The time has finally come to chop the top. I've been thinking and planning for this since last November, and it's now June. I know, I over analyze everything. But there's been a lot more going on since then. First thing I did was order a couple books from Amazon on how to chop tops, and read them both 3 times. This car was built in the time when the body style was changing from the straight posts to more of a turret top like in the 40's. The doors are almost perfectly straight, but the back window leans forward just a bit, and the front windshield posts are tilted back. Next to a '26 Ford Tudor, I think this is the probably the easiest body style to chop. This body does not have any of the complex geometry problems you get when chopping a '50 Mercury. I feel pretty confident that I can handle this one for my first try. It will still be a huge amount of work though, but I'm up for it.

You have to make sure the car won't flop around when you hack off your top. I used some cheap 1/2" galvanized conduit to brace the inner structure of the car. The galvanized coating puts off a toxic fume when welded, so I used a grinder to scrape that stuff off and get the tube down to bare steel.

Some other cars are flimsy when chopped, but the Plymouth is very well built. I didn't bother doing any elaborate triangle shaped bracing. The B pillars are the main thing to worry about. They would just about fall over like toothpicks when chopped, but those thick windshield posts aren't going anywhere.

I want the door posts to come straight down and and reconnect perfectly. The B and C pillars look pretty much straight up and down, until you put a level on it. My level is almost 2" wide, so I moved it up and down the pillar until I found a spot that was perfectly level. Any higher or lower, and the door jams would have been too far forward or back when the top was lowered.

I did the same thing on the C pillar. Find the spot where the end rests against the metal perfectly level, and mark the top and bottom.

Here's the lines I've marked around the back sides. That lowest horizontal line will continue all the way to the other side, under the back window. A vertical cut line gets back up to the window where one inch will be removed. The small level is used the same way, to find a spot where the top will come down and mate with the bottom half perfectly.