Driveshaft Safety Loop

[digithead]

Question for all. I was talking with a local mechanic about adding a driveshaft safety loop at front end of driveshaft. He said on the convertible

Mustang I didnt need it because on the rag top there is a stiffening brace of some sort across the body that would serve the same purpose?

I dont have a lift and quite honest can't see under there well enough. Anyone have a picture of underside that explains this ?  

I had planned on getting the bolt on type loops.

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

He is partially correct, the stiffening plate that runs across the bottom side of the tunnel will catch a driveshaft with a broken U joint, but if it snaps the front joint, then the shaft will continue to rotate while the car rolls to a stop. It can easily come thru the floor and kill you, but the car won't pole vault.

Make sure if you bolt one in that you bolt it to something solid, not just floor sheet metal.

 

[87fox72mach]

Do you plan on racing this car? Seems extreme if it's just a cruiser

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I can tell you it will shake your teeth out if it does break or come loose. I was going down the interstate doing about 65 mph in my 1950 Ford in about 1970. I heard something hit the floor board and then all H%&& broke loose. One of the retainer clips on the front U joint came out and then the cap came out so there is like 1/4" play in the joint. It flopped around and then came apart. The emergency brake cables were the only thing that saved me. The driveshaft flopping around under there broke the cast iron tail shaft on the 3 speed transmission. It shook the car so hard it popped the hood latch but safe catch caught it. It blurred my vision it shook the car so violently.

The plate your mechanic is talking about is pretty beefy, 3/16" thick maybe with 6 I believe 5/16" bolts holding it up to the floor. It would sure help.

In the 60's before they required the safety loop on race cars a friend of mine flipped his car end over end three times and he woke up in the hospital. Front came loose and shaft stuck in asphalt and pole vaulted the car into the air probably doing 80 mph on a circle track.

I am putting a loop on my 72 Q vert along with a 6 point roll bar since I will be on road coarse and drag strip with it. Will also have a scatter shield over the flex plate torque converter. I have seen flywheels come through the floor, dash and out the windshield. Also cut the steering column and headers into. He was lucky did not loose a leg or foot. It was a new bone stock 289 K code at the Asheville drag strip.

If you ever have one come loose or break you will remember it.

The pictures are of a parts car I was tearing down. Exhaust was also tucked in the tunnel and PO had put to spacers under the plate to clear the pypes exhaust system. Does not show all but you can see partial.

David

 

[Hemikiller]

Do you plan on racing this car? Seems extreme if it's just a cruiser

I had the same thoughts. Unless you plan on thrashing this car weekly on the strip, it's really not needed.

 

[Stanglover]

I just do regular inspections of the U joints at least once a season along with a good general once over. Not to say the U joints won't break at some point, but at least I checked for wear and tear. My car usually does about 1500 miles a season, but I do on occasion drive her hard.

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

If you ever do burnouts or hard launches without a safety loop, you are taking a risk. With stock street tires and power levels the risk is low, with sticky tires and an extra 100 horsepower over factory, and a stock driveline the risk is very real. Since building to the 4-500 horsepower level is pretty common these days I encourage people to upgrade yokes and U joints and use a safety loop. If you just cruise nice and refined like and you don't want to be bothered, then don't

 

[87fox72mach]

I think k put heavy duty u joints on mine. I don't launch it or usually do burnouts but I get on it once and a while. It's an interesting read to hear people's horror stories

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

I sheared my front u joint and had a safety loop-it banged the hell out of stuff. I now have chrome moly yokes on both ends and 1350 u joints on a 3.5 driveshaft and stronger safety loop on both ends- check this out



It is all chrome moly steel and welded up by a very talented welder. It was so pretty I clear coated it to show off his work.

 

[digithead]

I can tell you it will shake your teeth out if it does break or come loose. I was going down the interstate doing about 65 mph in my 1950 Ford in about 1970. I heard something hit the floor board and then all H%&& broke loose. One of the retainer clips on the front U joint came out and then the cap came out so there is like 1/4" play in the joint. It flopped around and then came apart. The emergency brake cables were the only thing that saved me. The driveshaft flopping around under there broke the cast iron tail shaft on the 3 speed transmission. It shook the car so hard it popped the hood latch but safe catch caught it. It blurred my vision it shook the car so violently.

