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 don’t show up for quite a while. The glamorous and destructive part is over with, now we have to make it all work.
Replacing the roof after the pillars have been chopped shows we have some alignment issues to solve.
Since the roof was off and it was fairly portable I took the opportunity to have it sand blasted and primed. This way I’m not trying to TIG weld on rusty metal which should give much better results in the end. Make sure to leave your structural skeleton in the roof so nothing moves or twists.
As we place the roof back on the vehicle we can see that when aligning the “A” pillars, the “B” pillar is off by a good 2”, in the front-to-back orientation. Additionally the overall width of the “A” pillars is significantly narrower on the roof when compared to the body. Remember solve one problem at a time. We will start with the front to back issue with the roof length.
I created a simple diagram of what we have done to the car which is why these pieces don’t all line up. We started with A: Simple Pyramid with a section cut out of the middle. B: With the section removed the top and bottom do not align in any dimension. C: To solve this we create a vertical cut and stretch the top to match the bottom, resulting in a lower, more streamlined profile.
To determine the distance which needs to be added I will align the roof as closely as possible and measure the distance from the leading edge of the pillar attached to the roof and the pillar attached to the car. I measured both sides and averaged the results to come to 2 1/8”. This is the width of the section which I will have to add when I split the roof front-back.
Next up: Cutting the roof in two and welding the pieces back together.
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