No shower in 1968

My husband and I have just brought a new home. Well noticed the darnest thing the old owner did not have a shower so he rugged up one connecting a hand held to the tub spout. What a eye sore the house was built in 1968 I know people where taking shower back then. Is there a way we can install a single piece shower/tub combo without ripping out the tiled wall. Who makes them and we are on a tight budget so will would like to do it ourself.

A side outlet spout with a hand-held mounted in a wall bracket is the traditional solution. Unless you can get inside the wall from the other side, this is about it.

By the way, at first I thought you wrote "no shower SINCE 1968" !

As Jimbo points out, you have few options without doing at least some tearing out. There are fiberglass tubs with fiberglass surrounds that you could install, but you'd have to tear out the tile surround and probably do some carpentery on one end, so it's not a "plug and play" option.

I'd also be worried about the walls surrounding the tub - unlikely they were constructed to be wet. Are you going to get them wet or put a curtain all the way around the tub?

-art-