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I only saw radiator cleaning once in the service records post-warranty, at 60K or so miles if I remember. It looks to me to be something to do annually.
I only saw radiator cleaning once in the service records post-warranty, at 60K or so miles if I remember. It looks to me to be something to do annually.
I had a ton of smaller one's in mine before I installed the mesh... some don't recommend it but oh well.
(Rear center caps are off so I can attack the axle nuts with a breaker bar and 6-foot pipe.) The car has a new stance now, thanks to RoW M030 springs. I've only driven it a few miles to settle the suspension before I do a string alignment, which it definitely needs before any serious miles can be considered. But I like the way it looks, and even on my short drive I could feel the difference in the suspension. It's crisp, whereas before it was a bit floaty and tired feeling. It was a ton of work and took a good bite out of the wallet, but I think I will be pleased with it. I certainly am happy with the new ride height! It was stock US suspension prior to this work, which I really didn't like. This is a great visiual improvement.
wdb - Which sways are you running? Looks happier and peppier with the new components.
Stock sway bars -- with new bushings. I'm building a long distance car, yeah I want it to handle well but it already did that, and I'm not going to track the bejeezus out of it although I do hope to do the occasional hot lap. Not sure I need to fuss over sway bars. But we shall see!
String alignment is underway. I was grievously delayed by Friday the 13th gremlins which seemed to pop out of nowhere. At least I now own an angle grinder! More on that later. Here's my home brewed rig. I made it fit on the lift so I could move it up and get under the car.
Okay, just remember you asked. This is the first garage I ever had. There was a tiny one at a house I rented a million years ago, but from then until now I did my wrenching on a gravel driveway. I'm fortunate to be able to finally have a proper workspace.
I'll spare you the myriad construction images; let's just say that I have pictures of a boulder the size of a large pickup truck being reduced to chunks that could be lifted onto a dump truck. (They don't call this Rockland Township for nothing!) 3 bays, square footage limited by township restrictions primarily, space limitations secondarily. Here's the finished product, taken in 2019 just after the paving was completed, which we did immediately after the garage was up. Pardon Mr. Big's photobombing
The first major project I undertook was replacing the clutch and drivetrain soft bits on the 4MC. I did this job with the car on jackstands. Never again; my body just won't take it anymore.
The lift went in during the early days of the pandemic, June 2020. It's a 9K lb. unit, a little bit of overkill but the outfit I worked with said it was the first one they thought was genuinely sturdy.
The bay with the lift has a vaulted ceiling, and the garage door was installed to be as close as possible to the ceiling when raised. You can sort of see those features in this picture, taken in 2021 just after the targa arrived.
The lift is equipped with two 4500 lb. trolley jacks, which allows me to do stuff like the suspension job.
The garage space remains a work-in-progress. For example I recently replaced my ancient Craftsman bottom toolbox with something bigger. I have more to do in terms of maximizing the utility of the back wall.
There's a loft above the two non-vaulted bays. The builder wanted to put fixed stairs in but they would have eaten floor space. I found these folding stairs online, pointed him to the site, and in they went. They can carry almost 600 lbs! Which I thought was great until it dawned on me that I'd still have to haul the damned stuff up and down with my muscles. Doh. So I added a little assistant.
I finished up the alignment and went for a longer drive yesterday. I know the phrase gets overused, but the car is transformed. There is a greater immediacy and connectedness between the driver and everything the wheels are doing. It's not harsher or sharper-edged, just more communicative. There is less suspension travel over familiar bumps and dips than there was before but, again, it does not feel harsher. Stuff just happens more quickly than before; the motion stops sooner. And I'd swear the tires got 1" wider at each end of the car too! That is a very noticeable change and one I did not anticipate. Pretty neat. Maybe this is the way the car felt when it was new, I don't know. It's still 20 years old, and it's a targa, so it creaks a bit while all this new goodness is happening. It creaked before too, nothing new there. I find the creakiness kind of endearing. After all I creak too.
Looks-wise all I keep hearing in my head is a line from Billy Crystal; "You. Look. MARVELOUS, darling. Simply MARVELOUS." I took before/after measurements and the front dropped about 1/2" while the rear dropped 1/4". Not much loss of ground clearance, a dramatic difference in how the car hits my eye.
At this point I need to give a big shout out to @Gert , who steered me in the direction of this setup. Thank you! It is perfectly in line with my wishes for the car. Maybe I should have waited for the Koni Actives to be back in stock, but with the pandemic and supply line disruptions I didn't want to take the risk of them not being available for an indeterminate period. I'm very happy with the Yellows. Thank you again for your patience and expertise.
Billy Crystal also said, "It is better to LOOK good than to FEEL good." IMESHO I got both in this setup. Take that, Billy.
Okay, just remember you asked. This is the first garage I ever had. There was a tiny one at a house I rented a million years ago, but from then until now I did my wrenching on a gravel driveway. I'm fortunate to be able to finally have a proper workspace.
I'll spare you the myriad construction images; let's just say that I have pictures of a boulder the size of a large pickup truck being reduced to chunks that could be lifted onto a dump truck. (They don't call this Rockland Township for nothing!) 3 bays, square footage limited by township restrictions primarily, space limitations secondarily. Here's the finished product, taken in 2019 just after the paving was completed, which we did immediately after the garage was up. Pardon Mr. Big's photobombing
The first major project I undertook was replacing the clutch and drivetrain soft bits on the 4MC. I did this job with the car on jackstands. Never again; my body just won't take it anymore.
