The perfect garage.

I have a brother like that. In his garage, is two cars, A replica AC Cobra, and a Toyota Yaris. His daily driver. Plus a tricyle, 3 running Harley Davidsons. A Norton Dominator, and he still has plenty of space to work on a a fourth Harley. A Panhead, think, which he is rebuilding after buying it incomplete and in pieces. My garage at home has too many tools and boat parts in it to get a car in as well, so I rent two garages for my SD1 and Celica. My BM and the wifes Corolla and MM are parked on the drive. I also have a 22ft sail boat on a trailer parked on the front lawn. I think I really need more undercover parking. :-) Mike.

Is that a Fisher Fury?

R. Murphy ( snipped-for-privacy@murphy9100.fsnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

The message from "R. Murphy" contains these words:

I've never even tried!

I am actually starting to consider it essential that I get a garage soon. A lift would make it perfect.

Clever, I thought of doing something similar with railway sleepers and a chainsaw to slope the ends.

I do like that though.

The message from NeedforSwede2 contains these words:

3/4" ply with triangular sides and perhaps a triangular fillet up the middle would be plenty strong. If you're a fanatic you could do the joints with a biscuit joiner, but glue and screws would do just as well. No need for solid wood.

I'd be inclined to use steel instead, it could well even work out cheaper. A friend's currently building a single axled car transporter to tow behind his Landrover. Halfway through, he realised that if he leaves the centre open, he can use it as a ramp for working on cars, which will be rather neat. It'll need to be left hitched onto the Landi though, to stop it see-sawing.

Surprised no one has mentioned a pit. A simple and cheaper solution. Mike.

Not that simple if you want to comply with Building Regs or if you want it to remain dry. I left provision for one when I concreted the garage floor, but have yet to take it below a foot or so.

I'm not suggesting it's a solution for all. Pipes could rule it out for some. A fibreglass pit mouldings can be used to keep them dry. Especially if the pit would be below the water table. Mike.

Yes, but even that could have potentially disastrous consequences if not done properly. If the pit has a volume of 5 cubic metres below the water table, then there'll be 5 tonnes of water pressure trying to make it float. That's enough to lift your car and probably the roof of your garage too!

The message from Willy Eckerslyke contains these words:

True - provided you're equipped with a welder. Which as it happens I am.

My 90 year old aunt has a pit in her garage [1] which has a door in the end which leads to a bomb shelter under the rockery. There's a dogleg passage to reduce blast and an escape tunnel which used to lead to an exit at the far end of the garden before she sold off the last 20 yards to build a house on. It's about 3' down from ground level but has another 4' of rockery on top. Maidstone was a tad vulnerable during the war!

[1] The garage will take two cars in line easily - and has the height for a proper lift, being about 12' to the eaves.

I've got a pit, but it's full of scaffolding and a little barbeque. Holes tend to fill up, but ramps tend to stay useable, I think.

I've heard of that happening.

It was an old pit in a garage run by a father and son. They got fed up having to pump the water out, so they thought it would be a good idea to put sheet steel all around it and weld it in place. It worked great for a while, until the area got hit by some prolonged rain. They came in one morning, to find the car they had left over the pit the night before, now suspended several feet in the air by the floating steel pit. Now to overcome this problem, the father had the brain wave to drill some holes in the steel, to let it flood the steel pit, with the aim that it would sink back into the ground. It was brilliant idea, until the tank got wedged at an angle......

I never did hear how they got the car off.

Mike G ( snipped-for-privacy@lycos.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

God, no. Massively inferior.

As I said in my post. I was just surprised it hadn't been mentioned, as it is a viable, and cheaper alternative in a normal size garage than a hoist. Apart from the expense, headroom must rule out a hoist in most domestic garages. A pit could also be an asset when selling. Might tip the scales for a car nut to buy your property, rather than another, and for those not interested it can be left covered and ignored, or just used as additional storage space

Your argument about floatation of a pit liner assumes the worst possible scenario with the water table at ground surface level, which is seldom the case. Presumably the proprietary ones being sold have provisions for firmly fixing the top to avoid any floatation problem. Mike.

Ramp (two poster) Welder (250A of MIG power :-)) Plasma Cutter (slices through 10mm plate like a knife through butter :-)) Full range of socket sets from 1/4" to 3/4" Numerous pullers (two/three legged, bearing, harmonic...) Coil spring compressors Selection of hammers (everything from a small ball pein upto big malky(14lb)) Selection of spanners (combi and ring) Large and varied selection of punches, drifts, chisels Trolley Jacks Bottle Jacks Big vice Work bench Transmission Jack Tyre Changer Compressor with full complement of air tools Press Assortment of Grinders

That just about covers the basics.

Now for the workshop-

Bandsaw Lathe Two milling machines Computer More workbenches Plus an assortment of small metal working tools.

It's also worth noting that I work on anything from small lawnmower engines, upto tractors, aswell as building/reparing machinery, hence the reason for some of the larger tools. Next item on the shopping list is a TIG welder :-)

I can't see why you would think that. I'm thinking more of an average domestic garage, rather than ones with space for two or more cars and plenty of hight. How many of us have garages like that? With a pit you can still jack the car up onto axle stands, and have full headroom underneath for working on the suspension, engine etc. And how high could a lift go in the average domestic garage? 2-3ft? Another advantage of a pit, is that if you move house, it can just be left, without any appreciable loss. Personally I see no overwhelming disadvantage with a pit. Not to mention how much a hoist and it's installation would cost, even if you had room to fit it. Not to mention the space it would take up. Mike.