[GUIDE] Car chopping quick guide.

[JackieH]

With the possibility for illegal factions to acquire a chop shop, and the recent update regarding powergaming rules, it is mandatory to roleplay chopping up a vehicle before running it through the script to acquire the car parts. I believe this was the case before, in theory, but now it’s on paper and it’s mandatory.

In this little guide, I’ll touch over how I personally have roleplayed chopping vehicles throughout the course of a few months in the most simple and understandable way I can.

 

First of all, the car-theft part of this was already touched on a previous thread which I’ll link under this paragraph. It’s well explained so I don’t think I need to repeat anything that was said there.

 

Props to @Pags for this guide:

 

 

Now, you got your stolen vehicle, drove up to your garage or chop shop. Now what? Now the dismantling process begins. There’s many ways to roleplay this, whether you want to go for a more meticulous, careful way or a more brute force one, it’s up to you.

 

Keep in mind, this is a long, tedious process in real life that could take up hours or even days, so the objective here is to make it shorter and fun to RP around, but sufficient to be up to the server standards.

 

Exterior and engine:

 

You got your vehicle parked up and ready to be worked on, where do we start? It’s obviously up to the person, and this is going to be some sort of a walkthrough of how I do it without going into specific details that I mention in the emotes when I do it.

First thing, reach for the hood latch and open the hood. This seems daunting at first, since engines have a lot of parts and whatnot. For the sake of roleplay, some parts are skipped or assumed to be removed in the process.

 

Once you get the hood open, disconnect the battery. This will turn off all electronic systems present in the car, except those that have self batteries. Some cars will have anti-theft. Some of these systems work with the car’s battery, some have their own which keeps it alive for a while if the main battery is disconnected.

With the current state of things, it’s impossible to determine which type of anti-theft you are facing. So we’ll leave it at that.

 

Once the battery is out, you need to focus on the engine and what surrounds it. Get rid of any wires, tubes and hoses connected to the engine. After that, you need to remove the exhaust system and transmission, otherwise the engine is not going anywhere.

 

For that, you need to first, lift the vehicle with a car jack, then get underneath. Once you are under the vehicle, a quick google search will tell you what the transmission and exhaust system is. Once you remove the covers, bolts and whatnot, you have successfully removed both parts. Now, for the engine block.

 

 

(Note: Draining the many fluids present in a vehicle, such as oil, coolant, transmission fluids and whatnot is something that I personally skip, as it is implied that it would’ve been done during this process).

 

For the engine, you’ll need to remove the front grill first, for ease of access and extraction. Now, you can either attach the engine to an engine hoist and pull it up, or use a small crane and let it drop down. This is up to the player and how they decide to roleplay.

 

You can either, as well, unbolt the engine mounts or brute force your way through them with a circular saw. Once the engine mounts, transmission and exhaust systems are detached, you can freely raise or lower the engine out of the vehicle. As for the rest of the engine compartment, the main pieces you should focus on should you wish to roleplay this part, are the radiatior and fan, carburetor and alternator. Up to you if you want to take this parts off, and a quick google search should be enough to tell you how to do that.

 

 

As for the rest of the exterior, same applies. You can take your time and be careful with it, or brute force your way through it. Whether you decide to unscrew and unbolt the doors, hood and trunk carefully or cut through it with a saw or a blowtorch is up to you.

You can remove the roof by doing horizontal cuts on the four corners of it, then pulling it up. As for the side and front fenders, most of them are held up with clips and screws, so that’s easy work.

 

 

(Note: At this point, glass would also be removed from the vehicle, such as windshield and whatnot. This is another part I tend to skip considering that, most likely, the glass will end up shattered and tossed away).

 

As mentioned before, the car should be raised from the ground with a car jack or any other tool you wish to use or is available to you. You can easily remove the tires using a tire iron or an impact gun, taking the rim nuts out and pulling the tire out of the Wheel well. After that, you want to remove the brake pads and rotors, and any other pieces you wish to focus on such as brake lines and whatnot.

 

 

Interior:

 

Now, your car is “naked”. No exterior parts, no engine, transmission or exhaust. So, what’s left? The interior. You can remove the dashboard by detaching the glovebox and pulling it out of the dashboard. Then, you can reach for the side screws and the center console. Once that’s removed, you can pull the dashboard forward, reaching underneath to undo all the wiring. If you are brute forcing your way around, it doesn’t matter if the wires are ripped.

