In my humble opinion, there's nothin' like a heavily hammered A sedan. A belly-high roofline just looks right, so when I had the opportunity to witness a chop job on a fiberglass A sedan body, I jumped at the chance. Recently, young Nate Pierce of Bruiser Enterprises in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, was performing the task on one of the company's way-cool Bruiser "Finish It Yourself" '28/29 sedan bodies, and he was kind enough to give us a few pointers on the task as he went along.
Now, the best thing about lowering the lid on a 'glass body is that it can be accomplished without welding gear or equipment-being 'glass, all that's needed to sew a body back together is a bit of bracing and a bunch of resin, cloth, and matting. In this case, we have to keep in mind that the subject shown here is a bare-bones Bruiser sedan. Bare bones meaning that it's an entry level-priced, un-reinforced shell that makes this chore that much easier, as the reinforcement is added to the body after the lid is at its desired height. This is something I plan on doing with mine in the near future. That said, let's get on to the photos and see this chop job in action.Chopping 'glass is a bit more in the realm of reality for the at-home hobbyist than cuttin' a steel body would be. The process is the same, but the reassembly is much more forgiving because minor errors can be corrected using 'glass and resin versus metalwork and welding.
The first step in any chop job is deciding how much to whack it. In this respect, it's pretty much a matter of taste, if not practicality. Nate considers a 5-inch chop to be ideal for an A sedan-this gives a good look and still leaves enough in the way of headroom for the average rodder. Another thing I should mention is that the Model A is a perfect candidate for the first-timer; the boxy shape allows the lid to be dropped without the need to stretch the top to align the pillars.
The easiest way to map out the chop is to use masking tape. You'll want to take out your body material from the straightest, most vertical sections of the body, which in the case of an A is near midway through the window openings. A die-grinder or Sawsall can be used to make your cuts and work just as well on 'glass as steel.
Your first set of cuts should be made at the uppermost cut line (as shown in the previous image) this will allow the removal of the roof section as one piece and lets you proceed around the car section by section, removing the remaining pillar pieces one at a time.