
Keep up the good work.

 

[Sam_Fear]

Soooo..... should I assume you'll have to go back and adjust the top of the windshield opening when he gets the glass cut? Or is it already fitted for the cut down glass?

 

[Dirtyrat]

No matter how much chop, they picked the right man for the job, as always you did an awesome job!

 

[cornfield customs]

Sam, no I should not have to adjust anything. If he does it right or at least how I do it is make a template out of Masonite that you can hold in the opening and fits the curves and send it out with the glass to have it matched

 

[Sam_Fear]

Sam, no I should not have to adjust anything. If he does it right or at least how I do it is make a template out of Masonite that you can hold in the opening and fits the curves and send it out with the glass to have it matched

Can you explain that in more detail or show a pic? I think I get it, but don't want to assume anything. I've got a heavy interest in chopping a curved glass car.