Do It Yourself

[Keith Tedford]

I've always been a do-it-yourself type of guy but these newer Corvettes are a whole different beast. I've found that, with Youtube, you can find all kinds of videos on how to do various repairs. Some, like removing the IP cluster on our 2005 is quite easy, but doing a hormonic balancer replacement looks to be quite a bit more involved but still doable with the right tools in hand. If you have the equipment, you can save yourself a pile of money in labour costs. A hoist wouldn't take long to pay for itself.

 

[67HEAVEN]

My hoist paid for itself within six months. I do a lot of work on it.

It's now paying for the shop I built for it.

Seriously.

If you do most of your own work, get a hoist / lift.

 

[Keith Tedford]

You sure aren't doing much work under these new ones without a hoist. I wouldn't mind an inch or two more clearance some times. Perhaps air ride? Raise it too much and it would look goofy. I'll have to re-engineer some trusses over the one bay to get enough height. I only have 8 foot ceilings. I've pretty well figured out how to do it now.

 

[Luchgen]

hey guys i am thinking of getting a hoist for my garage. The concern I have is the clearence under the vette. Are there certain types of hoists/lift out there just for vettes?

 

[67HEAVEN]

hey guys i am thinking of getting a hoist for my garage. The concern I have is the clearence under the vette. Are there certain types of hoists/lift out there just for vettes?

I have a 4-post lift with drive-on ramps. My car is so low that I wouldn't be able to swing 2-post lift arms underneath the sidepipes.

And, a 4-post does NOT have to be bolted to the floor, so you can easily move it around the shop with the casters that come with it.

I would advise the adding of the optional movable 3,500 lb. hydraulic jack which allows you to raise the car off the hoist for removing front or rear wheels, for doing brakes, etc.

On the matter of ceiling height, I designed the shop with the lift in mind and ordered vaulted trusses that give me 13.5' (minus about 6" for the fluorescent light fixtures). Even my Z71 Tahoe can be raised high enough to walk upright under it, and it's about 6" taller than a regular Tahoe.

Keep in mind, if you have a low ceiling, and a short-depth garage, you may not be able to raise the overhear door with a car up on the hoist.

 

[Luchgen]

I don't have the luxary of a high ceiling. But i like 4-post set up. My ceiling is about 8 ft. I am looking at the long rum buy it now and when I move to my retirement house in about 7 years I won't have to worry about buying a lift.

 

[CCO]

hey guys i am thinking of getting a hoist for my garage. The concern I have is the clearence under the vette. Are there certain types of hoists/lift out there just for vettes?

You'll also find a ton of good info in this thread recently posted:

http://www.canadiancorvetteforums.com/forums/corvette-tech-guides-diy/3349-home-car-lift.html

I'd love to get one too. Let us know what you decide.

C.

 

[buckhorn76]

there is a company in oakville that manufactures and sells them.

 

[Luchgen]

Thanks guys i will let you know when I purchase one.

 

[67HEAVEN]

there is a company in oakville that manufactures and sells them.

When I was looking to buy a few years ago, their lifts were not certified. I see now that they finally are. That's a good thing.

Whichever lift you buy, be sure it has the gold sticker on it. ALI Certified.

 

[Paul M]

Choosing the Four Post Verus Two Posts

Hello everybody. I couldn't agree more that the hoist pays for itself. Both my neighbor and I own vettes and we decided to buy the 4 posts for a couple of reasons. The four posts allows us to park our cars under the vette when it's stored and we wanted to make sure the weight was distributed on the floor on all four posts rather than being concentrated in one main area like the 2 post system. Depending when your home has been built you may find the builder poured the minimum concrete and likely would not have added the rebarb that you would want if you did it on your own. We chose to do the install ourselves which saved us $3000 for the install fees and we decided to bolt the four posts down since we were not going to be moving the hoist around in our garages. I decided to go with the 220 volt install and he decided to stay with the 110 volt. Both work fine however if you have the choice and circuits available go with the 220 volts.
One more thing to mention, if you are going to install yourself, you will also need to raise the tracks on the garage door so the door will climb all the way to the ceiling so it will clear the car when it's all the way up. This part of the install was done after the hoist was completed see we actually used the hoist to lift us up the required height. Just a word of caution, if you have never worked on the garage door springs, call an installer for this part or you really could hurt yourself when releasing the springs.
Hope this helps.:seeya: