The very best treatise on lifting your Bug that we have found was written by John S. Henry and appears on his BugShop page. Go there and click on "Tech Help," then scroll down to "Miscellaneous Techniques," where you will find John’s article on “How to Lift Your Beetle” (or more easily, search on "lift").
There’s not much we can add to that – perhaps a few illustrative experiences.
Dave wrote to Rob -
Since the original jack was missing from my son’s car (and one of the jacking points was missing as well), I wanted to provide my son with a good jack. I finally settled on a 2-ton scissors jack with a lift from 4-1/2 inches to 13 inches. Not enough, since the car rides at about 10 inches off the ground. But the base of the jack has two very convenient holes that I used to bolt a couple of pieces of 2x6 to, which raised it up another three inches. That’s enough to get the wheels off the ground, which is my main concern -- I doubt that he will use the jack for much more than emergency (e.g., flat tire) purposes. The floor jack is great on the nice smooth floor in the garage, but not too good in the soft dirt on the side of the road.
I took off the handle that was supplied with the scissors jack and hammered a 17mm 1/2" drive socket onto the end of the gear that drives the jack. Now an extension can be inserted into the socket and the jack operated with a 1/2" drive ratchet, and the jack can be used on a jacking point that is further underneath the car.
The instructions for this scissors jack says it is for side lifting only -- will it be safe (both to my son and to the car) to lift the car at the point where the jacking point was, or is there danger of poking through the floor boards?
Rob responded –
Yes, both wheels on one side go up together with the VW jack.
If the jacking point has completely disappeared, you can not just use the lip of the pan/body frame under there to lift on, it WILL bend. But you could put a short length of wood (8-10 inches), about 1 inch square hardwood, running fore/aft in the groove that body lip makes, and jack under that. (If I remember, this groove has the body mounting bolts in it). Just need to spread the load a bit, as the body and pan steel is not thick enough to take the whole weight of the car in one place (you'll notice the old jacking point uses spot welds in several places to spread the load).
Don't jack under the pan itself or it will buckle.
Dave wrote regarding the use of his 2-ton trolley jack –
One minor problem I have with mine is that when I use it under the engine, I can't get quite enough movement of the jack handle under the rear apron, and only get about 1/2-inch lift for each stroke until I get the car up about an inch. The longer trolley jacks don't have this problem.
Rob responded –
I have the same problem. I use the cross-member at the engine/tranny junction as my rear jacking point (others have too—it’s pretty beat up), and of course it’s a ways under the car and the handle won’t move up and down very far. My handle has a little dog-leg in it; I find if I turn it over I can get more leverage.
Dave wrote –
Do you know of any reason why a scissors jack should not be used to lift the car in the middle? The instructions that came with it say it should only be used to jack from the side.
Dave wrote to Rob regarding engine removal -
A problem with using a little trolley jack like ours for this job is that the engine wobbles all over the place, and it's difficult to keep it level.
What took me the most time was just getting ready -- all of the disconnections and then the back-and-forth, front-to-back movement of the jack and all of the wood for the jack pedestal. Sure glad my chest is all healed up -- lots of lifting!...
Next time it will be a lot easier and will go a lot faster, having done it once. Next time, though, I think I’ll get a bigger jack with more lift. The main reason for the nine lifts (four in the front and five in the back) was because my little 2-ton trolley jack only has a lift of about ten inches. Makes for a lot of back-and-forth running around with heavy chunks of wood!...
Rob responded –
Your jack must have a greater lift. I’ve looked at the bigger ones, but can’t quite justify the $75-80 it would cost. I don’t do this kind of thing very often.
I like the compactness of the small trolley jack, but a bigger lift would be nice, and also it would stick out more so you don't bang the lift handle on the underside of the car so much.
Dave wrote –
Sometimes when the jack is down very low and a ways back under the car I have only half an inch or so in which to move the handle up and down. Pretty slow going till I get it up a ways. Hard to justify a bigger jack, though, when I do a job like this only once in twenty years!
Rob wrote –
I like your very professional-looking pyramid of wood for the jack. Your trolley jack is a very similar design to my jack by the look of it.
Dave responded -
A lot of thought went into the design of the jack pedestal. It was pretty handy, with the six independent layers, each 3" high. Made raising the car with just the little jack a breeze (except for having to lug everything back-and -forth, front-to-back and back again).
Disclaimer stuff: Rob and Dave have prepared this information from their own experiences. We have not assumed any specialised mechanical knowledge, but we DO assume that anyone using this information has at least some basic mechanical ability.
We hope you find this information useful, but we don't take any responsibility for anything which happens to you, other people, your VW or any other property or goods resulting from your use of this material.
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Last revised 5 May 2004.
