Mister Quickie

Call me paranoid but I trust neither the 1/4" tooth that a jackstand locks into nor the jackpoints on a 30 y.o. car 100%.

For the diy that requires me to get under the car I thought about constructing a protective bar/cage to surround me while I'm under there but if something ready-made is on the market it'd be easier just to buy one.

Does such an animal exist?

V2Rocket

go to home depot, buy a length of 6x4 wood, cut into 12" sections. lay 2 parallel and stack 2 more perpendicularly on top of those. glue/nail together with brackets from the roofing section.

build 4 of these giant wood lincoln log blocks and support the car on the frame rails/rear suspension mounts, dont worry about it after that.

build 8 of them and you can lift the car 2 ft off the ground if your jack can go that high. makes everything so much easier, and those blocks are way stronger than any comparable (in terms of cost/working room) jackstands.

if youre really paranoid, get some long boards and tie all the blocks together to make your "cage"

s14kev

Wow. That sounds retarded. Do you live in an inflatable bubble?

ZR8ED

Overkill unless you are working on a gravel/dirt driveway. A couple of big blocks of wood are good as a safety so you can crawl out if the stands fail. I won't say "if the jack fails" as you would be an *** to work under the car sitting only on a jack.

screamin94Z

i'd say you're paranoid. jack stands are more than strong enough to hold 1/4 of your car's weight.

element

i always put my wheels under the car before i go under.. so if something does happen the car will sit on those vs my head. The main reason i can think of something going wrong is if the jackSTAND isn't set right and a tooth slips (minor drop), metal fails or there's an earthquake and really shakes things.

i NEVER go under with just the jack and ALWAYS give the car a good shake before going under.

i just use the tires to keep it extra safe and then im not stumbling over them

phil.

divil

Nothing paranoid about this - I wouldn't be worried about the jack stands breaking so much as slipping. With normal sized 3 ton stands you really need to extend them quite a bit to get decent clearance - it's not hard to imagine the car slipping down a few inches. More then enough to be stabbed in the eye with the tool you have in your hand! I always use an extra set of stands - or the wheels - as backup.

If you can find the ones that use a locking pin rather than the stupid ratchet mechanism that most of them use that's a huge improvement imo.

I like Spencer's idea. If you want to spend a ton of money for a fancy solution, there is a really cool ramp system out there that you drive the whole car onto, then you can remove the middle bits in sections, leaving enough room to get under it. Still, the wooden blocks are cheaper and probably more versatile.

V2Rocket

Ive been using the same blocks since 2005, they've got a few thousand miles and a few dozen different 944s under their "belts" without ever an issue.

I originally built these to sit my whole car up on while I rebuilt the motor/suspension in 05, car ended up being on these blocks 2 ft high for about 6 months. Can't tell you how much easier things are to do when the car is that high up.

I don't think I've used a jackstand since!

carlege

yeah, its called jail

Mueller944s2

I usually use the jack stands as well as the jack with a little pressure on it. And if I take the wheels off then I stick those under there as well

PorscheDoc

Buy a set of esco jackstands. Done.

curtisr

Interesting! Would you mind posting a picture?

Mister Quickie, you might enjoy having a lift installed in your garage. I know I would!!!

austin944

How would a protective cage work if you are supposing that the car slips off the jack and the entire car slams into the cage that you've built or bought? Would it be strong enough to survive the impact? Would you get trapped? Would the underbody of the car be totally bent to hell? I can't see it working really well at all.

V2Rocket

you can see one of the angle brackets on the top block corner

basically each corner has a 4x4" (or the lumber measurement ~3.5") post

great for fitting under the body or you can lay a 2x4 across the top to spread the cars weight out

curtisr

^^^^^^ Awesome. Thanks.