Track insurance bro.
Very cool!
Jack Olsen, welcome to NYSpeed. I post on GarageJournal and have certainly noticed your green getaway. :tup:
X…
Jack, how did you find us on here anyways if you don’t mind me asking?
Glad you’ve found us, sir. welcome!
+1 and welcome!
Thanks, guys. I found this site because the hosting software for [tells me where people are visiting from. About a week ago, ‘nyspeed’ started showing up again and again, so I clicked on the link and saw this thread. The site doesn’t give me any more information than that – and just to be clear, I don’t make any money or anything when people go to the site. It’s just there for information.
Absolutely. For hundreds of pictures of the build itself, you can wade through the [url=The 12-Gauge Garage | The Garage Journal]big thread](www.12-gaugegarage.com0the garage web page[/url) at the Garage Journal. But here’s a description of putting in the lift.
First off, it’s not really a lift at all. It’s a Vestil hydraulic lift table. They’re made in Indiana for use in warehouse/industrial settings. The company doesn’t make automotive lifts, but it’s built for a heavier duty cycle than an automotive lift, and has some OSHA-mandated safety features that automotive lifts lack. That said, I don’t think it would make sense for most guys other than me, since the solid 48"x48" top means you have to use blocks if you want to access stuff right in the middle of the car. In my case, that wasn’t an issue, since an early 911 (like the early VW bugs) just has a steel belly pan where it contacts the lift. I can access all four wheels, the engine, transaxle, half shafts and exhause without obstruction on this lift. But if I put any of my other cars on it, it’s not sp ideal.
The other reason not to use it is that it’s more expensive than a consumer-level automotive lift. But I saw this one on Ebay, and it got my brain going on how it might work perfectly for my old 911, and also be something I could bury in the floor of my garage so that I wasn’t tripping over it when it wasn’t in use. I spoke to a few different engineers (including my father) about whether it would work, and also did some tests on my car to find the actual balancing point – and how that point would move when I pulled the engine or took apart the front end.
All my research pointed to the idea being viable.
So I bid on it and got it for $455. Even with the cost of tool rental, concrete and replacement tiles, I was only out a total of $670 by the time I was finished. I rented a truck from Home Depot to take the thing home.
Initially, I think I was motivated more than anything by the challenge of seeing if I could make it work. Aside from the question of whether it was an appropriate tool for this application, I had also never cut concrete, or set forms and mixed and poured the stuff.
A week of wondering what the heck I’d done, and then:
I got a lot of advice from professionals, and managed to not embarrass myself. And now that it’s in place, I’m really amazed by how often it comes in handy. I’ve had the engine out of the car twice – but it’s also handy every time I need to just do a basic brake/suspension/nut check before a track day.
And it allowed me to make this awesomely cheesy video.
And here’s an illustration of how I keep costs low by using a lot of second-hand and bruised-and-damaged stuff to put the garage together. My main bench started out as this 60"-tall Equipto cabinet, which had some sheet metal separation where a thief (or owner who’d lost the keys) tried to force it open along its vertical column.
I wanted a nice top on this bench, so I sprung for a piece of oak butcher block from Ikea. Much cheaper there than at commercial lumber/supply places. Still, if I’d had more time, I would have waited to find a second hand piece of butcher block, like the one on the bench this piece is leaning against.
The first thing I did was to cut the Equipto cabinet in half. The only problem was that it was a nine-drawer unit, so ‘half’ was going to be a 4/5 split.
But that gave me an idea. I knew I was going to have a vise on the bench, and I knew the handle would interfere with a drawer opening and closing. So I figured I’d have to put in a false face where that drawer would have been, but the space there could be used for my air hose reel, if it could be mounted sideways.
First I made a base for the reel:
Then I mounted the thing sideways. I was worried about sag, but it worked great.
I didn’t want to be bumping into the chair whenever I walked past the bench, so I cut a little inset into the oak top. I also added some small drawers on the top, and cut into the wall to use the (uninsulated) space there so the drawers would eat up less of the bench top.
For a chair, I found an old adjustable InterRoyal on Ebay and reupholstered it with leather left over from when I did the interior of the Porsche.
I picked up a 39-year-old drill press cheap and cleaned it up. I chopped its column and changed it from a floor model to a bench top model.
Cleaned up and painted a second-hand vise, too.
You might notice that I use a color of paint until it’s all gone. The drawer handles, vise, drill press, chair and even that outlet strip are all the same shade of Rustoleum Anodized Bronze.
There’s even a coffee-cup warmer on the top. I added a 3-hour automatic shut-off so it wouldn’t cook an old cup of coffee overnight.
Here’s the finished product. I also added a magnifying lamp (also cleaned up and painted) because my eyes aren’t as young as they once were.
Before this, I didn’t have a bench where I could sit while working. It’s nice to have the option when you’re focusing on one thing for a long time and want good light and a way to save yourself a little back pain.
The Lista tool cabinet to the right of it is also kind of unique – I took two damaged 45" units and welded them together into one slightly-taller-than stock full sizer.
You can see I set the tall one about an inch farther back for a little more pull-out room. I did it by cutting the pegboard and the plywood behind it back to the studs.
Very cool, lots of attention to detail that can be missed at first glance :tup:
Just surfed through the entire post… and it’s fantastic work there, all around.
One thing that stuck in my head though was having to adjust the suspension/remove the front splitter while using floor jacks and lying on the floor… and then seeing the lift to pull the wheel!!! I mean, why not use the lift for the whole thing? It didn’t seem like the lift blocked too much of the suspension…
Thanks.
In the Petrolicious video, I’m in a track garage when I’m taking off the aero pieces with a floor jack. If I were home, the car would have been up on the lift.
The actual story on that footage in the video is that I was testing a lighter-weight set of uprights I’d made for the wing that day – and they were too light; they collapsed in the third driving session. That’s why some of the footage at the track has the car running with no wing or splitter and some footage shows the car with all the gear on. I’ve since switched to a different alloy and a slightly different design for the uprights, and the new set has held up fine. The collapse of the set on that day was captured (its shadow, at least) in this video clip.
Good thead and amazing car/garage. i love well documented and custom builds like this to drool over.
a 911 is one of my dream cars. i gotta get one someday
This is I feel about my mcoupe. Except instead of fine tuning the suspension over time, I’m more concerned with burn outs and loud exhaust tickets.
jack,
Definitely cool to see you on the site, i really enjoyed watching your video and love the car. Just curious what kind of power are you making and where are you at weight wise? pretty awesome if your times at willow are over 3 sec faster than a zr1 and gtr driven by steve millen.
Thanks. I have no idea of the veracity/credibility/whatever of that web site and its list. Lots of guys are faster than me at Willow.
My car makes 272 hp at the crank, and weighs 2700 pounds with me in it.
Great that you found our site here, Jack. Welcome.
Could this be the start of NYspeeders caring as much about their work spaces as they do about their cars…? I know I’m getting there.
X…
Old age
I’ve been there for quite some time now…cars can come and go, but a killer workspace is def. need for a car freak…
Holy God…