Pearly

I'm looking at doing a chopped roof on one of my cars. I was wondering if any of you know who (besides the Hillier bros) would do such a job, and what sort of money I'm looking at. Also if there are any legalities that come with it and all. I could probably do it myself, but I don't know if there are any requirements that need doing, and blah blah blah. Plus it would probably look better done professionaly.

Anyone got a $50 car I can play with??

RAPTOR

Any of the local coach body builders (think hearse, limousines, etc) would probably be prepared to give it a go and would know what's required to get it registered.

OR pick up a local hot-rod magazine (eg. Street Rodding) there should be people advertising in there that can do this sort of thing.

Then there are guys like (...name escapes me, I'll edit if/when I remember...) who did the 2-door Sony Scorcher EA for Street Machine. He also did that suicide 2-door Commodore wagon/panelvan thing which was also chopped & sectioned over a full frame from memory so he would certainly be capable.

The cost? LOTS.

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Falchoon

Top chopping isn't quite as simple as it looks. It's not just a matter of removing a couple of inches from the roof pillars and welding it back together, the whole roof needs to be copped into sections and bits taken out or added. Custom made glass will probably need to be made up (you may get away with using some out of another car, a guy I know did a chop on a HJ ute and used a 2 door HQ Monaro front screen). As Raptor says check out the Hot Rod Magazines for businesses that do that sort of thing. Probably best left to the professionals but by all means buy a $50 sh*tter (preferably a H*lden) and experiment.

Links:

http://www.nucleus.com/~agingles/ALAN5E.HTM (Chopping a '48 Chevy)

http://drd57.hypermart.net/chopstory.html (Chopping a '30 Ford Coupe)

http://members.tripod.com/~truckinrod/chop.htm (Chopping a '56 Ford F100)

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Pearly

I figured it would cost a lot. I'll give those places a call so see if I can get a rough price.

EDIT: bugger it... after having a look at those stories, I'm not even going to think about doing it myself. :oo3:

XF_boy

What sort of car are you planning to chop?

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XR_Strider_GuY

Pearly XF, Has the chopped roof been done before to the car your going to do.

IF so a best bet would be to go to someone that has already performed it so you know there'll be little chance of things going wrong.

Just my thoughts..

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Pearly

Nah, it hasn't been done before on the car.
It's my XF... I'll be getting the panels done soon, and then a respray hopefully during the next year or so, and I thought that I would get the roof done before I painted the car.

Pearly

got some quotes... all around:

side windows = about $5,000
front & back = about $6,000
roof itself = about $8,000-$10,000
probability of me doing anytime soon = I don't think so... maybe when I decide to build a rod = less materials = cheaper

tickford2001

make it into a topLESS. my guess is that would be easier, although easier still = hard...but IMO a convertable xf would look better than a chop top xf

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Pearly

I thought about that... then I could really only take it out on sunny days. Plus I'm not really into convertables.