The plate your mechanic is talking about is pretty beefy, 3/16" thick maybe with 6 I believe 5/16" bolts holding it up to the floor. It would sure help.

In the 60's before they required the safety loop on race cars a friend of mine flipped his car end over end three times and he woke up in the hospital. Front came loose and shaft stuck in asphalt and pole vaulted the car into the air probably doing 80 mph on a circle track.

I am putting a loop on my 72 Q vert along with a 6 point roll bar since I will be on road coarse and drag strip with it. Will also have a scatter shield over the flex plate torque converter. I have seen flywheels come through the floor, dash and out the windshield. Also cut the steering column and headers into. He was lucky did not loose a leg or foot. It was a new bone stock 289 K code at the Asheville drag strip.

If you ever have one come loose or break you will remember it.

The pictures are of a parts car I was tearing down. Exhaust was also tucked in the tunnel and PO had put to spacers under the plate to clear the pypes exhaust system. Does not show all but you can see partial.

David

Thank you! Awesome pixs thats just what I was hoping for. Now tell me you have your own lift in your garage! Thats my next big purchase, except I have to build a new garage to house the new lift. This car is getting expensive.

 

[digithead]

Do you plan on racing this car? Seems extreme if it's just a cruiser

No I dont. But I have 475HP now and do enjoy a few good burnouts. If you scroll down you will see others that have seen what happens when you burn out.

If you snap front you can try to pole vault.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I can tell you it will shake your teeth out if it does break or come loose. I was going down the interstate doing about 65 mph in my 1950 Ford in about 1970. I heard something hit the floor board and then all H%&& broke loose. One of the retainer clips on the front U joint came out and then the cap came out so there is like 1/4" play in the joint. It flopped around and then came apart. The emergency brake cables were the only thing that saved me. The driveshaft flopping around under there broke the cast iron tail shaft on the 3 speed transmission. It shook the car so hard it popped the hood latch but safe catch caught it. It blurred my vision it shook the car so violently.

The plate your mechanic is talking about is pretty beefy, 3/16" thick maybe with 6 I believe 5/16" bolts holding it up to the floor. It would sure help.

In the 60's before they required the safety loop on race cars a friend of mine flipped his car end over end three times and he woke up in the hospital. Front came loose and shaft stuck in asphalt and pole vaulted the car into the air probably doing 80 mph on a circle track.

I am putting a loop on my 72 Q vert along with a 6 point roll bar since I will be on road coarse and drag strip with it. Will also have a scatter shield over the flex plate torque converter. I have seen flywheels come through the floor, dash and out the windshield. Also cut the steering column and headers into. He was lucky did not loose a leg or foot. It was a new bone stock 289 K code at the Asheville drag strip.

If you ever have one come loose or break you will remember it.

The pictures are of a parts car I was tearing down. Exhaust was also tucked in the tunnel and PO had put to spacers under the plate to clear the pypes exhaust system. Does not show all but you can see partial.

David

Thank you! Awesome pixs thats just what I was hoping for. Now tell me you have your own lift in your garage! Thats my next big purchase, except I have to build a new garage to house the new lift. This car is getting expensive.

LOL, Yes I do have a 2 post lift. When I retired lots of die shops were bugging me about coming to work for them in engineering. I picked one in China and went there for one year. If you are an Xpat and stay out of the U.S. for I think 340 days out of a year your taxes go to minimal. I would make several times what I could in the U.S., they pay extremely good in China. I came home and built a 4,000 sq. ft. garage with 6" of insulation, insulated doors and windows, a separate insulated work room. I got a rotisserie, hyd. press, brake lathe and already had lots of tools. So I play in the garage when I want, listen to 70's rock as loud as I want, goof off when I want and just have fun.

Never put anything off that you can do today and live life hard and fast.

On the subject of not needing the driveshaft loop. When I drove my Mach 1 I went over 100 mph every day. I did burn outs every day. I slid sideways into curbs a couple times and almost rolled the car. I had to change the ball joints 2 times in 12,000 miles. I broke 3 rear u joints in 3 months. My old hot rod 1950 Ford I broke 16 transmissions, many axles, driveshafts and ripped clutches out. Knock on wood I never have blown an engine I know when to change gears and when to stop revving.

