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.