2 Post Lift Question

[gforce1108]

I have a 2 post lift. Prior, I never lifted by the pinch welds. Always a floor jack on a solid mounting point. LCA bolt in the front, rear beam in the back. With the lift, it is recommended to lift by the pinch welds (comes with a manual documenting lift points). I have padded attachments. When you pick up straight, you aren't going to damage anything.

It all depends on the length of the arms whether you can pick up by something else under there.

 

[oilhammer]

I lift them on the pinch welds... but that is with a big flat and long plate, the load is spread out. Never with the little arms flipped up, that would concentrate all the weight on one small (about a half inch) area.

The NBs you cannot do that, as they have their lower rockers rounded in such a way that the rack arms hit. On those, I reach the front arms under to the unibody box rail section at the low point, lifting plates still flat, and the rear I flip the shorter arm up, and grab it on the little unibody section that sticks down right ahead of where the rear beam bracket attaches, near the parking brake cable. Have to do G/J the same way if they have rocker trims (like some GTI/GLI do).

This is for the A4 cars... B5s are similar. The A5, A6, B6, NCS, NMS, etc. all have reinforcements on the pinch welds (like Hondas) so it is more obvious.

There is not a lot of weight in the rear of these cars.

I use Rotary lifts, although we do have some 2 post Challengers (looks like the one gforce has that silver NB on) but not in my work stations. But I have used them, and they work fine but they do not spread the weight over as much an area due to the smaller lifting pads.

I honestly don't know how so many people screw up the rockers on these cars. I have cars that I have personally had in the air many, many times, and you could never tell.

 

[Genesis]

My ALH has been lifted many, many times with a floor jack using a puck on the pinch welds and there's no evidence of damage on them at all. Ditto for my Mazda, same deal. I don't get how people screw this up that badly either.

 

[KrashDH]

So the pinch welds seem to be a common theme here. Would anyone else hesitate if their pinch welds had already been repaired once?

If so and the lift can reach, front control arm bolt area and rear beam vs frame rails?

@gforce1108 , nice looking work space!

 

[KrashDH]

My ALH has been lifted many, many times with a floor jack using a puck on the pinch welds and there's no evidence of damage on them at all. Ditto for my Mazda, same deal. I don't get how people screw this up that badly either.

When shops send their sweeper to start jacking up vehicles who haven't read how to properly lift each vehicle, that's when pinch welds get damaged unfortunately.

 

[gforce1108]

So the pinch welds seem to be a common theme here. Would anyone else hesitate if their pinch welds had already been repaired once?

If so and the lift can reach, front control arm bolt area and rear beam vs frame rails?

@gforce1108 , nice looking work space!

It depends on the repair - I would test it to see. I have a MKV that is completely rotten that comes to me. I can put my hands through the rockers in several spots. No deflection lifting from the jacking points on the pinch welds. I'll have to test whether my arms can reach the control arm/rear beam. The cheap non ALI certified version only had 2 segment arms. This has three so a bit more reach. My shop was a mess at that point. It's better now (not great, but better). Always multiple cars and this is my "hobby". Weirdly less VWs now. 2 Honda ridgelines, an accord, plus 1955 and 2011 Cadillacs this past week. I barter with someone for landscaping work

 

[KrashDH]

It depends on the repair - I would test it to see. I have a MKV that is completely rotten that comes to me. I can put my hands through the rockers in several spots. No deflection lifting from the jacking points on the pinch welds. I'll have to test whether my arms can reach the control arm/rear beam. The cheap non ALI certified version only had 2 segment arms. This has three so a bit more reach. My shop was a mess at that point. It's better now (not great, but better). Always multiple cars and this is my "hobby". Weirdly less VWs now. 2 Honda ridgelines, an accord, plus 1955 and 2011 Cadillacs this past week. I barter with someone for landscaping work

Can't wait till I have a shop. Have been house hunting for about a year now.
As far as rust goes, the car is clean. The reinforced pinch weld area where you're supposed to jack from, didn't get any damage, they jacked just outside of the jack points and folded the sheet metal at that point. twice on each side. I still have jacked from the OEM points no problem.

 

[oilhammer]

Man, you have my sympathy... house hunting right now would scare the bejeezus out of me. The prices are absolutely insane. Good luck. I know I could not afford to buy my own house right now if I were looking, and it isn't because of some loss of income.

 

[KrashDH]

Man, you have my sympathy... house hunting right now would scare the bejeezus out of me. The prices are absolutely insane. Good luck. I know I could not afford to buy my own house right now if I were looking, and it isn't because of some loss of income.

Yes it's the worst possibly time. I also graduated college in 2008. Had a really rough go getting into the professional industry I studied for back in those days. Took until 2013 till companies started to ease back and hire people out of college.

 

[gforce1108]

Can't wait till I have a shop. Have been house hunting for about a year now.
As far as rust goes, the car is clean. The reinforced pinch weld area where you're supposed to jack from, didn't get any damage, they jacked just outside of the jack points and folded the sheet metal at that point. twice on each side. I still have jacked from the OEM points no problem.

It was a fight to get my shop. I bought a house with 2 acres thinking it would be easy to build. I had to apply for 4 zoning variances. 2 were a waste of time and we all knew it (4 car max, side or front yard). The big two were max height (15' limit) and combined secondary building square footage (1000' limit). With 2 sheds and 2 gazebos, I was already up there. Didn't want it attached and didn't have setbacks to do so. They assumed I was building an apartment since it has an upstairs. 28x46, 27' tall 3 bays, 4 cars easy (5 with one stacked on lift).

The only way I'd want to buy right now is if I was selling something else. Kinda like the car market!

