BIG DOG HOUSE

By some of the pictures i have seen , it looks like the 2nd gen chevy dog house is wider by some amount then the ford. If someone wanted to widen the ford dog house for some reason, is it better to modify the ford or try to transplant the chevy ? any thoughts on that ?

The Dodge doghouse is also a good choice, seen a Chevy and a Ford sporting one @ the Nat's.

Only thing that comes to mind if you use the Chevy doghouse would be a "smaller" seat selection. Now the one thing I am not sure of, is how wide a Chevy's inside width is compared to a ford. If we are narrower and you have a Chev dog house you may end up with a really narrow seat. As for putting in the doghouse all you would need to do is cut the entire bolt plate out of the Chevy's floor and remove what the ford didn't need and weld it down. Then the Chevy house would bolt straight down as if it were factory. I could be wrong ,but it sounds logical. Keep in mind all the brackets under the floor and rad support and all that good stuff.

The Chevy box doesnt affect the seat width at all. Matter of fact the stock Econo lid fits it. The box extensions are an inch taller than the original inboard Econo seat mount so that needs to be addressed. On mine,I chopped the box by an inch since I didnt like using spacers on the wheel well.

Kool ...thanks for that info Tim...I don't no a hole lot, if anything about the other types of vans and what might interchange, into our Fords. I think I will still box mine though, cuz finding a V-8 doghouse might be that needle in a hay stack thing again...lmao.

Here's my combo box. I used Chevy sides and Ford front, rear, and lid. I still need to do some work on it. As Tim said and others have advised me I need to chop the sides down about an inch so the seats will sit level. Shouldn't be hard. Using the Chevy sides also allows you to run the Chevy cross flow V 8 radiator.






Duane in Tennessee

Man that is one nice lookin DH. What year of chevy did you go with on the sides? Maybe I will hold off on mine till last...just in case I run across one.

econopoor wrote:Here's my combo box. I used Chevy sides and Ford front, rear, and lid. I still need to do some work on it. As Tim said and others have advised me I need to chop the sides down about an inch so the seats will sit level. Shouldn't be hard. Using the Chevy sides also allows you to run the Chevy cross flow V 8 radiator.






Duane in Tennessee

What are you doing to the floor to make it fit ? are you using a chevy floor cut out and weld back in or are you custom opening it up with your own version to make it fit ?

He wont need to modify the floor hump area since he used the Ford rear section. The boxes are from the 67-70 G vans. One advantage to using the Chevy front is the e-brake setup. The plastic Ford handles break a lot but the Chevy ones are metal and you can use the whole assembly if you like. When you use the crossflow radiator the e-brake cable needs to be routed thru the lower radiator support since the radiator is wider than the stock Ford one. The whole Chevy setup works out nicely,plus you have your choice of lids. The Dodge doghouse is pretty sweet in that the sides are easily removed but you're stuck with the Dodge lid.

The sides came from a 68 Chevy. I have been saving sections of Ford floor pans to use for filling in around this doghouse. I angled the front wall into the sides for a cleaner look. Neither floor section has those curves in it so I'm going to have to work on getting that right. It's really tuff to weld on the Chevy sides in the front corners as the metal got very thin here. That's why you see all those strang patches up front. This is going in a 61 pickup and I'll have to add the rear hump. I went ahead and used the Ford 65-67 rear with this in mind. I can't use the Chevy lid in a pickup as it would hit the back wall of the cab when raised. That's ok as the whole point of this was to make it look like a Ford doghose. I like the Ford E-brake assembly as it looks better. I have one of those aluminum handles so I'm not worried about it cracking. This is just the first mockup. I still have a lot of work to do on it. I'm thinking I'll cut it into four pieces and add tabs so it can be unbolted to make working on the truck easier. Still thinking here.

Duane in Tennessee.

Ok I understand fitting front and rear with the ford ends, but still I am guessing that where the sides bolt down the chevy DH sides are wider than the ford, so how will you deal with that ?

I'm going to cut the Econoline floor back and take sections from some donor Econolines to build a new lip for it to bolt too. That's not really necessary though. I've seen others just cut the floor to fit the new doghouse shape, drill some holes, put down a sealer and bolt it up. Others have hammered the floor flat and then just bolt it in. I just like to do things the hard way. Once you carpet the floor you really can't see it anyway. Just bolt it in any way you prefer.

Duane in Tennessee

If you take the time to flatten the edges where the DH will seal it will take fewer fasteners to hold/seal it down if you wish it to be removable easier.

Cool topic!

One issue with a pickup is the length of the Chevy box, it's too long and will not fit. I cut the sides off the Chevy box, shortened them at the factory seam and weld them to the original Ford box. I should have shortened them some more, even with the radiator support to make it a nicer look in the interior. That's Indian 640's truck now.
Fred
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