Rentable garage in Seattle area

[84driver]

It's time come to replace my bushings, CAs, etc the whole Blunttech suspension refresh kit. But I live in a condo in the city.

I'm aware of these commercial rent-a-bay garages:

http://stewsgarage.com/

http://selfservegarage.com/rent-a-bay

~$300/day but it does come with a lift.

There's also:

http://garageplusstorage.com/garages/lease-a-garage-plus-storage-space/

Cheaper but monthly rental.

If I need a bay for 2 days, this approaches the cost of renting a private garage and building a basic lift into it (kwiklift). What do you guys without garages do? Do any of you have experience or recommendations with the local bay rentals?

[aegul44]

wow. Thats some expensive shit. You can rent a garage for $300 for month and get basic tools for cheaper.

[84driver]

Yeah. Idk what's crazier: the price of a bay, or that people seem to be lining up to pay it. I'd imagine the liability insurance is a good chunk of the cost though.

Speaking of crazy, there's a new product SKD-Rak I could build into a shipping container... I emailed about a price quote for the Rak. We'll see if I can get one without purchasing in bulk.

http://www.trans-rak.com/#!skd-rak/chbq

[ncsubowen]

Why not just find someone's house to borrow? Especially if you're willing to travel.

[84driver]

Why not just find someone's house to borrow? Especially if you're willing to travel.

For a lift I'd travel sure, the work would be quicker and I could avoid leaving it overnight. If I have to leave it overnight, I need a way to get to/from home . Seattle garages are tiny, I don't think I know anyone in the city with enough workshop space.

Unless you're offering yours? ;D Your choice of free beer. Lots of beer.

[LateFan]

I used to have this same problem. It's dense, with not much space and little Model A garages with hardly any room to move. I put a new cylinder head on a Fiat 124 spider in a sand driveway next to my apartment.

I can't believe those prices now, though - wow.

[Earendil]

Every time I rent a new place around Seattle I go through this exact same reseach and dilemma. The result I come up with is that it makes more sense for me to pay an extra $200-$300 to find a rental that includes a garage. I'm fortunate enough (at least currently) for that to be an option. Subbed in case someone comes up with an awesome idea or deal, but $300 a month seems about on par for what I've found in the past.

Edit: I might be willing to trade beer for garage time if I were single. Instead I'm married to a women that doesn't like beer and sees little reason to let strangers invade her house...which I can hardly blame her for.

[Martin C.]

If you are refreshing the front only, you should not need to leave it overnight, unless you are pressing bushings in which case you should find spare lollipops or buy them new with bushings already in. You can roll the car home and then get the alignment next day.

I can offer my carport but I am in Bellevue. And I just replaced mine too...

[TobyB]

Yeah. They're tearing down all the useful old buildings to build
Amazonocondos and tripled everyone's rent.

I left.

If a motivated person rented large (10k sq ft+) and had a lawyer friend
to do the agreements, said person might be able to break even on a
place within 20 miles of downtown. Might. If they wanted to get into the
space rental business. There are a LOT of people who are getting squeezed out
of the smaller, friendlier, cheaper places.

Smaller than 10k? forgettaboutit. Jamba Jooce will pay more for the square footage,
and everyshit in Seattle thinks that anything car is instant toxic waste. And keep buying
Chinese made everything.

...but I rant...

t

[ncsubowen]

For a lift I'd travel sure, the work would be quicker and I could avoid leaving it overnight. If I have to leave it overnight, I need a way to get to/from home . Seattle garages are tiny, I don't think I know anyone in the city with enough workshop space.

Unless you're offering yours? ;D Your choice of free beer. Lots of beer.

I wish I had a garage. I use my father in law's down in Tukwila. Depending on the weekend I could see if he minds, I've got a jack and 4 stands but no lift.

e30josh up in Anacortes did a lot of work on my car and he's got a lift, might check with him and see what he's up to.

[42000]

I'm in the same boat. Space in the u district is non existent...

lets pool together and get a warehouse ??

[Earendil]

I'm in the same boat. Space in the u district is non existent...

lets pool together and get a warehouse ??

I almost posted that, but I would have prefaced it with "this would be an awesome idea if I trusted you random internet bastards" ;-)

[Rennsport]

That idea has been tossed around here before. Only problem is finding a place affordable and getting enough reliable people to commit to it.

[84driver]

If you are refreshing the front only, you should not need to leave it overnight, unless you are pressing bushings in which case you should find spare lollipops or buy them new with bushings already in. You can roll the car home and then get the alignment next day.

I can offer my carport but I am in Bellevue. And I just replaced mine too...

Thanks, I'm doing the whole refresh kit. Rear end too.
(Blunttech kit http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-BMW-E30-...-/200604753588)

So, I got a response from Trans-Rak, the price per Rak is approximately the same as a 4 post lift. And they are 100% manual. Which makes me wonder if I could get a custom lift built instead for around the same cost. (The interior width of a container is 7' 8" and current narrow width lifts only go as narrow as ~8' 2".) Also the Craigslist ad for container rental expired so I may have to go scout the area to see if still available.

I almost posted that, but I would have prefaced it with "this would be an awesome idea if I trusted you random internet bastards" ;-)

Hehe if I could find the right spot I would lease it and then charge per-use to cover cost. Keypad wifi lock like an Airbnb. Cuts down on needing trust but it's really helpful to gauge interest beforehand, if this does sound useful once a month or so to any of you??

[TobyB]

getting enough reliable people to commit to it.

There are a growing number of racers (more reliable than the average bastid)
who are getting shoved out.
Again, with the lawyerly assistance, I suspect it could work, if someone could front
the $50k it would take to get started. (first/last/deposits/couple of months to get rented to 70%)

t