Chopping a Roof

[dibbers006]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 05 January 2024 at 00:33

[Mazda Baiter]

Make aluminium silhouettes in the correct shape and curvature of the desired glass, then send it to an automotive glass manufacturer.

[Hugo a Gogo]

you can get your glass cut down

the more it's curved, the harder it is to cut and to shape the frame for it

it can break the glass too, so don't do it with a unique/rare vehicle if you can't get another screen for it

[S1mon.]

delivered this for one of my customers yesterday,

Plenty of info on it and others found here.

http://www.rodsnsods.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?85...

[rob.e]

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+roof+chop

[guru_1071]

you can get laminated glass cut down, but if its flat its easy to get it remade in either laminated or toughened to a pattern.

getting curved laminated glass gut down is harder, but its worth having a couple of spares screens as its very hard to do and the person doing it probably wont offer any guarantees on doing it in one go -the guy who did mine broke three screens

making the templates is easy, i just made a grp screen using the old one as a former, glassed a scteel frame into it to support it, trimmed it and fitted it to the car to check, then gave it (and 10 screens) to the guy.

[braddo]

Hugo a Gogo said:

you can get your glass cut down

the more it's curved, the harder it is to cut and to shape the frame for it

it can break the glass too, so don't do it with a unique/rare vehicle if you can't get another screen for it

I wonder how easy/cheap it is to find spare screens for the Rolls that the PPC guys have chopped.

[hman]

I know a guy who cut the roof off a triumph 2000 tc, it was a hot day and he had an angle grinder in his garage.

Lasted a couple of days before it all went very flexible, and the cuts he made were quite rough.

[R360]

Chop shop, this guy Leepo does it all the time:

http://www.yourdiscovery.com/chopshop/gallery/inde...

[Ken Sington]

R360 said:

Chop shop, this guy Leepo does it all the time:

http://www.yourdiscovery.com/chopshop/gallery/inde...

But he is a complete c ck! Wouldn't go within a hundred miles of one of his creations, let alone ride in one.

[Utterpiffle]

I chopped a Renault 4 down in my younger days. Chose the 4 as it had flat glass all round and a seperate chassis, so the structure wasn't affected. I never finished it before selling it on, but was told by a local windscreen fitter to take him a card template, and he would cut glass to suit. I'm sure it wasn't going to be silly expensive either...



A mate chopped a Morris minor cab down a few inches and dropped the standard curved windscreen down behind the dash, so no glass choppery was nessessary. Thought that was rather clever...


(It's on a shortened Beetle chassis BTW)

I was told many years ago to get the glass first, then chop the roof to fit!

[Mini1275]

S1mon. said:

delivered this for one of my customers yesterday,

Plenty of info on it and others found here.

http://www.rodsnsods.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?85...

Was on eBay last week.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

[Utterpiffle]

dibbers006 said:

The wheels on that are ridiculous!!

The whole car is rediculous, but condsidering he built it in three weeks, including stripping the donor beetle and shortening the 'pan by 18 inches, it all worked rather well.

dibbers006 said:

If the body is a monocoque then I presume the chopping needs to be a lot more precise?

Well, you certainly need to make sure you put all the strength back in. And of course by chopping a moncoque, you also enter the crazy world of IVA when putting it back on the road. Google "Andy Saunders IVA" for a horror story of his chopped Bentley.

[Glassman]

If the required windows are flat, toughened glass can be cut and is relatively cheap.

Adding curves to the surface of the glass: add £££s

[Mr2Mike]

Glassman said:

If the required windows are flat, toughened glass can be cut and is relatively cheap.

Adding curves to the surface of the glass: add £££s

I thought toughened glass was almost impossible to rework once it had been tempered? I got a laminated screen cut for my Striker (flat screen) at a local place and it was about £50 IIRC.

[plg]

Utterpiffle said:

I chopped a Renault 4 down in my younger days. Chose the 4 as it had flat glass all round and a seperate chassis, so the structure wasn't affected. I never finished it before selling it on, but was told by a local windscreen fitter to take him a card template, and he would cut glass to suit. I'm sure it wasn't going to be silly expensive either...

I don't know why, but I quite like that... at least, the idea of the finished project. In a metallic black maybe?