tar6day

I'm buiding a garage, totally seperate building from house, w/ the inside designed around working on my 993 TT and most likely a 996 cup. I plan on putting in a car lift. What kind of room will I need around the lift (front, behind, sides)? I want to be able to do all the work on the car(s); dropping tranny, dropping engine, etc. What kind of lift?

Any general advice?

Thanks

Geoffrey

Put lights in the floor pointing up at the bottom of the car. Helps to light the bottom when working on it.

JackOlsen

Some resources:

Your Garagenous Zone by Bill West
Ultimate Garage Handbook by Richard Newton

This link or this link on the Pelican BBS both discuss garage issues at length, although there are several others threads there -- and here on Rennlist -- that a search will turn up.

ltc

Also be aware of minimum concrete slab thickness requirements and minimum required ceiling height!

James Achard

Tim,
I'm in the process of renovating my shop. Geoffrey brings up a good point, you can never have too much light. My shop is 25x25ft and I have 8 4' flourescent fixtures installed plus incandescent lighting over my workbench. As far as lifts go, check out http://www.asedeals.com/ They have some nice lifts on sale and are great to deal with. Some other things that come to mind are;
1. Try to keep as much as possible off the floor, ie. run air lines overhead, build as much as you can into the walls(storage shelves etc.), this makes things easier to keep clean.
2. Buy a *really* good quality cart that so you can bring your tools over to work on the project at hand.
3. Store compressor ouside of work space, this keeps the dust out of these and less noise where you are working. I do alot of welding and having a compressor cycle on in the middle of an intricate pass makes one very jumpy.
4. You can never have too many outlets, make them all 20 amp.
5. Bigger is not always better, if it's just you in there, having things close by really helps.
6. Install an overhead hoist to lift motors onto engine stands. I am not a big fan of those engine cranes plus they take up alot of space.

Best of luck! One thing that alot of folks overlook is safety, especially if you are working alone. Many of the things I mentioned above help but protecting yourself is really important, especially when you are working on the car at 3am to get it ready for a race.

Cheers, James

Larry Herman

BUILD IT BIG! Seriously, make it as large as you can. Mine is 55x26 with a second floor & it could be bigger. The most important thing is to have room around your lift to work. 3 feet of space all around the car is nice to have, especially when the door is closed. Also check your ceiling height for the lift. Usually 12.5 feet is sufficient.

Cory M

I second Larry's advice. No matter how big it is you'll find things to fill it with. I've got some nice industrial shelving along the walls that make storage nice. We've gotten a lot of cabinets and equipment from autions and shops that are going out of business, if you've got a local "Parts and Equipment Trader" it's a good resource.

James Achard

That's exactly what I get afraid of Plus up here heating comes into the equation(high of 8 deg. F here today). I forgot to mention I have external storage too.

Cheers, James

Greg Fishman

www.ultimategarage.com is a good source for info on building a garage. http://www.ultimategarage.com/consult.html

Robert Henriksen

Second the reference to ultimate garage. If you put radiant heating in the floor, be sure to mark the footprint of your lift & route the heating tubing *around* that area.

Professor Helmüt Tester

40' wide x 34' deep here, 2nd floor that's 40' x 18'....waaay too small, even though I've got 3 cars and 3 bikes in the 'house', and the rest of the bikes live on the garage 2nd floor.

If you're going to have a lift, you need to be a least 24' deep. Remember that overhead door tracks will foul your vertical lift space, so talk to your architect or door installer about specifying door tracks that run vertical all the way to the ceiling before turning horizontal.

Tip: if you're going to have a lift, that means you'll have good ceiling height (at least 11.5'). Use that vertical space for storage, too. In one corner, between an enclosed staircase to the garage 2nd floor and a separate room for the machine shop, I built "TIREWORLD" - a 'deck' 6.5' off the floor that is strong enough to support wheels & tires. I have >40 wheels & tires up there now, and still have a race car parked underneath.

Bench space in the middle of the floor is very inefficient. I use H-D warehouse palette racking (the kind that you can drop a palette of cinderblocks on) along the rear wall, and use it for storage space and workspace. It comes in 8' wide sections, and the verticals are generally 8' each (and can be stacked). I have several 8' wide sections set up to as benches, just by placing the cross-support beams at working height and then dropping a good bench-top on the beams. Hang a couple of flourescent lights off the bottom of the upper cross-bars and you've got great work space. One is clear from the ground to the 7' level, where I have my bead-blast cabinet and store the welder, shop crane, etc. Also have one section set up as a 'welding booth', surrounded by 22ga. steel that I cut and formed, so I don't have to chase sparks and don't have to worry about setting the place on fire. I still have storage above the 'work bench' sections...the vertical members are 8' tall, afterall, and the cross-beams are cheap.

Find a buddy who owns or operates a warehouse, and you can probably get all you need for cheap. Mine was free...which is my favorite price. And it makes it look like you know what you're doing, unlike some of the cheesy 'garage furniture' that is around.

Skip Wolfe

We need some pictures!

tar6day

GREAT info!! Keep it coming.

Not to be greedy but.......if you have pictures, please post them.

Thanks a million!!

fatbillybob

the hot lift is mohawk a-7 asymetric twin post , run 220v with circuit box inside the shop, plumb for dedicated air compressor, 12-15ft ceilings, mitre out a truely "flat" floor so you can scale your car, made the garage big enugh for your enclosed trailer plus standard 3 car size and you will have enough room for all your future toys/plazma cutter/welder/compressor/lathe/mill/3 tool boxes/bench ginders/metal band saw/engine hoist/stand/extra wing and nose storage tire/wheel storage...make that 4 car garge + trailer

DER951

Get spring loaded reels for air and a worklight w/outlet. Place them so they will be handy to the bay with the lift, AND the one adjacent to it.

Avoid having wires and hoses snaking across the floor.

Paint the floor - before you install the lift.

Wire some outlets for 230 volt for a compressor and welder. Wire for things you don't know you need yet by having open slots in your distribtion panel.

Put in a phone. Do not put in a clock.

When the car is on the lift, there should be 6-8 ft open in front and rear to a wall, workbench, etc.