Houstons_Problem

I have 2008 Bullitt. I love it. I was a little aggravated when I found out the car did not come with a spare and a jack, it came with a compressor and fix a flat deal instead.

I'll come back to that later.

Right now, I would like to know what part of the car rests on the emergency jack.

I see the four areas where the jack would go and I figure the jack has a groove or notch in the middle. My question is does the jack lift the car by pushing on the double wall steel seam or is the groove deep enough so that the seam doesn't touch the jack at all and the jack presses on the horizontal metal parts on the inside and outside of the metal seam.

The reason I am asking this, is I am going to make an adapter for my floor jack that will allow me to lift the car the same way the OEM jack does as the OEM lift area is very easy to get too. (I own a machine shop, so this isn't all that hard.) I need to know if I should make the groove in my adapter shallow so the car is lifted by the vertical fin or deep so the car is lifted by the top of the adapter which will now touch the underside of the car on both sides of the vertical fin.

Another question. Will the standard space saver spare that comes with a GT fit a Bullitt? I figure they eliminated the spare because maybe the brakes on the Bullitt are different and the space saver spare won't clear them. If the spare will work, I plan on getting one.

There are so many knowlegable people who work on their cars on this site, I figure I will have a better chance of getting an accurate answer here than at a Ford dealer.

hammeron

i've actually used the scissor jack and
it presses up on the double wall steel
seam.

surprisingly, it works very well.

i only use it though to get enough clearance,
to get my hydraulic jack where it needs
to go

Orion_240

never heard of this but it will be interesting to see if the brakes are too big for the stock spare tire.

To get a floor jack to fit under the lowered car, just have a friend lift the body at the wheel well. That's what the Ford guys did to get my car on their hoist the other day!

Norm Peterson

If you jack the car up by the bottom of the pinch weld on a frequent basis, you will eventually fold it over (especially if you lift the car by more than the minimum necessary to change a tire). Maybe you won't be jacking the car up twice a day at every autocross for a total of 20 or more times a year, but it doesn't take that many times to fold the PW.


Norm

Leoleo

First, any standard floor jack doesn't need to be modified to jack up your car. It will work fine. Just place it where the jacking points are, see owners manual for location.

Second, the reason the Bullitt has the "compressor and fix a flat", is cost. That is cheaper then a spare tire, and yes the standard Mustang spare will fit you car. Remember it is only made to go 50 miles. Just enough to get the car to a repair shop, just like the "fix a flat".

Houstons_Problem

Damn. I kind of figured that it would roll over. I know it isn't visible and I didn't mind when my saturn's rolled over, but it gives me the creeps to think of the same part rolling over on the Bullitt.

I mostly just want to lift it there to rotate my tires every 7500 miles when I do the oil change. I think I will drive it on some low ramps front and back and use a bottle jack under the axel as close to the spring mount as possible and support it on jack stands. On the front, I will lift it in the same spot the dealer did during initial prep which is on the "frame" aft of the engine.

I'm kind of pissed with Ford because the only place they show lifting is from the pinch welds. The owner's manual and the shop manual show only these areas. I like where the pinch welds are and how clear they have made it that this is the jacking area, but it seams that pressing on a vertical fin is a really stupid way to lift a car.

Houstons_Problem

The lifting disk on my floor jack is really large in diameter and is deeply dished, so it would crush the seam way outside of the pinch weld area. I could set a piece of 1 1/2 wide flat bar in the dish so that the car would bear on the right area, but I was hoping to minimize the roll over effect by making a piece similar to the scissors jack that comes with most cars.

I plan on getting the spare. How do you know that the standard spare will fit? The reason I ask is that the only cars that don't come with the spare are the Shelby and the Bullitt. I have a hard time believing that the reason for the change is cost when the cars that don't have a spare are the most expensive in the line up. Also, both the Shelby and the Bullitt come with 18" wheels. I know the Shelby has bigger brakes than a GT, but I think the Bullitt has the same brakes up front as the GT, just a different pad material.

Houstons_Problem

That's another thing I was thinking, just get a scissors jack to lift the car enough to be able to easily get my jack under the car.

Norm Peterson

A flat piece of plywood that fits into the jack's dish with a couple short lengths of 1 x 1 or maybe 1.5 x 1.5 wood nailed to it will work. Fitting the plywood inside the dish forces you to have a stable lift. Space the 1.5-by's far enough apart to let the PW fit between them at all four jacking locations, and nail up through the plywood into them. Wood is less likely to scratch, and is cheap/easy enough to make or replace.

Edit - some jacks have a lower minimum height than others. If buying a new jack is out of the question, just drive it up onto a set of 2 x 10's and you'll be ready to use your jack on all four in less time than it would take to get the scissors thing set up to do just one.


Norm

wolfie

Have a look on IMBOC.com for the other solutions people have for the lack of spare for the Bullitt.

http://www.imboc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158945