Another AWESOME Garage, But I want his Car

That is downright... sexy!

I can't speak to what Jack used, but I am thinking about doing mine in unglazed quarry tiles. They're cheap, non-skid, and extremely durable (very common in commercial kitchens and other very high traffic/high abuse environments).

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I will say that it is far too clean to have seen the kind of work that happens in my messy, poorly organized hole of a garage. It would take years to get the metal shavings out of all the nooks in his floor.

I'm sure you'll get flamed on, but I have to agree. I'll admit that I don't clean up the way I should, but my benches don't have a shine on them, and I'd never have grout on my floor. Ever drip some oil from a diesel? It'll NEVER come out of a tile floors grout lines.

I actually cut the 2 page picture of that garage from a lesser magazine's shot of it and taped it to the bottom of the bunk over mine during my last deployment.

Is that a rotary phone?

...and here I am all proud of myself that I threw out a few garbage bags of clutter from my garage. It's still messy/cluttered after I cleaned it.

Oh well, organization is free.

Good to see this thread bumped. Maybe it'll motivate me.

I can't see a garage, the only thing I see in the pictures is a Porsche. Yum.

Jack - thanks for the answer on the lights and thanks for joining the thread/community! You seem like a true GRM'er!

I just scored 2 36" double kitchen upper cabinets to hang on my garage wall in an attempt to at least hide my crap...I have resigned myself to never being much more organized than move in day at a college dorm. But if I can at least make my mess look pretty, SWMBO will stay off my back

The smaller the garage, the more important it is to keep it clean and organized. Admittedly, mine isn't anywhere near as clean as I want it to be, but right now that's partly due to a lack of time to clean it.

I like having a scissor lift. It's main drawback is obstructed center access for exhaust and RWD trans dropping, but for other tasks, it's the tits. But most importantly, for the 95% of the time I'm not using it, the lift is under the car and out of the way. Unfortunately, mine isn't recessed, so I have to use long, dbl-stacked 2x10 ramps so the car will clear the lift. I'm hoping to overcome this problem by raising the entire floor of the garage about 4", which will kill a few birds all at once.

Can somebody learn me this scissor lift thing? Do you need two of them? I'm not understanding how it works. And how much do these things run? I have a feeling this is what i needed before i started on the Escort, rather than trying to rebuild the thing ground up underneath the car on jack stands.

If I remember correctly the flooring is some inexpensive porcelain tiles he got from the local big box store. The scissor lift is a single unit;it's a used lift from a factory or something but it's big enough to handle the relatively light weight of his car. All the answers are in the build thread on the GJ forum, you just have to take an evening to go through the eight jillion pages. :) http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55006

I've been a fan of Jack since he first started posting on the GJ forum - besides the cool factor of his garage and his car, he's an excellent writer who does a great job explaining what he's built and why.

Neat garage. I really like the lift that goes flush into the floor, even if it isn't compatible with most cars out there. It works perfectly for your Porsche, though!

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Can somebody learn me this scissor lift thing? Do you need two of them? I'm not understanding how it works. And how much do these things run? I have a feeling this is what i needed before i started on the Escort, rather than trying to rebuild the thing ground up underneath the car on jack stands.

This is the one I have:

http://www.asedeals.com/mid_rise_lift.html

Unfortunately, the price has gone up about $300 since I bought mine about 4 years ago. I just used it yesterday to work on the exhaust on the TDI. My Spitfire/GT6 will just barely fit on it. Getting a MINI up on stands can be a bit tricky and after a few close calls, I was able to justify the cost.

All lifts have thier pluses and minuses. If I had a space I could dedicate soley to wrenching, then I'd get a 2-post, but for a dual-purpose garage (wrenching and parking) and working mostly on FWD cars, the scissor was a good compromise. My g/f used to love it since it allowed her to raise her cars up a couple of feet for waxing which saved her back.

Oh holy hell... i was hoping it'd be a bit cheaper than that.

Sounds cool, though.... might look into it anyways next bonus.

In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac:

Yeah... I don't know if I would have bought it at that price... since for a few hundred more you can get Max Jacks (portable 2-post, mid-rise lift - introduced about a year after I bought my lift). I'm still kicking myself for not picking a set of Max Jacks for around $1600 when they were first available - now around $2300. Then again, Max Jacks would kinda suck in my 1-car garage.

