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I'm on my third home with this epoxy+flake garage flooring. It looks great, is very durable, and easy to keep clean. The only downside is that it's hard to find small dropped items, e.g. screws. It may be a licensed or franchise operation, as I've had identical flooring installed by different companies in California and North Carolina.
IMHO a lift is much more useful if you can walk around under the car without stooping. If you're 6 feet tall, you want to be able to lift the car at least 6 feet. That will put the underside of the car a few inches above your head because the underside is a few inches above the bottom of the tires, plus the thickness of the lift platform. If you're using a two-post lift, you'll want a little more than 6 feet because of the placement of the lift arms. If you want to accommodate a typical sedan or 911, that requires 57 inches or so, or about 4.75 feet. It's hard to see the top of the car as you raise it, and hitting the ceiling is A Very Bad Thing. And overhead lights will reduce headroom, too. So you really want at least 5.5 feet. If you have an overhead garage door, that can take over a foot of headroom away. You can install a high-lift door (I did that in my lift bay) but it still take 6 inches away.
That ends up with an 11.5 foot minimum for working on a car on a lift. For storage only, you could maybe get away with 10 feet (a former neighbor of mine did this), but it'll be a tight fit with very careful lifting.
This should give you an idea of how the lift looks in a 13 foot high garage. I hang my head in shame that there's no Porsche in the photo: my Taycan lives in the two-car garage built into the main house (the pictured garage is in a separate two-story building) and a GT3RS is incoming tomorrow....it's being transported from elsewhere in the state and has been delayed for three days, which is driving me nuts).
You can see the long aluminum ramps folded up against the Cobra (with padding!) which will reduce cranial injuries when the GT3RS resides below.
I don't know. I didn't bolt mine because the installer said that it wasn't necessary. My garage floor is perfectly flat (except at the lip of the door, away from the lift) and live in a non-earthquake zone.
I had the exact same lift as AlexOz and never bolted mine either - installer said same. Mine actually came with a caster kit allowing me to move the lift around. (which I never did incidentally)
Interesting concept on flipping the ramps up like that - I think I'm too OCD worried it would somehow damage the car.
I had the exact same lift as AlexOz and never bolted mine either - installer said same. Mine actually came with a caster kit allowing me to move the lift around. (which I never did incidentally)
Interesting concept on flipping the ramps up like that - I think I'm too OCD worried it would somehow damage the car.
I am OCD too. There's a lot of padding between the ramps and the Cobra's rear lights and the measured pressure on them is only 3 ounces :-). The hardest part of the operation is that the distance between the inner walls of the Cobra's tires is exactly the same as the distance between the inside edges of the lift's ramps. Parking it means using a web cam pointed at the lift sending video to a 'phone in the car. For some reason the car didn't come with a front-view camera...maybe they didn't have those in 1966.
I walked into one of the ramp corners once. Never again.
also looking at Advantage Lifts. what has been your impression thus far and how did the install go? i was initially considering their double wide lift, but i think i'm now leaning towards two singles side by side. just curious of your thoughts on the Advantage Lifts - quality and components on them seems very good.
thanks!
left the image to get satco's attention - sorry for that.
also looking at Advantage Lifts. what has been your impression thus far and how did the install go? i was initially considering their double wide lift, but i think i'm now leaning towards two singles side by side. just curious of your thoughts on the Advantage Lifts - quality and components on them seems very good.
thanks!
left the image to get satco's attention - sorry for that.
i don't have anything to compare it to, but i did my research. its working flawlessly, very easy to operate and seems as if it was built well. time will tell
I am OCD too. There's a lot of padding between the ramps and the Cobra's rear lights and the measured pressure on them is only 3 ounces :-). The hardest part of the operation is that the distance between the inner walls of the Cobra's tires is exactly the same as the distance between the inside edges of the lift's ramps. Parking it means using a web cam pointed at the lift sending video to a 'phone in the car. For some reason the car didn't come with a front-view camera...maybe they didn't have those in 1966.
