Jack up your classic

Easy, you’d think. Use the jack that belongs to the car, insert it in the jacking point provided, toil away for a while with the handle, elevation achieved. But what’s that creaking, crunching noise?

Rust, probably, where once there was steel able to take a car’s weight. It doesn’t necessarily mean the whole structure is disintegrating, but the jacking points are now off-limits.

Maybe you don’t want to risk possible crunch time in the first place and you need another way of raising your car. For this you’ll need a jack with a proper lifting pad – a trolley jack or bottle jack – but where do you place the pad? Somewhere stout and strong, which won’t be damaged by the jack pad (use a piece of wood or rubber as an interface if necessary) and won’t move in such a way that it slides off the jack as the car is raised. So think carefully before applying upward motion to an inner suspension wishbone pivot. It might squash the pivot bush in an unhealthy way, too.

If your car has a subframe or two, under the mounting bolts is a good place to jack. Other possibilities are chassis rails, provided they are good and tough, and you place the jack at an end rather than in the middle.

The front outer corner of a floor can be a usable jacking place if it’s surrounded by tough metal, but spread the load with a piece of wood and check beforehand for any weakening by rust. Suspension arms, as close to the wheel as possible, can also be viable.

Some cars have a central jacking platform right at the front. Jacking here seems scary, but it’s a good test of the structure’s stiffness. Other cars have counter-intuitive jacking suggestions from their makers, such as a Lotus Elan (under the glassfibre sill ends), and early Mazda MX-5 (under the diff).

On cars with solid axles, the diff casing may make a suitable jacking point. Just don’t rely on a jack alone if you’re going under a car; add an axle stand or two. And never, ever jack a car by its engine’s sump.