One thing that I bought a few years ago but never installed was a
GarageSmart Basic Lifter. While my
previous setup worked, I was never really a fan of the 220lb hoist that I bought simply because it moved a bit too quickly for me making it somewhat difficult to precisely lower my hardtop back onto the car. The GarageSmart unit has a 50 lbs lifting capacity but doubles to 100 lbs if you loop it back up because of how pulleys work (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2w3NZzPwOM). That's more than enough headroom given my hardtop only weights around 25lbs and the extra hardware that makes up the hoist, maybe no more than 5lbs more.
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| New hardtop hoist installed |
I kept the rest of my old setup with the only minor change of shortening the cables as much as I could since I only have a 7.5ft to of clearance to work with. The engineered beam installed last week to help with the roof support perfectly lined up to where I needed the hoist to be so that made quick work of finding a good spot for it. A few lag bolts later and voila, we were back in business. The upside (and maybe downside) of this device is that you operate it using your phone via an app over bluetooth. It's easy to set max and min height for the cable so you can one touch raise and lower it to your desired spots. I would've preferred physical controls though if it was an option.
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| GarageSmart Basic Lifter |
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| Clear and out of the way when not in use |
I also finally brought over my final set of wheels, this time for the GTi. I didn't want to take up more valuable wall space with a tire rack just for 4 wheels so I got a MaxHaul Tire Dolly instead to keep it off the ground and make it easy to move as needed. It fits perfectly next to my other tire racks and doesn't take up a lot of space. The 300lb capacity is more than enough for my needs.
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| MaxHaul Tire Dolly |
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| Found a good spot for the GTi wheels |
The floors are scheduled to be done in the next two weeks so I haven't been able to get my cabinets yet but I was getting frustrated with all the clutter on the floor. I wanted some shelves I could use towards the garage door entrance that wouldn't interfere with fully opening of the car doors or if I need to change wheels one of the cars. These DeWALT shelves fit the bill nicely with only 18" in depth and 4 ft wide, they provided decent shelf space without taking up a big footprint. All the stuff on them will eventually go inside the cabinets though. These are more for oversized tools or spare parts. Of course, there are many manufacturers to choose shelves from but I like to keep my stuff consistent and since I already picked yellow for the tire racks, it was obvious that I need to continue to the black and yellow scheme elsewhere. It's also probably not a coincidence that a guy with a black and yellow car chose to buy black and yellow tools over the years.
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| Getting read to assemble the pair of DeWALT shelves |
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| Assembled with magnetic bin and wire hangers |
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| Both shelves in place |
If you have a keen eye you can probably see some parts for Bumblestook that I need to desperately put on (new brakes, rear hubs and a new thermostat). Poor Bumblestook hasn't been getting any serious action recently because I've been to busy to get that taken care of but hopefully once the garage build settles down, I can get back to actually enjoying the cars. You'll also notice the banners are now behind the garage doors instead of the walls. I realized having those big banners take up valuable wall space didn't make much sense. I thought of an interesting way to make that wall space next to the cars functional while still fulfilling my requirement that nothing get in the way of me being able to open the car doors all the way. That stuff's on the way and will be for the next installment of this series.
