Anyone have any suggestions with regard to lifting an E type say 20 inches off the floor so I can get underneath it to do minor servicing? I would love to install a 4 post lift in my garage but (a)it would be a tight fit and (b) they don’t deliver to your address so you have to pick it up at a depot which mean having a vehicle that you can load it on.
Cribbing is a time-honored way of raising heavy loads (the Egyptians and Romans used it):
They can be done in building block sections for staged lifting:
Can use jack stands at one end and cribbing at the other for a very stable arrangement:
Note: Those wood blocks under the front hubs just keep the front suspension from drooping.
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Ok Stuart they are going to come and burn down my house for saying this, but you can jack it, with a floor jack, under the torsion bar reaction tie plate. I was shown this by Ed Grayson a very experienced Jaguar mechanic from Portland, and used to do it routinely, before my hoist came. The full front of the car will come up. You can support the front with jack stands in the front under the big front blocks that the lower control goes through. Be careful jacking up the back as your jack has to move backwards as the car goes up.
I’ve put mine up on four jack stands. It’s not difficult but it can be time consuming. I recently bought these ramps.
They make it a lot easier to quickly get under the front of the car. The only draw back is you need to crawl under from the front of the car. There just isn’t any space to slide under from the side. They’re also very light so you can easily store them out of the way.
Nice looking car 
good job
That’s good Terry, I won’t burn your house down. Must be a low floor jack
I’ve always just jacked the car by the picture frame (oak block) at the front and the tie plate at the rear cribbing or stands as required and ya it’s a Pita
Hey George…. Don’t the spark plugs go in the motor? Or is it some new fangled ignition system
Geo really wanted a 12.
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It’s a wasted spark system …you guys are funny 
any little chink in the armour
Hi Stuart,
I faced a similar situation many years ago, compounded by a severe case of positional vertigo which prevents me from working on my back for very long. My solution was a HF scissor lift. It takes the car up around 3 feet, which is plenty if you have 8´ ceilings. For the extra freight charge (about $30 or so), it was delivered to my driveway and easy to get into the garage. If I remember correctly, it was around $800. I did have to “fiddle” with it a bit, including getting HF to send me a small replacement part, but it has been extremely useful. Obviously, it has drawbacks but I use it frequently and would highly recommend it for situations where a proper lift isn’t possible. Perhaps I should mention that it does require a 240v power source, which I had to have installed.
Hey Geo, what kind of flooring is that? Very nice, not to distract from your gorgeous car.
Skip (´68, S 1.5, 2+2)
Just a typical epoxy with color chips installed by a local firm. I was there as he walked the wet epoxy in old golf shoes (leave no footprints) cranking a waist-mounted Scott’s seed broadcaster to distribute the chips.
You can tell when you’re watching a pro at work
It is a nice looking car, and it has cruise control which makes me very jealous.
–Drew
Your HF lift now costs $2000.
It looks to me like the jacking points might not be able to lift the car from (a) where the rear trailing arms fix to the body and (b) under the rear bush on the front lower wishbones Can Summerwine ( I presume taken from the great British series " Last of the Summer wine") say where he places the lifting pads on an E type? Other than that I would be a little concerned about putting a grove in the concrete floor of the garage. But anyway thanks for suggesting this HF lift
Those types of lifts just don’t look stable to me.
I don’t know any more than the excellent help you’ve already been given, but if you’re going to install a 4-post anyway, why waste your money on some temporary jacking device? You could rent a p/u from the Big Orange Box or get your installer to pick it up (that’s what i did). If you live in Houston, you can borrow my p/u + i’ll give you the name of a pro installer. steve (caveat, I recommended HD, as I own 800,000 shares of their stock. Yeah, right!). steve meltzer
Hi Stuart,
Apparently, HF use to offer two models of the scissor lift. The one I bought was under a grand, and I picked it up when it was either on sale, or I could apply a coupon, which brought it now further. For $2000, I would be looking at some other options.
Chuck Goolsbee (another Jag lister) wrote a very thorough review back in 2010, where he addresses most of your concerns. Just google him with “Harbor Freight scissor lift review” and you should be able to access it.
Unfortunately, I am traveling in Europe right now and can’t take any photos for you. I did have to buy some planks to place on each side of the lift so that the Jag would clear. I use four foot-long 4&4s, as suggested by Chuck, and have no problem finding jacking spots as the arms slide back and forth. The lift does not scratch the floor at all due to wheels on one end.
I hope this helps and good luck on finding a solution. Oh,and you are correct about the source of Summerwine.
Skip (68 2+2)
Off topic, but please tell me the spare spark plug story.
Is that a factory accessory?
At a concours weekend I saw several older cars with a set of spark plugs on a holder under the bonnet. I wondered why.
The next morning the driving portion of the event took place. I watched one of those cars (a Bugatti Type 35) as the owner fired up the engine, let it warm up and drove it to the starting area.
He then raised the bonnet and changed all the plugs - apparently he either knew that the warm up would foul the plugs that were in there or else he used different plugs to start a cold engine than he would need on the drive.
Anyway, I liked the idea of it even though it is unnecessary on my E-Type. Sort of like my second coil (mounted and ready for the wires to be swapped over) that was inspired by a spare coil set-up I saw on a C-Type:
I remember M. G. Mitten and Haan sold spark plug holders in their catalogues in the 1960’s. Metal and you screwed them to the firewall. I also remember they sold an underhood (or bonnet) bracket designed to hold a can of motor oil.
Thanks Summerwine. I located and read Chuck’s review. But it is not clear to me just where he located the lift pads
It look like the rear pads are placed just outboard of the trailing arm mounting points. But I cannot define where the front pads are located.
stuart