Garage Prep II

Last July (before I wandered to South Carolina for grand kids and stuff), I went to the Cars & Coffee event at the autoplex. This is a wonderful facility located in the western suburbs of Minneapolis. One of the garage owners was kind enough to talk to me about his lifts. He had two Direct Lift four post lifts rated to 8000 pounds. He had a Corvette on each lift and some other cars underneath. (Once you see the Corvettes, what else is there to talk about?)

Front posts will end up against the garage wall.

My garage is deep and it has a 10 foot ceiling. The Boxster is 45 inches tall and the GTM is 42 inches tall. I don't have a lot of room to work with, so I need to leverage the space I have. A four post lift does not have to be bolted to the floor. This is very convenient, especially if you end up moving it.

Rear posts.

My major concern was clearing the garage door hangers. The lift does me no good if it interferes with the garage door. So I spent considerable time measuring the garage, and checking to see if I cleared the garage door. I marked the approximate post locations with chalk, then put wheel chocks as markers (I have a very understanding wife).

Installed and in place.

The lift weighs 1700 pounds. Benco (the Direct Lift distributor for the Midwest) delivered and installed the lift. It was painless. The installers told me that they have put lifts in smaller spaces than my garage, and it wasn't unusual to see one of these in a residential setting.

I also ordered an in line jack for the lift. This is a hydraulic jack that can extend to the car's jacking points and lift vehicle while on the lift. There is an additional plate that will support the car's weight where I use for tools, jack stands and supplies. In addition, there are plastic drip plates that can be spread so your super cool sports car doesn't do anything unpleasant to your other super cool sports car parked below.

I have the system plugged into the same 110 VAC outlet used for the garage door opener. It is a closed system that operates on hydraulics and inch thick cables. It doesn't go up and down real fast, but would you really want to be lifting your pampered petrol burner really fast?

These ramps are detachable. They work fine for low profile vehicles, and my Boxster with the  GT3 style front is very low profile.

The plan is to put the GTM on the lift. Use the bay underneath to park the Boxster or the Camry. Before the GTM arrives, I hope to get the Swisstrax floor installed.

I can take the lift to maximum height with the Boxster on top, and I can stand under the car without feeling like I'm about to smash my noggin on something.

The four post lift is not a requirement for the build. However, I think it makes the project more doable. I have spent the last couple of years flat on my back, working on the Corvette and Boxster using a combination of Race Ramps and jack stands. It was extraordinary to examine the bottom of the car from this perspective. Things that seemed incredibly awkward now are very straight forward and easy to accomplish. I need that edge to help make the GTM project a success.