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Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:37 pm
by Yenkoboy
Nice work, How much extra room did you get in the wheel house? Whats the total room now?

Thanks Mark

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:07 pm
by speedphreake
I gained 2". The whole plan was to fit a 275/60 drag radial or 28/10.5 slicks. I have about 12" of usable space without rubbing.

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:21 pm
by chevyart
hey speedphreake whay are you scared of cutting metal. i do my own brain surgery. thats scary.. real nice job you are doing. well worth you effort, and when you arer done no one will know the difference chevy art

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:52 pm
by Roccosvega
Nice! Very Neatly Done.
Robert.

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 1:03 am
by djv8ga
Really nice and you take great pictures too. I really like cars that are complete with all the stock stuff including suspension, trim, backseat, etc. I'm glad it's now in vogue. A 275 tire will look great IMO.

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:09 am
by waybad
hey speedphreake..
If I drop my car off at your house will you do mine??? please???
this is really a great job of keeping everything looking clean and stock
looking :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
I also think with the way you did you mounting points you could
run in the stock suspension classes? will a 275/60 fit in the wheel well opening
with out rubbing when they grow?
I was also thinking of maybe making the gas filler opening up in the rear panel between the tail lights
like the 67-8 camaro gas opening?? just something I was thinking of, not sure it would work?
anyway you have done a great job and thanks for doing the leg work for me/us,, I will be copying yours
exactly the way you have done yours.. keep us posted when you get the rest of your progress done!
TC

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:43 pm
by speedphreake
Thanks for the compliments. If you can afford the bill, drop it off. :lol:

I don't see why it wouldn't still fit the stock suspension classes since I'm still technically using the stock mounting points on the body. The inside part of the mounts are still stock. The point of all this was to be able to run stock suspension classes or get a weight break for running stock suspension. Not sure on exact fitment of the 275 yet, I may have to mod the wheelwell opening slightly. According to Mickey thompson, the radail tires don't grow. I was also thinking of the gas filler between the lights but decided not to do it.

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:48 pm
by 70styleVega
Nice work and photos. I never even considered tubbing or mini-tubbing my hatchback until I saw yours. I always thought that frame rails/tubes or a backhalf would be needed. I especially like how you kept the back seat. I recommended this thread for the "Best Of" section.
Good luck and keep the photos coming. :burn:

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 9:38 am
by Topgun
Well you did such a nice job that it persuaded me to start cutting last night. Looks like it is gonna work out nice. With my rearend which is about 52 inchs outside of drum to outside of drum , a 4.50 backset rim should work just fine. I used my sons 26 x 10.5 et street and there was a ton of room on either side even when using his mustang rim's offset. I , like you am gonna clearance the 1/4 to accept a 28 inch tire also for the look.

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 1:48 pm
by vegon71
Great job on the mod, love it :th:

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:19 pm
by full boost
Alot of work , i bet it was worth it ! good job....

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:44 am
by mexican74vega
I was spending alot of time seeing your pictures, they are great, I'm trying to use 26-9-15 hoosiers on my 74 vega, but they are really close in the inside and in the outside, I'm planning to follow your pictures to do my minitub job, I have some questions:

1.- did you move the brace also the 2 inches you said??

2.-If i remove the fu.. brace, what happen?? my car is exactly reinforced like yours

3.-did you move the spring upper tower or bracket or how you name where the springs seat in the upper??also the 2 inches??if you move it 2 inches ,obviously i have to move the lower 2 inches too, can you explain to me what did you do??

thanks a lot, berny from guadalajara, jalisco, mexico trying to race with a LT1 and 26-9 hoosiers.

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 10:37 pm
by _QUICKTRIP
Hey speedphreake.
Nice work ! :th:
I too took a low milage, rust free car,but I totally tubbed the rear section.
My avatar is the car,76 Astre,"Twisted Tweety"
The wheel's are 28.50 x 18.50 M/T's
It was a hard call for me to cut it up as I really dig originality,
but, I really wanted to build a killer Pro Street car,& at the time the Astre fit perfectly!
But what bites is not long after I did trim out the rear,
I found & bought a 73 Vega GT that was already cut up heavily!
Firewall set back a few inches,the inner front fenders removed &
the orig.front clip made into a 1 piece flip,
narrowed rear etc.etc. just an all out light weight drag car.
So the Astre will see double duty as a Pro Street & weekend drag car ocasionally.
And the 73 Vega will be thrashed regularly @ the strip !
IMHO,The Vega's, Astre's, H bodies in general,
are some of the best & meanest looking Pro Street /race car's ever built.

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 7:38 pm
by speedphreake
Here is the LONG over do update to my minitub job. IT'S DONE.

I narrowed the rearend 2" myself. Bought a jig to do it and found out the axle tubes were bent 1/4" on one side, 3/8" on the other. In the process of narrowing, I was able to straighten them and get the rear perfectly straight. I left the suspension mounts in the stock location, but narrowed the lowers to get the room to narrow the rear. The spring mounts were moved in 2" per side. I had to send the axles out to have them shortened and resplined to fit the new narrowed housing.

Re: My mini tub job

PostPosted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 7:56 pm
by speedphreake
To fit the 69 Camaro gas tank, I had to shorten the filler neck 1 1/2". It fits perfectly in the stock location now. With stock wheel wells, you could run and exhaust out the back of the car past the tank, but with the minitub, the tank is to close to the wheel wells. I'll mod the tank to make room later to run the exhaust out the back of the car. I moved the fuel tank mounts to fit the tank after modding the trunk floor to flatten in out and get rid of the spare tire well. I'm using RobbMc fuel pick up sending unit which uses a 1/2" pick up tube and works with the stock gas guage. http://robbmcperformance.com/products/1078_gmsend.html I've got it hooked up to a Jegs fuel filter and summit electric fuel pump with -8 braided hoses. Should have no issues with fuel delivery with this setup.