The tale of two chops...Chopper and Chopped Bug...

[rick m]

I have been around all things motorized since a young teenager. Starting with sprint karts, the love moved to larger engines.  Pictured is my 69 Harley Chopper, built around a stock frame with a lot of bolt on goodies.  I love all aircooled motors.  In the background is a 2nd chop top I started building in later 72, after seeing all the chops at the early Bug-Ins. Inch Pincher 2 and the Lightning Bug got me started on wanting to do a later model body.

The chopped VW pictured in the first shot started life as a 67. The shot with the harley was taken right after we had finished blasting the body after the completed welds were done on doors, etc.  The second picture was the "during chop" phase. Check out my crazy shirt and hair! 

The last shot is a picture of the car on wheels.  Cal Look was not officially designated yet and a lot of us were into bigger tires...until later.  So, sorry for the crazy wheels.  BRMs would definitely have given the car a much different look in 1973.

Rick Mortensen

[von-dart]

 Very cool pics Rick !!    Can you remember how much you chopped out of the roof? (height-wise)

cheers,
gary.

[louisb]

I really like that chop. Its got a nice curve to it. One day I will do a chopped car.

--louis

[j-f]

Cool memorabilia 

I like to see how people work on their car in the real life and how it was done before.

[rick m]

Gary,

The chop was roughly 4" by the time I cut, recut and fit all the corner sections before welding in the strip for the lengthened roofline.  I was trying to duplicate the look of the early gassers when I did it.  I did not have any coach either.  All self taught from simply studying the drag bugs, doing a lot of measuring and estimating before making my initial cuts.

Rick M

[von-dart]

Thanks for the info,Rick.

Its a daunting task chopping the roof even with some sort of guidance,so thats very commendable work. i've been helping a friend chop his '67 roof by about the same amount,so this should be good inspiration for him !!

cheers,
gary





R.I.P. Joe "Mr.Empi" Vittone.

[rick m]

Gary,

It is not difficult...just time consuming.  You really have to spend the time measuring and laying out everything before making your cuts. Also, don't try welding too much of the roof section at any one time. I also line both sides of the weld with wet asbestos to help minimize the spread of the heat when welding in the final roof skin.  I have a very large ENGLISH wheel I built to help get just the right angles for lining up the roof prior to welding too.  It is all stuff you learn by doing and some times the hard way.

I always have two roofs to work with and extra body pieces.  To do a proper 4" chop with all stock window angles, you need extra parts. The roof and door lines on the top of the doors end up longer, so you need extra pieces to to it right.

Attached is a shot of the English wheel I built several years back to help make metal work and contouring much better.  It makes for better fit of body sections and easier to metal work after welding in pieces and working the metal.

Rick M

[Fastbrit]

When my friend Luke Theochari and I chopped the roof of my Flashback race car, we used the same technique that Keith Goss used to chop the top on his car. The great thing about the method we used is that you don't have to get into making filler strips and trying to match the contours of the front and rear sections of the roof. And you certainly don't have to make a ton of work for yourself by cutting the roof into several pieces. All you need to do is use the front section of a second roof from a scrap donor car, cut long enough to fill the 'gap' that would otherwise result.

It's difficult to explain the whole method in detail but basically we laid a strip of steel, four-inches wide along the side of the pillars. This showed us then how much we needed to cut out of the front and rear pillars (more than four inches because of the angle…). One single cut was then made across the roof just ahead of the B-pillar, releasing the front part of the roof. The rear section was then moved back to line up with the body, using clamps on the gutters (drip-rails). Then you need to cut the front section of a second roof leaving the roof section a foot or so longer than the original. Cut the front pillars to match the body – you'll need to spread the pillars out slightly to align with the bottom sections on the main body. At the back. you will need to shrink the metal slightly around the rear window with heat to get the contours to align exactly, but not by much. You can trim the 'new' front section to length and, with the roof supported inside to ensure you don't change the profile, make one weld across from side to side. That is the ONLY weld on the main roof section. Simple!

