Chopping a '51 cab 6"

[RedneckRodder]

After looking for a write up on chopping these cabs, all I was able to find were guys that had done chops around 3", which basicslly didnt do me much good, so I figured I'd make one for those looking for info on the "radical" chops.

So here's the story: I tried to chop this cab about 2 years ago, and let's just say I botched the job. I originally wanted to chop this cab just to say I could. Kind of wanted to prove to myself I could do it. But now I'm fairly certain I want to put this cab on my truck, that's why I decided to tackle it again.

So, since the weather has been less than desirable here in the Pacific Northwest recently, I decided to bring the cab back out from the barn and tackle the "repairs" properly.

Hre's what I figured out I did right, and wrong, the first time:

With a chop of this magnitude you have to split the roof from front to back, and from side to side (IF you don't want to lay the A-pillars back). I did split the front half through the center of the windshield, I did not split the back half, choosing instead to spread it. This created a situation that took me quite some time to figure out, because the curve above the door wouldn't come anywhere close to lining up from front to back. This problem is basically where I decided to put it away for a while and think it through, for about 2 years. I finally came to realize that by splitting the front and spreading the back I basic all flattened out the rear curve, while leaving the front fairly close to stock. That was my problem!

Here is the cab, after removing the back half. I didn't take any pictures of the screwed up job, but trust me, it wasn't pretty.


So, after sitting down at the drawing table for a while, I decided to find another cab to finish this one properly. I found a '48 cab from a guy who part out AD's as his retirement job.

Its a rusty piece of junk, but the roof is good, so I brought it home to make some donations to my project.