Question about putting car up on jack stands, et. al. Options

[Cevan]

That's my car in the avatar. It hasn't been run in 2-3 years, according to the PO. I'm hoping to get it running this weekend and confirm that the engine, tranny, brakes, electrical, etc work sufficiently. Assuming I can make the car go forwards and backwards and at least slow it down, I want to start repairing the rust.

I have a few questions I'm hoping someone can help me with:

1. Where is the best place to put 4 jack stands in order to do this work?

2. Should I put the doors back on the car in order to be able to see if the car is sagging once I start cutting? Is there some other/additional measures I should take? Some of the inner rock needs to be replaced. The inner logitudinal looks good on both sides.

3. There are two black plastic flaps connected to the rear end of the floor pan. I want to remove them in order to clean/check for rust. They appear to be attached with plastic bolts, but the heads are round with no slot. How do I remove them?

4. I have the interior removed. Do I need to remove the sound deadening tar paper in the floor pan? 95% of the floor pan looks sound.

5. From the inside, the area behind the seat pad is rust-free. Should I remove the firewall blanket inside the engine compartment? I realize some may have to be pulled away to get at the hellhole. I'm afraid I'll breakoff those metal strips that hold it on once I lift them up.

6. Some of the inner rocker is rusted through and some is solid. Should I cut out and replace the whole thing? Is it better to be able to check out the heater tubes and clean around in there?

I'll post some pictures tonight. I'm just not sure where to start. I'm afraid of cutting too much and messing up alignment of the body. Thanks.

[Dave_Darling]

The "wheelhouse" is the area of the car where the wheel lives. No, really!

The parts you're looking for are the "longitudinal"--the "clamshell reinforcement" may work as well; just make sure you cut away all the rust and then treat everything so the rust doesn't come back!!

Another good location for jack stands is under the pivot for the trailing arms. The pivot tube fits nicely into one of the jack stands pictured in the thread linked to earlier.

The Doc is quite right about using wood to spread out the load; I mentioned that when I originally posted the pic. The front suspension pickup points and the "donuts" are the exceptions to this rule.

I would very seriously consider fabricating some stout brackets to hold the door opening in shape while you weld. It's easy to overheat things just a little bit and cause the chassis to warp. And a little bit of warpage in that area will play hob with your door gaps. You can bolt them to the chassis at the door mounting points and the door latch mounting points. It's good to have brackets that both keep the opening from growing wider at the top, and also that keep it from narrowing in at the top.

I am not confident that the doors are stout enough to surve this purpose, though they will give you a quick read on if the warping has already occurred...

--DD