prolly not to many on the boards here but lets see them anyway

over the winter i was gonna do a 10pt cage and stuff in preparation for the possible twin turbo 4.3 vortec motor or a turbo 355 sbc build.

but i decided i might as well do a backhalf on the car as well ladderbar or 4 link setup tubs fuel cell etc.

im still gonna street drive the car when its done

but i just wanted to get some ideas of how u guys were laying out the tin work, frame rails, suspension, fuel cells, etc

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...f-project.html
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...g-my-86-a.html

 

thanks great threads

one question though i see the other guy mounted his fuel cell below the tin work under the car.im wanting to keep my fuel cell inside the car inbetween the tubs. i know this requires a bulkhead made inbetween the cell and the passenger compartment.

i dont see one under the back of ur car is the fuel cell in the back hatch area? if so u got any pics of how u did the bulkhead for it

 

i hope that thing flys

cuz a couple cats down south are runnin 4.85s on a stock suspension radial 3rd gen.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/P...008_189298.htm

so may i ask why?

 

no real need,but im gonna be doing frame conectors and a cage anyways,so i figured why the hell not, be a nice project to keep me busy all winter.
that and after that the car will be ready for whatever i throw at it down the road

i really have no clue yet as to whats going in for a new motor, its either gonan be a 4.3L vortec tt motor,or a 350-40x sbc turbo build for now. with a possible turbo lsx for the season after

 

Why would you go through all this work and put ladder bars in there? just dont want the tunablility of the 4 link?

agreed on big tires, it'd better be going .XXX to 1.1X 60's and running well into the 6/7's to warrant a bigger tire.....and "backhalfing as long as i'm there" yeah, uh huh....adds a minimum of $5-8K to the build by the time you buy EVERYTHING needed to make it happen.

not saying big tires are wrong, and back halfing is wrong, it does make it easier for guys to get hooked up, esspecially with monster motor's., but if your thinking of only running 9's, i would'nt waste all that money tubbing, not needed at all since you can consistantly hook on small tires and a few suspension upgrades over stock.

 

i agree, small tire, stock style suspension FTW! cause you KNOW this looks good:

 

My fuel cell is under the hood. I use a 4 gallon fuel cell and refill it after ever run down the track. My car isn't street legal and I don't need to carry a bunch of heavy fuel.

 

Your fuel cell is under your HOOD? Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? If you try and run in any bracket racing your car will fail inspection.

 

Are you kidding? Ever looked at a promod? Most highend cars put the cell in the front, and its legal aslong as it has an impact bar protecting it. If you run alcohol on a big motor, you almost have to put the cell up front to flow enough volume.

 

not worried about the cost,and its not gonna cost me anything near that as i have most everything already to do it.basically its almost free threw my shop so i figure what the hell might as well do this once and be done with it.

my uncle over at the shop said the same thing if im gonna do this might as well put a 4 link in it so thats what its gonna get

and 95gt yes a fuel cell under the hood is legal it needs bars around it though

 

We're going to put our 3-4 gallon cell where the battery used to be...

Do you have any pics of yours??
----------

Fuel cell in the front is almost a standard in drag racing. NHRA rule book just says it has to be secured & inside of the frame.

 

Here's my 3 gallon...

 

WWWWOOOOOOWWWW

 

This is my prostreet camaro in progress. To me nothing looks tougher than big tires stuffed under a third gen. BTW. This will have 33 X 21.5 Sportsman pro's with a 4 link, and a round tube rear frame.

 

i see your doing a little weight reduction there as well

good job with the widened wheel openings! keep us posted with pics, looks like its going to be a cool build

 

I wish I could take credit for that. The work is being done by M&M Chassis Craft. When I get more pictures I will start a new thread.

 

Widening the wheel openings is the hardest part. It's not always required but looks much better when done.

Here's my fuel cell. There's no rule saying you can't have it under the hood.

 

no way would i backhalf the car until i was looking at going quicker than 8's. lots of bracket racers do it so they can hook in wet grass.... but there isnt many things less exiting than watching an 11 second backhalf 4 link car with 33" tires. since your looking to street drive the car, wil you have an extra set of wheels with sportsmans on them to do so?
what your describing sounds like a $25,000 winter project with the turbo setup, motor build, all that mess.... actually might be quite a bit more than that.

 

THANK YOU, big tire cars that run slower than 7.99 are the ghey. Same goes with bracket racing ANYTHING.

