My tandem garage.

[Thruxton]

Glad this was resurrected- what a great garage! Great conception, great work, great collection!

 

[Fatandre]

Great garage. Show us more!!

 

[tskills10]

The white car is a 1954 Porsche speedster. There were 200 hand built cars made in early to late '54. This car is the last one made, number 200.
The original motor is still running strong, although it's been re-built several times. It's a 1500 cc motor. We restored this car from 2001 to 2004 removing every nut, bolt, screw and piece and completing restoring each original piece with original plating, painting, etc. It's a lot of fun to drive. We put about 3,000 miles on it every year! We've owned the car since 1982.

The silver car is a 1954 Porsche sunroof coupe with green interior. Just completed the restoration like the speeder above. Restored from 2005 to 2009, we've owned this car since 1993. It's a 1600 cc super motor. The motor is original, but I've built a hot rod motor that doubles the horsepower to about 135 hp. I know not very much hp, but these cars are light and well balanced. Special gearbox gearing and lightweight wheels help the handling.
No track racing, but it goes like hell in the twisty curves.

The signs and stuff are mostly from Europe, twenty plus years and still collecting. Yep, addicted and out of my mind!

The garage looks great, not very big but very organized. I like decor. As for the cars, if you were ordering parts from stoddard back in '88 I probably filled your order for shipping to you.

 

[356vintage]

Yep, was buying parts at Stoddard back then.
1988 seems like so long ago. Hey it is! 24 years ago!

Thanks for the kudos about the garage. Drooling over some bigger space though. Have too much stuff and can't even display it all.

Rich

 

[tskills10]

Not being an import kind of guy, when I got the job at Stoddard. But being a gearhead, I gained an appreciation for the Porsche's. They had quite the place and some of the cars they had there at the time were impressive.

I understand the need for a bigger place, I'm in the same boat. I can't get more then 1 car into my 2 car garage. So come winter time my camaro is in the garage so I can't work on any other cars. Look forward to seeing pics of the new place when you get it. Also the before and after pics are impressive. The house looks so much better after the work.

 

[pmiranda]

Sorry to drag this up from last year, but I searched around and couldn't find the answer... does the single-post lift require the ceiling to carry some side load, or is all the load in the slab connection? That looks like a fantastic idea and I'm driving through the town where Gemini is located later this month...

 

[80WTI_55_CHEV]

This is a sweet setup, everything about it says stylish.

 

[jr_mints]

Really nice, one of my favorites!

 

[BSAschields]

subscribed

 

[zac]

Sorry to drag this up from last year...

Don't be sorry, I had never seen this Nice garage, and the 356 is my dream car


Thank you

 

[kfainf]

Thanks for bringing this one back up! Don't know how I missed it before. Love the garage and the cars. Excellent!

 

[Boostmeister]

What a great space, really nice feel, Love the main doors and the plants either side. Oh and the 356's

 

[356vintage]

The slab in the open beam (ceiling) section of the garage is 5" thick. The 8' ceiling section is 4" thick. I wanted to take caution in securing the lift to the floor with longer bolts. The slab is reinforced with #4 bars (1/2" re-bar) @ 18" o.c. each direction. The slab curred for about 4 months before I drilled and epoxied the anchor bolts to the slab. While it was curring I did other stuff like electrical, lighting, hvac, drywall and epoxy floor finishing. (I say "I" but I didn't do the electrical).

The manufacturer of the lift said a 4" slab would be adequate and it came with 3/4" bolts to hold it down. But, I live in earthquake country and decided a thicker slab with the epoxy holding longer 3/4" bolts would be better. I'm not an engineer and others in the know may disagree, but it just seemed better to me.

I do have one minor regret however. After being on GJ and seeing other solutions, I should a, would a, could a, have recessed the slab to set the base of the lift flush into the gargage floor. It's not a problem as the 356 drives over the lift base easily. Would be nice to simply drive in without the bump.

Thanks for the kind words about the garage.

Rich

 

[356vintage]

pmiranda,
Sorry I didn't answer your question directly.
There is no requirement for a structural connection on the side.
It bolts directly to the floor.

Rich

 

[2-0turbo]

What can you tell me about the carriage doors? I absolutely love hem and they look very substantial. I'll be building my detached shop next year and plan on making REAL carriage doors for it. Any info you've got, or additional pictures would be helpful.

And , any info on the Seattle arage door guys? I googled that exactly and couldn't find ,uch of anything that related to carriage doors. Many thanks.

 

[madoc1]

beautiful garage! love the cave like look. is this the rear of the house? the original looked awfully plain.

jim

 

[356vintage]

I made these doors out of western red cedar. The frame members are mortised and tenoned 2 1/2" x 5". Used gorilla glue. Be careful of this stuff, it gets everywhere. The cladding is 1x6 t&g attached to the frame.
Hinges are 6x6 ball bearing with the straps welded to the hinge knuckles.
They seem to work just fine. Built the doors about 9 years ago. Still swings nice.

Been looking into a 'swing out' garage door opener and like the one Real Carriage Doors offers. The doors aren't opened everyday, mostly on weekends when I'm doing something on the cars or guys come over for a visit. Opening them by hand hasn't really been an issue, but openers would be nice.

The garage is at the rear of our home. There is an 'ally' behind us that allows access. When we bought the house, it was a mess. Previous owner tried to fix it up, but it just didn't get there. We took the entire house apart, left the exterior walls and some interior arched ceilings, but basically re-plumbed, wired, are structurally upgraded the place. Most fun was the garage. It's an addition, maxed out in square footage allowable in our city. We can build 50% of the square footage of the lot size. As others have said on the forum......I too need more space. Starting to feel too small.

Thanks for the interest.

Rich

 

[BSAschields]

Is that a trumpet vine growing around the door? (my wife wants to know)

 

[356vintage]

The vine around the garage doors is Bougainvillea. Doesn't need much care, hearty plant, blooms nice almost year around. Somewhat dormit in the winter but beginning to bloom now. I'll update the photos this weekend.

Rich

 

[metalhead140]

Thread from the dead, but I have to comment. Awesome garage and cars!

 

[4xdog]

Very nice to see this one again, Rich. One of my very favorites.

 

[jethro29]

welcome and great space.

 

[stoffels]

great garage, fantastic cars

 

[atisvt99]

Annnnd, I'm going to bring this one back up again! Love the garage, the cars, the lift! I'm going to call Gemini tomorrow - hopefully they are still in business.

Hey Rich, do you have any updated pictures since it's been a few years??

Again, beautiful setup (and house!)... thanks again for sharing, almost 8 years ago

 

[sean Buick 76]

Wow super cool!!!

 

[ODIS]

Beautiful garage space and have always admired this garage and your cars from other sources as well.

Trust you are in good health and wish you many happy miles with the 356. KTF!

 

[356vintage]

Thanks ODIS!

Since the last photos I've sold the '59 silver coupe and replaced it with an early 911. Caught the 911 bug a couple of years ago and replaced one of the 356's with a '69 Targa. Lot's of fun to drive!

 

[atisvt99]

Excellent! Glad to hear things are going well and you've got some new p-cars in the garage! I just talked to Mitch @ Gemini this morning... I'll probably be doing the GSP 4.5 here one of these days soon... I know you said yours was modified a bit, to fit, but did you do the 4.5 or the 7 model?

Thanks again for the update...

- justin

 

[356vintage]

Justin,
I have the GSP 4.5 only because I didn't have enough ceiling height in the garage to have the taller version. I'd go for more head height under the car. Sometimes I need to move my head to the side to get under the lift. And......of course I've hit it more than just once.
Obviously not hard enough to make me think about not doing it again.