I will have my car serviced at a local garage that has a two post lift. I know where to lift in the rear of the car, where exactly should I lift at the front of the car. I have googled many pics of cars lifted and it seems like they put a 2 x 4 just infront of the floor where it dishes down. Is this the spot? I looked at my car and all I see is a support rail that is about 12" in length. My car is a 1962 Etype coupe.
What I did when using one of these lifts, for some months, was cut (4) pieces of sturdy wood (in my case 1 inch thick teak, approx 4 inches x 4 inches) and drilled a (approx) 1 inch diameter hole, centered in each and set them as a “spacer” on top of each of the lift pads at the ends of the jack arms so that the body-mounted jack point round nubs (not sure if your car has these) would sit inside the hole such that it didn’t bottom out on the jacking pad. In my case the pad was a steel round dish with a rubbery pad set inside, flush with the top of the dish, whereas some are square pads for the lift-arm ends.
This made for good balance and access to items that would normally be utilized for jacking, such as control arms, etc…
I have used them for years, to good end.
My $.02
Huff
69 2+2
Huff - your 2+2 has a pair of jacking points on each side, SWB cars like Jan’s FHC only have one jacking point amidships on each sill.
Jan - I have used the ‘frame’ near the forward spot you describe but only for jacks and jack stands… I have never used a two-post so best to hear from someone who has.
I have a two post lift. On top of the soft rubber lifting pads I place hockey pucks.
Lifting point at rear is radius arm mount where it mounts to body. Front point is rear lower A arm mount.
If the lift has a longer reach the front A arm mount is ideal.
Glenn
Yes. If you use the suspension components as lift points it makes them hard to work on.
I do the same, using oak stair tread wood, not teak.
Same as mellowyellow
Lifting point at rear is radius arm mount where it mounts to body. Front point is rear lower A arm mount.
On the rear I use a half inch thick piece of wood to make sure the load goes into the bolt of the radius arm mount and not into the radius arm.
I prefer a a bird’s-eye maple with a light rubbed oil finish…
A friend had a commercial 2-post lift (don’t recall the brand) where it was easier to reach the lower a-arm mounts by having the car turned around. Whatever you do, don’t allow anyone to use the sunken floor plans as a lift point.
Thanks Jack. I went back and looked at a number of the pics on BAT for the 1962 and 1963 Etypes when they were photographing the underside and for the most part it looks like most of them place a 2 x 4 just in front of the floor pan, just in front of the deepest part of the floor pan.
When using a two post lift the idea is to keep the load as balanced as possible. If you back in, the load will be biased to the rear because of the longer arms at rear. I have thought of doing this to reach the forward A arm mount but decided not to.
My Alfa with a mid engine is pulled forward as far as possible to retain balance. But then it only weighs 2400 lbs. on a 10,000 lb capacity lift.
Some may have seen a photo of a new mid engine Corvette that fell off of lift, using the wrong lift points.
Glenn
Here’s where I lift from in the front. I thickened up the blocks rather than use hockey pucks for clearance.