Hi,

I am just wondering if anyone knows if I could mini tub my 69 Chevelle? Would I loose my rear seat and would I gain enough room for tires to do any good? Or is it possible? I do not want to do a full tub on this car, it is in too good of shape.

Thanks

Well, based on my limited experiences with this topic (on a '67), you can actually fit a pretty large tire in there (especially in a 69) without ANY tubing. Can't really do that with new cars these days.

You'll probably have to do some measuring; I was able to get a 11.5 X 29 inch mickey thompson slick in there. I did have to roll the fender lip back though.

Not good enough for you? You can slightly scallop the frame, roll the fender lip back and cut the inner fenderwell slightly. You should be able to get 13" of tire in there.

i guess my question to you is, how much tire do you want back there? Or better yet, how much power are you making/planning to make?

There are 69 Chevelles running around out there with full tubs and a rear seat so I bet you could do it. Take a gander through places like racingjunk.com and do a search on Ebaymotors for pro street and you should find some examples :) Good Luck. There is/was a sweet 68 on RJ with a full back seat. I'll see if I can dig up a link.....

"i guess my question to you is, how much tire do you want back there? Or better yet, how much power are you making/planning to make?"

I am planning on about 650hp to the rear wheels and about 700ft lb of torque. I am at about 400hp to the rear wheels now and roasting the 50 series that are on it.

The only way you'll get any wider wheel on the car, would be to move your shock mounts on the axle inboard. On a 15" you can't run any more than I believe 5.5" B.S. or the rim contacts the shock.

Stock, there is 13.25" - 13.5" of room in there (varies from car to car, and side to side) Moving the shock mount will allow you to use all of it. :)

With a good tire (slick), I doubt you'll need any more than the 12.5" - 13" tire that you can stuff in there.

That's what i'm saying; He (she?) should be able to get 13" slick back there with little to any modifications which should be able to handle 650HP with no problems.

I should revise my questions:

1) What rear gear are you using?
a)Is is posi or open?

2) Are you going to race it?
a) If at the track, then what are your E.T. goals?

b) any street racing?

3) How much tire do you want on the car?
a) Do you want the pro-street look, or do you just want traction?

That's what i'm saying; He (she?) should be able to get 13" slick back there with little to any modifications which should be able to handle 650HP with no problems. On a 15" wheel, you're limited to about 10" because the shock mount interferes, which doesn't allow you to use the full wheel-well on the inside. The Pro-Touring guys are running 11" wheels and 12.5" wide tires with no problem, because 17+s clear the shock mounts, so they can center the wheel in the well, and take full advantage of the space.

Drag racers obviously don't want to run 17s, but by moving the shock, you can take advantage of all the space available without cutting into the body at all, except maybe rolling the lip.

I want the pro street look! I also want the traction. I have found someone to do a full tub on it and keep the full interior. I just have to watch what size tires I run. I drive the car about 500 miles a year and it rides like crap now so I want to make it look as mean as it could be. I will post pics of before and after.

Thanks to all.

If you're going for the pro-street look then you've got to move the front wheels inwards too. i think this can be accomplished ,among other ways, by using different offsets in the front wheels. Alot of racers will tub the back but leave the front track stock and it just looks goofy in my opinion; Look at funnycars and prostocks and you'll see what i mean about tucking the front wheels in.

My approach is to run the largest tire you can with out tubbing unless you're racing at the track and even then try to use the stock suspension; There are many cars running 9,8 and even 7 on a "stock" type suspension.


i recommend s+w kit which is pre-made for the chevelle:
http://www.swracecars.com/pdf/CATpg11.pdf

P.S.
The 73-77 monte carlos were/are some of the best cars for fitting a large rear tire in the fender without any tubbing. Think about it for a minute.

i just thought i would throw that in there while were on the subject.

Well, rather than trying to talk you out of what you want to do to your car, I'm going to try to answer your question.

I did a mini-tub on my car a couple of years ago. You will be able to keep your back seat but you will have to snip a couple of the outermost springs in order for the seat to clear the tubs. This is completely invisible and it has no affect on the shape of the seat.

That being said... only adding the tubs will gain you little in the way of tire clearance. This is because the inside of the stock wheel well is flush with the frame. I gained about two additional inches by also notching the frame where in passes by the tire. The "notch" is boxed in with 1/8" plate steel and gussets. Even being lowered like my car is, I can fit a tire with a 14.5" section width room to spare. I also drilled new holes in the lower shock mounting bracket that are slightly up and to the inside of the stock holes. This allowed me to swing the shocks inward enough to clear the wider wheels. No additional modification to the bracket was necessary.

And THAT being said... If I had to do it all over again I probably would just go ahead and do a full tub job. You're doing about 80% of the work already!

Hope this helps!

Well, I have just about changed my mind. I found a nice set of cheater slicks from MT and I think they will do just fine and I won't loose the value of my car with all of the origional sheet metal and floor pans. I think I will just have an asprin and sleep on it.

Thanks

Great! Another Schizophrenic car nut. (like me) Well, look at it this way; You can always tub it later if you change your mind. But if you already tubbed it and wanted to change back, it would be tough. Although i think i have seen an example of a car restored back from tubbing. Bizzare.

I had 11.5X29 Mickey Thomsons. And if memory serves, the backspacing was 4 1/2. These were on cragar drag-lites2. And i had to use wheel spacers. One per side to avoid rubbing against the frame. This was on a 67 and i'm pretty sure a 69 has even more space.