My next build will have extra HSS plate added to the rocker boxes and will have a 6 point roll cage, a scatter shield and shoulder harness. It will have driveshaft loop. I intend to drive the car extremely hard and I do not want to destroy it or me for the lack of a few hundred dollars worth of parts and some metal. I am 70 and I will never drive slow or take it easy on a car. If you crash in one of these cars keep in mind that probably at least 50% of the thickness of the metal has rusted away in many critical areas and the bodies are very weak. In a crash as they are you do not stand a chance. Google some of the crashes. There is one of a camaro that was doing some high speed runs in a controlled environment and crashed. The roll bars even folded but they took the safety harness off and got out. If you hit another car on the road head on and you and they are both going 65 it is like hitting a wall at 130 and you will die without added equipment.

Now me I feel paying insurance is a waste of money and have none on home or garage. If they can pay thousands of salaries, have huge fancy buildings and million dollar salaries for the top dogs I should come out ahead to not buy it. But I do believe in real insurance like the roll bar and safety loop because that is going to happen just you never know when.

BTW I wish the garage was 6,000 sq. ft..

When I rode a motorcycle I always wore helmet, boots and good jacket. I remember very distinctly the sound of that helmet scraping on the pavement and not my skull when I went down once. The jacket had holes in it and I had some rash but came out ok. I decided I would kill myself early if I kept the bike so I sold it, back in 1980 I think.

David

 

[digithead]

I can tell you it will shake your teeth out if it does break or come loose. I was going down the interstate doing about 65 mph in my 1950 Ford in about 1970. I heard something hit the floor board and then all H%&& broke loose. One of the retainer clips on the front U joint came out and then the cap came out so there is like 1/4" play in the joint. It flopped around and then came apart. The emergency brake cables were the only thing that saved me. The driveshaft flopping around under there broke the cast iron tail shaft on the 3 speed transmission. It shook the car so hard it popped the hood latch but safe catch caught it. It blurred my vision it shook the car so violently.

The plate your mechanic is talking about is pretty beefy, 3/16" thick maybe with 6 I believe 5/16" bolts holding it up to the floor. It would sure help.

In the 60's before they required the safety loop on race cars a friend of mine flipped his car end over end three times and he woke up in the hospital. Front came loose and shaft stuck in asphalt and pole vaulted the car into the air probably doing 80 mph on a circle track.

I am putting a loop on my 72 Q vert along with a 6 point roll bar since I will be on road coarse and drag strip with it. Will also have a scatter shield over the flex plate torque converter. I have seen flywheels come through the floor, dash and out the windshield. Also cut the steering column and headers into. He was lucky did not loose a leg or foot. It was a new bone stock 289 K code at the Asheville drag strip.

If you ever have one come loose or break you will remember it.

The pictures are of a parts car I was tearing down. Exhaust was also tucked in the tunnel and PO had put to spacers under the plate to clear the pypes exhaust system. Does not show all but you can see partial.

David

Thank you! Awesome pixs thats just what I was hoping for. Now tell me you have your own lift in your garage! Thats my next big purchase, except I have to build a new garage to house the new lift. This car is getting expensive.

LOL, Yes I do have a 2 post lift. When I retired lots of die shops were bugging me about coming to work for them in engineering. I picked one in China and went there for one year. If you are an Xpat and stay out of the U.S. for I think 340 days out of a year your taxes go to minimal. I would make several times what I could in the U.S., they pay extremely good in China. I came home and built a 4,000 sq. ft. garage with 6" of insulation, insulated doors and windows, a separate insulated work room. I got a rotisserie, hyd. press, brake lathe and already had lots of tools. So I play in the garage when I want, listen to 70's rock as loud as I want, goof off when I want and just have fun.

Never put anything off that you can do today and live life hard and fast.

On the subject of not needing the driveshaft loop. When I drove my Mach 1 I went over 100 mph every day. I did burn outs every day. I slid sideways into curbs a couple times and almost rolled the car. I had to change the ball joints 2 times in 12,000 miles. I broke 3 rear u joints in 3 months. My old hot rod 1950 Ford I broke 16 transmissions, many axles, driveshafts and ripped clutches out. Knock on wood I never have blown an engine I know when to change gears and when to stop revving.

