ideas wanted

[Paul Bearman]

Definitely a fridge for the beer & a comfy couch for me & the lads when we come over to watch you polish with the 'oily rag'.!!

seriuosly though Malcolm, the garage sounds great & good luck to you, Wendy & your small family in your new house.

Paul.

 

[Ron Earp]

A urinal, the wall mounted variety, would be perfect. I know toliet was mentioned, but if I had my choice of one thing I'd add to my garage right now that would be it!

R

 

[Brett James-McCall]

Malcolm,
If you want to go to the extreme... you could always get a second hand washing machine. The reason.... having to explain the change in colour of some of her t-shirts one weekend... I paid big time for it!!!

 

[Julian West]

Brett,

You may joke, but I bought a S/H dishwasher for 15 quid & it makes a great parts/tools washer. Anything that comes off the car gets dropped in the parts cleaner & then into the dishwasher.

The nice thing is that it uses super-hot water, so the parts come out dry !!

 

Julian, that is an excelent idea - I am now looking for one. Thanks

 

[Guest]

Lots more great ideas, keep 'em coming.

What is the minimum height needed for a post lift? I am height restricted to a pitched rook of 4m (13 feet)and with A frame rafters I will need to plan carefully to slot a two or four poster in. Else I may end up with a GT40 shaped hole in the roof! If I go higher than this I get in to planning issues and that I want to avoid.

WC was already in the plans but Wendy refuses to use a stand up urinal, Ron, when working on her Lotus.

I was planning on segregating out the workshop area into metal work shop, wood workshop (I do quite a bit of that), and storage areas with partitions and doors to keep dust and swarf getting into the wrong things. At present I have separate sheds.

Telephone and stereo will be transferred over from existing. Wendy just told me I could take the bedroom telly into the new garage. So better keep an eye out for a couch to suit then. Means I got to buy her a new bedroom telly I guess. Hmmmmm.

Floor is I hope going to be a power floated concrete floor. This is the bees knees to me. I built an industrial park a couple of years back and laid one in the units there. Glass smooth but super strong so that walls could be built straight off it. Uses a laser to level so should be flat and level enough for suspension set ups. Just costs a bit more than tamped or trowelled.

Security is being taken care of.

Like the idea of separate work benches for clean and dirty work.

Roy made me a goal post that could take three tons a long time back. I have chain engine hoists but not on rails. That is a good idea in a larger garage.

I intend to do the brickwork myself at the moment and also the roof. This should save enough costs to keep the size big. Just got to find an evening class in brick laying!

Have my hands full on the house now with walls falling over, woodworm, damp, bats, knackered plumbing, windows, decoration, plastering, dry rot, etc etc etc and I mean etc. And I told Wendy it would only take two months to sort! We move on June 17th. This year. Hence first car event for me is in July.

One thing is for sure, the guys who build their cars in single garages are real heroes in my eyes. Little space and big cars are hard work. I count myself lucky.

Malcolm

 

[Mike Inglis]

I once knew a girl that used a wall mounted one........

[ April 26, 2003: Message edited by: Jasper ]

 

[Howard Jones]

I really like the idea of a super flat floor for chassis setup. Oh and a tire rack high up along one wall.

[ April 25, 2003: Message edited by: Howard Jones ]

 

[Jim Rosenthal]

