None of your replies are falling on deaf ears, I have two things going for me in my own eyes, 1. persistence, 2. it's more race car then show car, so laser straight as much as it is appreciated and respected, is not a goal I must achieve, at least not on my first one.

I have found but yet to contact a true auto custom glass manufacturer in Pa, which is a direction I prefer since, I am not restricted. Once I get a quote, I'm likely to rethink that.

Another option, being its your first chop..... Go find a junk car. Even a ratty old Nissan Sentra. Grab a a sawzall and chop the top and see if it's your capability to learn and do it to your car. Just an idea. You'll know pretty quickly if you can pull it off on your own car. It would just suck for you to trash your car by accident. ... Also, think it through and think of other options. ... Say ya want a 5 inch chop.. Measure the distance between the tops of the left and right side glass with them rolled up. Roll your side glass down 5 inches and measure the distance between your left and right top of the glass. See what the difference is. It may be dang close enough to adjust with your window tracks. You'll be kicking the A pillar back to close the gap and shortening your roof. Also, like someone else said, see if there is room to have your windshield fit 5 inches lower at the cowl. Then to the back glass, fab a window plug to use what glass you'll like. Just like a window plug in a SE Challenger. Just some ideas for ya. Good luck!!

My advice and reasoning stands. It's similar to the saying, "If you have to ask what something costs, you can't afford it".

There are probably as many unfinished car projects sitting in garages or backyards around the country than actually made it on the road. Many of those are because the work was beyond the capabilities of the builder.

In my youth I had neighbors who chopped the top off a '50s Packard and drove it for a couple of months. When they tried to weld the roof back on it wouldn't fit. A cousin from Detroit told of another car that had had the roof cut off with similar results. Owners of Toyota Land Cruisers and Jeeps have had trouble refitting their hard tops after a few months of roofless motoring.

If you do decide to forge ahead, DO weld X-braces across rear, middle and front of the car's passenger space. Do this before the roof comes off and at least the body will remain straight. Also having the automobile level will really help.

Good Luck!
R.

I give up!
There is great advice here!
The unitbody has got to be straight and true!, before and after the cut and weld! Yes you have to the best standards posibal.... Every thing must Fit!!!!

And yes you must weld every layer of shetmetal....

But it you cut up a unitbody off for a chop, you need big balls or experience.......no exceptions!


Maybe ball's and more experience!

Hack it up! Go for it!

Wait.....What car are you going to hack up?

Depending on the car and glass configuration, you may be able to lay the windshield back at the top, and lay the rear window forward at the top to make up for the shortage of roof material. On a race car, Lexan will be fine for side glass.

If its going to have a cage, all the layers of sheet metal may not have to be welded, provided the roof & body are reinforced by the cage.

I suggest if you really want to do this, have several side, front, and back pictures of the car, and cut up the pictures. If you get something close have some Photoshop masters make a picture of your rendering to see if it still looks OK. Its easier to cut up pictures then it is to cut up metal, and you will have an idea what will need to be done.

I believe the glass and having a good finished appearance are the two biggest challenges in chopping a top, the rest is just metal work. If you can do metal work, the look and the glass will be the deciding factors. Gene

remember, the very FIRST chop was made by a guy that had NEVER done this before ! with that being said, only the person doing the chop needs to determine if he can ACCOMPLISH it ! [you good with that JCC ? ] another thing that is IMPERATIVE if you want acceptable results, is to BRACE the body six ways from sunday, so as to keep the lower half in line BEFORE you cut the top off ! if you don't, you will have all kinds of problems lining stuff back up. another thing you should seriously consider, is the acquisition of another COMPLETE roof with front and rear glass channels. this will be used for any filler patches you may need if you have to quarter or lengthen the roof itself, as well as any inside structure parts needed. the same is true for garnish moldings if those are used inside the doors. this saves time fabricating the extra pieces [if needed] from flat stock. if you are skittish doing a chop, as suggested previously, get a junker that has a similar roof profile [not necessarily the same size] and cut it first, just to give you an idea what needs done. but poorboy sums it up best : "hack it up ! go for it ! [and as he has said many times before in other posts on differing subjects] it's only metal ! and, as a famous tv commercial from many, many years ago said : "try it, you'll like it !"

I should have included a pic at the get go, I don't seem to have any good profile of the car at this moment. This is the car upon purchase. You can see it is not nor never will be a show, nor that collectible car. IMO, the roof is in the area of 2" too high, maybe 3", I am not looking for mail slot windows. Current windshield is not in good enough condition to warrant cutting. New ones are rare and pricey untinted only, $800? shipped?. Side windows I am very flexible as to a solution. Rear seating is permanently gone.

If you take 3" out of those roof pillars, the rear window will be pretty short, and will have the appearance of a mail slot. The only way to avoid that would be to lay the rear glass forward and keep its original measurements.

You need to take some good pictures, side, front and rear.

At $800, I'd be looking for a windshield from something else that will be your shortened size, and use the frame work around that windshield as a donor, grafted in as needed. The side windows are pretty flat, the rear side windows don't need to move, so flat glass bonded in will work for them. I think I would look into tilting the front side glass to fit, (if you bond in the rear glass, it can be tilted to match) it doesn't look like you will loose much width with the chop.

The advantage of chopping a car like that one is most people won't know what it looked like originally, and it would be pretty hard to make it look much more unusual then it already does.
Take those pictures, make some measurements, and locate a useful windshield and windshield frame, make a plan, and let the hacking begin. Gene

"make it look much more unusual then it already does."

That hurt.

I'd chop that so low no one could see I was driving it

i had a sneaking suspicion that was your project ! as poorboy said, lean the rear window forward, and fix the quarter windows where they end up, as they don't move anyway. for some reason, i thought the side windows were flat, but if not, i think you could get away with using flat glass. and that side window glass should be designated AS2. your glass shop of choice will know what that means. then, as poorboy also mentioned, use a windshield that meets your height and width requirements along with it's required opening sheet metal. [measure a vega. it may be close ?] it may not look like it, but this might not be as hard as some think to pull off on this particular vehicle. definitely post progress pics ! [and i like the "toilet seat" trunk lids from whatever year they were]

thats mean!

have seen this? Maybe you could contact Doug.
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/threads/61-dodge-lancer-chop-top.124703/

No I have not, but that sure is an interesting solution, likely a lot more in my area of capabilities, plus it is side solution to getting the cage in easy. Thanks. I will try to contact those guys and see where they left off. Not a bad look and enough of an improvement, but with this tough crowd, more likely just lipstick on a pig.

Just checking on older posts and saw this.
I really dig Lancers, so I sure hope you either leave it as-is or carry it through to completion.
I've seen a couple chopped and in both cases, they had a "Gentleman's Chop" which is a very minor one.
This was also done on the 50s Studebaker coupes.
The rear of the roof was left in place with a slice from the front to back at the top of the "C" pillar. Then the front pillars were cut about an inch to 1 3/4" and the roof 'leaned' forward and rewelded lower in front.

Stock height
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l95Nsm5_NLc

A new chopped one I found. This also has more out in front than in the rear, but is more than most of these chops. It sure looks like all the glass is now lexan...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U10NASEf2go

And no one knows who that was or what it was done on for a reason.

It turned out horrible, got turned into a roadster and no one knew what you were talking about if you brought it up.

Here's a photo of a Magnum chop that a friend of mine is heavily into. Don't ask me why he chose a Magnum, I can't understand it either.

That Magnum will surely get some confused looks from people.

Hopefully he puts a Charger front end on it

You might want to chop some height above the side windows as the roofline height above the windows is higher than most other cars.