My next build will have extra HSS plate added to the rocker boxes and will have a 6 point roll cage, a scatter shield and shoulder harness. It will have driveshaft loop. I intend to drive the car extremely hard and I do not want to destroy it or me for the lack of a few hundred dollars worth of parts and some metal. I am 70 and I will never drive slow or take it easy on a car. If you crash in one of these cars keep in mind that probably at least 50% of the thickness of the metal has rusted away in many critical areas and the bodies are very weak. In a crash as they are you do not stand a chance. Google some of the crashes. There is one of a camaro that was doing some high speed runs in a controlled environment and crashed. The roll bars even folded but they took the safety harness off and got out. If you hit another car on the road head on and you and they are both going 65 it is like hitting a wall at 130 and you will die without added equipment.

Now me I feel paying insurance is a waste of money and have none on home or garage. If they can pay thousands of salaries, have huge fancy buildings and million dollar salaries for the top dogs I should come out ahead to not buy it. But I do believe in real insurance like the roll bar and safety loop because that is going to happen just you never know when.

BTW I wish the garage was 6,000 sq. ft..

When I rode a motorcycle I always wore helmet, boots and good jacket. I remember very distinctly the sound of that helmet scraping on the pavement and not my skull when I went down once. The jacket had holes in it and I had some rash but came out ok. I decided I would kill myself early if I kept the bike so I sold it, back in 1980 I think.

David

Man good for you, you are living the dream!! You're killing me with garage talk. Now post some pictures of garage/shop!  Thats exactly what I want. I am 58 and 2 - separate 2 car garages. I want to tear down the old one and build a REAL shop to tinker in. When I was a kid in 70's I dabbled in painting cars and I want to get back to that. I want to learn to weld too. Good advice from you on living the way you want. Wish we lived close to each other, I'd be down for all the 70's rock too!  I am a luthier and guitar amp tech and work with a lot of cool musicians. Biggest one is Bryan Adams.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Thank you! Awesome pixs thats just what I was hoping for. Now tell me you have your own lift in your garage! Thats my next big purchase, except I have to build a new garage to house the new lift. This car is getting expensive.

LOL, Yes I do have a 2 post lift. When I retired lots of die shops were bugging me about coming to work for them in engineering. I picked one in China and went there for one year. If you are an Xpat and stay out of the U.S. for I think 340 days out of a year your taxes go to minimal. I would make several times what I could in the U.S., they pay extremely good in China. I came home and built a 4,000 sq. ft. garage with 6" of insulation, insulated doors and windows, a separate insulated work room. I got a rotisserie, hyd. press, brake lathe and already had lots of tools. So I play in the garage when I want, listen to 70's rock as loud as I want, goof off when I want and just have fun.

Never put anything off that you can do today and live life hard and fast.

On the subject of not needing the driveshaft loop. When I drove my Mach 1 I went over 100 mph every day. I did burn outs every day. I slid sideways into curbs a couple times and almost rolled the car. I had to change the ball joints 2 times in 12,000 miles. I broke 3 rear u joints in 3 months. My old hot rod 1950 Ford I broke 16 transmissions, many axles, driveshafts and ripped clutches out. Knock on wood I never have blown an engine I know when to change gears and when to stop revving.

My next build will have extra HSS plate added to the rocker boxes and will have a 6 point roll cage, a scatter shield and shoulder harness. It will have driveshaft loop. I intend to drive the car extremely hard and I do not want to destroy it or me for the lack of a few hundred dollars worth of parts and some metal. I am 70 and I will never drive slow or take it easy on a car. If you crash in one of these cars keep in mind that probably at least 50% of the thickness of the metal has rusted away in many critical areas and the bodies are very weak. In a crash as they are you do not stand a chance. Google some of the crashes. There is one of a camaro that was doing some high speed runs in a controlled environment and crashed. The roll bars even folded but they took the safety harness off and got out. If you hit another car on the road head on and you and they are both going 65 it is like hitting a wall at 130 and you will die without added equipment.

