To this point the basic “chop” has been done, we are happy with the section which has been removed from the pillars and the resulting profile is where I want it. The next step is beginning to line everything up. At this point don’t be surprised if 80% of your helpers from the “chop” day […]
Start your motors
October 19, 2011 by
Now by “motors”, I of course mean your saw’s motor. It’s time to cut some metal. The order of cuts doesn’t really matter, usually you want your most important cuts to be made first while everything is nice and solid. After you cut a pillar or two, stuff starts to get a little loose and […]
Measure Twice Cut Once
September 5, 2011 by
How to Chop the Top on a Custom 50’s Pontiac Now that everything is securely tacked in place with full bracing above and below your cut areas, it is time to choose exactly what you will cut and where. Based on my drawing, the plan is to cut 4″ from the A-pillars and 6″ +/- […]
Bracing for Liftoff – Bracing the Body to Chop the Top
September 3, 2011 by
How to Chop the Top on a Custom 50’s Pontiac The first day of any major chop, channel or section project will surely see the largest turnout of “help”. Everyone you know will want to comer and be a part of something that could go one of two ways. First, they could say “I helped […]
Pencil, Paper and a Plan – Laying out a chop top on a 1953 Pontiac Chieftain
August 30, 2011 by
Laying out a Custom or Hot Rod project before you start cutting and welding This is the stage of the design / idea conception process where you could go one of two ways. First, you could get all carried away and have CAD designs and 3D renderings done in Solid-Works or Inventor. A process that […]
The Beginnings of a Plan…Part II
August 21, 2011 by
So, looking at the photo-chopped ’53 from my last post, we can see I have a lot of decisions need to be made. All decisions at this point are only guidelines, but are extremely important because once we cut the car we cant “Undo” anything very easily (like we can with Photoshop). Cut #1: Front […]
The Beginnings of a Plan.
August 20, 2011 by
Coming up with a game plan, it’s a big deal. What to cut? How much, and where? This is the step where a lot of reference photos really pays off. In the old days they would take photos and print them on this stuff called “paper” and then cut them out with “scissors”. They would […]
A Little Reference
August 19, 2011 by
Everyone needs a point of reference, starting down a path as long as a full restoration and customization is tough enough without a plan, but if your only reference of the vehicle you are working with is “a heap of rust particles holding hands” such as this one; you need to know what a decent […]
A long way to go… the “Before” shot
August 19, 2011 by
I have attempted this before. Twice. I have yet to get myself in a groove with a blog, so a clean slate re-design is in order. The plan is to chronicle my build on a 1953 Pontiac Chieftain as well as other fabrication or design projects I have completed in the past. I’ll try to […]
