My Car Is Bent
08-20-2003, 11:19 PM
#23
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 22
How about using the pinch welds? I'm not by my car right now so I'm not sure what the pinch welds look like if they are even there but they are the strongest place to lift the car. Although my 1st gen pinch welds sucked. All collapsed and ****. By the way, I'm speaking of the pinch welds under the door where the metal is pinched together. 
08-21-2003, 03:06 AM
#27
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: IL
Posts: 2,930
the 'pinch welds' are only a reasonable place if you are using the emergency jack which has the slot cut out in it for the material to seat inside, with the proper jack the weight of the vehicle is on the jack in 3 places, the two lands on each side of the groove and the bottom seat of the groove, and the metal cannot crumble up because it's kept straight by the groove in the jack which it seats in.
I have yet to damage a vehicle when using wood pieces between the jack & vehicle interface. Every time I can remember skipping this step some damage was done due to the tiny surface area of the jack stand or floor jack being used. When I worked at CarX we had lifts that we would put under the boxed parts that run the length of the car, but the pads on the lift have alot more surface area than your typical floor jack or jack stand, so they typically would not damage anything. Not to mention they lift the car at once relatively parallel to the ground, which keeps the weight balanced. When you lift one side of the car first and get it on jack stands, then move to the other end to jack it up, it is much heavier than the first end and all that weight will be on the jack point you select, so use something to distribute it, wood tends to work pretty well for this... as it not only distributes the weight of the car over a larger surface area of the steel, but it behaves somewhat as a damper and can adapt to inconsistent surfaces like where theres seams in welds or a lip or whatever may be protruding lower than the surrounding area.
It really upsets me when I look at a car I've purchased or am considering purchasing, or just working on a friends car and I find all sorts of crumbled up parts underneath due to using a jack with nothing to distribute the weight over a larger area.... it's kindof sad, because after it's crumbled it's a prime place for rust to start becaus the paint gets fucked up in the process.
I have yet to damage a vehicle when using wood pieces between the jack & vehicle interface. Every time I can remember skipping this step some damage was done due to the tiny surface area of the jack stand or floor jack being used. When I worked at CarX we had lifts that we would put under the boxed parts that run the length of the car, but the pads on the lift have alot more surface area than your typical floor jack or jack stand, so they typically would not damage anything. Not to mention they lift the car at once relatively parallel to the ground, which keeps the weight balanced. When you lift one side of the car first and get it on jack stands, then move to the other end to jack it up, it is much heavier than the first end and all that weight will be on the jack point you select, so use something to distribute it, wood tends to work pretty well for this... as it not only distributes the weight of the car over a larger surface area of the steel, but it behaves somewhat as a damper and can adapt to inconsistent surfaces like where theres seams in welds or a lip or whatever may be protruding lower than the surrounding area.
It really upsets me when I look at a car I've purchased or am considering purchasing, or just working on a friends car and I find all sorts of crumbled up parts underneath due to using a jack with nothing to distribute the weight over a larger area.... it's kindof sad, because after it's crumbled it's a prime place for rust to start becaus the paint gets fucked up in the process.
08-21-2003, 11:02 AM
#29
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2002
Location: California
Posts: 22,465
Originally Posted by RX7Aggie' date='Aug 20 2003, 10:13 PM
yeah, i did that and they all got bent and started crumbling too.
that's why i moved to those inner frame rails
i'll just start using 2x4's
that's why i moved to those inner frame rails
i'll just start using 2x4's
mike