STI Blog

Recently I’ve found that jacking up my STi has been a lot easier when doing so from the pinch weld of the car. However, I quickly realized that using a standard floor jack could cause possible damage to the pinch weld. Therefore, I’ve created a pinch weld adapter for my floor jack using a hockey puck, and some simple tools.

Previously, I would jack up my car using the front jacking plate, and the rear differential. The downside to this is that my car is lowered on coilovers. Therefore, my Craftsman floor jack cannot fit under the front of the car. To remedy this, I’ve been driving the car up onto a set of 2×4′s, which has worked out well, and provides just enough clearance for the jack.

Although overtime, putting the 2×4′s into place has gotten quite annoying. In addition, they were just another item that I needed to bring with me to autocross events. I had tried jacking up my car using the pinch weld; however I wasn’t too fond of this idea, as I felt like I was bending or damaging the weld. (Too much vertical stress on such a thin piece)

I’ve seen a few pinch weld adapters for sale on the Internet, however most of them have a vertical beam that sticks out from under them, allowing them to be held in place by the floor jack. However the problem with this is that my floor jack doesn’t have any openings to allow this beam to fit into. In the end, these adapters wouldn’t work for me.

Therefore, I finally set out to create my own adapter. I decided to use an old hockey puck that I found laying around my garage. Pictures are really worth a thousand words; therefore I’ve included a number of them after the page break. You can use the following steps to create your own floor jack pinch weld adapter:

1. Clamp a hockey puck into a secure location using some type of vice
2. Eyeball or draw 2 lines down the middle of the puck, signifying your cutting points. You need about a half-inch (0.5″) for the pinch weld to fit into.
3. Cut down the middle of the puck. I used a Black & Decker HandiSaw. Make your cuts straight down at first. Then once you’ve gone down far enough, begin to cut sideways, causing the cut-out piece to eventually fall out of place. (and be removed)

Be sure to leave some space towards the bottom of the puck; this way it stays in one piece. Once you’re done making your cuts, be sure to test fit the adapter by placing it onto the pinch weld, and pushing it upwards. (To make sure the pinch weld fits)

Overall, I feel much better now that I’m using an adapter on my pinch weld. I no longer fear any bending or damage will occur. Feel free to drop some comments on this post if you have any questions, that way other readers can see them as well.