Jacking up a Mk1 Ford Focus around its pinch welds

Question

I wanted to get a trolley jack and a pair of axle stands so I can do work under the car. It has pinch welds all along the sills, and looking at the Ford manual and the Haynes book, that is where I should be jacking and supporting it. The Haynes manual says to use a block of wood with a slot in it to locate on the weld.

But my question as a person new to this, is where should I be putting the weight, ie. is it right for a block to be fitting around the weld and lifting by putting the stress on the main structure either side of it? Especially as the integrity of the metal is probably ok but might be slightly questionable.

The original scissor jack is in a U shape, with the outside part of the U lower. It fits perfectly around the pinch weld, with the inner part touching the metal, and the outside not quite touching.

I see a lot of videos of people using hockey pucks with slots in them. Some don't even have a slot and just lift on the weld itself. Not this exact car, but still on a pinch weld. I'm worried how much rubber or wood might deform or split, especially as a slot would need to be a good 2cm or more deep, so you end up with two tall sides with only a small flat bit connecting them at the bottom.

And axle stands are shaped unlike the jack saddle, so how would you make sure that wood or a rubber puck stays safely in place on them?

I haven't bought anything yet, so here are images of the factory jack and how it fits:

And this is what the jack and stands I was probably going to go for are like:

Answer 1

Every contemporary vehicle which I have had to elevate had the body style shown in your images. The jack mechanism also matched the pinch weld for each vehicle. Additionally, for an electric vehicle which had to have the battery pack dropped, the lift points matched the design you've noted and the DIY method was indeed a hockey puck with an appropriately sized slot.

If you consider that you are spreading the load over a much larger area by using a wood block or hockey puck with a slit, the benefits compared to attempting a lift on a much smaller cross section pinch weld should be clear.

One could crush the pinch weld if the weight is excessive on the point of lift, while a spread-out force is less likely to do so, especially if the factory lift points are used, as they can be reinforced on the other side of the metal.

The jack stands are another complication, however. The slit hockey puck is going to take pressure from below in a less than spread-out manner, but certainly more spread out than the stand taking the load from the very edge of the rail-like underbody.

Consider also that once the vehicle is lifted, the jack stands can be placed on a suspension member or more substantial surface than the vehicle edges. This eliminates the worry of balancing the puck on a stand while lowering the vehicle to the stand.