bodydropping a 2000 ranger

what is the the difference between stock floor and traditional body drop? and what is meant by "Z"ing the frame??

look thru the forums and i'm sure you'll beable to find the answer. There has been tons of forums with these ?'s answered

stockfloor = new frame, and most of the interior floor stays intact.
Traditional = the interior for is not stock, due it being raised.
z'ing the frame is cutting the front frame and raising the front section.

pretty basic explination and im pretty sure they are right.

Originally posted by slammed2000ranger



what is the the difference between stock floor and traditional body drop? and what is meant by "Z"ing the frame??

Brett's statements are true to a point but somewhat incorrect......

"Stockfloor Bodydrop"- refers to bodydropping the truck by moving any means of keeping the the floorpan as stock as possible. On some trucks, the frame can be cut down and boxed, on some trucks you have to build a whole new frame under the cab, and on some trucks you can just move the frame mounts down and reweld them (newer bodystyle chevys). On most stockfloor bodydrops minimal cutting has to be done to the actual floorpan with exceptions for minor frame rail clearance and tranny tunnel issues.

"Traditional Bodydrop"- involves cutting the floorpan loose of the actual body itself. The body is dropped over the frame rails and then the floorpan is sectioned and rewelded to the rest of the cab and usually consists of filler plates having to be used to reattach the now lifted floorpan back to the cab. The downside to traditional bodydrops is that alot of head room is lost in doing them, plus factory carpeting usually does not work.

"Frame 'Z'ing"- involves making cutting the frame apart vertically and carefully adjusting the front suspension up and then doing the same in front of the suspension before the frame horns. The purpose is to bring the frame behind of the Z closer to the ground when the suspension is fully laid. In a sense, you are taking the height of the spindle and moving it up the height of the Z but keeping the body in the exact same position. The reason for the reference to Zing the frame in regards to Rangers is that control arm rangers do not travel far enough on stock arms to lay out in the front, therefore the way to rectify that is to Z the frame so when the balljoints are maxed out it is laying.



These are all basic explainations, so don't blast me if I didn't explain them up everyone's own ideas. But I hope that helped.

what devin said is all right except for the reason on the z'ing for rangers. the 98+ rangers will lay out before the control arms bottom. The problem is what they lay out on. our style rangers lay engine crossmember which is about 2 to 3 inches below the frame, thus the truck will lay higher in the front than in the rear, look at my pics if you don't know what i'm talking about.

you want the frame to lay flat so that the bodydrop will be even around the truck not 4 in the front 3 in the middle and 2 in the back. If you get what i'm saying.

well do you know if i have lowerd control arms will i still have to "Z" the frame?

yes. the problem is that your truck lays out on the crossmember before the body hits the ground as mike said. lower control arms will not make a difference.

you can see in my picture that this is as low as the 98+ Ranger will go without Z'ing the frame. The engine crossmember hits the ground before the frame, making the truck sit a little higher in the front when it's completely laid out. When you Z the frame, it brings the engine crossmember up higher so it won't hit the ground before the frame.

are you talking about cutttin out the motor crossmember, raising it up and welding it back in? im so confused

does anybody have any pics of this of their frame?