1957 Pontiac Chopped Top Custom Conversion

Another section being added

Pillar cut out & the hard top door mocked in.

Finalizing the new top chop height & flow

Checking the front for looks & flow its all in the details

Working on the door, quarter fit plus the top chop.

The upper needed to be narrowed tig welded together.

Fully welded hammered dollied & shrink disc it flows and its all in the details.

Lots of other detail work to be done before the new top goes on, the old 4 door jam needs to be smoothed as the door opening will change.

1957 Pontiac heading to be a high quality chopped top 2 door custom

Right side inner tub made & fit.

The right side patch.

Time to mate the skin to the rear glass channel section lots of slicing to get the panels to match & flow smoothly.

Its top less again & the door & quarter patch fit nice.

Regretfully this car was not finished it was left at this stage. The owner had to stop due to finances beyond his control. last I heard the car was for sale if any one is interested in buying it & having me finish the build please contact me at my shop phone number is 425 433 0294 the car was in the greater Seattle Tacoma Washington area, this could be a top notch winning custom.

I have enclosed the 1400 sq ft concrete area since the last photos were taken a lot more shop space now.

The top of the door sillis now done for the 2 dr conversion

Glass gaposos.

With the new top sitting on the shell not looking to slick but things will change.

The donor quarter panel & door mocked up, its 2 dr time now.

Support braces made to tie in the rear pillar to the main body on top of the wheel tubs

New filler section made to fit

The left rear fin was kinked over from something in the past so it needed to be straightened up just working on getting ready for the top graft on.

Now for the rear.

If you wish to discuss your current or up coming car or truck project please feel free to call shop phone 425 433 0294 Best Way minor projects to major turn key builds.

Danny Pascoe

The panel sitting there is an aftermarket 2dr HT it will need rework but a good starting point.

Lots of time consuming detail fab work going on here

Start tacking the roof skin down.

The outer rocker sill needed some repair

Now its time to figure out the back glass upper channel

The old 4 dr roof pillars cleaned off

Next quarter glass..

The new wheel tub patch installed.

Both left & right floor pans are in & welds ground clean

Quality custom & restoration sheet metal work & repair

Front floor pan cut out & the floor braces were derusted & pained with rust preventive paint.

Now for the back glass

With the old section removed lets figure out the flow again.

The top strip was cut & welded in & ground smooth

I usually don't allow customers to help but I offered him the chance to help cut the top of he jumped at the chance

The longer hard top door over laping the original rear door.

Nice even gap

He had picked up 4 after market floor pan sections they were partially usable more metal needed

Tack welded together & the 3/8 plywood for the gap & to keep things flat.

A new repair section was made tacked in then fully welded afterwards ground clean.

The owner comes in and says what do we do now. The wheels had already been turning in my head when I picked it up at the blast shop, hmmmm he wanted a custom. So in my wisdom I suggested how about we chop the top & make it a 2 dr hard top. Owner answers well I like the 2 dr hard top idea, wasn't much of a 4 dr fan any way & the chop sounds cool but what are you going to do about the roof its toast. I come up in my crazy wisdom how about a 57 or 58 Dodge or Plymouth top it would realy make the roof flow. Can you do that yes it will work & look slick. It took the owner about 30 seconds to say go for it. Now where are you going to find the parts you need I don't know but let me get on it. 3 days later I found a 57 Dodge 2 dr sitting in a close by wrecking yard Big score #1 & the back glass was real nice. Then about 1 week later I found a 57 Pontiac 2 dr hard top some one had cut the top off & changed the front suspension to a newer Pontiac then gave up on the project bingo Score #2 we now have the makings of a custom.

Started on the front winshield area, then like many big projects the bad news hit.

Upper corner filler piece fabbed, shaped .

A cover was made for the original floor heater hole.

The 2 pieces together have the same roll as the trunk lid very important for over all look.

A lot of time & effort went into theses rear pillars, to make sure they went along with the flow of the roof & overall looks of the chopped top.

This was headed to be a totally unique 1 of a kind custom Pontiac I hope some day it gets finished.

An additional filler piece had to be made.

The right side quarter panel repair & inner wheel tub replacement section

Both fronts now tacked in place

The left fin straightened up real nice.

Back out side for another stand back & look its got the shape we were wanting owner happy..

The rear panel lines up nice

The door jam will need some rework.

Old panel cut out & the replacement laid down.

Rear lower glass channel being fabbed up..

Out with the old & in with the new after some more fab additions then welded in and ground smooth

Now with the real glass its getting close but more tweaking is needed for me to be happy.

Checking with the fiberglass pattern

This is where to old upper section was needs a rebuild.

Its starting to look like it was made to be there

dannypascoemetalshaping.com

The card board template was transferred to plywood the start cutting out the .080 304 stainless for the glass trim to give the factory built look

The glass lower retainer needed to be formed

Carefully ground & sanded as these will get a show polish

Factory drip rails removed custom styled to be added.

Metal porn for sure it's topless

Tacked the 2 pieces together

Sliced back on the skin to bring in the soft flow roll

Had to make some inner wheel well tub patch sections to fill in where the old came out & the new needs to be.

The rear quarters extensions are held on with screws at the present time

The roof supports looked like this before blasting front, rear & both sides

When I picked the body up the owner was going to build the chassis while the body fab work was being done his intentions was install Jag XJ6 front & rear suspension & wanted the body rust out repair with some minor 80's type custom work.

Corner floor piece being fabbed.

The right quarter patch needed a little help before installing

Now to take care of the old rear door jam area it will need to be redone so the rear quarter glass will go up & down.

A support piece was made to go inside the rocker at the new door piller location

Checking for fit & door gap nice & consistent.

The Dodge back glass is tough to come by so a fiberglass mold was made for all the fit work.

The rear channel section was moved forward to fit the glass .

As I have said its about the flow of the roof line it looks good here.

A few different shots with the glass getting close adjustment still needed for the flow to be wright.

The corner piece welded in & ground

Both quarters are looking good now.

Looks pretty good with the glass sitting in real close.

Rear quarter top filler panels had to be made first.

Getting the shape in the new glass channel

Not so good after coming back from the blast shop and the skin was like looking at the stars to many pin hole to even think about counting roof is a goner & some of rear pillars.