"Z"ing the frame?

Anyone here got pics of the process or the finished product of Zing their frame? Im considering taking out a loan.. buying a '85 Monte Carlo (CLEAN, Brand new dark grey paint, maroon racing stripes, chrome perfect condition sport/racing type wheels -nothin gangsta haha-, almost perfect interior.. just gotta talk to my dad and call about the car engine wise.. well anyway this is all so during the winter I can completely take my truck apart in our bigass barn.. once it had power ran to it.. and Z the frame, tub the firewall, hopefully get a new bed and sheetmetal most if not all of it, try to build a fuel cell.. and finish bodywork and do some interior stuff. just would be nice in the barn being inside.. ive always had to work on my trucks outside.. rain sucks, heat sucks, cold sucks..wind sucks when welding. hopefully things go good and I can do all of this. wish me luck and post all the pics you can to help me out!

Also relocated clutch/brake stuff too, help me! haha

sounds good man hope everything works out

This is the closest thing I have for you on how I built mine on my nissan. I built a new cross member after trashing the stock one. I reused the bumper mounts and radiator mounts.

I believe that is stepping the core support,not Z'ing the frame.

this is my friends frame for his project it lays 22s i dont know if that helps buts a huge Z more then you would require.

the rest of the build so far is in projects on

Sorry to bring up an old post, but I have some half decent pictures...




1.5" 'Z' is all you will need. It's actually 1 5/16" but 1.5" is a safe bet. You can actually get away with not 'Z'ing the frame. You can cut the bottom off of the crossmember, and rebuild it. Your front rails end up being about 1/4" off the ground right before the bend up. This is what I am going to do. Even thinking about moving both arms up about 1/2" or so, and dropping the motor 1/2" to 3/4" to keep the stock hood.

This must be something you gotta do to get big wheels I know Im running a 17 and my frame aint Zd and I got a factory hood.

Well, my frame won't lay flat without modification. The front crossmember hangs down too far. And I plan on body dropping it 2 1/4". As of right now I have 1 3/4" hood clearance between the hood and the highest part of the motor (air filter). If I drop the motor down 1/2" or so, I'll have enough room for the body drop, and be able to keep the stock hood. Also plan on stuffing 18s under it. Not sure if my master cylinder will be in the way. I'll find out when I get there. Hoping all goes well and I don't have to relocate too much stuff...

sweet man keep us posted

Question for you guys on the frame z'ing. Does the frame need to be z'd when using aftermarket A-Arms and lowering spindles?? I want to lay rockers

I am doing the traditional 2 1/2in. body drop and I keep having friends tell me the frame has to be z'd. I didn't on my D50 but I also used aftermarket arms and lowereing spindles. Also I am not putting anything larger than a 20' rim on my truck if at all. I may stick with the 13' wires and say forget about it.

I have gone through several sites and its about a 50/50 thing. Some say yes, some say no.