to dovetail or not to dovetail????

PUO said:

Screw the dovetail just tube it :redneck:

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I vote tube it:beer:

yup, heres how i did mine.. its not a fullsize but you get the idea..


you know youre just going to kill all the sheetmetal work anyway...

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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same rig with some sheetmetal hung on it.


You can tube it then hang "skins" on it if you want. take off the front fenders and drill out the spot welds that hold the stamped steel to the skin.

Oh and that little mitsu parked next to it runs low 12's high 11's straight up

hey PUO do you have more pics of your truck things sweet, could you post some more or do you have a build thread some were?

mÃ"rK said:

yup, heres how i did mine.. its not a fullsize but you get the idea..

you know youre just going to kill all the sheetmetal work anyway...

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yeah probably true about the sheet metal, if i decide to dovetail it and looks bad ill just have to tube it i guess, but i do like PUO's truck with it "skinned"

PUO said:

Oh and that little mitsu parked next to it runs low 12's high 11's straight up

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Galant VR4??

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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I depends on what you want from your wheeler, ya you'll be a little more capable and no longer street legal, but my bronco wasn't exactly street legal before it went under the knife, I narrowed mine about 2 and a half years ago so I would get less dents but I soon found out I got just as many dents, because I could get in tighter area's but here's some pic's. like I said I did this a few years ago so was not photoed the best as in i missed a few pic's along the way. But I narrow the cab section 10" the front 22" and the rear 20" so the widest part of my body is 58"

here's a pic the day she went under
View attachment 25966

first I ripped off every thing including the inner fenders
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and then the whole back half
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next is the windshield
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now I took a laser I have to make a perfect trim line to follow
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and here I replaced my kick panels with sheet metal and welded the door posts back on that I cut off earlier.
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Basically how I looked before the cage
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sorry I didn't have any pics of the rear getting narrowed but it was basically cutting off the sides and narrowing the floor and replace the sides then build new inner fenders in the rear, thats a must to replace the stability in the rear panels. well any way I hope this helps and not hinder
View attachment 25973

This is allso before I shreched the wheel base 16" and went to an HP 60 and 70, well It's a lot differant now.

Pumpy's looks good at its final resting place. Or at least for a bit. I have a full width jeep that I wish I (and may before to awful long) narrowed mine. My front has no fenders so the bar along the hood line makes it narrowed in front. I have tweaked the body on mine in rear even with 1/4" diamond plate covering it all. If you don't mind trailering it everywhere then I personally would narrow it.

Chris here's a decent pic of what your talking about on your body.

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Pickle said:

Pumpy's looks good at its final resting place. Or at least for a bit. I have a full width jeep that I wish I (and may before to awful long) narrowed mine. My front has no fenders so the bar along the hood line makes it narrowed in front. I have tweaked the body on mine in rear even with 1/4" diamond plate covering it all. If you don't mind trailering it everywhere then I personally would narrow it.

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You would have no problems if you had a bigger engine.:bananadance: :nana1: :011:

well i started to dovetail the rear today....ran out of gas with the torch so i finished it up with the sazall, i cut it alittle narrower than i wanted but it still looks good. All i need to do now is finish welding it all back together if its not raining tomorrow . Il try and post pics when its all done.


I started by cutting out the angle i wanted then took it out at the bed side so i was missing a triangle. Then i ground everything smooth(the torch tore **** up) then i took a ratchet strap and pulled one side in then tacked it then repeted to the other side untill the rain came down and sent me inside. Hopefully if there is no rain tomorrow ill finish welding it up and try and snap a few pics.

anyone have any suggestions on how to work with the fenders? When i cut out the traingle piece i completely took out the fender but on the bed side there is still a gap. I was thinking about cutting my fender well out and welding that back onto the bed side, it will only be like a 2" fender well thou. Any suggestions?

any updates on your progress?

mÃ"rK said:

any updates on your progress?

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I have the rear done and im going to start working on the front tonight so that should be finished soon but i have no pics yet. Ill get them as soon as im done with the front and i figure out how to post pics on here.....anyone want to let me know how to post pics?

Step 1. You must have the pictures uploaded somewhere online that will host them for you. Such as myspace, imagestation, photobucket, etc..

2. Go to the picture that you have on photobucket or wherever and right click on it. Click on "Properties"

3. A new box will pop up. Where it says something like Address (URL), highlight and copy that whole link. Such as http://a940.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/102/l_e60832a94b98ecc15b310d158dd58893.jpg

4. Then come back here and click on the little button that looks like this above where you type your posts and a box will pop up. That is where you paste your link. Then click ok.

And if you're using photobucket then underneath the picture it has an IMG link already made. So copy the link that has button that way.

colerush22 said:

I have the rear done and im going to start working on the front tonight so that should be finished soon but i have no pics yet. Ill get them as soon as im done with the front and i figure out how to post pics on here.....anyone want to let me know how to post pics?

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cool, im interested in your pics.. I picked up some front fenders for my truck for 15 bucks and threw them on there. I know I'm gonna kill them like the rest of the body but the price was right... Anyway mines a little different but I'll take some pics and post them someday..

trying to get pics of the rear up tonight for you guys im still looking for the camera and i have to set up a photobucket account

here are some pics after i took 28" out of the rear (was a long bed) and the rear dovetailed in







I hope these pics show its the first time loading them:awesomework:

looks good! Hey if you want an idea for inboarding those rear springs a bit lemme know!, or at least a shackle reverse on those rear mounts... :;

It's def. worth it!:awesomework: