Easiest way to move the lower control arm in is to get offset control arms, but this will only give you about 14" - 14 1/4" of clearance from the fender lip to the control arm, at least on my Camaro that is what mine came out to be. I have a 1 1/4" c-moly control arm.

You can move the control arm between the frame rail and bracket, this will give you an addition 1 3/4" - 2"" or so, but you will have to cut the sheet metal next to the seat to make clearance because the floor sits very close to this area but I am going to do mine this way, I explained it in another post and you will have to move the shock mount and rear control arm mount in.

With this done you will have a true 16". I have all of my tubs cut out now and set up to make 16" and the control arm will sit behind the tub from my measurements.

I finished the drivers side today, there is a ton of stuff cut out, I have a nice pile going into a box to weigh. Should finish the passenger side tomorrow then I will weigh what I removed.

I will also weigh the tubs and metal I cut to box in the frame. I doubt I'll be able to weigh the silicone and welding so that's as good as it will get.

 

awesome!! thanks so much and please keep us updated. I'd love to know the true weight savings.

 

Today I cut inboard an additional 2" of the seat area from the front LCA bracket to the factory frame and up to the bracket where the factory anti roll bar mounts up, I needed to do this to add overhead clearance for the relocated LCA.

I will run a piece of metal from the LCA mount up to the anti roll bar bracket where I cut up to and box it off. This cut out section will actually be on the inboard side of the tub.

I cut to the frame and it looks like I'll have close to 1 1/2" - 2" more clearance depending on how thick I make the spacers for each side with the LCA mounted in between the factory bracket and frame.

The way I am doing it still retains the stock bracket so guys that must run their LCA's in the stock bracket in the front still have the bracket to do so.

I am making a double adjustable bracket in the rear for mine, it will have 3 or 4 holes with 3 or 4 hole behind those so you lengthen the bar to reach them, this gives you 6-8 holes to adjust vs. the 2 most people run, mine will also only drop the LCA about 1/4 - 3/8" per hole.

Also note that you will have to relocate the factory shock mount. I plan to integrate mine into the rear LCA bracket so it will sit just above the top hole and will mount sideway so the shock pivots on a bolt vs the factory way where it mounts facing forward and binds.

Angle grinder died, taking the rest of today off.

Finished the drivers side cutting, cut the tub as close to the factory gas fill tube as I could, unlike a lot of the other cars my drivers side tub will be bent 90* in the back to line up with the factory body, so it will look square in the back and round in the front, passenger side will be round.

Mini tubbing is a hassle to say the least, it was much more straight forward last time I back halfed my other car.

Should finish all of the cutting tomorrow. Then I will weigh the stuff(have to borrow a scale), I have a pile of metal even the little shavings, so I am doing my best to weigh this crap.

 

Hassle is an understatement, when you back halfed the car you can cut everything out and start from scratch with a minin tub you have to keep the frame, mount, fill tubes in the stock location, and just when you think you are done cutting..... you cut some more, lol

i don't know if you've removed the seat brackets yet but if you haven't it's easier to drill out the spot welds and just hit them with a hammer than to try to use a angle grinder or sawz-all to get them out.

 

I actually used a pair of vise grips and wiggled a little at a time and the metal just popped off the rivets, that way I had no holes to fill. I am going to drill out the ones just behind the doors that sit behind the panels by the middle seat of speakers, they'll be hidden why keep an extra pound of crap. =)

 

these are the ones i was talking about. there are 2 spot welds in the lower corner under the seam sealer between the seat backing and the factory tub.

 

I don't know, I sawzawed the **** out of the thing there are only two on the bottom, one right under the door rubber and 3 or 4 on top, that one's a little more hassle the other one just popped off.

 

wow, sounds like you're taking out some good amount of weight.

keep us updated and snap a few pics too

 

Here are some pics from when I did mine:

http://one8thmile.com/2007minitubs.html

 

any pics of it w/ the interior back in the car??

also, i've heard of some people cutting an inch off the width of the tub. This way you can put the plastic interior back in the car w/ out having to cut it to fit the tubs. This would keep the illusion of the car being stock when looking on the inside and not being able to tell its been tubbed.

anyone else done this?

 

heres mine

 

Finished cutting out all of the pieces, also cut a pie section out of the right side of the panhard mount, for some reason it sticks out a lot more on the right side than the left, took out about an inch towards the top down to a 1/4" at the bottom, so now it sits in a lot more.

Cut out a section to make room for the relocated LCA.

I have the full 16" tub and the LCA sits behind the tub about 1/4" so by moving the control arm in I picked up 2" of clearance.

I will take photos before I put in the tubs.

Before the offset LCA was exactly 14" from the outer fender lip to the LCA itself. Now it is 16 1/4" from the fender lip.

Tomorrow I will put all of the pieces in a box and weigh them when my friend brings a scale.

Any guess how much all of the stuff I cut out will weigh?

 

Looks nice, you raised and widened the drive shaft tunnel too huh?

Nice looking cage, is it welded to floor plates or to the subframes?

 

yep i cut out the old tunnel and fab'd a new one. more room for the torque arm now.

cage is welded to the 6x6 plates

 

im gonna guess 30lbs.

 

If you are considering mini tubbing to save weight, you're taking weight out of the wrong part of the car. You should be taking weight out of the front of the car, not the rear.

 

It's for larger tires and everyone is curious how much the metal weighs, vs. how much the new metal and tubs weigh you put back in, so I am going to weigh both, besides I am sure every one takes a lot more weight off the front than the back, so it is not like it is going to hurt the weight distribution.

 

Who makes this cage?

 

looks like a wolfe....

Not to hijack but i may have a never installed wolfe jig notched chromoly 10pt cage for sale here soon

 

Great send it to me and I'll make one for my car then send it back =P it will be "almost like new"