Red Pepper Racing

Looking for some ideas from those body repair members on repairing my front jack points.  They are folded under, towards the center of the car.  This has now resulted in damaged skirts from lifting the car because they are folded under so badly.

 

appreciate any insights or experience anyone has had repairing them.  Metal is not rusted, AZ car, just folded over.

I can ask my guys on monday for you. If you'd like to share some pics I can show them also. 

Let me try and get some tomorrow when we work on the swap.  It’s on a lift so might not be as clear but I appreciate the help.

I supported my 1st 87 CRX Si with jack stands under these points on jack stands regularly from 87-93 when I had it. Never a bit of bending or damage.

But later I experienced bending of similar points on a 95 Ford sedan inherited from my mother. It happened the 1st time I tried supporting the cars weight on them.

I could be wrong, but think these are designed to just locate the jack or stand saddle to prevent sideways slippage. Not to support the car on. Hence the notched saddle of the OE Honda scissors jack for the CRX. (Maybe your problem arose from the extra weight of the B on the front? Just a thought.)

As far as a solution, there are slotted saddles available on the market today for floor jacks / stands. They go between the support and the car. At least some are made of rubber. A quick search came up with a variety ... https://www.google.c...le-gws-wiz-serp

Another thought to repair and allow continued use of these points for supporting weight is to weld small gussets perpendicular to the longitudinal fin to add strength.

A final thought when I owned that 1st CRX in the late 80s, I got the idea of using hockey pucks on top of my floor jack saddle. Rubber is virtually incompressible. You can squeeze it in one direction, but it will expand in another direction to compensate, and the volume remains virtually unchanged. Used hockey pucks are cheap from used sporting goods stores, and VERY tough. About 15 years after I started using hockey pucks, I had occasion to visit a Ferrari dealership and saw they use hockey pucks to protect the car undersides too. I would not be above slotting a puck to clear the fin and supporting a CRX on the adjacent area.
Edited by rufusbob, 06 August 2022 - 09:09 PM.

Mine got bend from years of tire swaps at the track.  I would place a jack under the front jack point and lift the entire side then swap tires front to rear.  This places inward pressure on them and folded them in.

Pads are so big on the lift you can’t see them really.  Tried taking pictures but just couldn’t see anything.

My bodyman's comment was useless..so didn't bother, I think you need to go to a actual good bodyshop with experienced pros to give you a repair idea. I tried.. 

Haha, appreciate you checking.

Well when i did this work for 15 years (my father has owned his shop for 40 years) i didnt see many scenarios like this unless the car was starting to rot which is a totally different issues. Hondas in general were always a pain in the ass when it came to "frame" repair mainly because of their weak pinch welds or lack there of any real pinch weld which required special hold down towers. You would always cause some damage to them but nothing detrimental. Anyways...

 

Since simply heating them and bending them back will weaken the material, I would imagine you would have to remove the outer rocker panel and replace the sandwiched section that includes the jack point. Since there is no way you can buy that panel at this point something would have to be fabricated. It would definitely not be a simple job. Or try and reinforcing it like rufusbob mentioned, would still require some cutting and welding.

 

I haven't really paid much attention to mine but i wonder if there is somewhere under the car that you could tie in a reinforcement to the unibody and use that to jack the car instead of the factory jack point. Maybe something that runs down the side of the car? Next time im under there ill look around. Would be a great mod if there was something to tie into. I hate the jack points because its hard to get my jack in and still be able to place a stand underneath.

Appreciate you noodling on this.  My thinking is to straighten them,  it’s only the front two,  and possibly weld something to the back side to strengthen them against bending again.

Good plan, its not like you can make it worse.

Right!

Fixed the front jack points today.  Here was how we did it.  Here is what the drivers side looked like prior to the repair.

 

Untitled by Victor M, on Flickr

 

had the car on a two post lift.  Placed a stand under the right corner of the core support.  Turned it until the right side front arm could be swung under the car.

 

used a pair of huge channel lock pliers to pull it back into place.  Worked slowly trying to not move one part more than the other.  Once it was roughly in place did some massaging with hammer and various punches.  At this point used a wire brush to prep the surface for welding with a wire wheel and some weldable primer.

 

now to strengthen the points.  Cut some angle iron to fit.  Required some nothing and shaping but wasn’t to difficult.  Hit the back side with weldable primer and welded it in place.  Finally hit it with some black paint.  Not the most beautiful repair but it worked and you can’t see it anyway.  Then repeated on the drivers side.  Picture of final results.

 

Untitled by Victor M, on Flickr
 

now when I get replacement skirts from HeelToe I won’t crack them when I lift the car!

Your repair looks really robust. You’ll never have to worry about jack points again!

I think your right.