i was reading that if you mini tub a car you can keep your backseat. Please explain what tubbing is to me and what all happens?? basically from the rear seat pan back is rusted and bad. except the quarters and lid and pretty much anything you see outside the car. the wheelhousing are gone the floor gone braces gone yeah its all rusted gone. what would mini tubbing cost and where are some places around ohio that can do it? email for pictures

i just need the cheapest way to pretty much replace everything from the rear seat back and still retain my rear seat. like that tray that is above the rear end is bad etc. what is the cheapest way to fix it all?

Mini-tubbing involves a much simpler less costly process compared to a full tub job.

With mini-tubs, you simply remove the inner wheel well and move it in a small amount (typically about 2"). You can either move the stock wheel well in and add a filler strip, or fabricate a squared off new inner wheel well. Many times, a mini-tub job also includes notching the frame rails for more tire clearance and/or moving springs in on leaf spring cars.

A full tub job usually will entail removing all frame & floor material from behind the drivers seats to the rear bumper and replace it with new rails & floors for much larger tires. Some Super Stock style back halfs (another term for tubbing) keet the new narrow frame under the original stock trunk floor.

If you pay a chassis shop to do the work, expect to pay $1200-2500 for mini-tub/frame notch and $6000-15,000 and up for a full tub job (usually requires a roll bar/cage which adds $1000-1500 more to the job).

If you car is that rotted, a full back half is the only option, and keeping the back seat is not really possible without some very creative work from the chassis shop (packaging the rear suspension is the issue, plus full tubes eat up all the space).

I suggest finding a donor car for replacement panels, or a much more affordable alternative is to dump your body in favor of a cleaner starting point...replacement sheetmetal and labor are very costly.

where can i buy the rear tubs or should i fabricate them? im going to make the wheel wells about an inch bigger so i dont have to alter frame. making them an inch bigger would also fix the bad areas that are in that metal that covers the rear end and im going to get the 2 piece trunk from paddoc i think because that goes the furthest up the back what do you guys think?

Well having done the work that it takes to turn a rusted out POS into new metal, my advice is find a better car. Or clip it! Basically you cut the car is two pieces at factory joints then reweld a different 'clip' from a different car onto the the front of the existing car

This would be easier and better then patching it there and here and making tubs. Even if you MINI tub it you still got to deal with rusty braces, floor, outer wheel wellls, quarter and plus you will need to rework the trunk torque rods as if you move the inners in you throw off the rods and that support that welds to inner.

But doing a rear clip is not something for a backyard body guy, it should be left to the pros

the quarters are in pefect shape just the braces and inner outter wheelhousings are bad i can fab a new tray part over the rear end no prob