Lift or no lift?

[J. Salmon]

I have an RCR on order, expected soon. I have a 2 post lift. It appears that much of the work building will be done with the car as a roller, and getting under may not be too important. I realize that I would regularly be removing the wheels form one end or the other, but I think I might be happier with the car in an open bay, not with the lift poles in the way.

Opinions?

Thanks!

-J.

[Richard]

If you can open the doors with it on the lift I would keep it. It will save your back from bending over, raise the car 2' off the ground and go to work. If not just ship the lift to me. lol. Enjoy your build.

[Ron Earp]

Get ready for the two poster versus four poster debate....

I am right at that point of making a decision to go open or lift for my new garage. I think I'm going lift because all my race car work, just about all of it, requires some under car access. Sure, I don't need it for brakes, but it'd be lovely to change them without bending over.

Two poster for me, and not wanting to open a discussion or argument.

Oh, you might consider building a trolley and putting the car on it. I made one from 2x4s for my old RF car and lifted it about 20" off the ground. Really helped out with access.

Ron

[J. Salmon]

Sorry, not sure I made myself clear. I have a two post installed in one bay, the other bay is open. Which bay do you think you would do most of the build? Yes it would be nice to have it off the ground a bit, but I could put it on blocks if it were to just sit there, and I won't have the arms to deal with. Plus, I can leave the lift to work on other things.

[Big-Foot]

I'd put it in the other bay up on blocks about 18 to 24 inches.. Make sure they are solid blocks as you'll be in and out of that thing a million times...

I use a Motorcycle Platform lift like RCR uses.. I strengthened mine though.. Check my build site under TOOL time for details..

[Rob]

J,
I'm with Randy...totally. I made a chassis buck which I have now built three cars on. Man was it worth the time to make. I too have a hoist, which I utilize to put the chassis on and off the buck. It is much easier on the back to work all day w/o bending over.

Additionally, I made forms which secure onto it to mount the body to for prep and paint. Very handy not to have them sliding around a saw horse or the like while trying to work on them.

That's my two cents.....

[MReid]

I used a scissors style lift for both the daytona coupe and RCR40 build. I found it incredibly helpful in all aspect of the build. Which ever one isn't as important as having one!

[Mike Drew]

Mark,

The lift pictured is not a scissors lift. In fact it's a much better design, and I'm happy to say I have the same one.

My lift is (or rather was) made by Benwil. Rather than a scissors setup, it's a parallelogram arrangement, where a hydraulic ram pushes up and back on an H-shaped platform; the platform moves up and back, raising up about 36 inches. Due to the H configuration, one end is open and that lets you gain unrestricted access to one end of the car. Most scissors lifts I've seen interfere with access on both ends.

Here's an example of a scissors lift:

Scissors Lift

Note how the design restricts access to the underside of the car on both ends. The ones we have are far superior IMHO. Unfortunately Benwill was purchased by Maxxon several years ago, and they discontinued their parallelogram line.

Do you know what kind you have, and where you got it? I have several friends who would buy a lift like ours if they could find them?

[Jac Mac]

Try this

Parts Lists For Benwil Lifts

Look under PL-6000 or PLP-6000

[MReid]

Thanks Mike, I never knew the difference!

My father in law bought it used for $100 5 years ago when I ordered my FFR coupe. The guy who owned it said it didn't work right. We took a look at it an in about 5 seconds figured out that he didn't have the little jack screws adjusted at all. When he tried to use it, the ram would attempt to push the lift into the floor. Ten minutes with a couple of wrenches and it worked perfectly. I'll look for the manufacturer name when I get home tonight.

[Mike Drew]

FWIW, I paid $1200 for mine about six or seven years ago and feel like I stole it; they retailed new for about $1800, more than ten years ago.

If you paid $100 you really DID steal it!!!

[Tim Kay]

Click here for northern tool

[Richard]

Mark, looks perfect. Would you please post a picture of the lift without the car. Also when it's all the way down how tall is it. I need to know how much ground clearance I'll need. Doesn't look like they are still made. Thanks.

[Mike Drew]

Here's a photo of my Scirocco up on the lift, shot from below so you can see how it works:



As you can see, it does have ground clearance issues which preclude its use with a low car like a Pantera, Cobra or GT40 unless ramps are used. My ramps are made of pressboard planks, and are VERY VERY heavy.

The other solution would be to jackhammer the garage floor and lower the lift into the floor so that it sits flush with the pavement, but that's more work than I was willing to undertake.

[Bill Musarra]

Mine is a wooden buck type that I made with leftover wood from a deck project. They need to be a minimum of two feet off the ground to save your back. I don't like bending over or having to squat down. Have repaired both knees, and don't want that again. The wooden ones present problems for getting them up on to it. My car was a roller and pretty heavy. Since I didn't know where the COG was, and there wasn't a foll bar for lifting, I had to hoist up one end, slide one end under, strap the straight rails to the frame, lift the other end and secure with carrige bolts on shouldered uprights(notch the 6x6 uprights for the rails to sit on). Then have dolly wheels on one end and a pry lift on the other for the hand truck. Easily moved around on the work floor. Great for a build. My build area was 2 garage type, but one in front of the other. So when there was maintenance on one of the family vehicles, the project had to move forward. Just remember that the thing has to be braced with either plywoood panels in the front and rear or sturdy X bracing all around. When you are pushing or pulling something, you don't want it to come crashing down.

Bill

[Richard]

Thanks Mike, who makes the lift in the picture? Is it a Benwil? I wish I had the headroom for a full size lift but I only have 8'. My Talon and GT40 are very low so I'll have to do somethink like you did. I'm finding many low lifts the you drive over long flat lift rails, wider than the car but shorter that the front to back wheel spacing (hope that mad sense). I guess if you block it right that would also work.

[Craig White]

My brother is just using 4 large home made stands. They are just like oversized axle stands. They are about 2 foot high.