Fast acting Houston-area BMW enthusiast Cody W. Crochet was able to save all his cars from the floods brought by Hurricane Harvey using landscaping bricks to raise his garaged red E36 M3 up out of rising waters. Here’s how he carefully lowered that car back down—brick by brick, corner by corner.
In case you were wondering how you get a car back down after you improvised the ultimate last-minute home lift out of stock BMW jacks, jack stands and garden bricks, this time lapse should show you how: very, very carefully.
Crochet and a friend moved an OEM E36 jack atop a its own stack of bricks to each side of the car on one axle to lift the car up, take a brick off the stack, and then lift the car back down. Wash, rinse and repeat on each axle one by one until it’s all back down to earth.
Crochet left it on just one set of jackstands as he has projects already waiting for the car, as one always does with a project/track car.
Unfortunately, the rest of Crochet’s home—like many others throughout southeast Texas—was a complete mess, taking on well over the predicted one foot of water inside. The water line on Crochet’s garage is about three-fourths as tall as his big standing toolbox to the side.
He’s also been documenting his rebuilding process on his YouTube channel as well, in case you were curious how the rest of the house fared.
One of Crochet’s friends started a GoFundMe to cover home repair costs here, if you’d like to help him out personally. Alternately, there are still many organizations at work in the area helping with everything from shelter to food to rebuilding efforts for residents affected by Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath.
The Houston Chronicle has a constantly updated list of organizations currently working to help the Gulf Coast here, and Lifehacker has a handy guide to not falling for any charity-related scams here.