Unlike most things associated with the hot rod hobby, no one knows for sure who had the first chopped top. Old-timers that were there can remember chopped coupes on the streets of Southern California in the late '30s, long before they showed up to race on the dry lake beds.
The Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), started in 1938 as a sanctioning body to organize dry lake races, didn't even allow coupes to run at their meets until after WWII. The Russetta Timing Association did, however, and many racers found chopped coupes had a reduced frontal mass, thus lowering the drag coefficient.
So when did chopped coupes start popping up? Anybody with a documented answer is invited to write to this magazine and let us know. But, suffice to say, chopping a roof is as popular today as it was 70 years ago. Lowering the lid on a too tall coupe is fairly easy when it is a T or Model A (with their nearly vertical roof posts), but when Ford started rounding their roofs in the mid '30s, metalmen had to get creative. A fabricator once remarked that chopping the super-round roof of a '40 Ford coupe was like breaking an eggshell and then putting it back together with less pieces!
There are two ways to approach a chop nowadays, and the approach taken depends on if the car is a late or early model. The early models can be done in a two-piece method (the rear window area and windshield area are lowered separately and then reattached), while later models can be done in a four-way cut (with each post area lowered individually and then reconnected). And if the owner wants the windshield laid back, that presents even more cutting options.
When a customer of Roy Brizio Street Rods wanted his '36 three-window coupe chopped, Brizio called on Marcel DeLey of Marcel's Custom Metal. Marcel, along with sons Marc and Luc, have quietly been building some of the most recognized street rods of the last decade in their shop in Corona, California. They've collectively built five past America's Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) award winners from scratch as well as dozens of custom-bodied rods, from Buz DiVosta's SportStar exotic roadster in 1996 to the current crop of Boyd Coddington's creations (the Aluma Truck, the soon-to-be debuted Aluma Tub, and a throwback to the custom coachbuilt European cars of the '30s, a Delahaye-inspired rod powered by a Viper V-10).
Even with years of experience under their belt, it had been a while since they'd chopped a '36 Ford, but Marc DeLey wasn't fazed as he picked up his trusty Sawzall and started cutting! STREET RODDER followed along to see how the chop was done, as well as what work was done on the doors and window trim pieces. This is part one of a two-part story (which concludes in next month's issue), as the process can't be told in just four and a half pages.