Chopping a Top - Project Pilehouse DIY Top Chop Pt.1 at Eastwood

Now that we have the running boards built for Project Pilehouse we're on to one of the most anticipated parts of the project, chopping the top Now Chopping or lowering the top on a custom classic truck or car isn't a new modification but it is one takes proper preparation to make sure that the project goes as smooth as possible Now I've spent countless hours with painters tape, marker, tape measurer, eyeballing the truck to see how drastic of a chop, I really wanted. I started the process by removing the paint with the Eastwood stripping disc and then once we figured out we wanted a moderate 3-inch chop we moved on and laid some chalk and tape lines to exactly where we are going to be cutting. Later in this episode, we will show you how to make the necessary modifications to fit the lid back down into its new lower home But before I start making any sparks, we need to add some bracing to the inside of the cab to reduce any flexing when the top is off of the cab. I am going to be using the Eastwood MIG 175, and some round bar tubing to make the necessary reinforcements With all the braces in place and the cut lines marked, we are ready to start well the braces in place and the cut lines marked we're ready to start There's a lot of tools that you can use to actually chop the top of a vehicle whether it is reciprocating saw, angle grinder, a pneumatic body saw or even a plasma cutter They all do the job but in the end it comes down to personal preference. I am going to keep it pretty basic and use an angle grinder with a cut-off disc and reciprocating saw to cut the A-pillar in the back of the doorjambs I am going to make the first cut on the top line so that I can make the second one on the truck rather than trying to cut the roof while it's laying the ground Once we have everything cut-off that we need to we can set the top back down and show you where we are yet. Enough talking, lets get the cutting. Now that we got the top fitted back on the truck you can see what our first problem is We have this gap right here that's because we haven't cut anything of out of the A-pillar yet making the front end of the cab sitting way too high So, what I am going to do is cut just about how much here is off the A-pillar and that is to get us pretty close to level how it was in the factory Once, I am happy with that, I am going to tack weld some braces around the back of the cab and then will see where we are from there. Now that we have the A-pillars cut we closed up the gap that we talked about earlier we also have to height and the angle of the roof about where I wanted So, I went ahead and tacked some brackets on the backside of the cab and also laid a few welds in between the seam just to get everything sturdy again. Now you can see what the next problem that we're coming across is the A-pillars here They do not line up. There are few different ways you can tackle this. One of them being that you can put relief cuts at the top and bottom of the pillars and change the angle of the pillar This causes a lot of other modifications including reworking the doorjamb, which I am not really too interested in doing The way I am going to do it is by splitting the roof in half right about here moving the front portion forward so that A-pillars line back up and the angles were about the same as they were from the factory. Check out the next installment of the video where we're going to show you how we connect everything back together to start making to look like a truck again.

Channel: Eastwood Company

Views: 400,653

Rating: 4.7359633 out of 5

Keywords: Chevy, S10, Truck, Fabrication, Hot, Rod, Rat, Welding, Weld, Welder, Eastwood, East, Wood, DIY, Auto, Body, Autobody, Supplies, MIG, 175, How, To, Video, Dodge, fabrication, metal, working, kustom, classic, truck, project, car, east wood, diy, how to, dodge truck, metal fabrication, lowered, mig welder, video, Do It Yourself (Hobby), Chop, Chopping, Chopped, Chop Top, TIG200, TIG 200, angle, grinder, angle grinder, how to chop a top, TIG Weld, TIG Welding, TIG Welder, TIG, pilehouse, pilot house, custom

Id: KY5dw3--Gfg

Length: 5min 22sec (322 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 26 2012