Lowered miata: stupid question

Since the reccomended geight is 12/12.5 for autocross, i set the challenge car there.

My lowest profile jacks wont fit under the crossmember in the front.

How do you guys jack them up?

Additionally, even though its primarily an autocross/challenge car, do i need to worry about adding skid plates or something due to road crown/debris?

This may be the lowest static height car ive ever played with. Makes the lowered c5 look like a monster truck in comparison. 

Drive onto a 2x first?

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

I jack mine by the jack points on the pinch welds. I’ve not measured mine from the wheel wells, but from the pinch welds I’m at 4.5” front & 4.75” rear. It’s fine on the street & I can clear speed bumps too. 

I also use pinch weld to measure... more consistent than fenders.  

I use two jacks... one under the pinch weld to get it high enough for the low HF jack to get under the front crossmember.  It's a little tedious, but works.

I would just drive it up on a pair of mini-ramps made out of a 2x6. Doubled up, if necessary, and staggered on one end. 

Wonder if i can make some that are small enough to fit in the car for driving to events.

Need to see if my jack will fit under the subframe connectors. That may be the solution. Id rather not beat the pinch welds completely flat, as they are already most of the way there.....

FM sells/used to sell a little adapter for use on the pinch welds with a normal jack. I've had one for years and it works really well, not only on Miatas but other cars with similarly designed jacking points.

If you're talking about the "frame rails" when you're talking about subframe connectors, they're not really that great for jacking up the car. If you have reinforcements over them but if you don't I wouldn't.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I actually replaced the "frame rails: with 2×2 square tube 1/8 wall thickness welded fully to the car. So they act as legitimate subframe connectors. 

Oh, cool. That'll certainly make them more useful both to strengthen the tub and as jacking points.

Reading the build thread this should be a very sturdy Miata

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

Your car can easily drive over a bump 1 1/2” high.

4 blocks of 2x4 6” long should do the trick to get the jack under the car, and could easily fit in the glovebox. 

Thanks yall.

Dad proved smarter than me again. 

He ran a dado in a 2x4, slipped it under the pich weld, and jacked up the whole side of the car.

2x4x6 chunk. Roughly 1/2 dado. Done.

Damn old guys......

Dusterbd13 said:

Thanks yall.

Dad proved smarter than me again. 

He ran a dado in a 2x4, slipped it under the pich weld, and jacked up the whole side of the car.

2x4x6 chunk. Roughly 1/2 dado. Done.

Damn old guys

The proper way to do that is to cut the dado in a hockey puck. But given where you're from that probably never occurred to you.  I keed.    

I grew up in northwestern Pennsylvania. I left all my cold weather gear when we moved. 

I haven't thought about a hockey puck in YEARS. 

Us 4x4 guys down south are bummed we have to order them, they dont have them at my local Academy Sports for some reason

Dusterbd13 said:

Wonder if i can make some that are small enough to fit in the car for driving to events.

 

Need to see if my jack will fit under the subframe connectors. That may be the solution. Id rather not beat the pinch welds completely flat, as they are already most of the way there.....

Put in a hinge or two and fold them in half. 

I never considered that - I brought my puck down south with me, along with my HF low-profile jack. I thought using a puck was just SOP when the OE thin rubber pad on the jack wore out?

I have a low rise alloy jack intended for hot rod use (I use it to lift my 450 lb. home stereo speakers to put spikes under them). It goes down to only 1.5" high!

https://www.calcarcover.com/product/low-profile-billet-aluminum-jack/705

In reply to wspohn :

I want to own that way more than I want to pay for it, but it looks like a solid product

I have 2 2x6 chunks nailed together and wedge cut for each side for the front as small ramps, and then the same thing but only 1 2x6 high for the rears. Set those in place, drive up, then jack under the front crossmember

Dusterbd13 said:

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I actually replaced the "frame rails: with 2×2 square tube 1/8 wall thickness welded fully to the car. So they act as legitimate subframe connectors. 

When I weld in subframe connectors like that I also fab up a little bracket on the side for a jack point.