dovetail...finally

[72cruiser]

thanks gehn,

i wish i had more time to work on it, but week nights i have to stop at 9 b/c i don't want to piss off the neighbors. i did, however, find an awesome house that i'm moving into in august...3 bedroom, with a basement/garage that is all mine, ha ha. and it's half a mile from my office so i can ride my bike, and it's less rent than what i'm payin now. perfect.

you and kyle goin to be in greenville this weekend? i might need a place to sleep for a couple hours tonight on my way to meet the fam for vacation...i'll give one of y'all a call later on after i figure out exactly what i'm doin


malphrus

[VTCruiser]

yeah man, we might catch a movie later but we can leave the door open. just let us know what time.

[bustanutley]

Looks good malphrus.

I think you will be ok without raising the fenderwells but if you are considering doing it now would be the easiest time, you are half way there. That said my 40s fit on my truck very well with the fj60 axles and 1.5" spacers. I rolled my rear fenders to the top of the stock well and the rub a little on the smooth corner. The 37s allowed the rear springs to go into a pretty nasty negative arch. The front tires clear my outboarded springs by maybe a 1/4" at full lock, and I hit my bib at full stuff, need to clearance that.

[72cruiser]

Originally Posted by bustanutley

Looks good malphrus.

I think you will be ok without raising the fenderwells but if you are considering doing it now would be the easiest time, you are half way there. That said my 40s fit on my truck very well with the fj60 axles and 1.5" spacers. I rolled my rear fenders to the top of the stock well and the rub a little on the smooth corner. The 37s allowed the rear springs to go into a pretty nasty negative arch. The front tires clear my outboarded springs by maybe a 1/4" at full lock, and I hit my bib at full stuff, need to clearance that.

yeah, i'm thinking about it more now that i pulled the top of the wheelwell yesterday. i'm still not sure it'll be necessary though, i have pulled the sides in 4+ inches to start with and then the dovetail is pullin em in to 8 or 9 inches total around where the axle will be.

i will definitely be trimming the quarter panel all the way up, by the way.


thanks for the thoughts and for the numbers, i need some more of that kind of info so i can make a good decision the first time around...i'm pretty good at makin em after about 6 bad ones, but i'd like to try and avoid that if possible, ha ha



malphrus

[bustanutley]

I should add that my wheels are 3" BS

[72cruiser]

aight fellas,

have a good one, i'm headin to the coast for a week...i'll be back later




malphrus

[lowtideride]

Very cool dude, I haven't been on mud all that much lately and your thread slipped by me. Hell I haven't even posted pictures for my build thread and the projects been done for almost a month ...ahh well Ill get there then.

Very very cool man, Ill have to wheel Tellico with you when its done.

[Eskimo]

NICE clean work... you're gonna love the dovetail.

[72cruiser]

aight y'all...got back from the beach and charleston last night.

hung out with one of my buds that was in town today and got only got an hour or so of work in on the cruiser.


good news: the driverside dovetail is almost done
bad news: my roommate took his camera with him out of town this weekend

i'll hopefully have some pics/updates on monday. should be able to get the driverside pretty much done if all goes as planned tomorrow afternoon.


malphrus

[Tapage]

Originally Posted by 72cruiser

thanks gehn,

i wish i had more time to work on it, but week nights i have to stop at 9 b/c i don't want to piss off the neighbors.

I know about that .. very complicated and more with heavy work as you need to do .. but congrats nice proyect and keep posting your updates ..

[72cruiser]

well...just got off the phone with the welding supply co here in nashville.

it'll be tomorrow morning before i can get my tank back for the welder. i ran out of gas about 6 tack welds into the sunday afternoon scheduled work :angry:

dropped the tank off this morning before work and apparently it's a funny size/shape? i thought it was just a normal 40lb tank...guess not as they didn't have any to exchange and i have to wait for it to get filled.


yesterday i did get to work on the wheelwell top piece. cut it all out of 16 gauge (i think that's what is, maybe 14...i got a 2'x4' drop from the steelyard for 10 bucks) and am about to go get the lips bent up on the pieces at my building's machine shop.

i'll hopefully get some pictures tonight and post up.



malphrus

[72cruiser]

aight...slow progress, haven't been able to put in much time this week, but got some more gas for the welder yesterday

got the top of the wheelwell in:




and the quarter panel reattached to the rear sill...





malphrus

[72cruiser]

got some more work done this morning, so i figured i'd post it up while i'm eatin lunch

started the comp cut on the fender:




i decided to use the old lip of the fender to keep the flow of the original lines and also let me keep a clean lip on the fenders so i don't chotch up my tires if they rub.



for the straight parts of the fender i just cut an 3/4" overhang, drilled out holes for spot welds, then beat it flush with the bottom of the wheelwell, and then welded it up.

[72cruiser]

here are some finished shots of the cut and lip




a couple good shots of the lip and of the spot welds

[72cruiser]

here's a side shot of the finished product:

before:


after:



also, thanks to dieselcruiserhead... while readin thru his awesome build thread i saw where he welded tabs to his fabbed firewall so he could move it around. i stole that idea and have been welding tabs to sheet metal on the cruiser that is hard to get a good ground clamp on...so then i can just clamp on the tab.




that's it for a bit, i'll be back at it after lunch. hope to get the passenger side cut off and started so i can just repeat the process and finish up this part of the build.


malphrus

[VTCruiser]

nice malph, looks factory.

[incogrhino]

lookin good.

[Sputnik40]

Looking really good! Will be watching for the end project - really inspiring...

[tlcruiser66]

Nice work, can't wait to see the finished product. I'm thinking of dovetailing mine but going to tube to backhalf instead of using the panels. Keep up the good work.

Kevin

[Eskimo]

Cleeeeeean work man.. Looks great!

[lowtideride]

Looooookin great brotha...

[72cruiser]

got back out to the cruiser after a couple of days hiatus...me and the roommate have got a solid weekly poker night on tuesdays and summer ultimate frisbee league on wednesday nights.

got the passenger side all cut off. hopefully i can get the passenger side done a bit more efficiently since i know what all the tricky parts of the process will be.

here's the passenger rocker and quarter



what's left of the tub after i cut out the rocker, quarter, wheelwell, and tank depression:





i cut out the tank depression for a guy here on the board for some rust repair...i had to get rid of it anyway b/c when i pull the door frame in at the b-pillar on this side i need a flat floorboard to attach the inside rocker to...

i am realizing that the all the pictures i am goin to take over the next few days are just goin to be mirror images of the stuff i've already posted, so unless there is something cool or new that happens i'll just post up the finished product when i get it done.


malphrus

[lowtideride]

Freakin cool, So what color is gonna be ? red?

[72cruiser]

Originally Posted by lowtideride

Freakin cool, So what color is gonna be ? red?

nah, i'm goin to go back to the baby blue color my first cruiser was...i think i posted a pic of the color on the first page

by the way, bummer about havin to sell one of your rigs man...



malphrus

[TRAILTOYZ]

I'm dreading doing the fenderwells on my dovetail I've been doing everything else but that because it just looks like a million hours. Looking good though man.

[clemson55]

Malph looking good man, after seeing you drive that cruiser around campus for so long I didnt know you had it in you