Mini tubs, advice, do's & don'ts?

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Cope

Cope

Fusing with fire
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I'm ready to start cutting on my 71 dart and figured it would be wise to see if any of ya had advice, things you wish you would have done and things you wish you hadn't?

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The rear sway bar, axles and springs are out. I figure I'll cut the wheel arch out, lower the car over the wheels and tires, then measure how wide my axle will be.
I have a fabricated 9" housing, flanges, drums. I can figure out how much to cut pretty easy I think.

My 02-03 springs will be moved under the frame rails and using sliders on the rear spring eye.

I would like to get the car down nice and low with out using blocks. Has any one cut and boxed the frame to move the spring mounts up into the frame?


Its gonna take some persuasion to fit these suckers up in the wheel opening..
I think I'm gonna move the axle back an inch or so to make the best use of the wheel arch.


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3rd member ****.

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Gonna have to get a custom drive shaft. Anyone know of a company selling upgraded front yokes for the 904?

Thanks for the time and advice!
 
Nice, that's what I'm looking for.
It will be nice to have 1350s front and rear.

Thanks!
 
If you're just going to split the wheel wells and move the inner half in, take your time trimming the trunk floor. It's easy to cut to much out.

I moved my rear end back 1" to make it easier to fit the 325 radials. I also made a fixture out of angle iron that the wheels/tires could sit in to measure the rear end width. A floor jack was used at each end of the fixture to raise the tires into the wheelwell then I slid the tires side to side to get them where they needed to be. It made getting the rear end width easy.
 
I may just plasma up from the bottom right next to the frame just to make sure I get the right spot.

I'd like to keep the trunk hinges if possible?

Yeah, I'm gonna lower the car over the wheels and tires once the inside is cut free to figure out axle width.
 
I folded the frame rail lip over on top of itself for an additional... 3/8 inch ?
 
Cope said:
I may just plasma up from the bottom right next to the frame just to make sure I get the right spot.

I'd like to keep the trunk hinges if possible?

Yeah, I'm gonna lower the car over the wheels and tires once the inside is cut free to figure out axle width.
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I cut mine at the inner frame rail flange with a fiber cut off wheel ( right in the middle of the flange) taking a piece of the floor with the wheel house leaving the floor piece connected to the wheel house. Folded the outer frame rail flange over itself to gain a little more. Trimmed the difference 3/8? off of the floor piece that was still connected to the removed wheel house and lap welded the floor onto the inner frame rail flange which butted to the rest of the floor and filled the drilled plug welds from the outer flange removal and drilled new holes to plug weld the little piece of floor back onto the outer frame rail flange. Clear as mud. Right?
 
Bodyperson said:
I cut mine at the inner frame rail flange with a fiber cut off wheel ( right in the middle of the flange) taking a piece of the floor with the wheel house leaving the floor piece connected to the wheel house. Folded the outer frame rail flange over itself to gain a little more. Trimmed the difference 3/8? off of the floor piece that was still connected to the removed wheel house and lap welded the floor onto the inner frame rail flange which butted to the rest of the floor and filled the drilled plug welds from the outer flange removal and drilled new holes to plug weld the little piece of floor back onto the outer frame rail flange. Clear as mud. Right?
Click to expand...
Its simple to keep the trunk hinges. Just remove the plug welds from the inner wheel house and let them dangle. You'll have to reshape them a little but just plug weld them back into place. Easy peasy.
 
Bodyperson said:
Its simple to keep the trunk hinges. Just remove the plug welds from the inner wheel house and let them dangle. You'll have to reshape them a little but just plug weld them back into place. Easy peasy.
Click to expand...
Pluss th
Bodyperson said:
I cut mine at the inner frame rail flange with a fiber cut off wheel ( right in the middle of the flange) taking a piece of the floor with the wheel house leaving the floor piece connected to the wheel house. Folded the outer frame rail flange over itself to gain a little more. Trimmed the difference 3/8? off of the floor piece that was still connected to the removed wheel house and lap welded the floor onto the inner frame rail flange which butted to the rest of the floor and filled the drilled plug welds from the outer flange removal and drilled new holes to plug weld the little piece of floor back onto the outer frame rail flange. Clear as mud. Right?
Click to expand...
I guess I need to add about 3 inches to that 3/8 measurement :) It's been a while since I tubbed mine.
 
