Cutting Curved Glass for a Chopped Top - Truck Tech S3, E20

when you chop the top you better be ready to cut glass today our expert shows us how it's done on our Ford restomod bus we'll get her outside to meet the fans this is truck jack and I love it [Music] welcome to truck Tech today we have two very different makes of truck Chevy and Ford in two very distinctive styles of build and I can say it's been a blast working on both of these classic American pickups I agree and well they're 71 c10 we'll jump back on it and we'll get it ready for the street but for today we're committed to finishing our 55 f100 at least close to it we'll get there you know I've actually seen guys abandoned projects with chopped roofs half way through simply because they couldn't find a piece of glass to fit the windshield opening well that's no worries for us because today we've got glass guys Chicago Brian Harding into custom cut a windshield for us now I know you worked in the glass business for a little while you ever attempted to cut a curved windshield you know I've made plenty of flat laminated windshields for you know the 20s and 30s hot rods that have the flat front but I've never tried to cut down a piece of curved laminated glass it doesn't look easy I would say not but before we get to work we had a little fun last weekend when we put her in the trailer we took her down the street to a local car show just to get a few reactions mid built the rear fenders their original stretched a couple of inches we brushed it on and wiped it kind of like you would a wood stain yes chop a little bit you see these these trucks they're weird they're so tall right they're in the cab you know and their shape awkward - well it's been a long journey to get to this point and we're actually really excited to get this thing outside it's a little bit wet today but it's just kind of rewarding after you spend all these hours working on a project see it outside keep people's reaction and step away from the shop a little bit and put the tools down and get outside beautiful absolutely stunning straight stance right I love the wheels I did yeah it's a little EcoBoost twin turbo ford motor so yeah that's a definitely caught my eye so big fan of guys are showing all I said I was definitely cool it's everybody's got a small-block Chevy and stuff so pretty name it's a little bit different he runs putting coyote motors in and I like to be sexy you're gonna get a little bit of a fuel economy and drivability and good horse fare you'll surprise a few people I think restomod nothing wrong with that at all if you have the Bucks to do it it's very cool very very cool these guys have been busting their butts on this and it looks fantastic and although it's a little on the not done side it's okay showing people what it's going to be and it looks we've touched fired the engine we know everything works is just we're still in the middle of building it so yeah we another month or so we'll be done probably Wow looks way different in there I love the clean lines and the clean look and I love the steel gray and light combination it's gorgeous and it's simplistic LED shows elegance and beauty and a lot of people like think like older trucks are kind of like beefy and out-of-date and they'll have but I think they definitely like elegance that we have lost in car manufacturing these days and they have like a beauty that and craftsmanship that we should look back to and hopefully implement into our vehicles in the future next out I cut a curved windshield [Music] we're back on truck tech and we're finally ready to get some glass in our f100 now since this is a curved windshield its kind of a special task to be able to cut it down and not break anything so we call glass guy Chicago Bryan hardy to come in and help us out man thanks for coming in no problem I'm really excited to get working on this truck that's awesome now Bryan is well known in the entertainment and film industry he's got a pretty cool job tell us a little bit about that well I work on some TV shows in Chicago Chicago fire Chicago PD some other shows that come to town and what I do is I work with special effects and basically they're blowing up windows they're blowing out windshields and I take a new piece and I'm there you know for take two I put a new piece in for take three until they get the shot that sounds like a pretty cool game yeah that's pretty cool yeah now as you guys know our truck came to us already chopped and it also came with glass that was already cut down and well it didn't really fit too good no know when somebody chops the top on a car whether it be this truck an old 50s hotrod just because you chopped it three inches doesn't necessarily mean the glass changed three inches so they took three inches off the windshield and as you can see when we put it in we put our hand through it short yeah so what we need to do is we'll make some new templates and and we'll walk people through how we do that and we'll get a chopped again awesome man let's do it I'll try not to break anything that's all right we start by putting the poster board or cardboard on the outside of the pinch weld of the truck we'll draw with a marker around the inside of the pinch weld we then add to the template for the pinch weld Wordle glass is gonna rest this case it ended up being a quarter of an inch so we added a quarter of an inch to our daylight size we trimmed out the pattern we laid that back in the truck to make sure the glass is gonna lay where we want it to after we're done and we have that set the way we want we transfer to the glass and lay our line on the glass and we're ready to cut good to go so what are you used to cut the glass with we use a glass cutter and it's a little different than one you would get down the street at your hardware store I'm curious I want to see this so the kind I use is self oiling so this keeps oil on the wheel the wheel is a diamond wheel which is what breaks the surface tension the glass it's at the break when you start cutting about how deep does it cut into the guy it's a very very minor all you're doing is breaking the surface tension of the glass okay and when we called we're running it which means we're forcing the glass to crack where we ran the glass