dove tail the bed

[7.3dieselranger]

hey guys got a question on dove tailing

me and me buddy dove tailed the front of my ranger the other weekend and it was really easy, a couple cuts and brut force and the inner fenders set were i wanted them, connected the core support with some sheet metal and self tappers, and just bolted the fensers on and bent them to fit right.

i want to shorten the bed it will only be about 3' 6" to about 4' total legth, the front panel will be about 1/3 of the way into the wheel well then will narrow to the frame width at the rear and i will narrow the tail gate abut 14-18 inchs.

has anyone done this or have any good ideas on how to do this.

my thought is to cut the spot welds out for the front panel and then were the center panel on the bed floor meets the inner side panels just inside the wheel well cut along that seam the whole length and then cut that panel at the angle that i will dove tail it and then weld it back together and cut the extra bed sides off in front of the front panel. and then my problem with doing it this way is with the tail gate on the bed the pegs will not sit parralel with the tail gate like factory they will be angled in tords the middle of the bed and the tail gate will not work on the hinges correctly or even latch i am running into a problem with how to angle the back of the panels so they look factory not angled in. i have thought of cutting the top rail and the floor about and inch or two infront of the tail lights so i can bend the tail light section back out so the pegs and the latch for the tail gate will sit like factory and not have any issues with the tail gatge opening and closing.

any ideas would be great or if there are any pics out there that you have seen that you could post would be awesome

[7.3dieselranger]

bump, any one got pics of any rig that this is been done with or any ideas how to do it just got to get my camper put of my garage and then just going to start cutting and welding and see what i come up with. will post pics sure a case of beer and some thinking will figure it out

[7.3dieselranger]

well finally got my camper out of my garage last weekend and got the drunk rear exo off the ranger, and is ready to start building the bed, if anyone has any ideas please chime in will take pictures of it step by step, just going to start cuitting and see were it gets me

[7.3dieselranger]

alright got some work done on it today, got the front and floor cut out and it is only 3 feet from the front of the bed to the tail gate
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what was left of the bed after the floor front and rear was cut off
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got the rear narrowed 20 inches total
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looking at the bed from the rear with the back welded on to the floor
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looking from the side you can really tell how short it is going to be
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[Smurf Mobile]

That's really looking good! Do you have any pictures of what you did to the front?

[7.3dieselranger]

only got the one on my profile but will get some pics of what i did this week and post them on here

[7.3dieselranger]

DSC00606 (800x600).jpg
got the tail gate measured out and marked to narrow it

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the tail gate tacked up and with the section removed about it

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the tail gate on the bed before welding it up

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tail gate welded and with the tail lights in

smurff here are a few pictures of the front end, remember i am not running the radiator up front and it is never drove on the road so the fenders are only bolted on in the very front by the head lamp by those 2 bolts, the rear bolt in the engine bay, bolt behind the door, and the very bottom bolt by the door

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just cut out 3 sections out of the grill and self tapped it together

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as you can see the fender does not sit like it did from the factory but if you notice in the pic at the bottom of the inner fender i cut it back and you cant see in this pic but when you look at the inner fender it is wavy for ridgibility and i cut the bump on the engine side so it would bend and not cause any big issues

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you can see a cut just below the voltage reguator and this is at the firewall same thing as the front but cut on the fender side and at the very top the gusset i just cut a v into it

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as you can see i just put some sheet metal over the gap and bolted it to the core support, i just cut the core support were the hole is for the radiator out of it and narrowed and replaced it with sheet metal

going to try and get my hood hinges straightened out and hood cut tomorrow and bolted up

[jesse93]

when your done ill pm you my address so you can deliver my truck..lol


looks awesome

[7.3dieselranger]

yea that will not happen got way to much time into this thing building it like i want but has been fun along the way learning how to do everyhting.

my brother and i got the sides put on the bed the other night, the wheel well has not been cut yet
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decided to cut the wheel well hump out of the bed made it alot easier to mount the sides and figured i could use the extra room
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set the bed on with the tail gate and tail lights in it just to see how it looks, i like the narrow look at the back dont have to worry about a exo cause there really wont be any damage to the body besides the cab but o well on that it is still factory strong.
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here is a side shot of the bed on the truck will try to get the sides cut and inside finshed and get you guys some finished pics here in the next week or 2
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