Fernons Chop - Page 2 - Cut-Weld-Drive Forums

BullDog · April 23rd, 2008, 02:20 PM

no mines not a capella... but the same issue laying down the oval clip.

fernon · May 26th, 2008, 06:57 PM

This is probably redundent

You can read more about the chop in the Members Intro Page.

http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19805

So I finally got a hood for the ride and started to strip it down, the car already looks a thousand times better with the hood.

Then the task of stripping down the Fat Chick, or as it has been kindly referred to lately as The Onion (with every layer that has been taken off this Piece of Shit car it brings a tear to your eye)

The only reason I bought the car to begin with was for the engine, it runs strong and is a great starting point for the volksrod.

Lifting the old body off the frame.

And now the moment we have all been waiting for, the placing of the 1962 chopped body on the 1972 IRS Pan.

The body fits like a glove, no clearance issues with the motor or deck lid like everyone said there would be, the only thing that I am concerned with at this point is lowering the front end, I know that the Tinbeater front end lowers another 2" but I need another 6" and I already have 2-1/2" dropped spindles, We'll figure something out, we always do.

OK, back to work, with the body off we can start to see how bad the pans really are. Fuck It, new pans and heater channels, I'm not going to spend my life chasing rust, new metal is far more cheaper than my time.

Another layer to The Onion, the tunnel is fucking trashed, time to start fabbing a new one.

Now I just need to cut the other side and drop the new pan in and then I can start cutting up more metal on The Onion.

So its the last day of the three day weekend and I have to say my neighbors probably wish I was dead, between the grinding of the metal, drilling out what seemed like a thousand spot welds and the air hammer ripping up the metal to take out the old pans it has been nonstop all weekend long, but we have new metal in the bottom half of the car and what a difference it makes.

Here is some of the fab work that was done to the fucked up tunnel. Better than the original, my brother-in-law can weld like a MOFO but I am a crazy grindin' son-of-a-bitch, after the bodywork you will never be able to tell. (sorry bug guys no JB Weld or Foam Fill in this car).

It was very easy to put the pans in with the heater channels so that you can line everything up, then after they are welded in you unbolt the heater channels and set the body on, then replace the heater channels on the car one side at a time, I will have photos of that for you to see when we start doing that.

Make sure you use the original spine in the back if you can, it is stronger than the aftermarket pans and it helps lining up the pans, just drill out the spot welds and separate the spine.

One side in, now it's time to fix the other.

More fab work to the other side. (The Evil Metal Genius loves it when I photograph him - NOT!!!)

So here is a recap of this weekend, we stripped the Fat Chick, finally took the cancer ridden body off, replaced the floor pans, did some fab work to the tunnel, sat the new body on, stood back for a moment and said OOOOH - AAAAH then lit off some fire works (maybe we got that backwards???), cut the back shock tower mounts (remember this is a 1962 body going on a 1972 IRS pan), did a bunch of cursing and calculations and made a plan for our next long weekend. Not bad for three days!!!

bugdust · May 26th, 2008, 07:01 PM

Looks like some good progress!

fernon · May 26th, 2008, 07:08 PM

Thanks, you have been officially taken off my People to Kill Today List, by the way if you want the fat chick body (comment from a previous post) it's all yours, but you can see from the pictures why I did not use the 72 body, with every bolt that came out of that car at least 5 lbs. of rust followed.

bugdust · May 26th, 2008, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fernon

Thanks, you have been officially taken off my People to Kill Today List, .

Whew!! I have been really sweating that!

No, somedays I must be on the rag...if I come across as an asshole it is only because I am.

I'm still not a fan of Capella chops but I am a fan of good craftsmanship.

fernon · May 26th, 2008, 07:27 PM

Actually it is a variation of a Capella Chop, I agree I am not a big fan of that style chop either, I have only seen it look good once or twice and I didn't want that wedge look to the roof line either. We decided to modify and mainly guess on how we wanted things to line up and work, I have been getting flooded with PM's on measurements and the only thing I can tell people is the initial measurement we made but we must have trimed it a thousand times before we got the look that we wanted. Oh, and as far as being an asshole don't worry, because without assholes we would all be full of SHIT!!!