 

As for the seats, they rest on two sliders which usually have four bolts, two at the front, and to at the back. You slide the seat forward and back, removing the bolts from both sides as well as the seat belt anchor point. Disconnect the wiring underneath the seat, then wiggle the seat out of the sliders and pull it off. (I personally skip the seat belt anchor part).

 

After removing all the seats and dashboard, you should be left with just the chassis. You can either cut it with a circular saw, blowtorch or leave the chassis whole and store it somewhere else.

 

As for the disposal of parts you don’t need and want to get rid of, it’s up to the player. Could roleplay leaving them in a scrapyard or tossing them at the nearest lake, alley, or wherever you see fit.

Notes:

Credits to @Deano776 for commenting this!

"I’d say a large part of vehicle chopping would be down to chassis numbers and VIN codes left on panels as this can trace the car down to model, year, country of manufacture etc. A VIN can usually be seen in the front window of a car to easily identify it. There’s also a tag in the engine bay which is riveted on and can link the body to the engine. The biggest giveaway for a car being chopped would be dodgy chassis codes in the floor of vehicles under the carpet as they’re embossed into the floor. Depending on who wants the panels/what country it goes to - they could just be ground down or cut out and a new one made up and welded in."

 

I think it's a neat thing you can include in your chopping RP to give it more depth.

 

Conclussion:

 

That’s it. Now you have a car chopped in many parts you can use. Whether you sell them or use them at the factory to create other items, it’s up to the player. At the end of the day, it’s up to the player how many parts the want to keep or how in depth you want to roleplay it. However, the roleplay should be sufficient, not rushed in any way and somewhat in detail.

 

Hope this guide is helpful or at least, serves as a general guideline for those who wish to partake in this kind of roleplay.

Edited October 4, 2021 by JackieH

[Karner]

As someone who's witnessed the RP from @JackieH in regards to chopping. This is a fantastic starter guide, especially from someone who's not a mechanic. Good work Jackie, it was a pleasure proof reading it.

[i dont wanna od in LA]

Really nice

[Lomadias]

Awesome guide, should encourage some realistic roleplay from those not necessarily vehicle-savvy.

[dawpi]

That's a very well written guide, well done, covering the most important stuff for those who don't know much about vehicles. 🙏

[charles]

Great work.

[Petey]

Good shit.

[Deano776]

Really nice guide! 
 

It would also be worth noting that some vehicles are worth a lot for their body panels to repair front or rear impact damage cars. Usually the whole front of a car is cut off from the A-pillar forward and classed as a ‘front cut’ - sometimes with the engine included. Same for the rear of the vehicle. From there the the parts will be packed into a container and shipped over seas to whoever buys them illegally.

I’d say a large part of vehicle chopping would be down to chassis numbers and VIN codes left on panels as this can trace the car down to model, year, country of manufacture etc. A VIN can usually be seen in the front window of a car to easily identify it. There’s also a tag in the engine bay which is riveted on and can link the body to the engine. The biggest giveaway for a car being chopped would be dodgy chassis codes in the floor of vehicles under the carpet as they’re embossed into the floor. Depending on who wants the panels/what country it goes to - they could just be ground down or cut out and a new one made up and welded in.

 

Not sure if it’s completely needed for car chopping roleplay but thought I’d through it in if anyone wants to expand on theirs!

[JackieH]

37 minutes ago, Deano776 said:

I’d say a large part of vehicle chopping would be down to chassis numbers and VIN codes left on panels as this can trace the car down to model, year, country of manufacture etc. A VIN can usually be seen in the front window of a car to easily identify it. There’s also a tag in the engine bay which is riveted on and can link the body to the engine. The biggest giveaway for a car being chopped would be dodgy chassis codes in the floor of vehicles under the carpet as they’re embossed into the floor. Depending on who wants the panels/what country it goes to - they could just be ground down or cut out and a new one made up and welded in.

 

Not sure if it’s completely needed for car chopping roleplay but thought I’d through it in if anyone wants to expand on theirs!

 

That's real nice, didn't think of that! I'll toss it somewhere in the guide with credit, thank you!

[Viscaria]

Well written Jackie, I'm sure this will help a lot of people, made its way into my bookmarks.