I thought your car was in bits and up on blocks

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

I did have a rear jack-point rip out on a very rusty Fintail one time.

So far, despite varying amounts of rust on my W123s, all the jack-points have been solid enough to use - even on the left front of my Euro TD, where I had to fabricate a large patch panel for the surrounding rocker. Of course, I'd never work under there without a jack-stand.
With the worst one on my TD, the inner box-section reinforcment for the jack-tube is still very solid.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Mark, I agree that the jack points are solid even when the rocker metal has rusted. I am sure that even without the rocker metal, the jack points would be strong enough if the tubes haven't rusted out. It seems that the fronts are designed to transfer load from the tube to the A-Pillar. (Mine was fully apart a little while ago ;( ) Not sure how the rear points transfer load, but presumably they too transfer load to the rear door pillar.

I have this idea for a mechanically attached patch that would be screwed or riveted in place and have an indent that picks up the load from the tube. I have this idea that I might have seen something like that, but maybe not?

PS: Seems this not a new idea
So far no sign of any commercial jack point patch panels.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

Graham: Jack points do not rely on the rocker panel just as you observe. I took my rocker panels completely off once and the car jacked up just fine on the tubes. Jack stands are always a must, whether the jack tubes are good or not as the car can go forward off the jack in some cases.

I would like to see a small square patch with the proper round opening and the indent; say a weld in piece. Keep working on it!

On my TD, I found big blobs of filler hiding a gaping jagged rust-hole next to the left front jack-point. I cleaned it all out, trimmed the rough edges, and sprayed some prservative inside the rocker. Then I riveted some gavanised sheet over the whole area and used a ball-peen hammer to outline the jack-tube so I could accurately cut the hole.
Finally, I covered the whole repair with spray undercoat.
Except for the lack of indenting around the jack-hole, the repair isn't too noticeable. Since then, I've jacked it numerous times to make repairs to the brakes and shifter without any problems.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

One of them is - and guess where the axle stands have been positioned?

The other one actually needs some help in that area too - so that's something I'll be doing on my Sunday afternoon...

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!