66 Shorty · May 27th, 2008, 03:36 AM

Sweet work Man!

You guys got alot accomplishied!

fernon · July 7th, 2008, 07:34 AM

Time to Turn Up The Heat-er Channels

So we decided to tackle the heater channels over the three day weekend, thus putting all the structure back into the car so that we can proceed with working on the doors. The first line of business was to remove the old channels, we decided it would be best to bolt what was left of the old channels to the new pans so that everything was lined up and then brace the inner doors so that the body wouldn't tweek when we cut the channels off. Working one side at a time we proceeded to cut the heater channels off.

Since this car is in South Florida and it always feels like the surface of the sun here we decided to cover all the holes in the channels since they look like shit and if you want heat roll down a window.

Now that the DOG DICKS are cut off we can start to fab in the holes.

Yes he does have all of his fingers - he's just shooting a semi-bird.

All tacked in and ready for Grind Master Flash.

A little skim coat and you will never tell it was there.

Now the front is finished up.

All welded up and ready to be put back in the car. There are a shitload of holes and strange angles to be welded on these heater channels.

Cutting the inner fender well to replace more metal.

Nice big hole for ventilation.

Checking the fit. Yes we are going for a Darwin Award setting the front of the body on the bar stool, that's OK the Pepsi can is keeping it from falling.

All tacked in and good as new.

Just need to clean up the welds and it will be all done. Notice no holes.

Next thing to do is cut out the heat tubes and close up that hole.

We also shaved the drip rails around the front of the door. Hmmmm I wonder if that means we are putting suicide doors on???

J_J_ · July 7th, 2008, 08:54 AM

Love it!, Looks Damned Good! thats what I started doing then changed half way through after decidint it was more work to fix the rolled over roof than go sections didnt realize before cutting into it how bad it really was so now it's 65/66 roof with a 71 super skin.. it works but gonna have decklid issues as well.. oh well..

HeidelbergJohn4.0 · July 7th, 2008, 05:57 PM

Have you worked out the window frames on the doors yet? O know the fronts have to be canted in to match the roof. I've looked at that style chop and always worry the door windows won't roll properly. A small vent window may help out, but that's a hell of a job itself.

fernon · July 7th, 2008, 06:09 PM

Actually we have an alternative for the windows on the door but we are keeping it under wraps until we actually do it. All I can say is that it is going to make everyone's head hurt just thinking about what we did when they actually see the final door window setup...

fernon · July 16th, 2008, 08:55 AM

More of the Same

Back to work on the passengers side heater channel, after replacing the heater channel we decided to replace all of the lower metal on that side as well.

Another nice big hole to fill - the bottom end on this car is being replaced with all new metal- no more rust.

OK - I have to rant a little, it is amazing what we have found on both of these cars since we have been working on making the Volksrod.

We have come to the conclusion that most people are FUCKING RETARDED when it comes to repairing cars, the fundamental fact thatif you are not going to do it right don't do it at all just does not seem to register with most of these people, we have pulled more shit out of these cars and have seen some pretty fucked up ways to make repairs than we thought humanly possible.

Don't get me wrong I think JB Weld and Great Stuff have there place in the world and are great products but you can't build an entire fucking car out of that shit.

Here is an example of what I am talking about, these are the hinges to the doors, notice the nuts JB Welded to the plate (Priceless)...

Sorry... I had to vent. OK back to the build, the back panel has been cut out to be replaced.

This is what was cut out. More rust...

Fabbing up a new piece.

A little welding and good as new.

OK - so I was moving the shop vac around to vacuum up some of the mess that we were making and I noticed it was kind of hard to move around so I decided to open it up and look inside, well there was about 23 lbs of rust and metal that we had been vacuuming up since we started this project.

I thought about putting it in little bottles and selling it to the Samba Douchbags as Original 1962 Patina but I know some purist over there probably would have bought it and I would have to tell them to
"Stop punching me in the dick with their mouth".

walt · July 16th, 2008, 09:59 AM

Rather than to repair / replace all of those lower panels you could have just sectioned about 7" out of the bottom of it.

Just something to keep in mind for the future.

fernon · July 16th, 2008, 10:04 AM

The thought crossed our mind several times to section the car, unfortunately we thought about it after we started, you know the old saying...
"Hindsight 20/20"
O'well next time...

Jon · July 16th, 2008, 07:19 PM

Car looks great.

Would it be possible to see some pics of the firewall inside and out ?

Texasbuggys · July 16th, 2008, 07:20 PM

Looking good, man rust suxz!

bmph8ter · July 16th, 2008, 08:19 PM

Damn you guys do good work; keep it up!

J_J_ · July 17th, 2008, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walt

Rather than to repair / replace all of those lower panels you could have just sectioned about 7" out of the bottom of it.

Just something to keep in mind for the future.

I like the way Walt thinks!!

fernon · July 18th, 2008, 06:14 PM

Jon - Here are the firewall shots

We haven't really worked too much on the inside yet and we are not sure of how we are going to finish off the firewall and package tray area yet (I really like what Bulldog did with the curved sheet cover - although I really like what bulldog has done with everything on that car) but I am playing around with some Teak and Stainless finish too...

Here is the cut firewall.

Here is the firewall tacked in.

The top strip tacked in.

Someone also asked if a 5" Monster Tach would fit in the speedo opening - YES!!!

We are still not sure what we are doing with the dash yet???

volksmike · July 25th, 2008, 09:58 AM

"Yes we are going for a Darwin Award setting the front of the body on the bar stool"

So long as that stool didn't come from Harbor Freight, you'll be fine...

Jon · July 25th, 2008, 01:27 PM

Out of curiosity, How much was taken out of the firewall ?
This has gotten me re thinking my plans.

fernon · July 25th, 2008, 06:51 PM

Firewall Follies

Jon, there is really no simple answer to that question, but I will try to do my best to explain what we did.

First we cut the firewall about 2" from the top of the lip that rolls over on the firewall. You can also see where the roof will sit inside the openings that were created from removing the roof.

Here you can see the blue line and the many question marks on the side of the car. This is approximately where we wanted to end up when we where done.
(Major note here, in order to avoid the wedge look of a typical Capella Chop you need to trim and adjust, roll it outside and look at it from all angles, then trim and adjust then... well you get the picture)
We took approximately 2" out of the back end and moved the roof forward about 2" to meet up with the initial 4" taken out of the A Pillars. Remember the only measurement that never changes is the A Pillar cut everything else is trimed to fit the look that you are going for.

Here you can see after everything is cut and put where it needs to be the back end begins to take shape

Here you can see that the firewall (A) actually sits in front of the window deck (B) even after the entire roof was moved forward 2" (Try and figure that out!!!) actually since the roof has been cantered and the roof also sits inside the body it actually winds up behind the firewall, thus making it easy to fab up an enclosure for the back end.

I hope that this explanation helped you and everyone that reads this, but more than likely it just raised more questions. Hell everytime we figure one thing out, something else happens and we start all over again, that's what we are all here for.
(Cut, Weld, Ask a Shitload of Questions, Drive)

Jon · July 25th, 2008, 09:05 PM

Makes perfect sense to me. I had already gathered the roof fitting into the firewall like it did. I was just missing that all important 2" part of the equation. I would expect there to be a cut, trim, adjust, cut trim and adjust again....... method to this kinda chop and would have no problem doing so.

My plan originally was to either do the Capella style tilt but not cut the firewall loose or just cut it out go for it and then piece it back in afterwards in one trimmed piece.

I like the look and proportions to this one, and was half thinking that maybe tacking the decklid in place while doing this might help get the look right if I were to vary more or then you did on your chop. But genrally on a early body 4" seems to be the magic number.

Anyway, thanks for the great responses and quick, complete, detailed answers.

redfinger · August 4th, 2008, 08:57 AM

I know this might be kinda late, but you can put an oval clip on a cappella chop

http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showt...t=15285&page=2

I know about making the mods to get the decklid ot fit, but that is alll part of the plan on mine. BTW, great looking build.

Ashton

fernon · August 4th, 2008, 09:11 AM

Yes, you can put an oval clip on this kind of chop, that is one of the reasons we went this way because the roof line was untouched/unmolested an oval clip will fit right in, and as soon as I get one, I intend to do just that.