matty b
03-19-2008, 11:32 AM
Ok Im getting materials together at the moment for the back end of the chevelle and I have a question on what I should do. The previous owner had completely cut the lip off at the spot that the inner wheel housing and the quarter panel meet for Im assuming more wheel clearence. They "repaired the big long hole with pieces of aluminum strips that they riveted to the wheel housing and siliconed to the quarter panel. Fast forward to now and I am getting ready to cut into the car so I can fit a 315/35r17 back there. My options that I can come up with is to either hack out the entire wheel well and install a set of smaller steel pro street type tubs in the back or minitub the back with some strips of steel. Where I run into the dilema is which way is going to be easier to do? My goal is to have a totally sealed trunk area so silcone is not an option. I looked at S&W racecars site and they showed directions for their steel tubs and they said to pie cut them and weld the little tabs directly to the quarter. Other option is to somehow fix the outer wheel housing and then just do the minitub once that is fixed. Ive never even seen how to do that repair and Im leary that if I attempt it Ill f#ck it up and be in a bigger mess then before. The other thing is that I do not want the tubs or trunk permanently attatched to the frame of the car back there which is something I figured I could work out by just welded the tubs to the sheet metal in the trunk instead of mounting it to the frame rails like they suggest. What Im looking for here is any suggestions from people that have either ran into this or have preformed the modifications that Im asking about. I am not a body man and the quarters are really nice so I dont want to possibly damage them doing anything to them. Maybe you guys can sway me in one direction over the other and maybe give me some pros and cons of either approach so that I can decide how Im going to tackle this seemingly complex project. Thanks a lot