By Tony Thacker Photography by The Author

uys typically don’t read instructions, right? Well, I would suggest that before you dive into a roof chop you do a little research, which is exactly what Evan and Justin Veazie of the Veazie Brothers did before they jumped into the chop of Bruce Fortie’s ’32 Ford highboy three-window coupe. Why? Because it was to be their first ever chop.

Evan called a few people who might know, like the Kennedy Brothers and Jimmy Shine, among others, and as you would expect got as many answers. The only answer was to plan carefully and then have at it.

Before any cutting is done the body has to be braced. In this case, it was a brand-new Brookville Roadster three-window coupe that one would expect to be square, and it was. If, however, you are chopping an old body, one that may have been repaired—more than once—you should check the body for squareness.

You can do this by bolting the body to a frame that you know is square or to a frame fixture. Next, hang some plumb bobs, preferably three at the front, center, and rear of the body before measuring every which way to make sure the body is square. If it’s not then you have some pushing and pulling to do to get it into shape. There’s no point in proceeding with the chop until you have the body square.

Once you have the body square you can begin to brace it. Most people, Evan included, use 1-inch square steel tube and what you’re trying to do is hold the body together when you take off the roof. It will have a tendency to spring apart so you need to tie it together front to rear, side to side, and diagonally. As with actually chopping the top, there are many ways to do this; it doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you do it.

Don’t underestimate the work involved in bracing, particularly if like some builders you use turnbuckles to facilitate some adjustment. That is particularly useful on an old body that is possibly out of square.

Even after some extensive bracing Evan discovered that he had mounted the crossbrace from the bottom of the door up to the cowl too high and that had to be moved down. Of course, you can salvage the tubing and use it for another project.

Considering he had never chopped a car before, Evan did a bang-up job and executed perhaps one of the best and certainly cleanest 2-inch chops I have ever seen. He did the major part of the chop in just one day, however, that did not include bracing, finishing, doors, and so on. That is to follow.

3. Some people, for example Bobby Walden, like to use turnbuckles at the ends of their bracing bars so that any imperfections in body squareness can be dialed out by simply adjusting the turnbuckle.

5. A wider angle of the ’34 five-window at Walden Speed Shop shows the extensive bracing complete with turnbuckles. Of course, if you were not experienced, you could buckle up and make more of a mess than you started with.

7. The front cowl end of Bruce Fortie’s Brookville Roadster ’32 three-window coupe partway through the bracing process. Notice there are longitudinal braces running from front to back and crossbraces tying them together.

9. Initially, these diagonal braces ran from the bottom rear of the door opening up to the A-pillar above the latch mechanism but it was found to get in the way of the part of the A-pillar that needed to be worked.

11. This is the rear bracing that Evan Veazie installed behind the doors of Fortie’s Brookville Roadster three-window coupe. The longitudinal braces are anchored to a rectangular frame that itself is crossbraced and anchored to the floor and the body sides.