Thanks for posting; inspires me to try this myself oneeee day . I just have a bad habit of screwing up stuff like this.

 

I was in your same shoes. I bought the hydralic jack/jack stands for over a year or more. Was a bit reluctant to go under the car and get kill . I did my pre-cautions and I just didn't trust some kid changing my oil at the shop. Chances are they won't drain all the old oil, won't have washer to replace, under/overfilled the oil, not put all the screws on the splash shield, etc etc.

Why take that risk? Now I do it once every 6 months with synthetic oil and can enjoy my beauty sleep at night.

 

let's see: i nailed two 2x4s together. one piece was about 2.5ft and the other is about a foot long. that makes a driveable "preramp" for standard steel drive up ramps provided you're not lowered. it also works well for putting that standard garage jack underneath the front center jack point if you wanted to put jackstands on all 4 corners.

for right now i use 3ton jackstands from harbor freight and use their rubber jack stand pads for protection. their rubber jack pad also works well on the big sears 3ton garage jack i have. this way i can use the front boxed frame rails for support and not leave a mark. for the rear you can use this configuration on the stock jack location provided your rails aren't bent from previous jacking. i actually position the jackstand so the rubber pad lines up parallel to the rail. you just have to lower the vehicle VERY slowly and make sure the rails are ON the pad since it's narrow. works nicely and leaves no marks. another way you can put the rear on jackstands is to use the rear lower control arms (if you're not doing suspension work). you have to position the jackstands very carefully so they fit the contour of the arm. i've seen this done on MY350 so it made me more confident. you can lift the entire rear by the differential housing (pumpkin lol). just do everything slowly and carefully.

i keep a 14mm socket and 1/2" drive handy for the oil pan drain, a small wraparound oilfilter wrench (for loosening) and a 10mm socket and 3/8" drive. you only need to remove the two rearward 10mm bolts on the aero shield and it will allow for enough access to the filter and drain. cardboard on the ground is a help if you don't want oil stains and plenty of rags and cleaner for oil that gets on the chassis or ground. i've been reusing the crush washer on the drain bolt with no problems but i'd imagine changing them eventually will be necessary.

while you're down there why not change the transmission and rear differential oil? while the car is on 4 jackstands you can also change your discs and pads and swap out for stainless steel lines then bleed all 4 corners! how about a coolant drain and refill? the next thing i might do is install sways and springs with struts. once you've accomplished the DIY oil change you're on the path to DIY mechanic work lol enjoy it while you can!

 

So I went to Home Depot today to look for some lumber. Saw a 2x10 lumber that is 14 ft long so I was planning to have them cut it into 4 pieces (two 3 ft and two 4 ft). The guy told me they don't cut wood for customer.

I was always under the impression that Home Depot does it. He said you can try another Home Depot...*sigh*. Does anyone know if Lowes cut lumber for customers? Or any other Home Depots?

I don't have the electric saws at home and don't want to purchase it just for this occasional and certainly don't feel like using the regular saw at home and doing it manually.

 

About 14 years ago when I had my 1993 5-spd Taurus SHO I purchased 2x12's and cut them down to 6ft, 5ft, 4ft, 3ft sections and bolted them together. I also have a set of 2x10's bolted together in the same manner.. So I have ramps that give me a 6 inch lift. Both are just like the ramps "TheTicks" linked to at Mustangworld.. The 2x12's are heavy as hell...

Recently I've been thinking about putting another step on top of these two sets of ramps, so I can get a 7.5 inch lift...

 

manual saw ftw. that's how i did mine, but used 2x4s. the wood pre ramp to drive up ramp or garage jack works nicely and i only layered two pieces for one ramp.