With all the crawling we have to do underneath our Bricks, have
many of you rented garage bay space with lifts. It seems to
make a lot of sense for efficiency and saftey reasons.
Does anyone know of places in Central New Jersey.
Thanks for any feedback.
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-Cool Volvo- 1982 240 4 Spd OD w/ 238K, 1989 240 5 Spd w/ 227K. Past proud owner of 1966 122, 1968 144, 1970 145, 1972 144, 1980 245

Sounds to me like the concensus is to sign up at
one of the vocational/technical schools and get
access to their work space. I looked into the
Middlesex County Vocational School, but unfortunately
they don't have anything starting until September.
Oh well, something to look forward to.
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-Cool Volvo- 1982 240 4 Spd OD w/ 238K, 1989 240 5 Spd w/ 227K. Past proud owner of 1966 122, 1968 144, 1970 145, 1972 144, 1980 245

As a bonus, you'll have fun, learn a great deal, and meet fellow gearheads in the classes. Although if you have a day job going to school will make your days a bit more hectic...

I'd agree with Rob...local tech school or community college might be your best bet. I started taking auto tech classes this spring semester and the instructors are usually pretty cool about granting access to the lifts and tools. But you have to clear it with them in advance, which means presenting a signed form to the security guard when you show up to work. You also waive any claims against the school. The work needs to be completed in a timely manner in our case - no bricks up on the lift for two weeks while a problem is figured out or parts are being shipped. And lastly, expect to be watched on some level to ensure that you are adhering to shop safety practices and don't make off with any community tools.

I know of nothing.

A friend of mine Owned two of these. "U-Fix-it" was the name.

He had many special tools basically you got time on the Lift and you brought all you own stuff, if you needed a special tool, he rented it to you. He did very well until the Liability insurance forced him to give it up.

Freak'n insurance.
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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me

I gotta say i agree with the two others in their specifics.

I have a very good friend who owns a Volvo shop (ideal, no?). One of his mechanics is another of my very good friends, and a neighbor to boot. I'm friends with the 3 other techs who work there. I used to work there, and I've known the guy since I was in high school. He even invited me to a classic car auction tomorrow...

I have a hard time getting lift time. My buddy's lift is the one we do our bigger projects on, usually. There's almost always a car on it. Either a customer car or an inventory car being gone over for the front line. It's tough to squeeze in a day, even with plenty of advance notice.

If there's no way to clear my friend's lift, we have used one of the other mechanic's lifts- but everything needs to be done, cleaned up, outta there come Monday morning 8am. And that doesn't mean transmission oil puddles, greasy parts, or even Speedi-Dry on the floor. Clean. Like it was. And the way it should be.

One thing worth looking into is a car club. If not the VCOA then perhaps a broader group. SCCA? Local hot-rod club? The newsletters and websites of our hobby are great places to start. If you can put a group together, 10 guys splitting the rent on a small place may just be affordable. Tough to police though, and scheduling the space gets to be no fun. Maybe even a Wanted ad on Craigslist or similar will yield something.

Here's another option. Local tech school. High school or college level. The work can often be done professionally while still providing a learning experience for the students. Heck, even consider taking a mechanics course at a tech school. Community colleges usually have a branch for it.

Good luck on your search.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 87 244DL, 88 245DL, 90 745GL, 84 242DL project, 89 244 parts, 88 244DL to replace the 87

south jersey all the way.

i have a dear friend who owns a euro repair shop. lift time is hard to come by even for me since his prime motivation is business. i get time but it is rare and, like the other poster noted, there is still a liability issue -my car, my body, customer cars (in the next bay), and his shop are all in question.

if you have a home, and love to work on cars, buy an electric lift for a couple thousand. the day I buy my own home, and since I will never buy a new car, a lift is going into my garage.

my brother was telling me that he could get access to a lift & other assorted goodies via his military connections on base. i never looked into that but it may be worth a look see.

my option was to rent a public storage unit. i work on my car outside, and may rent something larger in the future, and have plebty of storage for my tools and stuff but there is no lift.


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VX, adj. cam gear, new head, trans cooler, stainless brake lines, electric fan, fully braced, IpD sways, poly bushes, Bils, boxed front & rear arms, lowering springs, 16' Perfos, 25/32mm adapters, 100% zero mile-d, and much more

Years ago I asked around (and yes, I'm here in central N.J., Somerset Cty, in fact) and I always got two possible answers (or both, frequently):

1) the shop is so busy, one customer's car is always on the lift, and usually even left on the lift overnight (or over Sunday) even when the workers aren't around because they're in the middle of a job.
2) the shop's insurance wouldn't cover any non-employee who gets hurt using the lift (whether improperly or properly) -- and no way does the shop want the liability if they let a non-employee, using it, use it who gets hurt.

That was then -- now, in this even more litigious atmosphere (New Jersey lawyers) especially, you won't find any shop who is willing to do that for anyone, unless they have a personal reason (you're the brother-in-law of a garage owner).