I did a thing.

[oldgrayleather]

This is the best therapy I’ve had all week along with a huge dose of inspiration!!

[— kung fu jesus —]

3 years ago today, I bought this outside Birmingham, AL:













and polished this turd into this:

[HarryB]

Had completely forgotten the "before" status. Hats off.

[—Bryan—]

Man...this is the car I'd love mine to be!

[— kung fu jesus —]

Man...this is the car I'd love mine to be!

[—Bryan—]

lol...I'm trying. Just with much more varying degrees of success.

[— kung fu jesus —]

[— kung fu jesus —]

Yes, our mild winter is coming. Trying to make lemonade from lemons, I have all these weathered cedar fence planks due to storm damage (thanks Zeta).



I also have a pair of Rhino Ramps (stacking plastic car ramps) that I can’t really use because I am too low.

It would be nice to do basic maintenance on the Miata without using the floor jack AND it would be nice if I could lay out the ramps quickly, drive up on them and close the garage door to save my Lilly-ass from freezing.

I started by getting the ramps set up where the Miata will be in the garage to close the door. I first used tape to rough out where the front wheel sit.





Backed the car out, and laid in the ramps.







I measured the run up I needed to drive the Miata into and then the ramps. I cut up the planks.






I varied the lengths, making them shorter as they stacked higher to get the front of the car high enough to clear the ramps.









Offsetting the ends of the planks helps capture the ramps so they won’t be as likely to slide out as I approach.

I found 4 was *just* right.





Now I needed to locate the ramp spacing because they were a little too close together.







I eyeballed how much to space them, backed the car down, ran screws into the wood planks to bind them together, moved the ramps out, then pulled back up. Success!









With the car where I wanted it, I confirmed I could get around the car 360 degrees with the garage door closed. I have 30” between the leading edge of the car and my workbench.





Then I marked the floor with spray paint, marked the orientation of the planks, and cleaned up the mess.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Good job, man. I hate wasting stuff too and when it comes to wood, I get inspired by those reclaimed-wood projects on TV. I too have marks on my garage floor so I can prevent getting too far into a car project just to find out I can't close the garage door that night.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Same. It’s nice to close the garage door for warmth in the winter and to keep the mosquitos out in the evening during the summer.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

I've seen a few houses here with a roll-down screen. It's mounted like a garage door but can close with a button. That would be great for keeping mosquitos out. Nothing worse than trying to work on a car and spending half the time swatting mosquitos.

[— kung fu jesus —]

I have come across those too.

I am considering HVAC and air flow options.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

When I finally do my home equity loan for the primary air conditioner, I'm going to get a mini-split for the garage at the same time along with a well insulated, hurricane-rated garage door.

Main AC is going to be about $8K so what's another two grand for the garage. What I will gain in several more months of garage time is worth it. Hopefully the new home AC will be so efficient, I offset the cost of a garage AC plus the power company offers rebates for high efficiency ACs and windows.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Heading into winter, I drained the coolant from the radiator to increase the antifreeze ratio.




I’m about 25-30% antifreeze now. I run about 5-10% during track season. I will flush in the spring.

[— kung fu jesus —]

New update soon! It will be a fairly big audio upgrade.