I walked into one of the ramp corners once. Never again.
damn, as if your garage (out bldg) wasn't badass enough with the set up and current lineup, but you're saying that Cobra is a real one? wow - you sir are winning!!! well done
damn, as if your garage (out bldg) wasn't badass enough with the set up and current lineup, but you're saying that Cobra is a real one? wow - you sir are winning!!! well done
Thank you for the kind words; the garage and lineup are my retirement fruition of a life-long desire to assemble a personal perfect collection. However, the Cobra is not an original Shelby, so you can take one zero off its value :-(. It's unusual in that it's not a modern kit car but has many original Shelby 1966 parts, including the engine, and ALL the parts are genuine 1966 or period-accurate replicas. It has a letter from Carroll Shelby saying that it's a righteous Cobra, but, apparently, he was prone to writing such letters, and he may not have inspected the actual car. A modern kit or manufacturer replica, e.g. a Factory Five or Superformance has WAY superior handling, performance, and function. Mine was built by an obsessive custom shop to be as close to an original 287 Cobra as possible. As a result, it has all the shortcomings of the original car. It reminds me just how far we've come in the last 54 years. The car is really uncomfortable, passengers sometimes burn their legs on the side pipes, it's unbearably hot on warm days, really frigging loud, dangerous, and a menace to society. So, overall, it's fabulous :-). Nostalgia is great, but many of those olders cars were really not as good as we remember. I had a Countach in the 80s after lusting for one in my teens. It was awful in every possible way and, worse, the women I wanted to impress thought it was awful, too. A Ferrari Boxer, which I also lusted for but never owned, would do 0-60 in five seconds; my Ford Raptor truck does that now.
Thank you for the kind words; the garage and lineup are my retirement fruition of a life-long desire to assemble a personal perfect collection. However, the Cobra is not an original Shelby, so you can take one zero off its value :-(. It's unusual in that it's not a modern kit car but has many original Shelby 1966 parts, including the engine, and ALL the parts are genuine 1966 or period-accurate replicas. It has a letter from Carroll Shelby saying that it's a righteous Cobra, but, apparently, he was prone to writing such letters, and he may not have inspected the actual car. A modern kit or manufacturer replica, e.g. a Factory Five or Superformance has WAY superior handling, performance, and function. Mine was built by an obsessive custom shop to be as close to an original 287 Cobra as possible. As a result, it has all the shortcomings of the original car. It reminds me just how far we've come in the last 54 years. The car is really uncomfortable, passengers sometimes burn their legs on the side pipes, it's unbearably hot on warm days, really frigging loud, dangerous, and a menace to society. So, overall, it's fabulous :-). Nostalgia is great, but many of those olders cars were really not as good as we remember. I had a Countach in the 80s after lusting for one in my teens. It was awful in every possible way and, worse, the women I wanted to impress thought it was awful, too. A Ferrari Boxer, which I also lusted for but never owned, would do 0-60 in five seconds; my Ford Raptor truck does that now.
This should give you an idea of how the lift looks in a 13 foot high garage. I hang my head in shame that there's no Porsche in the photo: my Taycan lives in the two-car garage built into the main house (the pictured garage is in a separate two-story building) and a GT3RS is incoming tomorrow....it's being transported from elsewhere in the state and has been delayed for three days, which is driving me nuts).
You can see the long aluminum ramps folded up against the Cobra (with padding!) which will reduce cranial injuries when the GT3RS resides below.
What's keeping those ramps in that position? lock, angle?
Are they Bendpak accessories? I have a HD9 that came with steels, heavy and annoying. I bought some Race Ramps but they don't work well as the cross the threshold of the garage which is about 1" higher than the driveway that begins to slope down. Currently I put foam pads underneath to account for the difference but still not optimal.
What's keeping those ramps in that position? lock, angle?
Are they Bendpak accessories? I have a HD9 that came with steels, heavy and annoying. I bought some Race Ramps but they don't work well as the cross the threshold of the garage which is about 1" higher than the driveway that begins to slope down. Currently I put foam pads underneath to account for the difference but still not optimal.
Mine also came with the very heavy steel ramps as standard. When I ordered the lift I also ordered the low-profile aluminum ramps https://www.bendpak.com/car-lifts/ac...pproach-ramps/. Several of the usual auto parts places sell them; just search for 5174705, the part number.
They're lighter and longer than the standard steel ramps and I've had no problems driving low vehicles onto the lift. In my photo, the ramps are resting gently on the rear lights of my Cobra via padded cloths. They're leaning forward enough to ensure that they won't just flip down on their own. This is the first time that I've flipped them up -- I haven't used the lift for storage until now -- so I don't know how far forward they'd go, but it looks as if they'd go all the way forward to lay on the lift; I can't be sure without trying it. When flipped down, they go slightly below level and stick out behind the lift. If they cross your garage threshold, their ends might or might not rest on the ground outside your garage, depending on the geometry.
When the lift is up and the aluminum ramps are sticking out the back, it's a very good idea to put padding on the ends; the sharp corners are right at forehead height, Ouch.
12-03-2020, 01:28 PM