Ian F wrote: My g/f used to love it since it allowed her to raise her cars up a couple of feet for waxing which saved her back.

Dang, now that is a good idea.

Thanks a lot, guys.

MitchellC wrote: I guess the best part about having a relatively small garage, by garagemajal standards, is that you only keep the important stuff. I imagine that a 2000 sq ft place would be much more prone to collecting parts and knick-knackery.

It's very true. It forces you to get realistic about projects BEFORE they've been sitting on blocks for a couple of years. Even so, I've got a few cabinets that are devoted to 'whatever junk or broken tools I'm playing around with right now.' But at least those piles are kept out of sight.

carguy123 wrote: 1) how do you find those tiles. In other words what are they called. 2) that lift is awesome! http://vestilmfg.com/products/ergosol/scissor_lift.htm

Thanks. The tiles were an impulse purchase. They were on sale at Home Depot. They're ceramic, and pretty damn tough. But if I had to do it again, I would probably wait for Lowes' porcelain tiles to go on sale. They're even stronger.

DrBoost wrote: I'm sure you'll get flamed on, but I have to agree. I'll admit that I don't clean up the way I should, but my benches don't have a shine on them, and I'd never have grout on my floor. Ever drip some oil from a diesel? It'll NEVER come out of a tile floors grout lines.

My car has a magnesium transaxle, so there's a steady drip of Swepco gear oil. The engine rebuild also put oil all over the floor. I'm not saying tile is right for everybody, but in my opinion it is MUCH better than concrete. The engine work left permanent oil stains all over my concrete driveway, for example. but the same stuff wipes up with a paper towel in the garage. Pour out a gallon of oil? Cleans up with nothing but rags. You would never know it was ever there.

On the grout issue, some guys use epoxy grout or sealer. I'm way too cheap for that. My idea was to... buy some dark brown grout. It's already the color of an oil stain. It can't stain any more. (What's the old story about NASA and the million-dollar zero-gravity pen and the Russian approach of just using a pencil?)

Mental wrote: I actually cut the 2 page picture of that garage from a lesser magazine's shot of it and taped it to the bottom of the bunk over mine during my last deployment.

That's a real compliment. Thank you, sir. And thank you for your service.

DoctorBlade wrote: Is that a rotary phone?

It's a 1951 Western Electric 354. Unrestored and kind of beat up -- but those things were built like tanks. I just wired it in and dialed my cell phone. Through the satellite and crystal clear -- much better sound than the regular phones in my house -- and now I never have to remember where in the garage I set down my phone.

dyintorace wrote: Jack - thanks for the answer on the lights and thanks for joining the thread/community! You seem like a true GRM'er!

Thanks. Grassroots is my style, I think. I'm the guy driving down the freeway in his track car doing 80-mph wool tuft tests.

Sky_Render wrote: Neat garage. I really like the lift that goes flush into the floor, even if it isn't compatible with most cars out there. It works perfectly for your Porsche, though!

Yeah, if I needed to work on my other cars as often as the 911, I would have had to come up with a different way to do it. But even a MaxJax takes up so much floor space. This is my lift when it's not in use.

And when there's no car on it, it's a pretty good tile-topped workbench.

Ian F wrote: My g/f used to love it since it allowed her to raise her cars up a couple of feet for waxing which saved her back.

I never wax, honestly. But I understand a lot of girlfriends do that now. (Ha! I'm a comedian!)

Actually, having even 36" of vertical lift is great for changing brake pads and also cleaning off brake dust and stuff. I'm really surprised how often I'm lifting the car up on it.

JackOlsen wrote: I never wax, honestly. But I understand a lot of girlfriends do that now. (Ha! I'm a comedian!) Actually, having even 36" of vertical lift is great for changing brake pads and also cleaning off brake dust and stuff. I'm really surprised how often I'm lifting the car up on it.

It's also useful for just standing back and smiling at what you have.

Awesome setup, beautiful car, great attitude. Thanks for sharing with us!

Love it. It looks like an OR from the 60s. I'd work on the car wearing scrubs.

Damn... are you single?

You're out of luck...Jack and his wife just had their second child.

That's a cool garage, its got everything that i ever wanted in mine. I am not able to believe that someone can manage so many things inside such a garage. Thanks for sharing such an awesome garage.