Well, seems this car is never done. Took advantage of that smoking deal on tirerack.com last week and now I am determined to make them fit.
I purchased a set of 4 19x11' in the Black. The fronts have already been sent off to Eric Vaughn Machine to be narrowed to 8.5" so they'll fit, the rears will fit with a combination of billet adapters and the Mini Tub project I plan to start.

Picked up a set of 305/30/19 Pilot Sports for a smoking deal on ebay so now my goal is to fit them. Watching for the right deal on a matching set in 245/35/19 for the fronts now

with a 2" spacer I can mount the rear wheel, but I am getting slight contact with the front most lower section of the wheel well. My goal is to create enough clearance for the new wider wheels/rubber, and still maintain the "stock" looking inner plastics. Saw one person actually modified his panels wider, may have to see how he did that, worst case i'll trim them and carpet them as well as the tubs to hide the tubs.

I have searched a few tub projects on here, and several other f-body related boards and feel I can get close to what I want. for relatively cheap and not take all that long time wise.

I am running the squared lakewood lca's and looks like I have just about 3/8" of room between the rim and contact, with the 305 tires i'll probably be safe from contact, worst case i'll notch into the lca and patch them up. They are supposed to be the stoutest lcs for a 3rd gen so if the offset tubular ones can hold up, I think a notched square tube can too. the 2" spacer also lines the wheel up just inside the fender by maybe 1/8" so its going to be very close.
I'll be adding air bags to the rear to help set the level perfect.

I've done 95% of the custom work on my car myself so I am fairly confident I can handle this project.

I havent started cutting yet as we have one more local meet here this coming Monday, but after that, the gloves are off and the jack stands will be coming out.
My neighbor builds modified circle track cars for a living everything from the tube frames down to the sheetmetal work, so I have access to his specialty tools to make the job easier. (plasma cutter, sheet metal brake etc...)

for those that have installed your own tubs, what was the one part you struggled the most with? did you use a pre-fabbed tub kit (universal or model specific)? any other "unknown" obstacles I should watch for?

Where did you start cutting, did you start small and enlarge the hole as you went or?

I am also likely going to either trim the inner fener lip or roll them, whats the best way to roll the lips on these cars with our damaging the paint?

what would you have changed if you did it over again?

here's a few pics to get started:




as you can see in the pic above the rear brakes dont look too small (for rears) in the larger 19" wheels (the rotors are 98+ fbody fronts) I am also running a "ls1" conversion on the front for brakes, but I am going to be upsizing to 14" rotors from a c6 z06 and another set of wilwood calipers as I think the current ones will like too small with the new wheels.




If this project goes as smoothly as I expect, I intend to possibly add a 6 point cage to help stiffen up the chassis a bit more.

Hope to get some good advice to help me tackle this project

 

Sorry if I don't cover everything or missed something.

I have 17" x 11" rears w/7"bs, on a stock rear but the same basic principals will apply to yours. I had to cut off the bumpstop, but with 19"s you might not need to cut them off. I had to do a good deal of BFH work to the front & rear, but more in the front. And some cutting & trimming in the front up to where the pieces were welded together. My interior is 100% stock, unmodified.

My point in saying all this is that there is really no need to actually mini-tub your car, other than modding the inner sheetmetal. Put in a 4th gen rear & you won't even need the spacers.

As for the LCAS, I used Tubular LCAs w/offset bushings. http://www.umiperformance.com/catalo...roducts_id=107 But it sounds like you could just mod yours like Neil did his. Don't ask me which page the LCA mod is on....No idea. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...one-phase.html

And I had to use an Adjustable PHB. http://www.umiperformance.com/catalo...roducts_id=112 because I found that despite the stock sized tires before, stock PHB & not being lowered, my rear axle was offset to the drivers side.

 

I'd be wary of running the smallish tubular style lcas with my car, I am sitting at 601hp @ the crank thru a t-56, the rear is already 1/2" wider in each side and is a ford 9" about 95% of my car is already not stock, so this is one of the last logical steps, I am not 100% positive, but a bfh wont get me the clearance I need. but a full on "mini tub" may not be necessary either.

we fabbed up a adj panhard back prior to running the 9" due to the stance we brought the car down to, so I am good there. do some searches and I think I have a build thread or two around. you'll see what I mean (the small sig pic I run doesnt really elaborate on this car too well)

 

I guess you missed the part where I said I did some cutting besides just the bumpstop to both the front & rear, besides the BFH? No, a BFH will not do all the work, that is for sure. But you won't need to weld in any extra material or touch the interior plastics.

 

yeah missed that, got any pics of the specifics you cut and "massaged"

 

You won't need a mini tub for that unless you decided to really tuck in those 11's. 12" wide wheel with a 335 tire needs mini tubs.

 

Never took pics. I had to put the wheels, drop the car & test it a few times & after doing that several times I didn't feel like taking the wheel off just to take a pic.

I do know though, that the rear needed very little work, but the lower part of the front is what gave me the most trouble doing.

 

yeah mine is going to need the most attention on the front of the wheel well too , It would be nice to do similar to a few of the others and simply remove a few sections and replace them with flat plate. time and money save here can go towards my front tires, man 19's are spendy, I almost shat myself when I looked for the 305/30/19 rears and the narrower fronts are almost as bad. guess my burn outs will have to be kept to a minimum

 

How much is it going to cost ya to have the fronts narrowed?

 

Interesting. I got 19x10 C6's with 295/30/19 tire and plenty of clearance with the hammer work to the wheel well. I dont see how I couldnt fit a 305 tire on same rim or with an 11" one if the spacing was just right.

I got a 5/8" hubcentric slip on with the 4th gen rear end. About flush with the fender lip if not just a tad bit inside of that lip.

 

eric quoted me 360 done and shipped back

bs on mine is 9" little more to compensate for than most

 

I have 17" x 9" w/4.5" bs up front & they fit with zero problem, no modification was needed. With 19"s you could go a bit wider. I was only 1/4" away from the ball joint, but a 19" would have cleared the ball joint easily & allowed for a wider/deeper bs wheel. The 3rd gen Firehawks even had 9.5" bs but I think the same bs as mine are.

 

I'm running the exact same tire 305 with plenty of space. Only thing you have to worry about it give yourself enough clearance for when entering driveways.

 

got 'em on: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/whee...11s-305-a.html

 

I don't think a full on mini will be required,
you should be able to remove the bump stops and the inner fender sheet medal.
if that does not give you the clearance that you need, use your factory inner fender and just move it in, to mach the "frame" structure. which will be about 1 1/2". as for the interior, you will only have to remove the spacer "nubs", and the plastic pieces will fit.

 

got it handled: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/whee...ml#post5069846