I really want to build/restore/restomod an American muscle car, but for someplace to work on it.

I only have a 2 car garage, and I am committed to leaving a spot in it for the wife's car (98% of the time, anyway). The other half of the garage is full of a life's worth of accumulated STUFF, including tools. Lawn equipment, pool supplies, etc. is already in a shed in the back yard. I would have a very difficult time decluttering enough to make the other half of the garage useful for a project car spot.

One concept is a lift/elevator into the attic above the garage, but there's not much headroom up there and it's freaking hot most of the year...

Before looking into the lift idea, I thought I'd ask here... have any of you solved this problem another way? Are there shops out there where you can store your project, schedule time, move it inside to work on, check out specialty tools, etc? That would be awesome, but I don't even know how to start to look for it.

What about a storage unit? Can you work on a car in one? Obviously you'd have to bring a generator to power lights/fan/etc.
Even an outdoor storage spot would work for some stages of a project.

Has anyone here used any of these ideas or found something else that worked?

Motivation for this: I bought a 77 Trans Am a few years ago and housed it at my cousin's place about 45 minutes away. He has acreage and a shop; I parked it outside his shop, and went there to work on it. That wasted 1.5 hours round trip just to get anything done eventually convinced me to flip the car once I got it running (got my money back out of it, basically). I still have the bug, though.

There's definitely DIY garages out there. Not sure about allowing long term storage of a project car.

Here's one in Austin: https://diyatx.com/

With storage units, you'd have to check the rental agreement pretty carefully. I've seen some that allow it. The other option is renting a one bay shop space. I've seen them around me for ~$1200 a month. You'd have to supply your own lift, tools, compressor, etc.

Could you start with something smaller like motorcycles, gokarts, etc to flip and turn into a bigger space to work on things? Pretty soon, you'll be trying to remember which "car storage" you left something in.

We plan to move in a few years when I retire, but for logistical/work commute reasons, aren't ready to make the move yet. There are install-yourself kits out there for a few thousand, which would fit into the project budget. Don't really want to move twice in a short period just to have another garage bay.

I did find https://selfserviceautoshop.com/ with the google machine using "DIY garage san antonio". Not sure why I didn't think of that first.

Thanks for no "here let me Google it for you" replies!

That's another good thought.

Well, sh*t. Now I gotta go to the Home Improvement board...

Be very careful using your garage attic to carry any real weight load. There are plenty of examples of peopl collapsing their garages by overloading the attic space, or trying to use the rafters as a lifting anchor.


If you can afford the rent, just move the stuff into a rental unit and put the car in the garage.

If you have extra yard space, build a second shed.

Have a garage sale

Kick the wife's ride out and make cleanng up the junk her problem

Step 5 ????

Step 6 Profit!

I'm going through this right now because I've got to do some suspension work on my 1999 Expedition that I'm not going to be able to wrap up in an afternoon and I'd like to store it indoors while I've got it disassembled.

Depending what your property is like, you might have unused attic space, an extra bedroom, or you might be able to add a storage shed.

I'd exhaust all of those options before renting space.

We recently took over a storage unit of inherited stuff from a family member and it was like $230/month. Got rid of that expense quickly by moving it all to a spare bedroom.

EskimoJoe said:

---

lb3 said:

---

Don't waste money on crazy garage modifications trying to make your house accommodate your needs. Spend that money on a house that actually meets your needs.

---

... I had the architect draw a 30x40 garage, as well as a room with an overhead door in the basement for more garage space. Between the garage and the basement stall, ...

---

Nice set up you have. And where do you live that you have a basement? I am guessing not Texas.

Sweating BulletS said:

---

EskimoJoe said:

---

lb3 said:

---

Don't waste money on crazy garage modifications trying to make your house accommodate your needs. Spend that money on a house that actually meets your needs.

---

... I had the architect draw a 30x40 garage, as well as a room with an overhead door in the basement for more garage space. Between the garage and the basement stall, ...

---

Nice set up you have. And where do you live that you have a basement? I am guessing not Texas.

---

correct

If only I had a basement!!!

TX AG 88 said:

---

If only I had a basement!!!

---

Mine would be full of car parts.

https://garagesofamerica.com/
Condo for cars/trucks

Tim Weaver said:

---

By the way, you can't call yourself a gearhead until you have one project car completely blown apart in your only workspace and then you buy another completely different project car......

---

Then you end up with project cars that turn into storage and you have to remember which car storage you left a tool or parts in.

It's always a good day when I find something surprising in truck storage or Bronco storage after not driving them for a while.

txyaloo said:

---

Tim Weaver said:

---

By the way, you can't call yourself a gearhead until you have one project car completely blown apart in your only workspace and then you buy another completely different project car......

---

Then you end up with project cars that turn into storage and you have to remember which car storage you left a tool or parts in.

It's always a good day when I find something surprising in truck storage or Bronco storage after not driving them for a while.

---

This guy gets it!