The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Drivers Lounge → Your dream Garage
Not talking about the cars in it, I am talking about the space.
For me it is a 4 bay garage with a 15" ceiling, 3 standard doors and one 14 x 12 door, and the whole structure has to be 32' deep. Loft apartment above. Two post lift and I-beam hoist in the tall bay.. Fully insulated, heated slab, AC and compressed air around the perimeter. 220V 3-Phase on its own meter.
Simple but comprehensive.
I really want a big garage with a little house attached to it.
I don't need a lot of people-space to get filthy and gross. I just need a little I can pile my Puffalumps in.
L-shaped four-car garage with two double-doors. That'd give room for a random fifth little car in the bend, which would rule. Tall enough for lifts, but maybe cleverly angle the roof so it doesn't look like "O HAI, SUPER OBVIOUS 'SPENSIVE LIFT GARAGE" back there.
And like, 1,000 square feet of peoplecrap space attached to the front. Seriously.
I would fill that up with all the busted Porsches I could afford. Awwww yus. Maybe a VW or two.
My neighbor just built a new 30x40 with Gabriel l roof and 12 foot ceilings and full room on the above man floor. He also put his compressor on the back of the building in a separate enclosure for noise control. Nice structure but more than I want to spend.
1200 sq. ft., 12 ft. to rafters, office, mezzanine, 10,000 lb. two post, 6000 in ground single, alignment pins in floor, pallet racking to ceiling, 200 amp service, and VICIOUS attack dogs!
The only way to build slow cars fast.
^^^this. Please, this.
All I want for Christmas.
42x100 with three 16' tall doors, and four 10' doors, at least a couple lifts, paint booth, wash bay, and a mezzanine style loft involving a lot of sound deadening, and lots of sleeping space so work/party/Lemons can happen on a semi regular occurrence. Most importantly, it'll have a pair of 24/2 listeroid stationary engines running on WVO/grease/atf/oil/etc powering everything via a 30kW genny, including waste heat reclamation via exhaust/water heat exchanger, and the ability to feed into the grid and spin my meter in reverse. Hey, we can dream, can't we?
may have to keep the listers in a secondary shed, along with other "off grid" features, and air compressor to keep sound levels down.
note: this will never happen unless I somehow manage to find/win/steal/etc a "fuck you" level of currency.
As long as we're dreaming: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c … r_No_2.jpg
Moffett Field blimp hangar? I went in one once...unbelievable amount of sheer inside space.
My axiom for a shop is: stuff/junk will accumulate to fill the shop and then some.
I had level space limitations, living on a hillside. Never the less, I managed to erect a 30x60. It has insulation, 15kw diesel genny, 2 12' doors, mezzanine, 60 gal compressor with 2 50' hose reels, 10k 2 post, sat tv, barrel wood stove, and a million dollar view.
The trailer will pass through the lift.
I pretty much have my dream garage. It's an old 1890's horse stable, been in the family since new. Right side is the lift bay that was added in the 80's. Past the car-port is the parts/compressor room. Middle/left area is the general work area. Can hold 4-5 cars (left most two bays, then two stacked on the lift), then another under the carport. It's been slowly evolving for decades. We just add little touches as we have time/money/ideas. For example, the monitor mount is made out of old BMW hood hinges. I love quirky details. It's a pretty meaningful place to me.
An album from random time periods:
40'x60' with two roll-up doors on each 40' end of the building, making two pass-throughs at the outer edges and bays along the middle. One pass-through for parking a Skoolie, the other for other traffic in and out. 4 bays and a paint booth down the middle. Second and third bays have two-post lifts and air/110v drops.
I left my dream garage in Mass, 30'x50', 3 story barn with an L shaped second floor that left room for a 2 post lift. Bought the property with the existing barn, attached a house to it such that you could move cars (no gas in them!) from the garage into the basement of the house via a passageway under the breezeway that attached the house to the barn.
