flatlander937 would i be bale to use one of these from the sill half way dow the car and it will not bend anything? I know you used a plank of wood but my jack has a metal pad that will distort the wood easily.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/I6automo...king-Pad-/151176258502?_trksid=p2054897.l4275
Should be fine.
Jacking the car higher(like trying to jack one side like 20" in the air while the other is on the ground) and using a jack with crappy wheels/casters will make it more likely to bend the pinch rail, just be aware of that. If I need the car pretty high up I'll get both sides on jack stands first and level, then adjust each side one at a time to the desired final height.
As for the wood I used, it's pressure treated lumber... good stuff you build houses out of. Because of the resins that are forced into the wood under pressure it's much less likely to split like plain old wood. Also make sure you get something that has the grain going laterally, not horizontally when viewed from the end that way the layers of wood grain are being compressed into each other, not trying to separate them by using the pinch rail like a knife(which is what someone above was concerned about).
It's perfectly fine if you use your head and at least take a look at it before/after each time you use it.
I'll add that I like 6 ton jack stands a lot, the ones I have are a bit shallower so they don't hit the body before the pinch weld(like my 2 ton stands do), and they're just a hell of a lot more sturdy, the extra height is perfect to keep them on the lowers setting(or just 1-2 notches up) and have plenty of room underneath.
Here are the HF 2 ton stands:
And the 6 ton stands:
FWIW I have had a 2 ton stand fail on me, the handle that releases the locking mechanism separated from the locking mechanism, so when the handle was down, the tooth wasn't actually fully engaged and it slipped off. Be extra careful when you have 2k+ lbs over your head.
