Body - Roof Chop

With the body already channeled (you will remember this is when the body is slipped down over the chassis to make it look lower) in the case of my car....more at the front than the back to make it lean forward.

You can see just how far the body has been made to lean forward if you double click on the photo below to enlarge it, then look at the bottom of the door opening. You can see a gap between the fibreglass that is sitting on top of the chassis and the bottom of the door opening. These two pieces of fibreglass were joined until I split them. You can also see how the opening is bigger toward the front of the door. This is because the front of the body has been dropped further to give it more rake or slope down toward the front.

The next job is to cut the roof off and lower it down. This will make the car look even lower. I will also lean the roof down in the front to give it even more rake. I will also need to cut the windscreen frame out and lean that back. This not only makes the car look more modern with a raked screen it is also essential as the lower you drop the roof, the shorter it becomes so the windscreen has to be leaned back to meet it.

Before I started though you might recall I mentioned I wanted Stan Andrews (my friend who has spent many years working with fibreglass) to check I was on the right track before I took the angle grinder anywhere near the body. Well Stan kindly popped round on Friday night and gave me the green light. It was good getting his input and thoughts on how to go about it. Thanks Stan much appreciated.

Okay, so here we go.....the first cuts. You can see in this next photo that I left little bits uncut while I went and cut the other pillars. This so it would stay together until I was ready. Those last little bits were cut through with a hacksaw blade while I steadied the roof with the help of my beautiful assistant Bill Dobbin.

Here you can see that lovely assistant, Bill, sweeping the dust off the body. The fibreglass dust makes a real mess and its like its electrostatic. It sticks to everything! This is why we are cutting outside.

 

Here we have it, the roof is off! This is the point where you decide if you want a Roadster instead of a Coupe. Tell you what it would make this exercise a whole lot easier!

But no....I'm not holding back now, lets go for broke and cut that windscreen out too!

There that's done it! No going back now. 

The next step is to tuck the roof down inside the body until you get it to the desired height and rake. Here is the first look at that. Its just sitting there with clamps and props at this stage.

After many hours of trimming, trialling for fit, checking for squareness, checking angles etc. the body is pretty much looking how I want.

So has it been all that radical? Well here's how much came out of those rear pillars and it sloped down even more in the front. So yeah its fairly radical.

It might be hard to tell from these next pics, but the first is standard height, the second is after its been channeled and the third is after its been chopped. They've all been taken from pretty much the same angle, so check a few reference points like how much you can see above the roof etc. Anyway here they are...

STANDARD - you can see a sticker in the background where the dashboard of the car will be.

CHANNELED - Can't see the sticker anymore. The front has dropped that much.

CHOPPED - Look how much of the cupboards you can see over the roof now! Total height 54 inches or 1.38m.

Here's what it looks like from a couple of other angles. 

I wonder though after being sent this picture if I have chopped it enough. My roofline isn't below the engine yet!

Nah just kidding it will never be chopped like that. I have to say though I really did enjoy my first attempt ever at chopping a car. So much so that I thought I might start on the wife's Suzuki!