 

I used to love the look of tubbed cars, but like you said, seen far too many "look the part" but run like my wifes car kinda like putting a chute out back, wheelie bars, huge cowl, etc....you best be running some crazy numbers or you will be the butt of many jokes LOL!!! Way to many bolt on suspension pieces anymore, convertor tweaks, etc...to say a small tired car cant be consistant with lottsa hp. I guess i'm lucky to race at a great hooking tracks most of the time, but we have one track that in order to win, and this is no joke-run 12's WITH huge meaties...seriously. eery track champion in pro has always been a 12.50 and slower rig with 14"+ wide shoes, I'll vary .1 in my 60' pass to pass, been years since i went down there, tried it again first part of this season, same scenario, so i'm done with them. like i told their manager, here's my log book, i have 4 other tracks book marked, see how the 60' varied .01 MAX in a day's time...no sir, it really is YOUR TRACK that needs help, not my car.

 

red406 How much did it cost to widen/tub and install a 4 link

 

Cough Street Racer Cough

 

got a buddy that just clicked off an 8.59 on some 28" hoosier drag radials the other day. if not for the weld alumnastars, it would look like a bone stock 2002 trans am. its minitubbed, 15x10 wheels, stock style suspension. 3400#s 402 LS1. that pass was on the limiter on topend and has 8.3x's in it easy. has all the street car stuff on it still, and is street legal.
here's the kicker- ITS A NITROUS CAR!!!

 

How many gallons is your cell & how many passes do you get before you re-fill?

 

This is IOWA for crying out loud, only street racing going on is when Abraham or Jacob gets a new horse to pull the carriage and he runs his mouth so the other Omish hot rodders call him out ...****'s around here to broke to build anything/or afford to bet....seriously LOL!!!! Alot of the guys are just posers, they wanna look the part, just cant afford to make it run the part since that actually cost money car took $25K to build into a roller, but they cant spend the other $25-30K on a motor to make it run like it looks, or the rest of the drivetrain to hold upto it lmafo!!!!!

 

Case in point. Our last Friday night street legal night this year, I went to get one last track day. It was cold and the track was cold. I was paired up to an altered and while sitting in the water box, we watched a pair of street cars launch in front of us. One driver wouldn't let off the throttle and spun out, spinning into the other lane. There was no damage to anyone and once he got turned around and got off the track, they let me and the altered go.

I could feel some wheel spin but I still powered my way all the way down the track. The timers failed in my lane but based on the altered's time, I can only guess I ran a high 9 on a slippery track. My big tires handled the poor track conditions better than the small street tires did.

There are people who want to try and race on a small tire. Stock Eliminator racers do it on a 9" slick and the AA/SA cars are into the high 9's. The downside of a small tire is that traction can be questionable and if for any reason you spin off the line, you'll lose the race.

I agree that seeing a tubbed out car that only runs 12's or 13's is a waste of money but some people also want that prostreet look even with a slow car.

That's a 4 gallon fuel cell. I run alcohol and burn 1 to 1-1/2 gallons on a pass. That includes keeping the engine running most of the time going through the staging lanes and driving back up the return road. It's a 2 mile trip down to the end of the track then all the way back up the road course route to the pits. I fuel up after every run. I could probably make 2 passes down the track without refueling but if I have to sit in the staging lanes too long and need to leave the engine running to keep heat in it, I'd probably run out of fuel so I don't risk it and make sure the cell is full before every run.

I go to the track with a full fuel cell and 3 full fuel cans. Depending on how many passes I make, I come home with a full fuel cell and usually still have some left in one fuel can. I did come home once with empty fuel cans and about 3 gallons in the cell. It was a T&T day so I wasn't worried about running low on fuel. I also made about 8 passes that day.

 

lmao im sure as hell not doing this for the v6.
i have a 4.3 vortec tt motor im going to toy with a lil bit, but i also have a nice forged 355 sbc already done waiting to go inthe car.the 4.3 is more then capable of 9's and we all know what a sbc is capable of with a good bit of boost.

skating all over on my way down the track on a small tire is not my idea of fun

diggler, it wont cost me anything near that, im doing this threw my shop, materials and labor are basically free and just my time
as far as the motors the 4.3 still needs to be finished and the sbc only needs a set of turbo headers fabed up, and even that would only take me a few days to do once i decide to drop the sb in the car

 

Backhalf, who needs a stinkin' backhalf?

