My First Chop Job! - by George King

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Librarian's note: With Georges permission I am combining the contents of posts from his original thread that he is using to document his project, as well as his thoughts and experiences along the way. The project is on-going and is a work in progress, as is this compilation. I have exercised a little editorial license for the sake of continuity and clarity. The full contents of Georges thread can be viewed here:

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4307&page=1&pp=10

Also, I have attempted to embed pertanent "quotes" from others that evoked particular responces from George, to allow for "context" of some of Georges's thoughts and observations.

Please feel free to contact me if you find something out of whack.

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Original content provided by George King - AKA GEOKING

1-21-2006

Hello,
I have been working all week with With Dutch Comstock in an effort to do my first chop job with LOTS OF HELP! AN overview of the project is to take a 1946/7/8 Ford Club Coupe and turn it into a 3 window coupe with a morphed business coupe roof line. The first thing done was to hire a commercial artist to do art work and see if the car would be aestically feasable...IE: would it look right? The picture looked really good...hmmm can it be done. Secondly, Needed a car and started shopping on ebay. Before finished , I had 2 club coupes , one business coupe and one business coup body shell only. Now I have a car that seems like it will be very nice and worth making the effort to finish. Had it been too ugly, I was going to stop and sell as is to a new home.
Dutch was down for the class at Kerry Pinkerton's and we started about 9am Monday am. I have posted pics in My gallery "geoking" and will post the latest progress Tomorrow. My memory stick was full and now I can take some more as I have saved to the PC.

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/500/firstchop1.jpg http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/500/lowcrownpanelsadded.jpg

heres a few more pics

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/500/morepieces.jpg http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/500/firstchop4.jpg

heres a couple more...and A big thanks to Kerry who actually used MY ewheel to help make the sail panel adds as well as the quarter roof panels..He said it was killing him to use a non Imperial Wheel . Kerry was good natured and added a lift to the party. smile What can I possibly say to my dear friend Dutch...it sure was fun and after 5 and a half days, I am very tired ! This was a fun week and I can hardly wait to get to do it again this summer...That's right, we will finish the metal work later. In the mean time , I will start on a body cart and get the chassis freed up to add the new underpinnings of a small block and a 5 speed manual tranny.

Travel safely Dutch...and above all thank you for the patience and the wonderful friendship!

George

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/500/firstchop2.jpg http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/500/morphingin.jpg

1-24-2006

I downloaded Dutchs camera as he was loading up. Here is a shot with the sail panel clamped in place. Dutch's camera got full so we didn't get any final shots but I'm sure George did and will be posting.

John asked if there were any photos of me using George's wheel. On the FAAAR right you can barely see someone working on something. That's me using George's wheel to make the right sail panel.

The sail panels were interesting. The left side was done without a pattern just tweek and fit repeat. After it was done (about a hour or shaping), we pulled a flexible pattern and the right side only took about 20 minutes.. It took a lot longer to trim them in than make them.

Dutch left Huntsville Saturday night about dark and after loosing a Ujoint somewhere on I81 in Va, he arrived at Gators in Fredrick MD Sunday night. Of course, the pallet if 12 ga steel, hydraulic corner shear, and bridge crane on his trailer not to mention all his hand tools in the pickup MIGHT have put a little more stress on the driveline...maybe...

This activity is all part of being good shepards of the earth. We have to keep things in balance. I bring 5000 lbs from Detroit to Alabama and Dutch has to haul 5000 lbs back north just to keep the earth in balance.... Wow that's good! I wonder if our wives will buy it? LOL!

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3934/medium/sailpanel2.jpg

January 24 Update

Pic per request of side view with panels.. 15 feet of welds to do this weekend, yikes!

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3934/latest-pic-jan-21.jpg

The roof line looks great! I think the window needs work though. It doesn't look right to me. I think it would look better with more curve in the back of the window opening and straighter in the front. Now it looks like the window is going backwards.

Richard,
The profile was achieved by turning the A pillar on the opposite side 180 degrees so you are exactly correct that it is in a way going backwards.
However, it was not chopped in order to achieve the "rake". Doing this made the whole job slick an saved at least 20 hours of work per side. It does look very nice when you hold the door top pieces up as they change the look entirely. The rear is not nearly so sharp and angular when the surrond sheet metal goes on.... It's where it is and going to get better looking soon! trust me...

George the reason the door looks kind of odd is because there is no upper part (window frame) to the door installed yet. Once that is in place, the window opening will be symetrical front and rear.

Sorry George, I didn't realize the top wasn't on the door in the pictures. I will be watching for more pictures then. Kuel.

2-12-2006

Well , I did the passenger door two weeks ago and the result wasn't very nice b4ecause the gaps were not perfect. I waited until my heart was BACK IN IT AND TRIED THE DRIVERS DOOR TODAY! I am happy and will redo the passenger side now that I have had practice. I posted pics in the gallery as well as here, Adding the first piece in red primer was a snap as it was the original with 2.5 inches removed to match the chop top. This time a put a spcer out wood behins the piece to allow for the gasket thickness later on. Next , I used a donor A pillar mathing door top off of a business coupe door and sand blasted befor fitting in place and welding up the delux trim holes. Note how much different the radiusis now as xcompared to the original. Although I did not take pics , the replacement was 3/8ths of an inch mor narrow than the original with regards to thickness. I split the narrow pieceto stretch half the distance while slotting the orinal and removing the half . WHAT A PAIN IN THE BOOTY! I have another set of doors the coorrect size , but did not have the heart to cut a good set of doors up when I could make these pieces work. I am please with the results and now only have to figure out how to make windows work??? ANY ADVISE WOULD BE APPRECIATED. I had to cut the original channels off when i cut the door tops off.???????

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3934/where_it_used_to_be.jpg http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3934/thisgoes_in_.jpg

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3934/open_up_the_whole_.jpg http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3934/patch_work_door_top.jpg

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3934/finishedleftdoortop.jpg http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3934/shannon_.jpg


Original content provided by George King - AKA GEOKING