2003 chevy cavalier, 4 door sedan LS

I will admit I am a bit of a novice but I am trying my hardest to learn. This car is kind of crappy and rusty. It used to live up north. Now it lives in the southeast.

I managed to get my front brakes done a few months ago by my own hands. Proud of that, I decided to do my rear.

Boyfriend began jacking up the car in owner manual recommended pinch welds, but we immediately noticed some problems.

Pinch weld cauliflowered up since it is so damn rusty.

Still went on to jack whole rear up from pinch welds. Rear now on jack stands.

Driver's side began to squish down pretty bad so the tire was touching the ground. We heard quite a bit of crackling.

We decided to lower the car since we were afraid of damaging the lines that run very close to the frame rail (especially on the driver's side).

Where else can I jack this car up in the rear? I was looking forward to doing this brake job.

You can put the jack under the rear axle beam and jack it up. Then place ur stands on the rear axles mount (where the rear axle bolts to the frame)

I place a short (6"-8") 2x4 between my jack and the pinch weld to avoid folding the metal over. Been doing this as long as I've work on cars and it works, spreads the weight out over a bigger area than the metal pad on the jack. I just turn the block of wood slightly diagonal (vs the direction of the pinch weld) so that it will not split along the grain.