I want to treat the underbody with rust protection and also have a good poke around.

Rather than doing one end first I'd like to jack up the whole car and do it in one go.

According to Haynes, you can only jack up the rear by the sills, but with the front you can also use another place which I daren't try as I can't tell exactly, judging by the Haynes diagram.

Do you find it perfectly safe to use four axle stands, on solid flat ground of course, from the just sills?

Thanks very much.

15 minutes ago, Groot said:

Do you find it perfectly safe to use four axle stands, on solid flat ground of course, from the just sills?

Due to the often corrosion prone nature of the sills and them rotting through, I personally wouldn't rely on them to support the weight of the car. However, someone more knowledgeable should be along shortly...

I have and use ramps at the front, then rear- easiest and safest?

Just now, Shearers said:

I have and use ramps at the front, then rear- easiest and safest?

Supporting what?

I don't have any ramps, however, I was hoping to take off the wheels the arch covers too 😬

Thanks.

48 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Due to the often corrosion prone nature of the sills and them rotting through, I personally wouldn't rely on them to support the weight of the car. However, someone more knowledgeable should be along shortly...

I'm not sure there's anywhere perfectly safe on an old Ford.  They rot around the subframes as well.  

 

In theory, it should be safe to jack up the front subframe where it bolts to the chassis.  I have supported a few cars on 4 stands.  Sometimes even on a gravel slope...    But they weren't rotten old Fords.  I wasn't concerned about the sills crushing.  It is good practice to slide each wheel under the sill as you remove it, just in case the jack or stand (or sill) does fail, there's a large contact patch across a wheel that should hold the car up in an emergency.

3 hours ago, StephenFord said:

Supporting what?

Drive up forward, chocks at the rear wheels and then the opposite??
To underseal under wheelarches, jack up using normal jacking point (providing of course there's no doubt about it's condition) or some other chosen point.
If it can't stand that and there's doubt about safety then it's likely scrap anyway?

Am I missing the point in all of this?😕

The rear bush area of the front wishbones is often an ok place to support the front of the car

That's where I put axle stands to support the front while I was under there trying to sort the rust on front subframe etc recently

@troy45 what coating did you use and how applied plus what problems (asking for @Groot and me of course!)

Wire brushed as much loose rust as possible then applied Jenolite rust converter. Let that dry for 3 hours then 2 coats of black Hammerite with 4 hours in between coats. Did the front wishbones, subframe and chassis support bar
 

Problems - some areas hard to get brush into, and kept finding more places that needed doing. I tried to get the car as high as possible with stands under the rear too but access was still poor and in truth a terrible job to do. I’d had enough after doing the first coat of Hammerite, was soul destroying getting back under there to do a second coat. 
 

And I was aching like I’d been run over a bus for the next 2 days 😖

I've balanced my old focus mk1 estate on 2 wheels in the centre on my garden before. With the rims facing down then the weight was on the tyres themselves. This is 1 way to get right around it then use ramps or jack stands later at the front or back then move the wheels to the front or back for stability if you only have 1 set of either. 

10 hours ago, Groot said:

According to Haynes, you can only jack up the rear by the sills

Both Tesco and Asda Liverpool offer 'have your wheels removed while you shop' service 🤣

1 hour ago, unofix said:

Both Tesco and Asda Liverpool offer 'have your wheels removed while you shop' service 🤣

They used to do that on the housing estates where l am years ago 😂 can't knock it though as they didn't just dump them onto the floor 😎👍