to dovetail or not to dovetail????

I was thinking about dovetailing the front and rear on my full size chevy to make it alittle narrower. Whos done this and has pics of the process? Whats the advantages and disadvantages of dovetailig?

colerush22 said:

I was thinking about dovetailing the front and rear on my full size chevy to make it alittle narrower. Whos done this and has pics of the process? Whats the advantages and disadvantages of dovetailig?

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advantage: clearance

disadvantage: not so street legal

Here's the bed i had done on the LUV...

EDIT: this bed was a PITA to weld, too rusty...

Don't do the front. Yes, it would be cool as ****. But it will be the biggest pain in your ass!!!

I started at the front took out 12" down the center.....Then from rear of cab to tail of truck dovetailed it to just clear my spare

i think the front will be easier i was worried about the rear with the wheel well and how to get that looking good, i like boonie busters alot but i twas thinking this

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197739&page=3

I like the orange k5 alot looks clean thats what i want to go for, not sure if its going to be a k5 or my k10

Mine is done front and rear i love for the fact of clearing tires and rocks, or trees

here are some.:beer:

You might have better luck finding a write up on pirate 4x4.com. I dont know of any fullsizes on here with dovetail writeups. coloradok5 also has some I think. If I didnt want to maintain street legal I would do it.

Before i tweaked everything on the front..!!!

Narrow the front to frame width...and stuffed the winch into the grill and made bumber to fit it...







The rear is done to.... both front and rear where both a big pain in the ass, but was fun at the same time and worth it..hardest part was fitting the hood good...had to find a secound one cause F'd the first one up pretty good:redneck:

Check out the linked welding cart with KING coil springs, toyota look alike axle, knuckles, and high steer......had some time on our hands....




Absolutly love it like this nice for a alot of things...... only down side is not to street leagal any more

little crawler said:

Mine is done front and rear i love for the fact of clearing tires and rocks, or trees

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your keeping this right?

are you going to try for TTC again?

The tail isn't too bad to do and keep street legal. My first bed was a total hack job, Ran out of time to do it nice so I just hacked it to pieces and bolted it back together. :redneck:




The second bed in all honesty my buddies did while I feverishly worked on other things before my wedding. It's not too bad to do but if I was to ever do it again I'd use skins and build my own floor and fenderwells.




The front is pretty easy but time consuming. You have to relocate or get rid of a lot of stuff to do it but I think it's more than worth it to do. One thing to keep in mind is when you narrow the nose the fenders will get shorter. So you either have to shorten the hood or extend the fenders. I extended the fenders on mine.

You can see the piece i added in this pic.

If you have the time--I say go for it.

As mentioned you won't wanna take it on the street...

I did my fullsize ford and ran into a few problems like fenderwells and hood hinges ect. i used a sawsall to cut sections out and then flanged and welded the hood back together.could have made it look nice but its a wheeler and i dont care.used jeep hinges so it opens back against the windshield.the fenders were easy.

Dovetail the back and leave the front or narrow the whole thing. I haven't seen a narrowed front end that looks good yet. Narrow the whole rig or just do tyhe back imo.

Spanaway Mudder said:

your keeping this right?

are you going to try for TTC again?

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I did enter TTC again. The kid that was buying the bronco screwed me over pretty bad and drug everything out for awhile so i got fed up and decided to keep it. The only reason i was selling it was i need a 4 seater not 3 seat now but oh well.

Screw the dovetail just tube it :redneck:

kicker1_solo said:

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:awesomework:

PUO said:

Screw the dovetail just tube it :redneck:

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that thing is sick, thats a pretty good idea, thought about tubing it but i was still trying to decide if i should tube the rear and make a truggy or dovetail it. Dovetail is cheaper but on the other hand tube is always nice

colerush22 said:

that thing is sick, thats a pretty good idea, thought about tubing it but i was still trying to decide if i should tube the rear and make a truggy or dovetail it. Dovetail is cheaper but on the other hand tube is always nice

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Why not do both?