The lift went in during the early days of the pandemic, June 2020. It's a 9K lb. unit, a little bit of overkill but the outfit I worked with said it was the first one they thought was genuinely sturdy.
The bay with the lift has a vaulted ceiling, and the garage door was installed to be as close as possible to the ceiling when raised. You can sort of see those features in this picture, taken in 2021 just after the targa arrived.
The lift is equipped with two 4500 lb. trolley jacks, which allows me to do stuff like the suspension job.
The garage space remains a work-in-progress. For example I recently replaced my ancient Craftsman bottom toolbox with something bigger. I have more to do in terms of maximizing the utility of the back wall.
There's a loft above the two non-vaulted bays. The builder wanted to put fixed stairs in but they would have eaten floor space. I found these folding stairs online, pointed him to the site, and in they went. They can carry almost 600 lbs! Which I thought was great until it dawned on me that I'd still have to haul the damned stuff up and down with my muscles. Doh. So I added a little assistant.
I may need more details on your garage. I just bought a .4 acre lot here in Homosassa Florida in front of my brothers two waterfront houses. I’ll be meeting with a builder tomorrow and my wife is flying in next week. How expensive was the lift.??? I probably wouldn’t work too much on the cars but since I’m keeping the 99 coupe I want the lift so I can park the 03 turbo and the 99 as you showed the bmw and the targa. My truck in the lot looking at my brothers houses. Big and nice. This is my brothers guest house backyard. I definitely need a bar and also fridge in the garage.
I finished up the alignment and went for a longer drive yesterday. I know the phrase gets overused, but the car is transformed. There is a greater immediacy and connectedness between the driver and everything the wheels are doing. It's not harsher or sharper-edged, just more communicative. There is less suspension travel over familiar bumps and dips than there was before but, again, it does not feel harsher. Stuff just happens more quickly than before; the motion stops sooner. And I'd swear the tires got 1" wider at each end of the car too! That is a very noticeable change and one I did not anticipate. Pretty neat. Maybe this is the way the car felt when it was new, I don't know. It's still 20 years old, and it's a targa, so it creaks a bit while all this new goodness is happening. It creaked before too, nothing new there. I find the creakiness kind of endearing. After all I creak too.
Looks-wise all I keep hearing in my head is a line from Billy Crystal; "You. Look. MARVELOUS, darling. Simply MARVELOUS." I took before/after measurements and the front dropped about 1/2" while the rear dropped 1/4". Not much loss of ground clearance, a dramatic difference in how the car hits my eye.
At this point I need to give a big shout out to @Gert , who steered me in the direction of this setup. Thank you! It is perfectly in line with my wishes for the car. Maybe I should have waited for the Koni Actives to be back in stock, but with the pandemic and supply line disruptions I didn't want to take the risk of them not being available for an indeterminate period. I'm very happy with the Yellows. Thank you again for your patience and expertise.
Billy Crystal also said, "It is better to LOOK good than to FEEL good." IMESHO I got both in this setup. Take that, Billy.
So something that really helped the light in my garage was a set of LED strips from Garagedoorlighting.com, I didn't know I needed them until I installed them and man it's a game changer. They were particularly helpful when I was doing the paint correction and helped me find the fine scratches my local demon Peacocks put in my paint. Bro I wish I could do a four post but I wouldn't have space on the sides to get between the wall and the lift to do any work as my garage isn't very big at 19x19. The Touareg hides her size but she's a big girl. The garage door kit comes with:
Brackets
Cabling
transformer
LED strips(about 20ft wide per strip)
Door and frame sensor(makes contact when the door is open thus turning on the LEDS)
Last edited by TheChunkNorris; 05-17-2022 at 09:18 AM.
Maybe I should retitle this "wdb's forever targa and the garage it lives in"
Originally Posted by 3/98 911 coupe
I may need more details on your garage. I just bought a .4 acre lot here in Homosassa Florida in front of my brothers two waterfront houses. I’ll be meeting with a builder tomorrow and my wife is flying in next week. How expensive was the lift.??? I probably wouldn’t work too much on the cars but since I’m keeping the 99 coupe I want the lift so I can park the 03 turbo and the 99 as you showed the bmw and the targa.
Ideally you want a 2-post lift for actually working on cars, but I wanted to use it for storage as well as maintenance and was willing to put up with the compromises a 4-post brings. Mine is a Challenger 9-ton 4-post lift, with 230V motor (faster raising) and 2 4500 lb. rolling jacks. About $9K all in. You can do it for a lot less if you go with a lighter model and skip the jacks. I've seen a lot of pictures of garages with 4-post lifts and NO vaulted ceiling; just don't take the lift all the way up, scrunch a little getting in/out of the car underneath, and presto. Just keep in mind that you need space for the overhead door.
So something that really helped the light in my garage was a set of LED strips from Garagedoorlighting.com, I didn't know I needed them until I installed them and man it's a game changer.
That's a really pretty space, and the driveway ain't too shabby either. Those lights are pretty cool! But probably not for me. I have pretty good lighting in the garage; if there is a lighting issue it is under the car when it is on the lift. I've seen people put lights on the side walls, and I've even seen lights strung on the underside of the lift itself. I'm still contemplating a solution for that issue. Plus if I kept my door open all the time the place would be completely filled with flying insects. It's very buggy around here.
05-11-2022, 03:37 PM
