Thread: choping.....

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im just getting into my 67 F-100 and im thinkin about puttin a chop into it. i was just wondering if any of you fellow hot rodders know of any sites that would explane the process of it. or if you know yourself how to do it and could explane it to me a lil better and maybe share some of your tips it would be great. im not really to sure how to go about it exactly and any help would be much appreciated. this is the first chop ive done and i want to get it right the first time. im not going to take a whole lot out of it. im going for just a 1 or 2 inch job. thanks in advance.
Kris

I'm in full agreement with Richard on the books he's recommended, although I'll never give Tex Smith another dime in my life (any of you that were subscribers to Hot Rod Mechanix might understand). Read and reread till you fully understand the process. And if the truck is valuable to you, do as Streets did, find some old junk cabs and do some practicing. That way you prepare yourself for what to expect, and can see just how much extra work is necessary to re-align the top and bottom.

Chopping is about more than just taking out some chunks of material and lowering the lid. It's all about proportion. It gets lost today with the mini-fad of "old time" cars (rat rods, nostalgia cars, whatever). Some people seem to go to the "more is better" school of design. That's great if you're doing a '58 Buick and you love chrome. It's probably fine if the reason you're building the car is to make a cartoon statement, meaning all characteristics are exaggerated. But if you want to improve the lines of the vehicle, and have it remain functional, then you need to experiment for what looks good. The way we used to do it was to take photos of a rig and then chop the photo, figure the scale, and that way know how much to take out, and what kind of reshaping need to be done so it "flowed" nicely. Today, tech oriented folks can use software to do that. Whichever you're comfortable with, you should do the design first.

Now to counter my buddy Streets (one of my favorite things! ). One of the nicest chops, and most effective style wise, I've ever seen was a '53-'55 F100 that was cut 1 5/8 inches. No longer did the cab heighth look awkward. It looked like the factory styled it right for proportion. And to me, that's the proof of a good chop, when it almost DOESN'T look like it was chopped.

thanks guys, ill be sure to look around for that book and read through it before i start with it. i have a 73 in my yard that i got engine, tranny and all out of. so i might go for a practice try on that before i do it on mine. it'll give me an idea if 2 inch is what i want at the same time without wrecking the cab im wanting to use. thanks. Kris

Yeah Richard, he sends out his two year renewal with a letter talking about how he'd appreciate a two year rather than one year renewal to help his publication "progress". Been reading him since I was a kid, so thought, sure I like the mag. Then two months later he folds. Businesses don't die in two months, the owner knows well before that. To me he's morally bankrupt!!

More than that Streets. I don't think the world could stand TWO people that thought like you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob I generally read your posts with interest because you seem to have a lot of useful things to say. I'm not with you on Tex Smith though.

I went through the failure of a business. You don't always get to make choices as things go bad. The parametics put me on a helicopter with a cardiologist waiting on the other end of the ride. By the time I paid for that and was able to go back to work there wasn't any money left, and though it was months before I realized it, my medical problem didn't kill me, but it was fatal to my business. It was painful for me, and it left me nearly bankrupt, but financially, not morally. I probably could have saved the business if I had been willing to make a few less than moral moves.

Since then I've watched a couple other businesses go down. I'm a technology guy living near Seattle and after my own failure I spent some time working at dotcoms. When that bubble burst it was not pretty, and though there are some people who belong in jail, most of the companies I saw fought pretty hard to take care of customers and employees and see it through.

It was outside investors and creditors that pulled the plug and forced most of those businesses to fail, not the president of the company.

I don't know Tex Smith's story, but I do have to wonder what options he had left when the magazine failed. You may know more of his story, and could perhaps persuade me he did behave dishonorably, but I don't believe failing in a business endeavor is the same as being morally bankrupt.

Enron and WorldCom MCI prove sometimes it is moral failure that leads to business problems, but those exceptions don't prove everyone is that way...

Steve, your personal situation is a small business person's nightmare becoming reality. I'm sorry for your hardship there. But having run businesses myself, and trying to help coach others through business difficulties, your situation, as painful as it was, is not typical of most business failures. The vast majority of small businesses die because of poor preparation. Be it in the finance end, the performance of the task as required by the marketplace, or simply the lack of the business owners understanding how to run a business rather than perform the function of the business. My last business was in automotive repair. A majority of my competitors understood the technical side of the business because they were former technicians. However, they didn't fully understand the business end of things. While I admired their personal fortitude to step up and make the effort to run their own show, I often thought they had made a greivious error because they turned their back on the part of the business that was unfamiliar to them. Ultimately they caused their own demise by benign neglect. I'm mindful of the one guy who told me that if he only had another $100k, he KNEW he could make the business a success. I asked him three questions. Are you behind on your Federal withholding taxes? Yes. Are you behind on your State sales tax payments? Yes. Are you behind on all the equipment leases you have? Yes. Sorry friend, you don't need to be talking to me, you need an attorney. Three weeks later a Federal padlock was on his door. While I felt badly for him personally, and more so his family, he put himself in the position he was in by not doing the "hafta do's". The creditors have a right to be paid properly too. Unfortunately, with small businesses having an 80% failure rate in the first five years of existance, his is an all too common story.

Smith was in deep to his printer, paper supplier, ad agency fees, distributor payments, etc. He may have innocently fooled himself into believing that he could convince enough of us subscribers to send him enough money fast enough to meet the obligations that he incurred by his own decisions. He obviously wasn't right. But he did take advantage of as many of us as he could on his way down. As a youngster, and young adult I very much enjoyed his writings. He had/has a very earthy tone, while presenting a very professional piece of work. But my admiration was slain by his selfish desire to cover his butt by not being honest with we subscribers while he was probably not being honest with himself either. Perhaps I'd feel differently if he had admitted his errors and acknowledged that he didn't treat his subscribers fairly. But to my knowledge he's done no such thing. Trust is fragile, once broken, it can only be repaired with care, not apathy.

Originally posted by Bob Parmenter
The vast majority of small businesses die because of poor preparation.

I don't disagree with you. In my situation more insurance, and perhaps more attention to staying in shape might have saved things and could be called preparation.

A majority of my competitors understood the technical side of the business because they were former technicians. However, they didn't fully understand the business end of things.

A lot of businesses are started by dreamers who don't know much about business. They may or may not know a lot about the business they choose. Some make it, many don't.

Smith was in deep to his printer, paper supplier, ad agency fees, distributor payments, etc. He may have innocently fooled himself into believing that he could convince enough of us subscribers to send him enough money fast enough to meet the obligations that he incurred by his own decisions. He obviously wasn't right.

Fortunately I managed to exit without leaving anyone holding the bag so to speak.

Smith may have made some poor business decisions, and made some people unhappy in the process, the leap I don't accept is that this business failure equates to moral failure.

Being stupid isn't morally wrong.

You don't need to buy his books. I can understand being mad at the way you were treated. I just don't agree with the assertion its a moral issue. You appear convinced he did it intentionally, and I guess I'm not...

And it probably doesn't matter enough to justify the time I've put into this reply, so you don't need to waste any time trying to explain....