I have a '91 Z28 that's been lowered 4" and I've run into a bit of a snag, I have less than 1" of clearance between my axle housing and the rear "frame"/spring pocket/bump stop area. This is after already removing the bump stops. I know I don't have to lowest 3rd gen out there. What kind of solution has anyone else come up with to gain clearance?

 

you can notch the frame i suppose, but be careful, too much more upward movement and the axle may hit the fuel tank or the floor, not to mention the shocks bottoming out, which it seems you are aware of from your other posts around the interwed

4" lower? where does that measurement come from? i ask because it seems like an absurd amount that does not seem possible. 2" drop in the rear will pretty much put the car on the bump stops.

 

My fender height before I lowered it was a tad over 28" and I am now at 24.25" in the front and closer to 25" in the rear. I think the rear bump stop is at nearly 2" tall too. I have about 2.5"-3" of ground clearance at the front crossmember. I run 800 lb springs in the front and 200lb's in the rear wheels and tires are 17x8.5" with 245/45/17's and 18x9.5" with 275/40/18 tires. Some people say this is an undrivable stance, I respectfully disagree . Different strokes for different folks. You just have to learn how to drive a little different and know the routes/streets your driving on. My other car ('92 GTI). which was my daily driver for about 8 months is about a full inch lower. I'm starting to see why nobody has a slammed 3rd gen though, there's quite a few things you have to address to be at this ride height. On a lot of other cars you can just throw some coilovers on, roll the fenders and call it good.




Here is the axle clearance for the rear. Couldn't really fit a measuring tape back there with the wheels still on.




And here's the clearance I have in the front.



I was thinking of slightly notching the inner fender in that area to gain some clearance. I still have to see how much clearance I have to the gas tank and floor board though. And I'd rather bottom out on the bump stop perch than bottom out my shocks and destroy the valving. Up front I'll probably end up using extended ball joints and raised strut mounts (2" HMS?) and possibly drop spindles, so that shouldn't be as much of a problem.

 

You can cut the bumpstops out completely, if you find you are still bottoming out back there. Here mine is before patching a panel back in for strengthening the area back up, although it really is plenty strong with nothing else put in.



For the rear shocks, you could extend the lower mount down if you find that are too close to bottoming out.

 

This would be a very good idea for the rear, and would be a lot easier that trying to find shorter shocks. I made similar brackets to lower the bottom.shock.for my coilover setups I used to have.

For the front, if you use drop spindles, you will not need tall balljoints too, your front height looks to be about where the 2" spindles put the car, you may be a tad lower still but its close enough. You have to keep tie rod clearance in mind. Once you raise the wheel 2", you loose a crap ton of tie rod clearance, then the longer balljlont may require some bumpsteer adjustment, so adding the bumpsteer stud to the tie rod end will loose you more clearance. Granted that is really only the case if you are trying to run a lot of front backspacing on a wide tire.

 

How low can you go

 

Most slammed cars are all for looks. Most of us on here are looking for handling as well. I am at 25" front, 25.5" rear and it is perfectly driveable. Your height would be slightly annoying for me. This issue is these cars have such long overhangs compared to modern cars, so its much easier to scrape than with a GTI.

With that said, there are several things you can do. Trim the body like suggested. Run heavier front and rear springs to reduce suspension travel. For the front, aftermarket a-arms greatly increase clearance in that area.