Moved to Ca, ended up dealing with a commute from Gilroy so I could have something fun and reasonable. 36'x60' horse barn that I'm in the process of converting to a proper garage. Middle bay goes all the way through, adding garage doors to the front so I can roll more cars in where the stalls used to be. The lift is already in, 80 gallon air compressor in an attached outbuilding, it's slowly coming along.
Love it out here in California, no need for heated floors. The worst part of the garage back east was getting it up to a working temp during the winter. I had a 110,000 BTU kerosene space heater, the fumes didn't bother me but they did bother a couple of my team mates. On a really cold day it took an hour or so to get the place comfortable.
Life is good!
bs
I now have a garage! For the first time in my life I have a garage to call my own! Eight hundred thirty fully-enclosed square feet! With electricity! I've even moved some stuff into it! So dreamy.
Oh, and I also now own a house.
I now have a garage! For the first time in my life I have a garage to call my own!
Just wait until your wife finds that her stuff can go into the garage also. 
Just wait until your wife finds that her stuff can go into the garage also.
I choose neither to confirm nor to deny that the non-vehicular stuff in the background is hers. And that it went in first.
5000 sq ft and tall enough to double stack. That should be almost enough room.
are we talking true dream lottery winnings garage, or realistic garage? Because money no option I'm buying an old car dealership with a service center. Tons of bays, lifts, storage space, work space, show room to convert into living space, it's been my dream for years.
Realistic I need to buy an old farm house with a huge barn (I do live in New England after all). Large barn with concrete floors, a lift, and a loft for storage would be perfect.
On top of building terrible race cars I also work on motorcycles. I own 4 in various states of running/piles of parts. I need lots of space for motorcycle projects as well.
Here's a rare glimpse into the single bay garage I have right now. This was before i cleaned out a little more so you could walk around most of it again. But this space houses 3 motorcyles currently, work bench, all my tools, spare engines, tons of spare parts, wheels. etc etc etc. I build cars in my driveway in the elements. 
The only way to build slow cars fast.
The only way to build slow cars QUICKLY. Sorry, typo.
Just about have it full now. (It's a foreclosure, so we have some work to do - including pressure washing the north-facing siding.)
When I was looking for a house I found one with the perfect garage. The house number was even my old SCCA racing number to boot. The garage had room for 6 cars, high ceilings/roof, partially insulated, and equipped with lots of religious items. The religious items wouldn't have seemed strange if the house didn't also have a spa room with old school shag carpet and a mirrored ceiling.
Just about have it full now. (It's a foreclosure, so we have some work to do - including pressure washing the north-facing siding.)
location? want to store one of my cars for a couple bucks a month?!
Yeah, if I never had to worry about selling the place, I would just do what a former co-worker in Tulsa did. He built a huge commercial metal building with a "loft". It was about 2400 sq ft of 8' or better ceiling height in the loft and he made his home in 2/3'rds of it and his business office int he other third. Still had 14' ceilings downstairs.
He had a side business of making "imitation Italian exotics". This meant there were anywhere between 0-4 Fiero's or tube-frame chassis' in the works at any one time. The plan was to make this his full time business eventually but he was still running the family's wrecker/repo business in the interim.
He still had room for a paint booth capable of taking a 40' RV, a two post lift and a party corner (about 1200 sq ft) with an all electric brewery in it that I built him. Except for his hillbilly heroine habit, I envied the man.
40'x60' with two roll-up doors on each 40' end of the building, making two pass-throughs at the outer edges and bays along the middle. One pass-through for parking a Skoolie, the other for other traffic in and out. 4 bays and a paint booth down the middle. Second and third bays have two-post lifts and air/110v drops.
And an enormous anti-scrapbooking robot to ensure that the shop remains a shop? 
It may not look like it, but I clean out my garage at least once a year. Then, by fall, my creative ambitions have re-filled it.
Dream small.
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Drivers Lounge → Your dream Garage