This is a very interesting discussion; I have only a 1.5 car garage, big enough for the Ferrari and a Mini-Cooper, which by most definitions is half a car, until it goes by you in the turns...anyway, here's some information which may be of interest on the USA side:
I have a close friend who has a business that sells and services garage lifts, and other automotive service equipment. Over the years, I have picked up a few bits of information about these items, applying mostly to what is sold over here.
According to my friend Bill, the best made lift sold right now is made by Whip. The best used to be Challenger; in his opinion the quality has dropped. The ones that are hardest to get parts for, again in his experience, are Nussbaum and Stendhoi. They are also the most expensive to fix. Rotary lifts are plentiful, but not very well made; same with Benwil. I can't recall all the names, there are a lot of small makers.
Now, the big news: used lifts come on the market from time to time at very cheap prices. A lift is not an easy item to sell, evidently. Recently Bill had two takeout lifts (7000 and 9000 lb capacity) which he got for free after being paid to remove them. With no takers for these bargains (and they were bargains, as they had been serviced and one overhauled recently) he took them apart and used the parts to fix others. Anyone in my area (MD) could have had either of these for a few hundred dollars plus putting it in.
If you are in the market for a lift, find someone in your area who services them, make friends, be patient, and wait. Sooner or later, a deal will turn up. The cost of putting in a lift should be about 300-500$ if you have a suitable floor and 220v AC in your garage. With the kind of modest work schedule one of us would have, with minimal maintenance even a used reconditioned lift will last you twenty years. (BTW this applies only to above ground lifts, hardly anyone makes in ground ones anymore)
I hope this is helpful. I have been impressed with how long the life of well-maintained garage equipment is, and ironically how little it is worth on the used market when it has so much use left in it. If you can find a good used item, you will save a bundle- certainly the cost of a set or two of GT40 tires.

 

[Brett James-McCall]

Julian,
I wasn't joking, far from it, I don't have enough space in my garage for such items. I just have a normal single garage and have had to build a 14x9 lean-to on the side to house compressor, benches etc, will update with pictures in a bit. BTW excellent idea, I just need a bigger house or more land!

Brett

 

[Brett James-McCall]

 

[Brett James-McCall]

Malcolm,
Got this information from Machine Mart:

Dimensions: - Occupied floor space (WxL) 3110 x 1500mm. Between posts 2550mm. Overall height 2480mm.

This is for a 2 post single phase lift.

So you should be able to clear it even if you raise the 40 up to the top of the posts

Brett

 

[Julian West]

A four post lift is a great thing to have, but make sure you are aware just how much space they take up.

My garage is about 900 sq feet & I opted for a pit as opposed to a lift. So far I've never struggled to do anything & the pit can be used as extra storage when not in use.

On the GT40 there isn't much you need to get right under the car for, as most of it is pannelled, however a lift would be handy fr raising the suspension, etc, to a comfortable working height.

ATEOTD you pays your money & makes yur choice!

 

[David Morton]

Following on Julian's thread, possibly a set of custom made trestles that can also hang on the wall when not in use. All the teams in Le Mans use them to support body work
as well (though the cars have onboard airjacks). Now there's an idea - who makes airjacks at a reasonable price? One more useful item - a set of go-jacks to slide a machine which ever way you want and if your new garage is big enough you could turn it round completely !!
Dave M

 

[40 Bud]

You would be suprised how little room is used up by 4 post. I know one fellow who has a skinny single car garage on his townhouse - With a 4 post he parks his Cobra on the bottom and his forty on the top.

 

[charles]

Malc,

Don't forget to make room for a dog house - because at this rate, that's where you'll be living!

Charles

 

[Guest]

Thanks Jasper for the lead on the TURNIP CHOPPER. When Wendy grows enough of the damn things that means we lead "The Good Life" I shall consider one but not before! Whatever next....

On the lift front, the ceiling joists will be lower than my allotted 4m. Thes will be at eaves height and depending on the final pitch of the roof, will be regular ceiling height. However I am thinking of perhaps having a section with scissor trusses or some other device that will give increased ceiling height to give clearance for a lift. Surely though you must be able to dictate the top out height of the lift by a locking mechanism or some such?

Go Jacks are damnably expensive but rather nice. Hey Jasper, do you think anyone in China makes a cheap alternative? Like the scale system?

Charles, I will never beat you to the dog house! Who else, on their wife's birthday, will come and help a mate out with a kango on multiple fire place removal? Oh, the satisfaction of demolition.... If Wendy had known it was Tracey's birthday I would have joined you in your dog house for sure. But we got a lot of good work done. Thanks for you help. Maybe you have ideas that my future garage could be your dog house?

Malcolm