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/T...rag_144606.htm

 

people who can't get a car to work

 

Hell yeah thats what I am talking about.

DON'T CUT IT put some good suspension parts under it and surprise some people. I was told by some bracket friends that my car wouldnt go anywhere on those small tires. First night out I went about 1/2 second faster then there big tire bracket cars. Needless to say they dont rag on my small tire car anymore.

 

Granted my junk is slow, but since i bracket race consistancey counts. consistant 1.43-.46 depending on track and car good enough to usually see final 4 most outtings, when all the big tires, gutted azzed race only cars are long sitting on the trailer, i dont even buy the consistency thing anymore...even on the juicey juice, whatever it runs the first pass it will run that time and again. Heck, i had 3 times slips back to back identical 1.33 60' with the rear tires and 6.46 1/8th mile times.

Would love to take this to N/A 750hp and bring in some spray after that, but at the point now i have to build a BBC to retain pump gas and that kind of hp...so we'll see what happens. but turbo cars usually leave like a turd anyhow and dont really come on strong until AFTER the 1/8th mile, so kind of pointless to worry about putting a big tire on a 3rd gen of all cars for a turbo app. kinda like putting a chute on my pick up, not needed

 

am i the only one who sees the countless (in person and on video) wheels up ON THE STREET cars getting down on a true 10.5 with stock suspension? Must be.

 

Yeah, but backhalved mean race car, and race cars are cool, so just like 90% of purchases, astetics play into alot of things over reason. Besides, i guess it's easier to spend this kind of money and time into tubbing cars than it is to pick a goal and then see to it you can make it happen without getting that involved.

the one thing tubbing does have going for it, easier to sell later down the road as opposed to a small tired car. but as everybody can see, it's coming around, guys are realizing more and more chopping a car up is unnecssary until extreme combinations are built, which typically cost more than the complete ready to run car minus motor/tranny.

 

it all depends on the setup to ur right ive seen alot of turbo guys were the power dont come on till down track.and ive seen alot of guys who are leaving with full boost or dam close to it and picking up full boost within the first 60ft of the track.

the big diff is the guys that arent putting down the power till around the 1/8mile are mostly cars with huge turbos that are lazy but make up for it on the last half of the track

then u got the guys with the smaller to meduim turbos that can hit it hard off the line,but arent gonan pick up near as much as the guys that dont

 

just out of curiosity,what kinda of hp would a back halfed car need,to run the way it looks?and i'd assume a 10" tire car(probably just mini tubbed)could cut 10 sec times right,with the right setup?

 

I wouldn't tubb a car unless it was going low 8's or hi 7's but that's just me. I love seeing stock style suspension cars running those low times. I have seen these cars go in the 8's on a M/T 275 drag radial.

 

how about 8's with NO MINI TUBS on a 10" tire. like i said earlier, the only reason i see to do a backhalf is if your a bracket racer and your local track is hit or miss on the track prep.

 

nuff said, post closed

 

I see a lot of people are dissing the big tired, pro-street look, and I admit that I sometimes laugh at my friend who has a 11.50 back-halved car and I have a stock suspension, 11.50 drag radial car. However, some people just prefer the pro-street look, So if he wants a big tired car do I bother telling him he does not need it?No, thats what he likes and there is nothing wrong with that.I say if you want to do it, go for it, keep us posted on your progress.

 

I dont think it's really a diss, more/less looking at the combination he wants to run, turbo'd 6 cylinder or 355 and that extra money being spent on a back half could be used in a heck of alot more useful area's. But i think as time goes on, suspension technology's continue to move forward, tire compounds get better, track prepping compounds get better, the pro street look is becoming a thing of the past...kind like in the old days having to run outragious motor combinations to go fast, by today's standards and parts making an easy streetable pump gas sbc is pretty easy to do AND reliable, i can vouge for that. Might just be a old school/new school thing since there's still guys out there that think double hump fuelie heads are the best thing going but big tires really are not needed on these chasises until ridiculous hp/tq levels are reached.....800+ and then a person will need the extra meat if for nothing more than safety since traction will start getting touchey at that point. but running in the low 9's at seas level is no sweat on a 9-10" tire, and that's just the realistic facts there folks. so again, by todays standards running anything but single digits with a tubbed car is no different than putting wings and stickers over the hood of an import, just looks retarded since double digits cars are too run of the mill anymore

 

I'd like to see you guys with those little tire cars running 600+ hp run on a slick track a time or 2. You'd change your mind in a hurry. I'd also like to see how many street miles get put on those so called street cars running 12 and 13/1 compression. By the way, the fellow ask to see pics of backhalfed cars, not get lectures why he shouldn't do it.

