The Dog House ....

never done it myself but have read of others using the chevy doghouse. you already have one so i suggest using it.unless you are going for a resto or stock appearance.

don't know about the doghouse but I wish my floors looked as good as the rest of yours.

I dont know what all you have to work with , but what about just building a DH? Being up so high you can put the Rad about anywhere in there and get seats to fit anywhere ya please.

Vanish, check out the dodge doghouses also they are pretty tall and wide. I'm going to try one in my 64 handi, 2nd gen doghouse are like hens teeth in new england

Vanish wrote:Thanks' That's about the Nicest Part of the Van .. The rest need Lots of work .. and when I Look at it sometimes it can be Overwhelming .. So I just concentrate on one Little thing at a time ... it will get there !!!!!

if it gets too overwelming just let me know and I'll send you a few pics of mine in it's current condition. that should cheer you up

Use the Chevy doghouse. The Ford lid fits it as a bonus. If you cut out the floor about a 1/4 inch from the inner frame rail lip on the underside its a perfect fit. The 1/4 inch you leave allows you to leave the factory welds on the lip. I cut mine to the edge and didnt leave lip and had to weld it afterwards. In hindsight,leaving a small lip is probably better.
Another perk is you can use the Chevy brake assembly if you want since it has a metal handle which isnt prone to breaking like the Ford. Use the Chevy crossflow radiator for better cooling also. The only other mod you may need is to divert the brake cable either under the lower radiator mount or thru it since the Chevy radiator is wider and takes the space of where the cable would normally run to the side. I would leave the 2 triangle braces next to the stock radiator until you decide if you need to use any of the holes in them for routing things. If not needed,just cut em out for more room to work.
As far as the Dodge doghouse goes, I sold one to Kris in Ohio(member here)and his install is Super clean using it. Hopefully he will unveil it to the public this coming year. The Dodge is nice since the sides come off easily whereas the Chevy is one whole piece.

I have been working on a solution to this problem. So far I've come up with a sort of hybird box. I used the Chevy sides with the front and rear from the Ford. Of course you are already past using the Ford rear. The Ford lid doesn't fit well on the Chevy box. It's close but not very tight. I had to shorten the lenght of the Chevy sides about an inch. That's what the seam is on the sides near the rear corners. Fred Carello said the Chevy sides need to be chopped about an inch as well to get the seats to sit level. I still have to go back and do that to this box. I'm still working on it and have a way to go. It's a real pain to cut and weld one like this. The metal gets very thin in the corners where it's been stretched. I keep blowing thru this one with my welder. I'm planning on chopping the whole box down about an inch. I also plan on making the sides removable for easy engine access. Just some ideas.





Duane in Tennessee.

Keeping in mind that the 65-67 seats are thinner and the brackets themself sit lower,its not really necessary to "chop" the sides by an inch on a 61-64 model,*IF* a spacer on the drivers side wheel well doesnt bother you. You could use a half inch spacer on the well and another between the seats and the tracks. You might even be able to modify an early track to fit the thinner late(65-67) seat and not use any spacer at all. I thought this idea up after I already chopped my whole doghouse by an inch. It really depends on what seats you are gonna use.
A bonus to the CHEVY box also is that its longer so it may cover up where someone else has butchered up the rear hump area. The downside to this is you cant use it in a pickup without shortening it.