The only reason I'm not back halfing is my cage is already tied into the rear frame rails and I dont want to rebuild the back of the cage.
 
Cope said:
The only reason I'm not back halfing is my cage is already tied into the rear frame rails and I dont want to rebuild the back of the cage.
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And it seems you want to keep the leaf springs. IDK it may still be easier and quicker to just do a back half. See...I'm old. I don't like hard work any more. I just write checks.
 
yellow rose said:
And it seems you want to keep the leaf springs. IDK it may still be easier and quicker to just do a back half. See...I'm old. I don't like hard work any more. I just write checks.
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And your number is...? LOL
 
If your not running 1,500-2000 HP you dont realy need 32x15.50s..
It just looks dated now says. There's a few guys running full tubs and they ain't making nearly enough power to warrant that much tire. In my mind they look like *** hats...
I doubt they could white smoke em from a reverse roll...
 
Cope said:
If your not running 1,500-2000 HP you dont realy need 32x15.50s..
It just looks dated now says. There's a few guys running full tubs and they ain't making nearly enough power to warrant that much tire. In my mind they look like *** hats...
I doubt they could white smoke em from a reverse roll...
Click to expand...
I agree. I'm wont be able to turn 325's. MAYBE. They sure will look cool. I really liked the way I tubbed my Barracuda. I wish I would have went with the offset hangers instead of the spring relocate.
 
There are some tutorials on site. BBD had a set IIRC.

I had or might have a powerpoint still that someone else did. Send me your email and I'll see if I can find it.

One thing I can't stand about most minitub jobs... when people cut the trunk pan square and make those ugly *** patches. I make a template of the tub, cut it out close to the tub, then transfer the template to the floor at frame rail so the existing floor meets tub nicely. Lots cleaner looking.
 
Cope said:
I may just plasma up from the bottom right next to the frame just to make sure I get the right spot.

I'd like to keep the trunk hinges if possible?

Yeah, I'm gonna lower the car over the wheels and tires once the inside is cut free to figure out axle width.
Click to expand...

I used a plasma cutter on mine on mine too, I also used a blair spot weld cutter to drill out the spot welds along the bottom of the inner part of the wheel well. Once the inner is fitted I plug welded it to the frame rail through the holed left by the spot weld cutter. If you're careful you can cut the floor so no patch panels are needed. instead of folding the frame flange I cut mine off flush.

Yes you can keep the trunk springs. My 69 has a recess in each inner half of the wheel well, that's where the spring bracket will end up. If I were doing it again I'd use a string to find where to cut the bracket. I cut extra off mine then added what it needed to land on the wheel well once everything was tacked in. The blair cutter was used on the spot welds to remove the remaining part of the spring brackets.
 
I used a spot weld cutter when cutting mine out. It makes it look stock when you weld the tub back in. I also did save the hinge mounts. I run 28 x 13.50 M/T's.

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I cut the whole tub out. I'll be using the factory inner and making a sheet metal outer so if I ever want to run a tall tire I'll still be able to keep the car as low as possible.
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RAVano said:
I cut the whole tub out. I'll be using the factory inner and making a sheet metal outer so if I ever want to run a tall tire I'll still be able to keep the car as low as possible. View attachment 1715225270
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Keeping the car low w/ tall tires, u might have to unhook the shocks and let the air out of the tires to get them on and off, and our car wasn`t lowered.
32 1/2 x 16'' firestones back in the day on a 67 belvedere, springs the frame rails both moved .
And it did look kick ***, but traction was still a problem back then!

I still owe the welder-------------
 
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famous bob said:
Keeping the car low w/ tall tires, u might have to unhook the shocks and let the air out of the tires to get them on and off------------32 1/2 x 16'' firestones back in the day on a 67 belvedere.
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I had 33x21.5 Mickeys and did exactly that. Also had a quick disconnect brake hose to drop the rear.
 
RAVano said:
I had 33x21.5 Mickeys and did exactly that. Also had a quick disconnect brake hose to drop the rear.
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brake hose , never thot of that. We had room for that era funny car tires, but never went that far.
 
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