frame rail : how bad is yours

[Bukowski]

'87 944 na

yeah, asking the obvious here - was going to show a pic but why bother - my frame rail is dinged up from numerous sessions on the jack stands. there's that hole there and its bent in, urethane coating is flaking off. been thinking about making a good cushion.

how do people protect this? I have seen the Harbor Freight jack pads for 8 bucks (!), and a hockey puck is 7mm, and that's the width of the rail roughly, and a puck is so thick I figure it could slip anyways when the other side is jacked up because it wobbles so much. apparently BMW owners discuss this way more than anyone else (there's a long thread easily found where the guy cuts up some pucks to custom fit in there). haven't bought a pile of wood yet.

shouldn't the pad be on the rail so it spreads the force out as it descends? also alignment of the rail edges and the jack edges is critical I think... and the rear jack stand point I'll leave for another posting.

is the hole on the rail for a mythical jack cushion?...

[Techno Duck]

I only jack the car using the central jack point under the door, crossmember or transmission now. For the jack, use a hockey puck as a pad or get a jack that uses a rubber pad (most racing jacks).

I also only use flat top jack stands. I never liked the usual saddle type jack stands.

These are the stands i have, very sturdy and get the car pretty high.

ESCO Jack Stand — 3-Ton Capacity, Model# 10498 | Jack Stands| Northern Tool + Equipment

[ernie9944]

Well here is my idea of jacking the car with a floor jack & jack stands without damaging anything. Aluminum/nylon cushion plate fit to the floor jack

Iron angles with cushions on top of the jack stands
Old speakers magnets instead of rubber pucks.

[ernie9944]

[QUOTE=Bukowski;7258569]'87 944 na

yeah, asking the obvious here - was going to show a pic but why bother - my frame rail is dinged up from numerous sessions on the jack stands. there's that hole there and its bent in, urethane coating is flaking off. ( been thinking about making a good cushion.)____make your own out of nylon (as seen in my pics or aluminum flat bar cushion should be at least 6"-8" long,pre-drill before installing using self tape screw,the hole is probably a drain of some sort so you will need to drill a hole in your cushions to match the one in the frame rail.On my ex 944 I made the cushions out of nylon & they are still there & doing fine after 26 years.Stay

[FrenchToast]

I prefer the 'saddle' stands as things fit in them better. I never jack or put stands on the transmission or crossmember.

Take care!

[bp944]

I went the ghetto route. I took a 2x4 about a foot long and chiseled a groove in it that will fit my jack stand. Basically there's a wood block between my jackstand and the frame that's grooved so it won't slide. It seems to be working perfectly so far.

[Gawernator]

I jack from the side where the manual shows and there's this metal adapter thing that goes on top of my jack. Got it from my dad but I saw the same thing being sold on a corvette website

[alan6272]

I use the wood blocks as well on my jack and jack stands. My frame rails are perfect in every way so all these years some one also took care when lifting the car.

[v2rocket_aka944]

mine were beat to hell, so i got some steel channel that fit the height/width of the rails and welded it on. stuff's like 1/4" thick. put 2x4s under those with my blocks to spread the weight.

[Bukowski]

Originally Posted by ernie9944

Aluminum/nylon cushion plate fit to the floor jack ... Iron angles with cushions on top of the jack stands

OK this sounds interesting - where might I find some chunks of nylon?

[ernie9944]

Originally Posted by Bukowski

OK this sounds interesting - where might I find some chunks of nylon?

Really don't know I got them when I was working in our fab shop a long time ago,we use that nylon on both steel & aluminum conveyers,same goes for the blue one.

[krystar]

wood does just fine. just cut a 2x4 into a square. take it to bench grinder to take off part of the corners to fit into the jack's pad.