Now me I feel paying insurance is a waste of money and have none on home or garage. If they can pay thousands of salaries, have huge fancy buildings and million dollar salaries for the top dogs I should come out ahead to not buy it. But I do believe in real insurance like the roll bar and safety loop because that is going to happen just you never know when.

BTW I wish the garage was 6,000 sq. ft..

When I rode a motorcycle I always wore helmet, boots and good jacket. I remember very distinctly the sound of that helmet scraping on the pavement and not my skull when I went down once. The jacket had holes in it and I had some rash but came out ok. I decided I would kill myself early if I kept the bike so I sold it, back in 1980 I think.

David

Man good for you, you are living the dream!! You're killing me with garage talk. Now post some pictures of garage/shop!  Thats exactly what I want. I am 58 and 2 - separate 2 car garages. I want to tear down the old one and build a REAL shop to tinker in. When I was a kid in 70's I dabbled in painting cars and I want to get back to that. I want to learn to weld too. Good advice from you on living the way you want. Wish we lived close to each other, I'd be down for all the 70's rock too!  I am a luthier and guitar amp tech and work with a lot of cool musicians. Biggest one is Bryan Adams.

Just do not keep putting off for sure.

The garage is a mess all the time I have too many projects always. The actual building is very reasonable I think. If I remember correct the 50' X 80' with 6" insulation 18' eave height with 11 window openings framed and three personal entry doors and two 16' garage openings delivered here was $32,000.

I am lucky enough to be able to do all my own electrical and plumbing. It did have to pass multiple inspections by I believe 5 different inspectors and did so on the first pass each time. I put the walls together for the work room on the floor and put ad on cl for someone to come help stand them up. I built the walls 6" thick but used 2X4 on 12" centers and staggered the studs in and out. That makes the room much more sound proof and has fantastic R value since the inside walls and outside walls do not touch. Can heat with body heat almost. 12" of insulation on two walls and 6" on inside wall and 4 on the wall with door. I kept a lookout at the Habitat and Goodwill stores here and got lots of stuff for nearly nothing. The tile and baseboard for the workroom and more left over was $55.00 for all. I installed the lift myself as long as you have an engine hoist not a problem.

While in China I drew up the garage in AutoCad but upon returning found that I could not do what I wanted. Have garage on ground floor and have second story as and apartment. The fire barriers required were way too expensive. I did put a 3' overhang on the front of the building which makes it look much better.

If you have lots of friends you can put the building up yourself. I hired contractor to do the erection. His record that that size building is 3 days with a crew of 8 men. They had the entire red iron frame up in one day. Of course rain came and slowed the walls and roof down but went really fast. I did lay out the front of the garage to add a 1,000 sq. ft. apartment in the future. All the plumbing and electrical are there for full bath, laundry, kitchen, bedroom and living area. I do wish it was larger.

When I was trying to lay it out I cut to scale pieces of plastic that I put on the ground so I could see the physical size of cars in the area.

I also put home type insulated double pain windows and foam core insulated garage and entry doors that were not part of the building cost.

One big cost adder was fill dirt and site preparation. It was $17,000 for just dirt and packing and prep. If you have a good level site it will cut costs a bunch.

There was 70 yards of concrete in the footings and floor. I do not have a crack anywhere in the floor so they did really good.

I used the builders track hoe to put in the water line, conduit for electrical, and put the drains in for the gutter run off.

The roof of the workroom is also floored and I store parts up there of which I have entirely too many. I put angle bracing all around the ceiling of the work room to increase the load bearing ability. I have a set of attic steps I will put up on the outside of the workroom for easier access. I will put in some pipes for venting before doing any paint. The room is sealed tight with caulking everywhere. I hung the 1/2" X 12' drywall and finished it also. I coated with oil base Kilz and bath and kitchen paint so it can be hosed down. If you put floor drains in they get very strict so I did not. Can even require yearly EPA testing in some cases. I could not put like a grate floor in for future paint booth without getting EPA involved so I did not. Hey not a working shop it is a hobby shop. Not going to paint lots of cars will be lucky for one a year.

My problem now is I have the need to go to Africa and spend some time in the bush which usually leads to months away. I do get house sitter but nothing gets done either. So I might disappear for a few months very soon.