You now need to sort out the B-pillar on the rear roof section - cut this out under the drip-rail and move it forward to align with the door gap, leaving a small gap between the drip-rail and the side window, which can be filled with a small piece of metal, or by using a section cut from a scrap donor car. At the rear corner of the side window, careful pie-cutting will allow you to recontour the window – or you can again use a section cut from the second donor car. Finally, the tops of the doors can be cut and shut to match the roof.

It really is a simple method that retains the original side profile, and will allow the deck lid to open and shut as normal – nothing you have done has altered the angle of the rear window, vents or decklid area. If you want to keep a stock-height rear window (like on an Oval-window) all you need to do is make you rearmost cuts across from the drip-rail then up and over the top of the rear window.

It took us about four days to chop the roof like this, never having done one before. It just takes planning but the end result is perfect. Anyone who's seen the Keith Goss chop-top will confirm this. Hope that helps…

[rick m]

Keith,

I've done one that way as well. There are a lot of different ways to approach it. I will post another shot of a 66 that I chopped inserting an oval rear section. It was just another and different way of doing a top.  It was not going to be a street car so I took off the drip rails and removed the rear air vents.  Side angles and all pillars remained stock angles.  It was something new I wanted to do for a friend who ended up with the body.

In this shot you can see how I used a complete roof skin to keep from having a flat roof.  I did one of my first chops like you are suggesting, which I made slight changes to the door pilars. It was an oval (1971).  I will dig them out of my archives and post them. They are from 39 years ago... and my first chop.

Rick M

[rick m]

The chop pictured here is not one I did but I bought it to revise the car. It is in progress right now and hope to be driving it to Bug-In May 2nd in Fontana with my new 2275 in it. Some rear body mods are going on right now. It is not a 4 inch chop. measures to be about 3 1/2 inches.

Rick M

[speedwell]

It's difficult to explain the whole method in detail

no keith it's not difficultt just ask me  

 
fabs

[speedwell]

 

[speedwell]

 

[speedwell]

 

[speedwell]

 

[Black Sheep]

Fabs which issuse was that ? coz I may need to dig it out again some time .

[speedwell]

Fabs which issuse was that ? coz I may need to dig it out again some time .

pm sent

[Fastbrit]

 

[louisb]

The chop pictured here is not one I did but I bought it to revise the car. It is in progress right now and hope to be driving it to Bug-In May 2nd in Fontana with my new 2275 in it. Some rear body mods are going on right now. It is not a 4 inch chop. measures to be about 3 1/2 inches.

Rick M

I like that profile. It looks like a wedge has been removed with more at the A pillars.

--louis

[louisb]

Now I just need to get it translated into English.

--louis

[speedwell]

i will search the volksworld  with the same report and scan this one , may be something 97/98 keith

[Black Sheep]

Thanks for the PM fabs , Ive got that Volksworld up in the loft some place , time to break out the loft ladder and torch .

[speedwell]

Thanks for the PM fabs , Ive got that Volksworld up in the loft some place , time to break out the loft ladder and torch .

[rick m]

That is a great article. It is almost exactly how I laid out the cuts on the first post I made on this topic when it started out. Great article Keith!

Is the chop you are doing in this article the same car that later became your turbo bug?

Rick M

[Fastbrit]

No – I've owned four roof-chopped cars. The one shown in this article is Flashback, the car that heads the feature. KS

[richie]

Looks like the only time Keith did any work was number 9,hope you got that line drawn correctly there Keith,the concentration on your face


cheers richie

[Fastbrit]

   
 

[rick m]

Keith,

I am surprised you are not driving another chopped bug.  Your 65 looks very nice though. Looking forward to seeing it at Bug-In.

Rick M

[Fastbrit]

Keith,

I am surprised you are not driving another chopped bug.  Your 65 looks very nice though. Looking forward to seeing it at Bug-In.

Rick M

sadly, I don't have the money, time or facilities to do another chop-top! 

The '65 is just a belly-button modern Looker... but I like it.

[Zach Gomulka]

I gotta say, when ovals are chopped they look best when the section is taken out from the vents below the rear window, like the Flat Four IP2 "replica". The roof gets a little weird when all that metal is taken out from above the rear window. Also the rear 3/4 view comes out really good because the rear and side windows "line up" better than they did stock.

Anyone got a rear 3/4 pic of FF's IP2 replica?