Finally get to use my driveway :)

[marty_t3]

After 6 months of calling my landlord to get the previous tenants wheelless heap of an Escort removed from my driveway, i decided to do something about it myself. I had the guys from the local breakers come round and drag the heap of s**te away this afternoon. I'VE GOT MY DRIVEWAY BACK ...woohoo!!! Time to start on all the little projects i've been planning :D

So......

Anyone got any idea on the best way to keep the car jacked up while i take the wheels off it. Part of the driveway is on a slope so i'm not too keen on using axle stands. I'll be needing to get under the diff and the turbo so ideally i need both ends off the ground (preferable at the same time to save me moving it). Any ideas??

[John_P]

Stick it on bricks.. with a piece of wood on top to protect beatiful underside of car of course.. :)

That's how I did mine for the Rear Subframe bushes anyway!! :D

[Wak]

It's difficult to say without seeing what the slope is but I'd be inclined (no pun intended):D to do one end at a time.

[marty_t3]

yeah, probably safest to do it one end at a time i guess .... where's the best place to prop each end up. Chassis rails ok?? or would i be better propping it up on the rear suspension. (i'll be changing the diff with any luck)

[Wak]

Just in front of the rear wheels there is a round jacking point, I use this to jack up but I've not tried axle stands on there. The best place to prop the front up is probably the front suspension crossmember. You could use the jacking points on the sills or the chassis rails if you are confident they aren't rusty, but I wouldn't like to put money on this being the case:)

If I don't need access to the area where I put the jack I leave it there to take some of the weight and help the axle stands, I've got a big heavy duty workshop jack though, not one of the 1 tonne ones from Halfords

[marty_t3]

Well... with the Escort out of the way I got a chance to have a good look at the shape of the driveway. For a while i doubted i'd even get the car in just because of the weird shape (the ramped part looked a lot wider with just an Escort sitting on it).

I managed to reverse in with the g/f directing me from behind the car. Bad news is that I doubt i'll be able to jack up any more than one wheel at a time .... Good news is that there is plenty of room around the car so i'll have plenty of work space.

Now all i gotta do is get some halogen spotlamps, some decent locks for the driveway doors, and turn 1/2 my basement office into a 200sx workshop :D


One final question though.....

The driveway doors lead out onto the street but there is no lowered kerb to mark it as a driveway. It's not obviously a driveway as it has 10' high wooden doors with barbed wire on top so people park in front of it on a regular basis.

Can I put up a "Keep clear" sign in front of my drive without getting any hassle from the council?? The road outside has an area set aside for parking that includes a spot right in front of my drive.

[Yak]

You couldput up a "please dont park here" sign... but weither any one will pay attention is another thing. You need to get the council to recodnise your drive way as a drive way and mark it up properly and lower the kerb... just costs a bit and I dout your landlard will stump up for it :(

[marty_t3]

I'm not really wanting the kerb lowered... it'd cause me problems getting the car into the drive... it's a really wierd shape drive at a really wierd angle and a really wierd camber so if i lowered that roadside kerb i wouldn't have enought ground clearance to get over the driveway edge of the pavement.

I think i'll just settle for parking the g/f's micra in front of the drive so i can at least move it if i want to take the 200 out.

I'll post some pics of it tonight and see if anyone has any clever suggestions for me :D