Vannin' Home Forums General Discussion Generic How To ..... How To Chop Vans Roof.

I made glass business cards on a lazer before....co2 and a yag....way low power or heat broke them....this dude paid 5k for a 100.....boy they were sweet.....they were for a eletronic's firm

I found a local glass shop thats been around since the 60s and they cut & installed neverenough with a new windshield for $130 back in 2000 1st cut still good.
# 1. When doing a straight cut front to back 1 more inch in front than the back so it will LOOK correct.My buddy Larry Hook had a mini truck chop by an old timer back in 75 and told him thats the way !(old customizer from the 50s).
# 2. Angle or straight chop: Figure where to sit & steer comfortably,then see where the chop will be. Neverenough's shorter seat bases from a lumina van & a 7"chop front 6"rear, 4 roofs to do the roof (longer & wider}, plus vista cruze & 2 sunroofs. Number 9: pair of bucket seats from a swap meet for $10 bucks,
4 1/2"front 2 1/2" rear chop, 3 roofs vista cruze & sun roof,
#3 slug your post & door frames so you can plug weld and tie in all 3 pieces for stronger joints,
a carpentors chalk line to snap your cutlines & masking tape.The web page vanning.com/neverenough you can see the build. Number 9 build is on VCVC.ORG, in forums, general discussion, frank costas number9
sorry for being long winded !!!

"sorry for being long winded !!!" Frank....We don't mind! lol

His fingers must be killing him.

What's "slug" Frank?

Ken, if you look at the pics on vcvc.org you'll see windshield posts & the door splices. I used pieces from the chop, trimmed them up, and slid them inside the joints- drilled 3/8 holes in the posts to plug; weld the SLUGS instead of welding just the seam.
I am having my daughter type & spell check for me. ( I only type with 1 finger.) My mind moves faster than the speed I type at, haha.

OK, I'll have to look up those pics, but I think I understand. Instead of just butting the metal together and welding the seam you split the posts and overlapped each piece to plug weld them as well as welding the seam. Makes it extra strong!

Yeah, the other way to do that is more difficult and takes a bit longer. I have cut windshield posts like a jigsaw puzzle (inner post a different length than outer post). The pieces fit together only one way and it gives you more area to weld. I have used rebar or tubing as alignment pins when a cut-off roof was not stable enough on its own. I've also used whatever was handy to help align roof panels, then welded sheet metal over the top of the braces to fill the gap. Here's an example...

5 1/2" top chop, straight across. The roof was so much smaller, I used a 99 BMW sunroof (with most of the Beemer roof, it's the black part in the middle) to fill in some of the gap. The gap over the door has a few 1/8" thick braces that were later covered with roof material from one of my vans (see, this post is on topic afterall)

As far as the glass it needs to be new,Old glass gets brittle and breaks easy.Centerdale glass in north providence RI.did neverenough $130 new glass cut and installed if they broke it $100 for the next glass.The door glass was cut from 89 suburban quater glass (NEW)laminated glass corect curve for the build.used the factory door glass for the template (just shorter).vent glass made cardboard templates,The windshield was cut at the bottom,Because the post stayed the same and used two roofs to make it wide enough to match the post.As far as the wall brace I cut them at the same time I cut the roof off then trim them off and shorten them up and welded them in place after the roof and upper quater sections were in place.Using a flange tool on the quater skins make it easy and stronger when welding back together.Rember when marking up your cut make sure you add a 1/2" for the flange (over lap) This is my 3rd chop and my 4th vista cruz roof I just love to play.I can't put things on paper I see it in my head

Frank I think the guy that owned Centerdale glass died. The building is up for sale.

John