cutter about how much pressure does that take when you're laying down takes a little bit more than then you would be with a marker or a pencil when you're writing maybe when I cut the corners off of the glass it takes away a stress point in the corner which is what we call a cup it's where the window in the corner the curve goes to different directions in the corner so we clip that off to eliminate a stress point for the windshield of crack and that's Coe that's a clean cut - it's all that experience so what I'm going to do now is I'm going to divide up the area that we're cutting off in two sections to make it easier to to get the glass to do what I wanted to do easier to work with and essentially try to avoid the windshield cracking with too much stress unfortunately it's glass and it doesn't matter if it's flat or curved windows glass has a mind of its own if it decides that it wants to crack it'll crack there could be a bubble in the glass there could be an imperfection in the edge my success rate as far as curved windshields dull I'm usually about 90% out of all of them that I've cut and hopefully this isn't one of them it puts me below that average after I run my cutter will open up the cut starting at each corner to give the glass a starting and finishing point you're essentially cracking the glass where I made the cut we'll flip it over we're gonna make the exact same cut on the backside when we have a completely run from end to end I'll put some denatured alcohol on it the process of doing this is to help melt or soften the laminate between the glass to help me get that cut off the glass most cars now have tempered side windows so when they break they explode a windshield when you get hit by a rock it cracks and that laminate in the middle protects you inside the car essentially keeping you safe from anything that hits the windshield if I'm cutting on something it's really rare hard to get it it's a little nerve-racking because again it's glass so we have a tendency to take a little bit more time and slow it down a little bit to get our cuts right now that we have the final piece off the glass we're gonna start with our finishing process the finishing process of glass is exactly like the finishing process of painting top it starts at 40 grit and goes all the way up to 600 grit and you can even polish it with cork at the end once we've finished with the 220 grit we're happy with the shape we're gonna test fit the window in the truck to make sure it still fits if I need to trim any corners and need to round any edges we need to shave down the side because maybe the post move we can do that before we're ready to put it in the truck the piece is test fit one last time and then the gasket is installed around the pinch weld just to get it down the size remember the two inch chopped means a smaller seal around the smaller glass once it's cut Brian will glue it back together install it on the windshield and thread in the windshield rope then the whole thing is installed from the outside in removing the rope forces the gasket out over the pinch will and a little ammonia free cleaner helps massage the gasket in place you got it man it's in awesome looks good rubber singing it well everywhere yeah I had Jeremy tries his hand all right we've got the windshield in on the f100 after Brian Harding owner of glass guy Chicago cut about two and a half inches out of a factory piece to accommodate our chopped and while he was doing that I figured out a way to get our door glass to work if you'll remember several hands touched this truck before él tiene took it over and it looks like they attempted to run power windows but after looking around the shop about half the parts were missing now you would think it would be easier having half the work already done for you but for me it's the opposite I would much rather start a project and try to finish someone else's but what are you gonna do from the factory our f100 door glass was actually two pieces of vent window up front and a main glass behind it now we want to get rid of all that install a one-piece glass kit it's a much cleaner look and a very popular hot rodder upgrade problem is if you do a search online for a 55 f100 one-piece glass kit you won't find many options so we decided to make our own and it's pretty simple to do now for the front channel where we want the window to God up and down I'm actually using a factory piece that divided the vent glass and the main glass for the channel that runs around the door we picked up some Universal stuff and bent it to shape as it runs down the door it runs into the factory channel now for the regulator and the lift channel also factory parts from the f100 now the only problem we ran into when we got it in the door is that the front channel kicked in a little too much which means the glass would have laid against the regulator probably been impossible to roll up and down and wouldn't take much to shatter it so the bracket that mounts to the door I cut it in half and extended in an inch that'll line everything up so the window will roll up and down nicely so for a one-piece window kit we were able to use all factory parts we had laying around the shop all we need to do now cut a little glass first bribe will take care of the back window glass on the floor using the same process as the windshield a cardboard template is used for the pattern then he'll carefully use his glass cutter to run multiple lines on both sides to get the piece down to a manageable size if he cut right along the template lines to start there's a better chance for his cuts to run the wrong way which for any glass guy is a disaster Brian's used to the pressure alright here we go our team brought him in about four years back to cut pain on a chop fifty-one Hudson Hornet coupe the wicked curb was no match for the shy boys talent and that's I cut a curved windshield and last year the two piece on this 49 Ford was less of a pain but still required the steady hand needed to get the job done right since the back window of our Ford is flat it's way easier to cut than the curved windshield again straight line cuts we'll get it to size and then once the edges are trimmed right we'll grind and seam the edges of the back glass to match the template