This was actually the picture I was looking for yesterday that shows a Jetta and the rubber pads. The frame lift pieces are sitting on the side of the lift support

 

[KrashDH]

It was a fight to get my shop. I bought a house with 2 acres thinking it would be easy to build. I had to apply for 4 zoning variances. 2 were a waste of time and we all knew it (4 car max, side or front yard). The big two were max height (15' limit) and combined secondary building square footage (1000' limit). With 2 sheds and 2 gazebos, I was already up there. Didn't want it attached and didn't have setbacks to do so. They assumed I was building an apartment since it has an upstairs. 28x46, 27' tall 3 bays, 4 cars easy (5 with one stacked on lift).

The only way I'd want to buy right now is if I was selling something else. Kinda like the car market!

This was actually the picture I was looking for yesterday that shows a Jetta and the rubber pads. The frame lift pieces are sitting on the side of the lift support

Yeah it's a tough market. Frustrating. It's amplified even worse where I live.

Thanks for the photo.

 

[oilhammer]

That's why I moved to the country.... I can pretty much build anything I want and nobody would know or care, LOL.

 

[KrashDH]

That's why I moved to the country.... I can pretty much build anything I want and nobody would know or care, LOL.

Even trying to get out into the boonies around here, housing prices are absurd. We're trying to get at least a small piece of land as well out where people can't bother us. I grew up in Alaska so city life isn't my thing. Building isn't even an option as the price of materials and wait times are through the roof. I'd be dead by the time a house would be finished.
The median...MEDIAN house price around me is about 700k. That's for a piece of crap that needs 60k+ in upgrades/fixes. That number is even more the further north you go.

 

[vandermic07]

The Township i live in, costs $100 for a permit to build a shed of any size over 1000 sq ft. as long as it is 10' from the property line, your good.

My house was a little more. Around $1500 for all the permits (building, electrical, sewage, road access). That includes labor to dig test holes for the sewage.

I wouldn't like to live in town or development. too many rules.

 

[oilhammer]

I cannot wrap my brain around a $700k house. I mean, if you can afford it, great. But for someone just looking to have a roof over their head and not be renting, good grief.

Missouri thankfully isn't nearly that nuts. But still, my mother passed away a couple years ago, and the modest one story house she had been living in since the early '90s that was in poor shape wasn't something we (us five children) wanted to mess with, and we all have our own homes. Not in a bad area, but certainly not fancy. She owed $92k on it (she was really terrible with money), and that was a substantial chunk of what she bought the place for after my parents divorced. We quick sold it as is to a flipper we knew, they paid $128k for it. My brother in law thought we should have gotten more, but we really didn't have the luxury of time to deal with it.

We got to walk through the house about nine months later, and they did a quick fix up on it, nothing all that nice to be honest. Painted, redid the hardwood floors, installed new bottom-end kitchen and bathroom stuff, etc. I would be surprised if they spent even $50k on it (that included filling in the defunct in-ground pool). They listed it the next day for $329k.... it sold later that day for $369k. I think my siblings and I all sprained our jaws when we found this out. I was amazed. Amazed that it was listed for so much, amazed that it sold for that much, amazed that there was an intense bidding war over the course of just a few hours, and amazed that someone with that type of income would want to live in that area.

 

[KrashDH]

I cannot wrap my brain around a $700k house. I mean, if you can afford it, great. But for someone just looking to have a roof over their head and not be renting, good grief.

Missouri thankfully isn't nearly that nuts. But still, my mother passed away a couple years ago, and the modest one story house she had been living in since the early '90s that was in poor shape wasn't something we (us five children) wanted to mess with, and we all have our own homes. Not in a bad area, but certainly not fancy. She owed $92k on it (she was really terrible with money), and that was a substantial chunk of what she bought the place for after my parents divorced. We quick sold it as is to a flipper we knew, they paid $128k for it. My brother in law thought we should have gotten more, but we really didn't have the luxury of time to deal with it.

We got to walk through the house about nine months later, and they did a quick fix up on it, nothing all that nice to be honest. Painted, redid the hardwood floors, installed new bottom-end kitchen and bathroom stuff, etc. I would be surprised if they spent even $50k on it (that included filling in the defunct in-ground pool). They listed it the next day for $329k.... it sold later that day for $369k. I think my siblings and I all sprained our jaws when we found this out. I was amazed. Amazed that it was listed for so much, amazed that it sold for that much, amazed that there was an intense bidding war over the course of just a few hours, and amazed that someone with that type of income would want to live in that area.

Yeah I agree with you. It's mind boggling out here. FWIW we cannot afford a house for 700k. That's just what it is out here. People are taking on incredible amounts of debt.
The only people that can afford to live in this state are the rich. Those of us that work are being pushed further and further from our working locations because it's not affordable where a lot of the companies are located. When I go in, it's basically a min of 2 hours each direction to get to work and back (34 miles each way). I'm renting right now for a pretty good deal so I'm not giving it up until I can find a place.

But yeah it's one of those things I've saved for my entire professional career and with the housing prices around here, a down payment pretty much wipes out any liquid assets one has. So when a house pops up with a shop, I'm all in. Also willing to build a metal building shop as well. Just need to ensure I can get a lift in there.

The last house, we put an offer down 30k over asking which was really at the top of our budget with this place. The house/property went for 100k over asking. Then they find out that the entire septic needs to be rebuilt and moved from it's current location, so the people who got the house are basically in $130k over asking, and this house needed some work (roof, flooring, heat pump, etc)...we would have had to do a lot of DIY homeowner stuff to get it to where we wanted it to be.