OK, this might be a stupid question, or a question asked by a stupid person, but what is the definition of the pinch weld?

I see this seam that runs down the side of my '92. It has two notches for the jack, front and back.

So is the "pinch weld height" at the bottom of some point on that seam, assuming it is consistent? Or is it where the two pieces of metal come together at the body, about a 1/2 inch up?

I only ask because I have a pretty straight car and I can see enough variation to affect the level of accuracy on ride height that I have seen on this forum.

(Posting this with the possible neg cat response hoping it helps someone in the future, assuming I get a response, LOL)

FWIW the alignment shop I had set my ride height looked at me as if I had two heads when I quoted pinch weld height. They got it as close as they could using pinch welds, but could not get even measurements on all four sides like that (my car is pretty straight as well). They used the wheel to fender method to get the final even side measurements.

I've always used ground to bottom of the weld, as this seems closer to "ground clearance height". In the unfortunate case of your pinch welds having been crushed by ricer punks with zero knowlage of how to use a jackstand, use whatever frame of reference you can. I think the bigger concern here is consistency, not so much method.

I measure to the bottom of the pinch welds between the 2 drain points in the front and back. What I do is get some white out, then go to the rear of the pinch welds. I pick a spot between the 2 drain holes that looks good and mark it. I measure how far forward it is and then go to the other side of the car and mark the same point in the rear. Then do roughly the same thing for the front. The main point being that both sides points are marked in the same locations and the the pinch welds are roughly in the same shape. With the whiteout marks it is easy to make sure I am always measuring at the same points when making and checking changes.

Huh. That's so simple I'm embarrassed I didn't think to do it myself. Thanks.

I just measure to the bottom of the welded seam between the notches marking the jack points. No need for paint markers.

The paint is more to make sure you measure at the same point every time. This is mostly important so 6 months after you make changes you don't forget which point exactly you used. It is not required, but makes things a bit easier in the future.

I mean, the jack notches are what, 2" apart? Not that hard to eyeball the midpoint. Plus I doubt there is more than 1/2 of a millimeter difference between the front and the back of that region between the notches. To each their own.