When I was about 18 I borrowed my Dad's Mk4 Cortina estate and during the 'loan' period I had a puncture. So I jacked it up using the cars jack, but while I was changing the wheel the car settled back down to earth and the jack disappeared up into the mass of rust and filler that masqueraded as the sill....
Luckily some blokes helped me out and I was soon on my way home, wondering how I could explain to my Dad the holy mess that was his sill! Predictably he initially went ballistic, until he saw the extent of the rot!!
To this day I'm very cautious about jacking on bodywork even if it is a proper jacking point....
Not surprised buy those words for the cortina No wonder your a little cautious , in those days for me removing rust and adding filler was a weekly task
I still haven't built up enough courage to drive up the ramps with the omega , thinking ill shoot right over the endge of them
All that reminds me of my first car, a 1960 Austin Farina bodied A40, that I bought for £15 in 1970.
I wanted to jack the car up, so, as you do, I put the car's own jack into a jacking point. I wound it up only to find that the bodywork went up, but the chassis stayed on the floor. Where metal should be there was just rust, if that, with the rest being old copies of the
Daily Mirror mixed up with filler!
My naivety stopped there, with an uncle training me in car mechanics, with night school as well, so I wouldn't be done again!
From then on I used a bottle jack, as she passed the MOT twice before I obtained my first company car in 1972. The A40 then went to the scrap yard, with me previously selling the registration for £15.