 

There used to be an excellent post flowting around here years and year ago with a link to a guy that took a normal camaro and turned it into a S/P car pretty much step by step pictures along the way.

as for the running on a slick track, taking it out on "midnight mania" night when it's nothing but street cars and zer otrack prep as the humidity comes up and the temps go down....dont know how much slicker you'd consider a race track getting other than hitting during the winter time, and we've been down it many passes in pursuit of the money.

i'll be the first to admit, i dont get to drive the car as much as i used to or would like to due to work, i still average a tank of fuel on the road per week in between racing, sometimes 2-3 tanks, sometimes no driving between races depending on my schedule, but dont think for one instance this car is'nt as happy crusing the interstate, sitting in bumper to bumper traffic as it is going down the 1/4mile. If you can build your combination to withstand the street riggors, the track is a piece of cake, and this affords me to make my run, come back, hit a switch, car self medicates while i calmly sit and wait for the next round, while all the busy bee racers scurry around with spray jugs, leaf blowers, battery chargers, worrying about this or that...and is why i think the mental edge is how i'm able to do as well as i do vs all out track only rigs since those drivers have soo much other stuff to worry about between rounds.

Granted i've raced crappey tracks, but 1 out of 7 that i had issues, and even their "regulars" all complain everytime i've been there or we've met elsewhere says alot IMO on how well a small tired 3rd gen can work. Like i said, my junk is'nt trend setting or ground shaking, but for a 3700 turd and 60'ing like it does every pass says alot IMO. On race day ill go tit for tat with dang near any car in the feild with 60' consistency, and if there is change, like upto .01 per pass i would have to say weather came into play or time of day due to oil downs and track clean up's. Heck, my uncles S10 that's backhalfed and ladder bared wishes he could stay within .02 throughout the day and that's with a 550hp 383/glide/4.88/31x16.5 tire....says alot about putting time into tuning the suspension to make a vehicle work, and there's plenty of proof out there of big powered small tired cars in all chasis's making that happen anymore.

I dont want to get into a pizzin match with ya at all, i just fail to see a need to tub a 3rd or 4th gen platform until you start running sub 9's, since they'll take alot of power before the exxtreme cut ang gut is truely needed and not just a "cool thing to do since everybody else's race cars are that way"

 

please, some of us get it done on the street

 

seriously...there's plenty of small tire drag radial stock suspension totin' tires on the main BLVD in town...

 

plenty of guys down here capable of low 5's in the 1/8 that still drive 'em to work on sunny days and bring 'em out to most every cruise night. I've got a buddy who's only transportation is a pt88 fed 331(302 based ford) in a notchback with a 'glide. He's runs 8.2's in the quarter.

Until you're fast enough to need them, big tires just cost you power. More rolling resistance and more weight. - Vehicle value down here is either stock suspesion or 25.2 back-half or nothing. If you like big tires, go for it, but go all the way. Either 25.5 or 25.2

I run a front mount tank as well, as do most running high end cars. The blower motor drinks around 4 gallons(meth) per pass in the 1/8 counting warm-up and burn-out. It gets towed back.

 

but i decided i might as well do a backhalf on the car as well ladderbar or 4 link setup tubs fuel cell etc.


But all he asked is to see some pics, not your aproval. That's my point. Everybody that has moved to a big tire car did it for a reason, and don't need guys telling them how stupid they were. 4 foot wheelies aren't cool in my book , but lots of guys think they are. Cut that sucker up, Stephen 87 Irock has many pics on his site.

 

my motor has ~140,000 miles on it and should go 9's next time out. stock suspension. i dont think its lecturing trying to help someone out.....

 

Ok so we have all said what we needed to say on tubbing these cars and how we feel about it. With that said if your going to go though with this this link will help you out. Its my friends super pro 89 car, its tubbed with a Ed Quay kit http://www.edquay.com/index.html BBC Glide gutted the whole nine yards. Here is the link and I hope this helps you out. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2295848

 

I'll try to snap some pics of the back-half on our 10.5 outlaw car when I get a chance. I don't have any build pics, as I got this car as a roller. Did the front myself, but not the back.

If you're gonna back-half, go 4-link. Don't waste time fiddling with ladder bars.