Lifting the Z (or any vehicle with pinch-welds)

[Madgud]

Agreed and I don't want to be the guinea pig

I hope that A is viable as I feel it would be a more stable lift. I am fine doing B for now though but my blocks are getting indents in them. Better the blocks getting indented than the metal pinch welds bending so I am fine with it.

I personally will never use method A. I'm too afraid of bending that pinch weld.

I too use a Quickjack to lift the Z up, and I've gotten myself a pair of slotted rubber pad to put on top of the Quickjack provided high blocks.
Here are the ones I got, https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3648579...-9f10-06ccc1828d9d|iid:1|vlpname:vlp_homepage

the grove is the perfect depth so that the pinch weld just touches the bottom of the groove. The flat part of the pad then rests on the reinforced part of the frame that sits just on the inside of the pinch weld. There is a void on the outside of the pinch weld (you can feel it if you press on the plastic side skirt with your hand), therefore the pad will push the plastic side skirt up slightly by about 5mm. Being soft plastic, it will bend and bounce back once the car is lowered again. It doesn't get damaged as it's not being pushed up that much.

Think of it that way, cars that do have a pinch weld almost always come with slotted scissor jacks, so that they get lifted from the area surrounding the pinch weld.

 

[ZillaZ]

I personally will never use method A. I'm too afraid of bending that pinch weld.

I too use a Quickjack to lift the Z up, and I've gotten myself a pair of slotted rubber pad to put on top of the Quickjack provided high blocks.
Here are the ones I got, https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/364857947063?_trkparms=amclksrc=ITM&aid=777008&algo=PERSONAL.TOPIC&ao=1&asc=20240723115851&meid=7504bd8cfd784278970530f869554167&pid=101952&rk=1&rkt=1&mehot=none&itm=364857947063&pmt=1&noa=1&pg=4375194&algv=WatchlistVariantWithMLR_BP&brand=Unbranded&_trksid=p4375194.c101952.m162921&_trkparms=parentrq:b8ca0bfa1920a575fdbe6bf1ffffa3c8|pageci:68014b52-9124-11ef-9f10-06ccc1828d9d|iid:1|vlpname:vlp_homepage

the grove is the perfect depth so that the pinch weld just touches the bottom of the groove. The flat part of the pad then rests on the reinforced part of the frame that sits just on the inside of the pinch weld. There is a void on the outside of the pinch weld (you can feel it if you press on the plastic side skirt with your hand), therefore the pad will push the plastic side skirt up slightly by about 5mm. Being soft plastic, it will bend and bounce back once the car is lowered again. It doesn't get damaged as it's not being pushed up that much.

Think of it that way, cars that do have a pinch weld almost always come with slotted scissor jacks, so that they get lifted from the area surrounding the pinch weld.

Awesome thank you for that. It's definitely the depth of the QJ pinch-weld blocks that scare me. I was going to look at the scissor-jack and see how deep that one was too but looks like you found a good solution here.