perfectly with the gasket in place the window installs from the inside out and no glue or clips hold it in place the gasket lips over the outside pinch well making it permanently secure and now we can move on to cutting door glass [Music] you make this glass stuff look pretty easy why don't you give it a try oh crap how much glass did you bring we have plenty so I can bring one I'm gonna break one we're good all right so let's start let's take this corner off okay let's see it's kind of like pinstriping it doesn't matter that I'm a little shaky nah you're good I'll pull straight lines when I pinch that's perfect here we go you know slow and steady [Music] so now let's move it off the table so we can open up a cut take your hand and you're gonna force this down open that up just a little pressure just a little pressure not a lot of pressure no I got it that oh yeah I saw it shoot to there so you just kind of keep going in there all the way through this side okay now I'll flip it over and make the second cut along the same line then pull down to get your brunt good news is and went the other way all the cracks went to win two good ways so now we should be loose now and you got me sweating over here we made one cut it's not soaking wet not as easy as it looks is it well now I know what not to do close I'll just follow the same process on all the other cuts yeah it's fun to try something new but in the 40 minutes it took me to cut this one door glass well this Brian just said that cracked me up I think I'll leave the glass cutting to the experts well that about does it how do you think I did this will be the moment of truth check it out I'd say you did pretty good that's not too bad well that comes from having a good teacher right I appreciate that but we really want to thank last guys Chicago Brian Harding for coming in and cutting all the glass for f-100 the truck looks awesome and man hoped to have you back again sometime I'm a phone call away that's awesome next pedal power one of the more important things we have left to install on our Ford are the pedals originally they would be mounted on the frame below the floorboard but there's a lot of things that we have changed since 1955 that will prevent us from using the original style pedals for one this truck was originally equipped with four-wheel drum brakes and we've swapped those out for four-wheel discs so the brake master cylinder will no longer work for us and number two the transmission we installed uses a hydraulic throw up bearing instead of a mechanical linkage so we'd have to do a little bit of fabrication to get those two to adapt together now luckily for us there's a lot of options on the aftermarket that helped us upgrade brakes on these classic American trucks take our c10 for example it's a heavy full-size truck with a big power plant so to go along with that we need a lot of stopping power so we installed a hydro boost it mounts in the truck between the master cylinder and the brake pedal and uses hydraulic pressure from the power steering system the fluid starts at the pump and runs first to the hydraboost it then goes back down to the steering gearbox and then returns to the pump now this braking system also uses a proportioning valve this sends more braking pressure to the front wheels than it does to the rear so you don't lock them up under heavy braking conditions hydraboost brakes work very well you get amazing stopping power with very little pedal effort but unfortunately for us that 3-5 EcoBoost just doesn't have a place to mount a power steering pump so that option is out the window we could however amount a vacuum booster these things have been around for decades and instead of power steering fluid they use your engines vacuum to provide the assistance now these things are kind of bulky it's often hard to find a place to mount them properly on the firewall not only that they're pretty ugly to look at even if they are chrome plated so we went to Summit Racing and picked up a pair of these pedal and master Sonor assemblies and after talking to the manufacturer we decided to run these without any boosters at all by properly sizing the master cylinders at 0.88 bore for the front and point eight one on the rear will have amazing stopping power and instead of a proportioning valve this pedal includes a balance bar this allows us to adjust the bias of the brakes from front to rear once again so we don't lock up the back fires under heavy braking for the clutch pedal that we've chose a separate one so we can space it out between the steering column and this one runs 8.75 bore slightly smaller than the rest the cool thing about this style of brake pedal is you can actually use a remote fluid reservoir or you can mount it directly to the master cylinder like we're going to do and the first thing we're gonna do is make some holes and Jeremy's brand new paint job that makes me happy this setup provides a lot more flexibility in where you place the pedal assemblies especially since you don't have to worry about clearance for a bulky vacuum foofy luckily there is a reinforcement bar running underneath the dashboard and all I have to do is make two short braces to attach to the front of the - I'll make some larger holes in the firewall and deburr the edges hang the pedal assembly mount the master cylinders and tighten it all down to drill the last two holes Perle on the boot and thread the rods into the balance bar and a foot pad is the icing on the cake do the same thing with a clutch pedal we'll be good to go well LT it looks like we can mark a couple of more things off of this list I got the bed bolted together you got the brake pedal in and we've made a pretty good dent in this list and we really don't have a lot left you know there's been a lot of late nights and a lot of behind the scenes work to get the truck where it is today and the next time you guys see it we'll be out on the road listening to those turbo spool up man I can't wait to drive it but for today let's let's get out of here

Channel: Gunpowder & Gasoline

Views: 21,231

Rating: 4.8983049 out of 5

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Id: ccFNZVojxkg

Length: 19min 42sec (1182 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 04 2019