Jack it up and Drain the Fluids...Dirty Job

Okay, Okay...I know that was a really dirty title...but in all seriousness, it is a very dirty job...however you interpret it.

Putting the car up on jack stands with only a scissor jack is somewhat challenging...especially if you had never done it before...which i hadn't. the whole process took a couple of days. the ground was fairly loose dirt with large gravel. these rocks gave me little support for the jack stands and i had to put plywood under them and level them before i could let the car down on them....one side at a time. first the driver side, because it was closer to the wall of the storage container it was next to...then the passenger side, then slight adjustments. i had it up about a foot at first, then put each side up more and put in the cinder blocks. after i was done, you could push on it, and it didn't move an inch. I felt safe....which was the most important thing to me considering my earlier mishap.

After that, i cut the gas line and siphoned about 5 gallons of gas out of the tank...it was over a year old, but it didn't look too bad (i later used the gas in my truck when i was desperate...i probably shouldn't have, but it really helped at the time). next, out came the oil and transmission fluid, the engine coolant too. i ended up with a lot of bottles of fluid, all of which were disposed of responsibly. I like to think of this step as hanging up the carcass and bleeding it. this is most certainly necessary before you can butcher the beast.