5 Ways to Lift Your Classic Car off the Ground

We’ve never met a doctor who will actually prescribe “garage therapy” as a way to beat the blues, but any gearhead knows that few things are better than working on your own vehicle.

But in order to be a fruitful exercise and not just one that furthers frustration, it helps to ensure proper access to the subject matter at hand. The higher you can put your collector car in the air, the easier it will be to perform service, repair, and restoration work. Myriad options exist to lift a car from as little as a few inches off the ground to so high that even the tallest among us would have trouble reaching it.

Here, we’ll take a look at some of the most common ways to lift a vehicle in the air in your garage or workspace.

Ramps: Cheap and Easy, But Not For Every Car

Ramps are among the oldest means humans have of getting something up to the height they want. Modern ones, commonly made of a relatively lightweight but strong composite, can be placed under the front or rear of a vehicle by driving up them (carefully—there are plenty of internet examples of how not to accelerate up these devices). Many ramps are advertised as being capable of holding up to 12,000 pounds, which is ample for one end of a non-commercial vehicle.

The biggest advantages to ramps are their low cost and their ease of use. As long as you’re capable of lining them up correctly, you should be able to drive your vehicle up them safely. When you’re done with them, they typically stack on top of each other and they’re not too heavy. While a bit bulky, they can be wedged into a corner of your garage, placed on a wide shelf, or hung from a properly attached hook.

For many DIY mechanics, ramps are indispensable, in part because of how cheap and easy they are to use.

On the other hand, the angle of approach may not be compatible with a very low sports car. Some users will carefully stack blocks of wood to help reduce the approach angle. Cars and off-roaders with wide tires aren’t compatible with ramps, either; you don’t want any of the vehicle’s tire protruding from the side.

If you plan to do any work that requires removing a wheel—such as brake, bearing, or suspension work—ramps simply won’t cut it. There’s no safe way to use ramps without the wheels attached to the vehicle. Consider them best for fluid changes, replacement of relatively easy-to-reach parts like starters, and for periodic inspections.

What do they cost? You can pick up a pair of composite ramps for around $60. You should also wedge a pair of chocks behind the rear wheels. Figure around $20 for a pair.

Jack Stands: Simple to Use, But Be Sure You’re Using Them Correctly

Jack stands have been around for ages, and for good reason. High-quality ones are made of hardened steel, and they come in many different weight ratings that should be thought of as a buffer rather than a limit you should approach. If your car weighs 4,000 pounds, you ought to consider stands capable of handling 50% more weight. It never hurts—but a car that maxes out a jack stand’s capacity will hurt. A lot.

Jack stands have a rounded seat up top, generally called a saddle, which is tiered to make it capable of safely holding all sorts of different shapes like tubular axles. Most jack stands can be further accessorized with rubber pads, which will prevent the metal stand from scraping a painted or coated surface. If you have a unibody vehicle you need to lift from the pinch welds, you should invest in a set of rubber pads designed specifically for this task—otherwise, you’ll bend the car’s metal.

To use jack stands, you’ll need to lift the vehicle up first. Here, a hydraulic jack works well enough, though a well-equipped garage might also have a pneumatic air bag jack. These are nice, but hydraulic jacks are just as effective.

You can support a vehicle with two or four jack stands. If you only plan to use two, the other side of the vehicle’s wheels should be chocked on both sides of the tires. (Hint: you’ll need two sets of chocks.) Placing the removed wheels and tires under the vehicle when it’s jacked up can also serve as a failsafe.

There are also jack stands that go under a vehicle’s tires, though of course you cannot remove a wheel when using these.

The biggest downside to jack stands is the potential for user error: It can be tricky to determine just where you should put them. Getting the wrong spot can cause damage to your vehicle, like a bent pinch weld, an upward depression in the floorboard, or scrapes on an axle. More importantly, and we can’t stress this enough: Don’t ever get under a car unless you’re exceptionally certain that the car is properly supported. That means not only ensuring that the stands have good, stable contact with the vehicle and the floor (and remember—not all floors are flat) but also that the stands aren’t overextended and prone to instability should some weight shift or excessive pressure be exerted. If you’re not sure about it, start over and do it again.

What do they cost? A pair of name-brand three-ton jack stands should set you back about $50.

