Had a question that is deemed by me as being a noob question but its the only way I'm gonna learn. I know what chopping is, I kinda know what frenching the lights is, but I have no idea what channeling is. Can some one please enlighten me on the frenching and channeling? If you have some pics of the 2 it would help out a lot also. Thanks Olds dudes.

 

Frenching is taking an "outie" and making it an "innie". Headlights or tail lights inset, antenna recessed, that type of thing.

Channelling is the oposite of a body lift. It is cutting notches in the floorpan so the body rides lower on the frame.

Yup...the only way to learn is ask.

C.J.

 

Great question and great answer. Go on over to the H.A.M.B website at Jalopyjournal.com and just look at some of the pictures they have. There are lots of pictures in the posts over there and usually the subject of the thread will say it clearly like " just chopped my '40 merc " or " lowered the roadster the other day " you know, stuff like that. You will get lots of good ideas and motivation, I promise.

 

HAMB is what brought that question to my mind. I saw a car that was channeled but it was a pic from the outside with no one sitting in the car so it didn't look different to me. Thanks for the explanation. I also picked up a magazine yesterday called Deluxe Car Kulture that had some pics of the process of channeling. That magazine is pretty cool by the way, check it out if you got the chance. Its all about Rockabilly culture and the rods they drive. Had a big article about the San Fransisco Rumblers, very nice cars!!

 

Jesse James had a crew chop a Cadillac, I think it was a '52 for one of his shows, very cool. The old guy that did the lead work was awsome, the whole crew was awsome. If you ever get to see that it is a real treat!

 

Your 56 should have a flat transmission tunnel or hump. If you lower your body you may have to modify the hump and lower fire wall. The drive shaft runs through the x frame so some mods will have to done there. You could easily drop the body about two inches by just removing the round tubes on your body mounts but you will have to deal with your motor, transmission, drive shaft and rear end alignment. I think the simplest way to go is with changing the springs. You have to look at the whole picture then. Go for it.