kelp

Saw NASCAR tonight in a bar. Hate NASCAR, but got some ideas. Pit stop. One point jack on the sides. One idea lead to another:

1. I have 4" clearance, sometimes I scrape things. I prefer to leave asphalt evidence, compared to damage to my car. Been there. Enough said.

2. If I bridge the two side jacking posts with low tensile steel. It is "L" shaped with the down side of the "L" on the inside of the vehicle. So I get one jack point not two. How convenient, but the only reason....

3. I can still access my lift under the car, anyway.

4. I get real protection from bad road stuff. You all know what I mean. They make flimsy aluminum rails for this anyway. Too expensive, I want guts.

5. Air is channelled under the car, better underneath aerodynamics.

6. I stiffen the frame at a weak point. Look, I have a tunnel "Stiffener", in fact two of them (!) You know it doesn't do jack to stiffen the frame. Reinforce it on the outside. Like duh, not the inside, when it hit me it was like a ton of bricks. Could of had a v8.

And if you do hit a brick, you don't trash your plastic.

Haven't seen it done before, but it's cheap and I'm trying it. Too much to gain, little to lose.

AU N EGL

There all ready is a jacking point under the center of the door. Look under there and you will see a steel cross frame piece. from the side rails to the center. Use that point as is.

Just as normal

Dont bother with those flimsy rails may be make some good steel ones

Unless there is a full aero package, splitter, spoiler, side skirts, front diffuser and rear diffuser, open up the rear lic plate area, and doing wind tunnel testing to 'tweek' it to work properly then it is not really worth doing only the undbody.

kelp

You mean I am not limited to those two areas where you have to put those stupid pucks in? I'll look again real closely, then mark it. I don't want to crunch it. You jack it that way without damage?

Aero - yeah. Front is easy. What the heck can I do about the back! I feel like soldering fins onto the mufflers. The car is a jungle gym back there.

AU N EGL

Take a look. I use a thin wood block on the jack itself.

Look at you frame under the door.

TRACKMAN2

made a few car of tomarrow mods my self i'll post some picks later

kelp

davidfarmer

If you car is a real C6 Z06, I wouldn't do the single-jack thing. We all do it in the steel framed C6/C5's, but I would do it with a C6Z. If you want to add the weight of a piece of L steel, got for it. I assume you are considering the L for it's Moment of inertial strength, as well as "side curtain" effect, trapping air under the car.

Again, hate to add weight to a C6Z, but is certainly would add convenience.

Solofast

Adding a piece of angle iron under there spanning the jacking points isn't going to do jack (sorry I couldn't resist) in terms of distributing the load unless you space it off of the frame at the point where you are jacking, and then make sure it doesn't deflect enough to hit the frame once you start to jack it up. If you don't space it the angle will still be flexible enough (remember that you are jacking 1500+ pounds) that it will distribute some of the load but still put most of it right in the middle of the door.

You probalby won't distribute more than a couple of hundred pounds, better than nothing, but really not worth the trouble.

davidfarmer

In a C5 with steel frame, it isn't so much distributing the weight, as it is NOT crushing the thin-walled rail. Even the slight-reinforced tie-down points will mushroom over time, if you jack your car a lot (as all of my race cars have had done to them).

While the box hydroformed frame rails are extrememly strong and rigid in torsion and tension, you can squash them pretty easily due to the thinness of the metal.

kelp

Good points. I had an incident where I tore the insulation right off my headers in a road scrape, so that started me thinking of scraping off some asphalt next time with the "L" bar....if it came to a choice between my car and the road. I was speculating on other adantages in the earlier post.