How to jack up rear (or front) of car without a lift

Since the underside of our GT is fully skinned, it can be challenging to lift the car. And thank you for at least trying to search.

This is what I do-
I have wooden ramps 2"x10" shingled or tiered three high with a stop at the end.
You must elevate the car (or at least I do) to enable getting the floor jack under the car to lift. Some have low profile jacks which will roll under the car without raising. I have an old style jack which is too high to roll under without help.

I made a "hockey puck" (I believe you can buy these somewhere on the Forum) which fits into the jack cup and converts a 5" diameter lifting source into a 2"x 2" square lifting profile.

Once you get the car up on the ramps (either raising the front of the car or rear by driving up on the ramps), crawl under the car and locate the two lifting areas to center the 2x2 lifting puck. These areas are cut out of the under car skin, located slightly inboard of the wheels and forward (aft wheels), aft (front wheels). You can see these lifting "hard points" are actually windows in the skin where the chassis frame is above the skin. Carefully locate your lifing puck on this point, carefully avoiding any loading to the plastic skin and lift the car.

The torsional stiffness of the frame really allows one to lift at one point which results in both tires being lifted off the pavement surface, but I place a jack stand under the non-lifted hard point once I have achieved the wheel takeoff height to unload chassis torsion.

Hope this helps.

I tried uploading this picture for 10 minutes. Seems I cannot do it directly anymore.

Regardless, someone else posted this picture a while back;

In the picture above the blue jacking points will lift the side (both front and rear) at the same time, allowing you to place jack stands at the yellow points for that side. Then go do the other side. You can jack the car up on stands in about 5 minutes with a little practice. I use a floor jack with a hockey puck on the blue point and use the pucks on the yellow points under the stands as well.

That "tilt GT stand" where can I buy one???

I always do it in the middle points

The service manual also shows lifting points just aft and in of each front wheel. You can see a notch in the side rails and skin at these point in the picture. Like Indy, I ramp the fronts and then jack each side one at time at the lift point shown by the book behind the front tire and then put a jack stand at the inner forward points. I was not aware of the blue marked points, but have considered a lifting bridge arm for my jack to lift both rears at once (or better yet a real lift).

Okay, this first link is for the entire side of the car: http://home.comcast.net/~petraathome/fgtjak02.htm , and the second if you decide to go more slowly and just lift one wheel at a time:
http://home.comcast.net/~skatesharpening/fgtlift02.htm .

Pete S.

Another lift-less jacking option:
In the pics below is what I do to get the wheels off the ground. A little more hardware than the others here describe, but it does it safely and without any twist induced. I made the ramps from 2x6's - just the right height to fit under the rockers. I made the blue beam from 3 in. square steel tube. Once lifted the 2 small blocks on the beam that pick up the frame lift points provide the clearance to remove the belly pans fore and aft of the beam. I haven't made a beam yet for lifting the front end but should work the same.

Very nice, well done!

Wow, that's really trick. Can you give us measurements please?

fjpikul said:

Wow, that's really trick. Can you give us measurements please?

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+1

Ditto. the 'middle point' is found by visually extending a line down the firewall (behind the seats) to the bottom of the car. If you rap the underside, right near the rocker you will find a 1" section that is very solid metal. On either side of it is rather hollow when you're rapping on it. It quite easy to 'feel' for the center jack point that way and it's quite obvious after the first time you do it. I would use a narrow piece of wood or steel placed between the car and the jack before you lift from here. You don't want the jack pressing either ahead or behind from this solid point. Once lifted, you can place a jack stand on those yellow circled points. I know one of the vendors on this forum sells (or sold) a pack of four pucks that have a nib that lock in to the yellow jack points. Use either these (they are quite worth having) or use a hockey puck or thin/solid piece of wood to shield the car from the jack.
GL

Mullet said:

I always do it in the middle points

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Vincent998 said:

Wow! What a great idea! Thanks so much for your trouble, that is exactly the sort of solution I was looking for!
Please, what are the dimensions of the beam?

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I used a 3in. x 3in. square mild steel tube with 1/4in. wall. This is plenty strong and stiff enough. I cut it 30 in. long, then fixed the 2 wood blocks with a 20.5 in. gap between them. Each block is 3.5 wide x 2 deep x 1in thick (tall) but could be any size that fits within the size of the jack pads that are 24.0 between centers and about 3 in. square. If the blocks were taller than the 1in. I used you would be able to get the belly pans off & on easier, but I was limited by the ramp height and the floor jack height so in my case the blocks just barely clear under the car as you can see in the one photo.

Nice solution - :thumbsup

Picked up this jack from Northern Tools today to work on my starter problems. Min height is listed as 2 9/16" and with a thin piece of board on top went right under my lowered GT. Used the side jacking area and was able to get the car up enough to put a jack stand under the rear jack point. This was my first time working on the car and it worked out well. Beware the Jack is steel and very heavy. Was the lowest height jack they had.

Arcan Ultra Low-Lift Garage Jack — 2-Ton Capacity, Model# XL2T

Magic

ChipBeck said:

Loose control and slide it ass first into a tree.

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Ford Dealers can jack up cars also!.... http://www.fordgtforum.com/forums/showthread.php?520-A-Comedy-of-Errors&highlight=comedy+of+errors