Vannin' Home Forums General Discussion Readers Rides My 72 Dodge Chop Project

Nice use of bed frames also! Keep us updated.

subscribed, curious to see how the top comes together since it;s not a straight down match.

Even on a straight chop (vs angled chop) either the roof needs to be widened or the upper side panels pulled in (both have been done in the past). I am planning on pulling the walls in vs splitting the roof. There is so much geometry that goes on because every angle on the van changes, door jams move as the roof moves forward the roof is now thinner than the van where it matches back up, the top of the doors change, etc

Hahaha.....yea I had some angle iron laying around but remembered I had a bed frame in the back of my pick up waiting to go to the dump so I put it to good use!

That was for good use lee.

Wow! Nice work Lee. Thanks for posting the Chop. A work of Art.
The Metalwork you Craftsmen perform is amazing.

Yeah when it comes to body modification of that magnitude I will bow out. Van chops have to be tedious I watched a guy do a 65 bug and that was bad enough.

Next step was removing the tops of the door jambs.....what a pain in the a##. Didn't know how many spot welds I would be dealing with and need to save the pieces to reuse after the top gets lowered. Have to now remove the back rear corners and then I can cut the roof off and make the cut on the body panels and lower down the front.
Door Jambs Out:
72 door jamb by Lee Hatfield, on Flickr
72 door jamb1 by Lee Hatfield, on Flickr

I am far from a craftsman but I watch and study others and then I am bold enough (or stupid enough) to go try and tackle the project. My other Dodge is filled with some pretty extensive body mods but I had never done anything like that before so I studied a lot, asked a lot of questions and then dove in (it has taken me almost 9 years on that project since I am a novice)!