…continued from Part 11

We left our Cimtex Rods Super Cameo buildup with the brothers Cimbanin standing around a ’56 Chevrolet Cameo roadster parked in their shop in Jarrell, Texas. You can take our word for it that it was simply a temporary condition. The fact of the matter is this top chop was just too involved to cram every photo and detail into one issue. So, we’re back, and it’s time to reinstall that cut-off top.

Now, some of you may be wondering why Cimtex Rods didn’t pie cut the top rather than reinstalling it in one piece.  They just don’t look good that way, commented Darrell. You either mess up the natural contour of the top when you cut it up into sections or you make the truck look too square by not slanting the doorposts. Actually, this is the most simple and intelligent way of doing things!

Darrell should know since the ’55 small-window Chevrolet Stepside which he and his brother, Tim, built was voted Goodguys Truck of the Year for 2002-2003. That says a lot with regards to their abilities.

However, that’s not to imply that chopping the truck’s big-window cab the way Cimtex Rods does is hassle-free. Regardless of which way you do it, it’s necessary to square the cab up after preliminary welding, as it may have shifted slightly. Ours moved a quarter of an inch.

Angling out those top doorposts approximately 1/4 inch and angling in those bottom doorposts approximately 1/4 inch requires a series of carefully executed pie cuts around the circumference of the doors and door pillars using a hack saw, a die grinder, a body hammer and dolly and a good old-fashioned 2×4.

It’s advisable to make small cuts, once again keeping in mind that whatever material you mistakenly remove, you’ll have to put back again, says Cimbanin.
Door frame alignment may also take a little time as the roof profile on both sides of the ’55-1/2-’59 Chevrolet/GMC truck cabs are not exactly the same. For whatever reason we think that it was to provide more driver headroom the contour of the top around the driver’s door is slightly different, and door frame alignment may take a bit more time.

When all was said and done, the front window height on this chop measured 14-3/4 inches. All told, we removed roughly 4-1/4 inches from the front of the top. The top will naturally come down a little more than the back when you move the window posts in and back, commented Tim. Furthermore, the rear window height on this chop measured 12-1/2 inches, which meant that it came down a total of 4 inches. For reference sake, the front windshield centerline on our ’56 big-window measured 27-5/8 inches, while the rear or cab centerline measured a total of 29 inches.

Here are a couple of items worth mentioning. It is absolutely imperative that you lay back or match up the pinch welting on the top and bottom sections of the front doorposts, as they are critical to proper window movement during body flex. Also, due to the somewhat different contour of the driver’s side of the top, it was necessary to perform a little of the old slice-‘n’-dice routine on the driver’s-side upper door frame by cutting it in two sections and piecing in a 3/8-inch section from one of the old doors in order to make everything conform. I would like to have a dollar for every chopped truck I’ve seen that has a cracked front windshield because someone forgot to line up the pinch welting, commented Cimbanin.

Now, follow along with us as Tim and Darrell Cimbanin and Cimtex Rods craftsman Darren Barker rejoins the Super Cameo’s abbreviated top with the bottom end of our modified big-window truck cab.