Portable Car Lifts: A Budget-Friendly Way to Raise Your Vehicle

Portable car lifts barely live up to the “portable” part of their name, but they are nonetheless a relatively easy way to get some air underneath your vehicle.

They typically come with an electronically actuated hydraulic power unit that takes some time to set up but is simple enough to use. Hydraulic fluid, cycled by its own power unit, an air attachment, or electric power tool, pushes the bases up toward the vehicle’s frame rails or pinch welds, allowing for around two feet of clearance. They typically come with rubber blocks, though you can add accessory blocks for high-clearance vehicles like SUVs and trucks.

Once the portable car lift sides are raised, they then lock into place. The locks must be manually released for the lift to descend, making them a safe option if used properly.

When they’re not in use, the lift pieces can be hung against a wall. You’ll still have to store the hydraulic lines and the power unit, though.

The best part about a portable car lift is just how secure your vehicle will be when it’s in the air. As long as you position the lift blocks correctly, the car will stay in place and you’ll have plenty of room to slide around underneath it.

They’re fairly expensive, however, and they’re much bulkier to lug around than any of the aforementioned lifting mechanisms. Still, with around two feet of clearance, they offer the best workspace of any lifting solution we’ve discussed so far.

Mechanics and tire installation shops sometimes use something similar called a scissor lift. These are generally bolted to the ground, thus nullifying any attempt at portability, but they don’t cost as much as the full-scale lifts we’ll discuss in a moment. Low-rise scissor lifts are available to consumers, too, but they’re not the most cost- or space-efficient way for a DIYer to jack up a vehicle.

What do they cost? Portable car lifts run the gamut. Those capable of lifting lighter, smaller cars are around $1,500, while those for bigger and heavier cars can crest $2,000. Budget another few hundred bucks for heavy-duty wall hooks and extensions for taller vehicles.

Two-Post Car Lifts: The Mechanic’s Choice

Venture into any car dealership’s service department and you’ll see rows of two-post lifts bolted to the concrete floor. These lifts have a two-prong arm on each side that spreads out for a total of four lifting points. An electric motor and a cable system then raise thousands of pounds of vehicle high in the air in mere seconds.

Simply put, you won’t find a solution here with better access to the underside of a vehicle. Mechanics will regularly tear down a car’s entire suspension while it’s on a two-post lift, and they’ll easily allow for separating a body-on-frame car or removing a drivetrain from the bottom.

However, using a two-post lift means taking considerable caution. The Internet is full of videos of cars that have come crashing down from a two-post lift because someone didn’t position the lifting points in the correct place.

Two-post lifts also benefit from professional installation: Setting one up isn’t for amateurs. You’ll need plenty of ceiling space, too, so measure your vehicle and your garage or workspace before pulling the trigger.

What do they cost? You’ll spend at least $5,500 on a quality two-post lift, plus costs for an installer to spend several hours unpacking one, setting it up, testing it, and showing you how to use it. As two-post lifts are very large, they are shipped as freight, which may require collection at a depot rather than your front porch.

Four-Post Car Lifts: Double Your Storage, and You Can Work On Your Car, Too

Four-post lifts have a vastly different mission than the two-posters above. Here, you drive the car onto flat surfaces called “runways,” and then the vehicle is lifted into the air via a cable-actuated system similar to a two-post lift. If you have a tall enough garage, you can park another vehicle under the lift, too. Some four-post lifts can stack three cars, while others can park two or even three next to one another (for a total of four or six vehicles).

You can get plenty of work done with a four-post lift, but you’ll have to think outside the box a bit when you need to remove a wheel and tire. Many lift manufacturers offer a hydraulic jack insert that can be moved fore and aft, allowing you to raise up the vehicle even farther and then take off its wheels for better access.

Some lifts come with a plastic tray that sits between the runways to collect fluid leaks that would otherwise drip onto the vehicle below—this is a smart add-on to protect the car that gets the bottom bunk.

What do they cost? Four-post lifts start around $5,500 and can climb quickly from there depending on weight-, vehicle count-, and height capacity, or some combination of the three. Like two-post lifts, they should be installed by a pro and you will likely incur some freight charges. You’ll also need an air compressor, which can cost another $100 or more.