Oops - yes, three, not four (unless he found the fourth one “sticky” too) …
I think he used the coarsest grit sandpaper on them and/or a wire brush.
If they were a half turn loose I can’t see how they would bend.
Schezz … Hasn’t anybody ever hear of Atlas !!
I thought it Archimes that came up with that???
Dallas. Not clean enough, have tech bud exert more sweat…
Paul:
For me, no cinder blocks. Barely adequate for fences and walls!! I’d choose a healthy chunk of log first.
I think there is a difference between cinder blocks and concrete blocks!!1 …
ALL: I saw a You tube piece. An experienced heavy equipment mechanic. Road call to the side of the road. A heavy duty dual axle trailer lost a dual!!! Busted all the wheel nuts!!! His job, get the wheels back on!! he was having hell of a time. dirt and corrosion and heavy wheels and tires!! in the hot sun!! But, got under to trey to release a busted brake. Several times. Only an air powered bottle jack supporting tons!!! He knows better??? Seen him work safely on other “big iron”
Carl
Dallas: Now that you have wheels off, I would totally advise you to bleed the brakes. You have no idea how old that fluid is (probably bad) - it’s not just for safety, you need to save those calipers!
Depending on how long the car sat, I’d do it twice. That’s what I did for mine (had sat for 7 years). Gave it a good bleed, drove for a month. And then bled again (there was still junk in the fluid!)
Also a good idea when you replace the pads on the rear, give the calipers a good squeeze out while bleeding nipple is open. A lot of crud came out of mine!
There is: 'tis only us old farts who know the difference, given “cinder” blocks haven’t been made for decades!
Note that I do not recommend getting under a concrete block-supported car (“toilet blocks,” in Australia): however, properly oriented, they will not collapse under the weight of a car. A 2x6 across the tops eliminates any sharp pressure points from any undercarriage buts.
In the UK, breeze blocks are the things not to use as car supports. They’re typically used for the inner of a cavity wall, not prized for structural integrity when supporting a couple of tonnes of motor vehicle. Maybe the same as cinder blocks under a different name?
I don’t understand how home mechanics can’t splurge for jack stands? I recently bought the recalled harbor freight ones, returned them right away when one kept collapsing!
For $60 I bought these with a safety pin. My life is worth $60, me thinks.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00026Z3DQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_image#
I have never had ratcheting jack stands. Mine have always been pin through. Have been thinking of getting some ratcheting but if I do they will have the pin-through feature. Thanks for posting this.
BTW it is really a hoot to look at the customer questions and answers on that link at Amazon. After reading that section you wouldn’t know what to believe regards the capacity of the jack stands 
I’ll ask him about that … I know he has to replace the pads on all four of them, and one of the rotors (front) has light scoring and one of the rears (opposite) has it a bit deeper, although he said the latter one was “smooth as to the edges”, which he believes means the PO just went with putting new pads on w/o turning the rotor – thus smoothing out the rough edges of the scoring. 
I did check the fluid when Superblack first came in, and she passed the “copper dipping strip” test with flying colors, which ostensibly means no corrosion to the copper (metal?) parts of the system, as well as the laser pen test, which showed no contamination of the fluid with water. 
But, I guess both outcomes would also result if the PO had changed the fluid out shortly before selling the car to me, as well as the clearness of the fluid (?) 
Speaking of brakes, just got back from one of the usual big chain parts stores to get pads, and was able to pick up ceramic ones for the rear for the same low price as one of the other chains wanted for the cheap-o organic pads. 
Also, I was very impressed by the young sales associate’s knowledge re: European luxury cars. Tha was apparently due, he told me, to the fact that when he got out of vo tech several years earlier he did his first apprenticeship at a Mercedes dealership garage. Thereby being familiar with our Girling brake systems, he told me their loaner tool for spreading calipers will NOT supposedly work for those systems. He said he picked up a couple of them @ around $50.00 apiece for sale at his store some time back, but after they sold he did not stock them again. He opines you cannot substitute a c-clamp for them, as when you push back one piston on a Girling caliper the other one extends (i.e. “whack-a-weasel”). I asked him about using two c-clamps, and he claims there is not enough room to do so. Ugh! 
(I thought someone earlier had posted that a c-clamp could be used, unless I misunderstood that post ). Sounds like Girling really has its customers by the ying-yang on that one (if true). 
btw, I looked up what it would take to r/r the rotors on Superblack ('92 5.3 for anyone who didn’t take notes 
) and it actually doesn’t look that bad, based on the factory service manual literature. I thought others have warned about having to remove the rear end out of the car, or some such on here, b/c of them being inboard type. I didn’t see anything of the sort in my reading. Some lower pins needs to be knocked out of the struts/dampers and flange nuts removed off the drive shaft on that side, trailing radius arm disconnected on one end (which it already IS on one side, due to rust, as you may recall 
), a few details to attend to involving the parking brake assembly, and you’re good to go., apparently. 