Got careless jacking the car. Now I have a long with a big dent. Thank goodness I wasn't under the car. Hard to explain but the car move, it came off the jack the jackstand fell over and the car landed on the base of the jackstand

Here's the damage

ouch! thank god you wreent under it!

Door gap is OK so I think I'll touch up the bare metal and leave it alone

Dave

Thank God you were not injured!

Sorry about that, I don't trust jack stands, I have had my cars jump off the factory jacks a few times also..

Good to 'see' you!


M

I hate jack stands. Someday I'm going to make new "inserts" for the bases that have a male donut that will fit perfectly and hold solidly. Every time I try to line up the jack stand with the donut I get really nervous. There's no great way to do it.

Be careful Dave! Glad everything (and everyone) is OK.



I'm not touchin that. Miles?

what the hell. the LAST thing i did (IN july) was swap the drivers seat. placed the one i took out on the wood stove. i turned away and it fell off scraping the paint off the door in a 8" stripe. it's always something. be careful!!!

kevin

God must protect dumb sh*ts. I was just headed under it to adjust one of the collars on the shocks.

Dave

Ouch. Good thing you werent under it. Where the tires off? Normally when I jack up the car I put those wheel thingamabobs (the one's your suposed to drive the car up on.. not good for low cars..), I feel safe under that.. If it will hold a truck itt'l hold the 914..

I feel your pain... glad you're ok

cheers,

Jeroen

i'm going to email a link of this to betsy. i bet you spotted your jockeys. why was the jack stand 5" below where it should have been? don't make me come over there.

kevin

The stand fell on its side, causing the car to fall 5"..

Took me the second time reading it as well..

Andrew

scaaaary. very glad you made it out unscathed

this is how i've been doing it lately. bought the jack plates off ebay -- it feels safer putting a jack stand under a metal bar rather than trying to seat it just perfectly under the donut (pucker factor). this jack's reciever fits the donut perfectly, but it's there only as a back-up (the load is fully on the jack stand). i have the same thing on the other side of the car, only with a larger floor jack. it feel pretty safe, but i still get mildly sketched out crawling underneath...

Thank god your ok. I hate using jack stands that is why I got this lift, only $1000 shipped, best $1k I have spent.

how much for that rust-free roller?

looks good and straight

nice lift, n

Since the jack points are one of the rust out locations I really don't trust anything that goes in there either.

I would not trust a car supported by the jack points. Jack by the jack points and support by the donuts or some other strong underbody structural point.

with no rust, why not support from jack points?

just wondering why, i'm always looking to be more safe. thanks,

n

The jack points were made for changing a flat tire. not for supporting the weight of the car for extended periods of time. I had a jack point fail on my three year old 73 car. The jack point just ripped off the long and caused major damage when the jack dug a hole in the side of the fender. There was no rust involved. That's when I threw the factory jack away. I jack only from the rear of the motor or the donuts, and jackstand under the donuts or motor mount bar.

GOOD TO KNOW

thanks, n

I usually put the rear jack stands on the outside trailing arm pickup, the part attatched to the car, not the arm itself, and in the front I use the whole corner by the doughnut (using a piece of wood) or the front of the A-arm, where it bolts into the body. I just don't like the idea of putting a jack stand directly on any sheet metal.

I wish someone would come up with something better, It's always a stressful process.

my car fell off jackstands so many times while i had it in NV, and then a LOT more times trying to get it raised and onto the cradle to get it outta there. many bumps and dings under there, fortunately mine is at the start of any restoration process, not the end...

lemme tell you - it is a REAL PAIN getting a 914 tub out of a sandbox !

All good ideas on this one,

I also get scared with the stands, so for any work that doesn't require removing tires I always drive the car up on ramps (I guess this doesn't help anyone who's car is torn apart..) but with a good set of ramps, and then locking the other set of wheels with chocks, the car aint going no where. At this point I've pretty much decided that if I cant do the work under the car with it on ramps than it goes to the pros....

I got a great set of 4000LB max ramps from the local auto parts store, they are black poly plastic and have a raised edge at the end so you almost cant drive over them...

-Adam

I put my 914 on jack stands and it was too much of a process to get it up high -- I had to shuttle back-n-forth to get her up to the highest jack height. All I needed was a couple more inches in lift, then I could put the jack stands to their full height the first time. So, I made an extension...

This image shows the normal jack assist that you can buy from the catalogs. It is the smaller, simpler one in front and I originally bought it for my VW but it fits the 914 equally well.

The bigger, more ungainly unit in the back is the extension I made. It adds about 3.25" of lift.

This is the underside of it. Notice the extra strips of metal I welded on? Well, I originally used a square piece of stock...not good. When attempting to lift the car the smaller bar rotated within the jack receiver Now I know why the catalog piece was in the shape/design that it was. So I took a couple pieces of scrap metal and welded them on to fill the gap and the fit was a tad snug (a smidge of grinding required) but I got it to fit and it didn't rotate in the receiver

Yes, I drilled a hole in the middle of the jack place and welded it there, too. The car will break before the extension does...

This is a comparison of the two. The carpenters triangle there is 7" tall.

I always put my jacks -- on any vehicle -- where the suspension mounts to the body. I try to keep the jack slightly pushed up at the jacking point (where ever that may be) as a back-up to the jack stand(s).

Girlfriend is snoring up a storm (please, don't say anything to her!) and I can't sleep so that's why the late-night posting