Error404

Idonno if a 3rd gen has ever been chopped before (ala Hotrods), I have seen a few 1st gens with a few inches chopped of the top, but I'd like to do it to a 3rd gen! hehe! Here is a photoshop with a chop top and a drop. This is my goal for after I graduate college!



Has anyone ever seen a chopped 3rd gen before? The windows present the biggest problem in my opinion. Lexan windows all around would be better and easier to work with?

BIGJsTA

man that is gonna be one tiny car on the inside...You aren't tall are you?

I've never seen anyone do that...Theres really no top on our cars to chop, save for chopping into the glass...

Error404

Yea, I'm gonna have to make some custom seats or something, ones that sit alot lower. re shape the foam inside to take a few inches off, or do something.

I don't graduate for another 2 years, and I want to do something to my 3rd gen that nobody has ever done. Shaving the blinkers was spot on in my opinion, but i want more! haha!

Yea, I'm gonna have to find someone REALLY good with glass...

PyRo9862

Make it real low, and put in t-tops

Error404

hehe, I do have T-tops I could get an old fighter pilot's leather helmet and goggles and pop my head out the top! LOL!!

Kandied91z

iTrader: (7)

i say do it...!

i personally don't like it but i don't like your shaved lights either. it's your car who cares what others think. myself i couldn't drive like that though.

1986redbird

if you can figure out the seating issues I say do it, I think it's bad a$$, it kind of reminds me of a lotus or ferarri (sp) but more domestic. I bet a bird like that would be reall awesome, especially with the more sloped nose on the birds.

stiers

iTrader: (1)

You could get around the glass problem really easy if you go to lexan. There are lexan front and rear windows for our cars. They are a lot easier to cut than glass. As far as the seats go, if you don't need to adjust them you could just mount em without the tracks and that would save you your 2" right there. Maybe a little pounding out of the floor pan would help too.

85f-bird

at some point and time there was a firebird on ebay that had a slight chop , it wasn't anything major but it was enough to make it noticeable, w/o making you go "WTF?" , looked pretty nice, and to take out the space gap from the rear glass , the guy did a notchback which he also chopped and then pieced back together minus the small ammount that had to be removed. Think the car had custom fender flares and someother jazz going on also, and unlike u it was on a black bird , oh, he did skirts on the back 1/4 also just remembered that, w/ Knight Rider black wheels.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I dunno. I think that fad stopped being cool sometime around the early 80s. Sometimes a couple inches of drop can look good if it's not enough to look obviously chopped, but just gives the car a "lower" look... but I would chalk it up as pretty close to impossible on a thirdgen. That back hatch was a virtual impossibility for GM to produce in the first place. Finding somebody to make you a new custom one isn't going to happen.

PyRo9862

Well i'm sure you could find someone to do it, if you have enough money you could get anything like that made.
When I made model airplanes, when a bubble type canopy was needed you could carve a wood block in the shape you wanted the canopy then put a peice of plastic on it and heat it.
Could a method similar to this be applied to lexon, or plexiglass or somthing? Using the old hatch as a mold, and putting a coating of foam or somthing on it to make it about 2in shorter then forming somthing to the shape.
If you really want to do this i'm sure you can find a way to do it.

Error404

yea, that hatch glass is gonna be the killer part

I got 2 years till I graduate, so I got some time to save money (aside from the stealthram, heads, and cam that I'm doing) for the chop. This is definantly something I want to do. I may even just have to get a 3rd gen "shell" car with nothing in it to do what little metal chopping will be needed, then get a lexan hatch glass, cut it, and put a torch to it to see if I can get it to shape? if the lexan gets all bubbled up and stuff, I guess I could always sand it down, and use it as a mold for a new one...

this is going to get expensive, I can tell... but I think it would be worth it.

PyRo9862

I really doubt that you just going to do it with a torch, it will probably take mold, lots of time, and alot of errors to do it right, if you can even get the lexon to bend like you want it to. Might end up being cheaper/easier to cut the actually glass in the hatch shorter so it drops down, but then wont be wide enough. At that point the body work is up to your imagination and your wallet.

Error404

well, any work done before I graduate will be by hand, hammer, and free time haha!

I probably am making it simplier than it actualy is. but ya, I think cutting the bottom part would be the easiest, then torch out the sides... assuming a torch would do the trick.... closer to graduation, I'll be calling places up and seeing how deep I'll be getting my self into this before I actualy dive in.

BIGJsTA

Make sure you think about the little things too..I'd maybe make it a notch back just to be easier...You (i) probably wouldnt even think about this until after, but for instance your hatch struts arent going to fit any more, and probably other little things you'll forget.

Another thing is ..er...structural integrity, I dont know how it would work out, but you may end up at a point where you may as well go with t-tops if the top end wont support the car anymore, and then your gonna wanna beef the heck out of the floor (because well...Basically on a t-top or vert that's it, theres just floor )

Error404

yea, there will be a few little things, like getting the window motors to push the window up the correct amount, smaller sun visors (they will cover up almost all of the window! LOL!

yea, I could probably find some generic hood struts? or just cut/weld the main thin rod to fit?

I'm not sure if I'm going to do this to my current 3rd gen, because what ever car I do it to, it will be out of commission for a long while haha! I'll probably do it to a hard top, I don't really like the t-tops that much, they let in way to much sun, and they leak alot. (leaking might be abig problem after modifying the glass for the chop....)

I can just pull the nose off my current car and put it on what ever 3rd gen I do the chop on, so I don't have to shave the blinkers again on that car.

(edit) what is a notch back?

PyRo9862

Why don't you do a convertable? Might be easier.

Error404

hehe! Yea, it would! But wouldn't look near as killer, in my opinion

BIGJsTA

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...=265593&page=6

pics of redraifs notchback.... (hope he dont mind)

PyRo9862

I like that

grngryoutmyway

iTrader: (1)

Redraif is actually a girl, but yea that car looks like its gonna be bad a$$ , her current car is really cool and done well, id change a few things on it tho..like the rubber dragon floor mats..

MrDude_1

2 solutions to the hatch prob...

1. make a mold and have it made out of lexan..... but lexan scratches easily, and any mistake in the mold will be very visable.

2. put a notchback on and chop that.

PyRo9862

I'm liking the notchback idea.