Custom Jack Stand

[markandson]

Check out my jack stand, I am making 4 and they will be tied together with pipe at the holes in the legs, the pipe will have casters attached so that when I want to move the car I can roll it on the casters. Take the pipe ties off and you can work under the car. Just turn the nut at the top and the car goes up. They start at 12" up so you just jack the car up and put them in, then they go up another 7" from there, plenty of room to work.

[namba209 (R.I.P.)]

Neat looking and functional. The only thing I can see that I would change is to make them fourlegged, that way the pipe connections would be straight and wouldn't have to have angled adapters to connect all four together. But all in all, very nice.

[simplemind7]

i like em, i like em alot, i'm assuming its for a GT and the pegs go into those pipes by the front and back wheels? i used them when we put mine on the frame puller in the body shop, if they hold it on there, i'm sure it will work great for at home, good luck with them

[jeff denton]

I only worry that they are gonna be kind of "tippy"... Could you make the next one with four legs as Ron suggested, and put a plate on the bottom? It just needs a bigger footprint, spread out a little wider. I have to work under huge machinery blocked up all the time, scary rigging just, well, scares me...
I prefer massive overkill to questionable safety! You never know what might be going on under that car on jackstands, much less what might happen topside while you're under it. Dave (nobody) can tell a story about that, it is even GT related, involved his wife (no longer related).

[nobody]

Biggest 2 problems I see are the swivel factor in a round hole and the original jack points are prone to rust. Jeff is right it takes me a week or so to get up the courage to get under a car and it has to be more safe than just sitting on level ground. Safety first and foremost, always have a backup safety factor under a vehicle. Speaking from absolute paranoa on this I prefer two jack stands a good floor jack and a brick that is taller than I am thick. A GT on top of you is not a good thing, trust me.

[baz]

i like to do stuff without the bother of stands
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/showpos...3&postcount=68

[namba209 (R.I.P.)]

Now that everyone has critiqued the stands and made good logical suggestions, here's a little tale that happened to me with my GT on stands. If you've seen any of the pics of my driveway you'll note it is a small incline. After I painted the rear-end and was going to install it, I jacked up the back of the car to get a little more height to roll the assembly under the car. Luckily the front still had the wheels on. As I took the weight off the jackstands the whole car started rolling back down the driveway and the jackstands tilted. I got lucky and wasn't pinned against the gate and the car never hit the ground. I ended up using a 2 ton come-along winch anchored to a fence post and the front suspension, to finish putting in the rear-end. The jackstands you have do need some mods, Jeff is right about a bigger footprint, it's less prone to tipping, Dave has a good point about a swivel action, that could be compensated for by anchoring all four jackstands together about where the screwjack is on the stands. Like I said they look really nice but can be made safer, and that is the basis for all the criticism or critiquing on this thread. There aren't really enuff Opel owners and to lose one to injury or worse working on them is not a good thing. Take all of this as it is given, in the old addage, better to be safe than sorry.

[markandson]

Thank you, everyone, for your comments and concerns. Here is the thought process for their design.

I chose 3 legs, and don't want a plate underneath so that they will always be steady on the ground, no matter what the surface, pebbles and uneven concrete, etc. I thought about the need for beveled connections on the connecting rods and decided to keep the 3 legs and make the connections as necessary. The diameter of the circle that the legs fit in is 8", I got that from the set of 4 stands that I presently use, although I admit that after I fabricated the stand, it looked a little small to me too. I tried the stand under the car over the weekend, and it appears to be quite stable as is, I am set up on a level concrete garage floor. The interconnecting rods have two holes in them to resist rotation due to the round pins, in general I will probably have 3 of the rods installed when working on the car, leaving myself access from one side. I ALWAYS, have a hydraulic jack as a backup somewhere under the vehicle on the end or side where I am working. I too had an acquaintance through business, who DIED , because he was trapped under a car when changing the oil. I am going to be fabricating the other three this week, I will be increasing the circle for the legs to 10" and I will change to a 4 leg pattern - just to increase the anti-tip factor. Again, thanks to all for your input - I will post a pic of the modified version when it's done.

[markandson]

OK, here it is, (still needs paint) with many of the useful comments incorporated.

[markandson]

Here are a couple of Pics of the Jack Stand In Use with the "Jackable" casters that I built. The near side tie bar is left off for now so that I have access with a creeper. When the car needs to be moved I will attach the fourth tie bar, crank up the four caster assemblies, and wheel is out.

[GTJIM]

What a good idea to be able to bolt them all together and attach four wheels - with built in jack screws, yet!

[opeldean]

question 1- will a pair of these work on the back end? or are they just for the front?

markandson- dam are you good at metal fabrication. 2-Are you bringing the gt to carlisle?3- this is off topic...how did you fit in sportwagon springs to your gt?4- how many loops did you cut? arent they too short after you cut them?
5-are you bringing your gt to carlisle?..i guess you can answer in the carlisle thread or tell me at the cave place...

[jordan]

You can use those for the back, but be sure to use chocks on the front end, and measure to see if the body will hit the ramp before the rear end ascends.

[jlthunder]

I agree with Jordan. I damaged my bellypan on both sides using ramps. The nose was too low and long before the wheels went up the ramp. End results, 2 ugly dents below the bumper. It has been repaired, but be careful using ramps.

[markandson]

I have the car sitting on 4 of the stands, they are tied with 3 of the interconnecting pipe tie bars. I can't bring the opel to Carlisle, there is nothing in it, and I mean NOTHING, I will be lucky to have it ready for next year. The wagon springs are not in yet, they will not be cut, they will be fitted by creating adjustable buckets so that I can tune the suspension to them. Sorry for the jumble of topics in this one post, I wanted to answer all the questions.

[Turbo X]

the best equipment I have bought was a portable car lift for my opel...
for under $1500.00 its been best tool I have.

It will also do your wife car...

[markandson]

But you can't get the tranny or the drive shaft out with all that stuff in the way. I can see how for regular maint. and brake work that it would be great.

[Turbo X]

I slide the unit from the side if I what to work on the exhaust, rear end, front end and stuff.. I was going to make stands for the wheels and then remove it.. but I have had to make them as of yet... and the nice part of it is that i can lower or rase the car at any point of my work... it was great when i panted the car ..did under dash work ... when i work under the GT I use a office seat that rises up and down.
no more standing on my feet or on my back.. I will never work on a car with out one..

and if you have to sell the idea to your wife ,, tell her you need it for her cars oil changes... and gee the opel fits on it too..
also when I had it on the left ,, I had 3 guy come in at diffent times and go home and ordered one for them selfs

[pvcar]

thats a sweet lift ive seen those sort of lifts befor in catologs but never really new if i could trust the quality to my life do they have saftey lathces of some sort in case of hydrulic failure?? im sure they do, also were did u order it from.

[kwilford]

In a few days, I should have my GT (and SportWagon compatible) body dolly finished. It has side rails that sit outboard of the body and a bit below, and attaches via the jack points. The castors are trailer-jacks, positioned just inside the wheel wells, that raise up to 11 inches. Pictures at 11....