alxdgr8

Love the fold down bench idea, will have to remember that when I buy a house. Stuck with renting for now so I can't do much with the garage.

MarkRobinson

Progression of my garage:

MarkRobinson

TV is now a 42 Plasma, added AC & the 2nd lift to play with the race car: fun stuff!

Voith

This is how our garage looks like now

JackOlsen

Thanks very much, guys.

It's a hydraulic lift table, which is usually used in an industrial/warehouse setting -- but it caught my attention as a possible starting point for a no-footprint lift for my 911. It would be a little less ideal for a front-engine car, since you'd need support blocks and would have reduced access to the stuff between the wheels. But a 911 only has a belly pan there.

I picked up the lift second-hand on Ebay for $455. I rented a concrete cutting saw and dug out a 16" deep hole in the dirt underneath the old slab. Then I mixed and poured in new side walls and an 8" deep reinforced pad. I re-did the tiles I had to remove and also tiled the top of the lift. When it's down, you'd hardly know it was there.

I've learned a lot while doing this garage. I'd never set tiles before I tiled it. And I'd never mixed and poured concrete before I put in this lift.



By buying the thing second-hand and doing the work myself, I kept the total cost for this part of the garage down to $670. Now, it's about the most-used tool in the place. The other upside for this lift and a 911 is that there are no arms to position or ramps to hit. So long as the car is parked in the right spot, all I have to do is press the button and watch it go up.

There are more details on the installation starting in this page of the Garage Journal thread on my build.

(Total budget for the cabinets, benches, floors and lift was less than $4,000.)

Shorter answer: Check out the video.

bs951

My 3.5 year old performing a brake inspection.

Darwantae951

LOVE the video. The music is classic! I need to take some notes on how you did that! I have a 3rd car stall that I would love to transform into a workshop area with bench, vise, etc... like you have.

racerxrick

wow...cool (literally!).

I wanted to drop in myself but too many obligations (Sewell company picnic). I need to check that out.

ausgeflippt951

Jack, love the garage. Great idea with the lift!

I'm actually in the process of moving into a small 2-car garage and I'm really trying to come up with ideas for how to make the best use out of the space. Unfortunately the ceiling is low so it gives the impression it's smaller than it is.

My current garage is a huge 1.5-car garage, so losing it will be a bit of a bummer.


Don't have any pics of my current setup but figured Sean (azmi951) would get a kick out of seeing his up here. Then again he may hate me, since we had just finished pulling our buddy's motor. The shop is a 2+ car setup, about 30ft deep -- I'm not joking when I say it's DEEP.

zerMATT951

I bought this house BECAUSE of the garage, and I have friends who do HVAC and electrical work, so adding a central 2.5 ton unit only cost me around $200 for new copper lines, wiring, and a breaker. I got a lot of good use of that investment last summer when I put my car back together over many weekends that were 105+.

This past weekend we tore down my brother's 951 to reseal everything including the AOS, both balance shaft housings, and everything else you can think of. It's not 105 yet, but it's been 90 and very humid, so the AC has been nice for this project too!

refresh951

That is one big garage Matt! Nice!

alxdgr8

My "2" car garage for the time being (only can park one car, the other bay is a workshop). Will get me over until I buy a house in a few years. It's pretty messy right now as I'm trying to get the Audi back together. It also doesn't help that I have a larger collection of parts for BOTH project cars. Thankfully I've got a shed in the backyard that I store misc. stuff like spare wheels/tires/etc. I'll snap some pics of the workshop side after I clean in up (especially after looking at all the garages on here!)

Audi and Bike:


Blast cabinet and powdercoating oven:


And the 951 while it's being punished:


Much preferred the garage at my last rental, but the house part sucked (it was a MIL on top of the garage, so it had the footprint of the garage).

Scott H

This was right after I "cleaned" the garage, it's much worse now. Fun fact: the oil stain on the concrete isn't from my Porsche, but from the previous owner's (of the house) Porsche 914.

pontifex4

Mine's still a work in progress, but I built a shop for my car. I've done everything, including the concrete, myself with the help of my dad and some friends. Here's my girlfriend 'studying' this spring while I 'worked' on the 951:

Dougs951

Ever seen a bomb filled with tools and 3 944's worth of parts go off?

Well thats my garage in a nut shell lol