Hi all, I finally worked up enough guts to do a 4" chop on a bug.

24 years earlier I payed a pro to do this job, on my pride and joy 1970 bug. Long story short it came back in bits .

Had a go about 5 years later with good results. 19 years have passed and I have started, finally.

Enjoy

pic's didn't load I'll try again

some more

sorry about the order

enough for now

Jobs like this make you lay awake at night thinking about what order to do the next steps. Yeah?

looks cool

i was the guy at ricks the day you got the blue roof clip, you were tellin me the story on the day

cool that its finally getting done

ill be watching this one

neat chop, sits nice

Killin it! Looks great

Just as "dragsters for life" says .... very neat chop alright.

Want to share the setup measurements and angles?

It's not as hard as you think vman. Please keep in mind that I have no experiance in any body work, I'm a plasterer and a Taxidermist by trade. Shit this is the 2nd time in my life that I have used a mig. Most of the job can be done with a 4" grinder clamps and a mig. I think the most important thing is the flow of the lines, a good eye comes in handy.

I'm more than happy to post the entire process, f up's and all. All the info is easy to find on the samba and Volksrod, just punch in chop top and it will do your head in

I managed to find the only pic I have of my original bug. She was white when I purchased her, I didn't know how to drive anything but an auto, f#@kin girl I know so getting home was fun. The only thing I changed was the paint, for all those holden buffs I chose VK SS blue.
Nearly sold the bug to buy a Xp coupe Tubbed and all the bells and whistles. Decided to keep the bug and chop the roof the rest is as they say history...
Regards
Fatty

Quote:

Originally posted by Fat Boy It's not as hard as you think vman. Please keep in mind that I have no experiance in any body work, I'm a plasterer and a Taxidermist by trade. Shit this is the 2nd time in my life that I have used a mig. Most of the job can be done with a 4" grinder clamps and a mig. I think the most important thing is the flow of the lines, a good eye comes in handy. I'm more than happy to post the entire process, f up's and all. All the info is easy to find on the samba and Volksrod, just punch in chop top and it will do your head in

Gday dubbyfan, I decided to use three roofs to avoid having double welds. You don't really need three entire roof sections. As in the pic's I used the original roof for surround leaving them wide, as to compinsate for the added width when dropped. I picked up a 53 roof and rear clip, used the b pillars and and rear window, probably could have used that skin and put in a couple of filler pieces but decided to get the red roof as a throw over. the red roof tappered down too sharp at the rear and created two humps at the weld joint. I decided to cut out those areas and put in filler's anyway.

looks great, will be a nice looking car when its finished

one of the best chops I've seen...looks great at all angles...credit to the effort cheers steve

you've got a good eye to get the lines looking right.
This is one of the nicest chops I've seen as the proportions look right.
Cheers
D

Thanks for the thumbs up guy's. Wasn't always smooth sailing though.
When I got the oval clip home on closer inspection the rust had eaten all the way up to the vents so bad that I ripped the boot lid hinge's off by hand. So I decided to use the inside of the original bug and the outer skin of the oval. Seemed like a good idea at the time but turned out to be two full day's of scratching my head.
Regards
Fatty

some more rust

looks cool

Hi all, had a bit of time to kill, so I decided to build a rotisseri for the bug. Makes life alot easier for those shitty jobs under the bug.

Regards
Fatty

some more

A little scary let me tell ya.

lucky you did the chop first, looks like it just made it.
does make the job so much more pleasant to work on.

Cheers

very cool, so ur in melb?

Wow lovin this build, well done Fat Boy and thanks for sharing!

Wow. Your doing an extremely good job. Keep it up . Im keen to see this when its finished

Thanks for the input fellas.

ran5, I'm in the north of Melb. Must catch up when the two bugs are finished.

Regards
Fatty