Chevrolet S10 Stock Glass Chop Top - A Little Off the Top

Part One: Map It Out
Start by laying out lines, showing how much metal you want to remove for the chop. One of the problems with chopping a truck will be the glass. To avoid having custom glass made, this chop will be performed using all of the stock glass. John and the crew at Clean Cut figured out that by simply limiting how far the side glass rolled up showed how much they could cut and still retain the stock glass. The roof on this first-generation S-10 could be taken down 2-3/4 inches from stock.

1. Before any cuts were made, they also mapped out how to reposition the back glass and still retain its stock size. Since they could shift the back window opening down toward the belt line 2-3/4 inches and still have it look visually appealing, John and the crew settled on that 2-3/4-inch measurement. John uses a combination of 2- and 3/4-inch tapes to speed up the lay-out process. You may be asking, "What about the windshield?" That will end up being tilted back later in the story to retain its stock size.

2. Much like the back window, the windshield opening will stay the same size; the sheetmetal needs to be dissected so the roof can be removed, leaving just the windshield opening. John has done this type of thing for years, so he knows where to start. He makes identical marks on both sides of the roof where it will be removed from the A-pillars. John states, "This is determined by where the horizontal portion of the roof starts to curve down to the A-pillar. The vertical mark should be made at the end of this horizontal portion, just before the curve." This line will be transferred to the door frame to provide the front cut line on the door.

3. Make sure to strip the cut areas down to bare metal; a 36-grit wheel should do the trick. It's better to do it now than grinding on your raw cut, because you might take off too much material, making the weld area thin and increasing the chance of blowing a hole with the welder.

4. With the front area of the roof mapped out, they moved to the rear and laid out the tape for the cuts. John recommends using the upper body line that runs along the side of the truck as a guide for your measurements. To make welding the roof back to the cab easier, lay your cut lines on the flattest areas possible. The cut line was transferred to the same point on the opposite side of the cab. At this time, the same marks were done to the vertical portion of the door frame, to provide the rear cut line of the door.

Part Two: Off With Her Head!
Before any cut was made, Richard went around the truck and made sure every line was straight and measured the same from side to side. If he found any variations in measurements or crooked lines in the tape, he made sure they were fixed and just perfect. Like Dad always said, "Measure twice and cut once."

1. John started the dissection process by slicing the rear window and windshield channels along the edge with a cut-off wheel.

2. With a reciprocating saw fitted with a Milwaukee Torch Blade, PN 48-00-5789, John cut the rear portion of the cab on the top line. All of the cuts will be along the upper lines to get the roof off. After it's off, he'll go back and cut the lower lines.

3. The saw was also used to cut the A-pillars. John recommends using the cut-off wheel to make a small slit on the sheetmetal just big enough to get the saw blade in. If you try and plunge the blade into the roof without this initial cut, you could possibly bend up the area and, in turn, require some hammer and dolly work.

4. A relief cut was made upward, nearly two thirds of the cab extension. This cut will be used to make the roof wider when it goes back together.

5. Once all of the cuts have been made to the exterior, John crawled inside and cut the inner panels free.

6. Time to make a convertible, John and Richard lifted off the roof skin and gently set it aside.

7. Once the roof section was out of the way, all of the unwanted metal was cut free along the lower lines. Be sure to keep all scrap until your project is finished. You never know what you might need it for.

8. The doors followed suit; they were removed in the same order as the roof-door tops first, then the extra material on the door shells.