When looking at lifts I could not see a 4 post that just lifts the car so you can jack it up and the ramps are in the way. I use the lift when washing or wiping the car down or doing wax. It came with three year warranty was tested and free shipping and great price is why I got that one I have. I cannot make that decision for you everyone has preference.

I have vapor enclosure LED lights in the work room and LED in the open shop. I did not put lots of lights in the open shop it is more or less a big storage area. Have drop lights when working on lift and workroom is very bright.

I will never get a third of my projects done but not going to stress over it. I have sold 5 cars already and will sell several more. I will pick my battles as best as I can.

When I get tired of working on car I work on garage or home or yard. Always have several projects going.

When I put the electrical in I put a 400 amp meter base with twin 200 amp breaker boxes. Will never need that much but so cheap going in it is there. Bending conduit takes some thinking but the actual wiring is very simple and straight forward.

You can see on the picture dates from bare floor to putting up walls in one day I think 6 on this crew and one was useless, lol.

Cheers,

David

 

[digithead]

LOL, Yes I do have a 2 post lift. When I retired lots of die shops were bugging me about coming to work for them in engineering. I picked one in China and went there for one year. If you are an Xpat and stay out of the U.S. for I think 340 days out of a year your taxes go to minimal. I would make several times what I could in the U.S., they pay extremely good in China. I came home and built a 4,000 sq. ft. garage with 6" of insulation, insulated doors and windows, a separate insulated work room. I got a rotisserie, hyd. press, brake lathe and already had lots of tools. So I play in the garage when I want, listen to 70's rock as loud as I want, goof off when I want and just have fun.

Never put anything off that you can do today and live life hard and fast.

On the subject of not needing the driveshaft loop. When I drove my Mach 1 I went over 100 mph every day. I did burn outs every day. I slid sideways into curbs a couple times and almost rolled the car. I had to change the ball joints 2 times in 12,000 miles. I broke 3 rear u joints in 3 months. My old hot rod 1950 Ford I broke 16 transmissions, many axles, driveshafts and ripped clutches out. Knock on wood I never have blown an engine I know when to change gears and when to stop revving.

My next build will have extra HSS plate added to the rocker boxes and will have a 6 point roll cage, a scatter shield and shoulder harness. It will have driveshaft loop. I intend to drive the car extremely hard and I do not want to destroy it or me for the lack of a few hundred dollars worth of parts and some metal. I am 70 and I will never drive slow or take it easy on a car. If you crash in one of these cars keep in mind that probably at least 50% of the thickness of the metal has rusted away in many critical areas and the bodies are very weak. In a crash as they are you do not stand a chance. Google some of the crashes. There is one of a camaro that was doing some high speed runs in a controlled environment and crashed. The roll bars even folded but they took the safety harness off and got out. If you hit another car on the road head on and you and they are both going 65 it is like hitting a wall at 130 and you will die without added equipment.

Now me I feel paying insurance is a waste of money and have none on home or garage. If they can pay thousands of salaries, have huge fancy buildings and million dollar salaries for the top dogs I should come out ahead to not buy it. But I do believe in real insurance like the roll bar and safety loop because that is going to happen just you never know when.

BTW I wish the garage was 6,000 sq. ft..

When I rode a motorcycle I always wore helmet, boots and good jacket. I remember very distinctly the sound of that helmet scraping on the pavement and not my skull when I went down once. The jacket had holes in it and I had some rash but came out ok. I decided I would kill myself early if I kept the bike so I sold it, back in 1980 I think.

David

Man good for you, you are living the dream!! You're killing me with garage talk. Now post some pictures of garage/shop!  Thats exactly what I want. I am 58 and 2 - separate 2 car garages. I want to tear down the old one and build a REAL shop to tinker in. When I was a kid in 70's I dabbled in painting cars and I want to get back to that. I want to learn to weld too. Good advice from you on living the way you want. Wish we lived close to each other, I'd be down for all the 70's rock too!  I am a luthier and guitar amp tech and work with a lot of cool musicians. Biggest one is Bryan Adams.

Just do not keep putting off for sure.

