Custom Aluminum Rolled Pan to Replace Stock Bumper on 1953 Pontiac Chieftain

How to Fabricate a Kustom Rolled Pan aka “Roll Pan” for a 50’s Passenger Car Bumpers are one of those things that everyone sees first when they look at a car. From the factory they stick out a mile and take hours of fabrication and modification to make them fit in a manner that reflects […]

Building a Custom “Z’d” Frame for a 1953 Pontiac Chieftain with Camaro Suspension

Blending an original 50’s frame with modern suspension for a low ride height, while maintaining safety and performance – all on a budget! When building any car from the 50’s the first thing you notice is the ride height, these things had the road clearance of a modern day 4×4 and if you could only […]

Hot Rod Rust Repair on a 1953 Pontiac Chieftain

Removing the rotted edge on a ’53 Pontiac hood and repairing with a hand made piece Sheet-metal modifications are the glamorous side of building a custom car. While they usually get the most “ooohs” and “ahhhs” they still account for only a fraction of the metal work involved on a Custom build like this ’53 […]

Chop Top Complete

“What’s the chop look like?” and “How’s the ’53 project coming’” have been common questions lately so I thought it’s time to address them. With the roof successfully lowered, and stretched the 2 1/8″ to get the roofline we’re looking for, you can finally see the finished product. The “A”, “B” and “C” pillars have […]

Window Channeled

Creating a Custom Window Channel for a Chop Top 50’s Pontiac Now that the “A”, “B” and “C” pillars have been fully fabricated and welded, the next step is to create the custom window channel for my 1949 Pontiac glass to fit a 1953 opening. Some would say the next logical step is to create […]

Go With The Flow

Finally, I am prepared to attach and blend the final rear section of the roof known as the “C” Pillar or “Sail Panel” as it is sometimes called. The position of the roof has been dictated by the chop on the A and B Pillars. As I had mentioned previously, the rear glass has been […]

B-Real

For the B -Pillars we are continuing the process of strengthening and blending the area where we have removed material. The B-Pillar is tough because it is very easy to visually gauge if it is “off” or “crooked”. The process is simple enough, if care is taken and the steps are not rushed. If you […]

A-Pillars of Society

Now that I have my A-Pillar and upper door opening sufficiently strengthened with a “slug” inside of the metal cavity, we have to make these monstrosities look good cosmetically. As you can see in the first picture, there are a lot of body lines in the A-Pillar and none of them lined up when the […]

Hammer Time – Hammer Welding the Roof Seam on a Chop Top Pontiac Chieftian

With the roof filler piece tacked into place I have two main goals: 1) make the roof structure secure and safe and 2) make the seam as “seamless” as possible. First: Safety. Welding a roof back onto a car after cutting it off is a sketchy proposition; the last thing you want to happen is […]

A Little Morning Stretch

Now that we have determined the roof needs to be split laterally in order to align the b-pillars we have to get as many of the moving pieces locked into place as possible. I like to start from the front and go rearward. First, the A-pillars on the roof seem to be about 1” too […]