1971 Chevy Truck Roof Lowering Project

The first things to get whacked are the window frames. First, I cut the rear of the frame in half. When making any cut on a top be sure to run a piece of masking tape, cardboard, duct tape, or something of the sort around hte post to ensure a clean and straight cut.

I then cut the frame at the front peak. Side note: I find it easier to begin my cuts with a hacksaw, that way I have a "guide" to place my Sawzall blade in for a clean cut.

Next, it was time to begin laying out the chop. I wanted to keep the bottom of hte rear window opening at the same height, therefore I decided to take the chop out of the lower B-pillar and leave the window opening alone. To do this, I measured 2 3/4-inch down from the bottom of the opening and laid a piece of horizontal masking tape around the B-pillar and through the doorjamb evenly. A level helped out in that step. Once finished, I transferred my layout to the other side.

Because I decided to take my chop from that portion of the B-pillar, I then had to go inside and remove the inner part of the B-pillar. This meant that once the outside skin was cut, the top could be removed. Besides making my rear chop easy, this opening will also allow me to get to the weld area easily with a hammer and dolly.

Laying out the front is much easier. I decided to cut 3/4 inch out of the A-pillars first, and then go from there. This masking tape is 3/4 inch wide; by simply wrapping it around the A-pillar I had my marks. Be sure to transfer the placement height of the tape to the other pillar exactly. Once I quadruple checked everything (as they say: measure twice, cut once), I whacked out my 3/4-inch section from the A-pillar. Side note; I took the material near the top of the A-pillar, so when it came time to pull the pillar back things would be much easier-- as we'll see it later.

Chance used a cut-off wheel, for more accurac, to cut along the top of the masking tape around the B-pillar...

...Next, a cut was made from the masking tape up to the bottom of the window opening.

We have lift off. Once cut, go back and measure the cab to make sure nothing has shifted.

There's nothing like, the feeling of looking at your truck-turned-roadster. If you don't feel alive now, you must be dead.

To get a visual, my brother and I put the top back on the truck and scoped things out. At this point 3/4 inch has been taken from the A-pillar while the B-pillar has been left the same height. It was clear at this point that all we had done was corrected the uphill top, but we got a visual of how far we needed to bring things down.

From the A-pillars we decided to take off another 3/4 inch by masking off the top of the A-pillar again. At this point we've removed a grand total of a 1 1/2 inches from the A-pillars.

Next, we took an inch from the B-pillar by running 1-inch masking tape around the bottom of hte top piece of cut cab-- and once again cut along the tp with a cut-off wheel. ONce cut, we put the top back on, clamped it in place with Vise-Grips, and measured to make sure the rear was lining up evenly and wasn't tilting to one side.