The garage is a mess all the time I have too many projects always. The actual building is very reasonable I think. If I remember correct the 50' X 80' with 6" insulation 18' eave height with 11 window openings framed and three personal entry doors and two 16' garage openings delivered here was $32,000.

I am lucky enough to be able to do all my own electrical and plumbing. It did have to pass multiple inspections by I believe 5 different inspectors and did so on the first pass each time. I put the walls together for the work room on the floor and put ad on cl for someone to come help stand them up. I built the walls 6" thick but used 2X4 on 12" centers and staggered the studs in and out. That makes the room much more sound proof and has fantastic R value since the inside walls and outside walls do not touch. Can heat with body heat almost. 12" of insulation on two walls and 6" on inside wall and 4 on the wall with door. I kept a lookout at the Habitat and Goodwill stores here and got lots of stuff for nearly nothing. The tile and baseboard for the workroom and more left over was $55.00 for all. I installed the lift myself as long as you have an engine hoist not a problem.

While in China I drew up the garage in AutoCad but upon returning found that I could not do what I wanted. Have garage on ground floor and have second story as and apartment. The fire barriers required were way too expensive. I did put a 3' overhang on the front of the building which makes it look much better.

If you have lots of friends you can put the building up yourself. I hired contractor to do the erection. His record that that size building is 3 days with a crew of 8 men. They had the entire red iron frame up in one day. Of course rain came and slowed the walls and roof down but went really fast. I did lay out the front of the garage to add a 1,000 sq. ft. apartment in the future. All the plumbing and electrical are there for full bath, laundry, kitchen, bedroom and living area. I do wish it was larger.

When I was trying to lay it out I cut to scale pieces of plastic that I put on the ground so I could see the physical size of cars in the area.

I also put home type insulated double pain windows and foam core insulated garage and entry doors that were not part of the building cost.

One big cost adder was fill dirt and site preparation. It was $17,000 for just dirt and packing and prep. If you have a good level site it will cut costs a bunch.

There was 70 yards of concrete in the footings and floor. I do not have a crack anywhere in the floor so they did really good.

I used the builders track hoe to put in the water line, conduit for electrical, and put the drains in for the gutter run off.

The roof of the workroom is also floored and I store parts up there of which I have entirely too many. I put angle bracing all around the ceiling of the work room to increase the load bearing ability. I have a set of attic steps I will put up on the outside of the workroom for easier access. I will put in some pipes for venting before doing any paint. The room is sealed tight with caulking everywhere. I hung the 1/2" X 12' drywall and finished it also. I coated with oil base Kilz and bath and kitchen paint so it can be hosed down. If you put floor drains in they get very strict so I did not. Can even require yearly EPA testing in some cases. I could not put like a grate floor in for future paint booth without getting EPA involved so I did not. Hey not a working shop it is a hobby shop. Not going to paint lots of cars will be lucky for one a year.

My problem now is I have the need to go to Africa and spend some time in the bush which usually leads to months away. I do get house sitter but nothing gets done either. So I might disappear for a few months very soon.

When looking at lifts I could not see a 4 post that just lifts the car so you can jack it up and the ramps are in the way. I use the lift when washing or wiping the car down or doing wax. It came with three year warranty was tested and free shipping and great price is why I got that one I have. I cannot make that decision for you everyone has preference.

I have vapor enclosure LED lights in the work room and LED in the open shop. I did not put lots of lights in the open shop it is more or less a big storage area. Have drop lights when working on lift and workroom is very bright.

I will never get a third of my projects done but not going to stress over it. I have sold 5 cars already and will sell several more. I will pick my battles as best as I can.

When I get tired of working on car I work on garage or home or yard. Always have several projects going.

When I put the electrical in I put a 400 amp meter base with twin 200 amp breaker boxes. Will never need that much but so cheap going in it is there. Bending conduit takes some thinking but the actual wiring is very simple and straight forward.

You can see on the picture dates from bare floor to putting up walls in one day I think 6 on this crew and one was useless, lol.

Cheers,

David

OMG you didnt build a garage or workshop, you made a small car dealership!!!  I cant do it without moving, I live in a small town with Zoning. Now I am on ZOning Board but I dont think it will look good if iI issued a variance to build this in my residential neighborhood!!  So cool. I'm so jealous