Check out this guys set-up. Looks like fun .
Annette

http://manspacesite.com/default.asp?contentID=510

 

That is wayyyyyyyy too cool.

Check out that license plate on the MCS. I believe that belongs to a NAMer !

 

Good catch here is his profile
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...er.php?u=11407
Seems he's been holding out on the group, or just hasn't seen this thread.

I've been lurking here, garage isn't large enough to start worrying about these kind of things for at least another year or teo in my situation.

 

yah, that is a very nice setup.

thats a great idea to do it at another building too. we had a RandyWebb
pulley party a few years ago at a tractor hanger where the gentleman's
generous dad lent us the building for the day. the difference between
having a garage at home and having another building to do car stuff
is a completely different ball game you got SO MUCH ROOM!!!

 

going back to creepers what do you guys think of the BONE or better yet,
the Bone-ster? even a pict of someone working on a MC!

i think these are the lowest profile i could find so far. as mentioned
earlier, i need something very low. (these are 4.5" high). $74.99 at
northerntools.

plus, made out of plastic so no need to worry about it scratching if
i accidentally bump something.

 

Ken,

This is the one I got:

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...Lift+Equipment

I liked it because it had six casters (better support) and the way it was made allowed me to hang it on the side of one of my cabinets which helps space wise.

I've seen the dog bone ones but never used one. Maybe go some place and see how comfortable they are before you buy?

Just get one that does what you need, whatever it is.

 

morris- when you're in your garage next time, would you please
measure the height of your creeper's pad top from the floor?

thanks!

 

now flippin' back to tiles again...

those of you with tiles, how do you keep it clean in the winter time with
all this road salt? do you mop it or something every weekend?

i bought some used MINI wheels/tires today (spares) and while i was rolling
them inside i got some snow and salt in my garage. now my garage floor
is not tiled nor epoxyed so i did't really care (just brushed it out), but
where i walked over my checkered rug i got salt stains on it. eeeek.
i looks REAL bad!

i dont know if i can live with cleaning my garage floor day after day
after day just to keep it looking nice. bare concrete with alittle dirt and
stain = no big deal. super clean tiles with little dirt and stain = chaos.

huummmmm.... those tiles look great but maybe they're too high
maintenance for me? no reason marrying a low maintenance wife if i have
a high maintenance garage floor? jk jk hehehe.

wat are your thoughts about garage floor maintenance?

 

Ken,

It's about 4½ inches from the bottom of the rollers to the highest point on the frame. The pad is actually lower than the frame except for the head rest part.

 

Creeper:
I think that's Sprog I or Sprog II in the photo. It's owner is Sarcux, great guy! When he was over to the house last summer we were talking and I got the impression either he or his family are affiliated with the Bone creeper. He might be the one to ask about it.

My own opinion is that for the average owner and the average MINI a creeper would be overkill. I've got one of the Sear's ones that also morfph's into a stool, it's been in my attic for the last 5 years. Either haven't had the need for it or it's a pain to store.

Even when I changed out my exhaust using ramps up front and jack stand in the rears, there is not enough room under the car for one of those. The ground clearance on the car is only 4.5 inches to start with; average rhino ramp raises it, what another 7 inches. Notice he's not really "under" the car, but they make one heck of a downhill racer Ken. You could practice for next years Dragon

Clean Floor:
Your concerns are the reasons I have yet to do anything fancy to my garage floor. It's a real (at least in my mind) shop and we constantly having road grim being dragged in by the cars. It's a never ending battle to keep mine clean now with just a brushed concrete, I know I'd be out there hot mopping it if I had it finished.

 

thanks, Morris!

 

smokey-

CREEPER:
thanks and i was afraid of that... not enough space under there
with even a 3" pad height. i do my Legacy's oil change on the
drive way with a slight grade. i might accidentally end up in the
street with a 17mm wrench in my hand riding a bone. not good.

FLOOR:
Thanks for the input on the floor too... im starting to have
2nd thoughts about doing it now. i know im going to be **** about it
and even a little drip of quick detailer would haunt me. i would probably
step on it and make foot prints all over.

i will have to think it over while i save up. i might end up getting another
wheel set or something for my MCS with the money.

 

kenchan, yet another reason I went with Daytona tile is the option to add the perforated tiles at a later date. From threads on another forum, people that live in areas with alot of snow and salt like to add a 2 tile wide strip under the area where the tires generally go. Then they usually do a spring time hose out and that's about it. The tiles are made with a channel system underneath so water will drain out, assuming your garage doesn't have huge depressions or something. I'm installing my tiles without the perforated tiles, but I'm buying a couple of boxes of them so I can add later if I need to. We rarely get snow here, and salt is never an option, but spring can be pretty rainy.
Here's a pic,


Annette

 

thanks, BoCRon - i was thinking about doing a red/gray combo but salt
dries white. and on some not so cold days i walk out of my garage to
get mail... or to take the trash out. i still track salt in... in crystals too.

If you look at my commuter's all-weather floor mat, it is white from
road salt. its not so much about just the tires, it's your
shoes and feet.

 

Oh and I thought I was bad

When a rug reaches it's end of life as a welcome mat for the house it moves into the garage as a foot rug at the car doors. Not to keep the garage clean but to wipe out feet before getting in the cars

 

yeah... once salt/dirt enters the garage it will quickly end up on the
floor mats of cars. :impatient ok, i think i might be too **** to do
garage floors.

not another set of wheels, i should look at doing FSD's. thats been
on my TDL (to do list) for a while now...

 

This is the MAIN reason I got floor tiles...I can stand the crap being tracked into the house. My old hour you entered into the basement...but the new one it is right into the mudroom on the main floor.

I bought the freeflow where the snow and crap will melt and collect UNDER the tile. Vaccum out or preassure wash in the spring.

Dave

 

we dont wear shoes inside the house....so for me i will only have
light salt/mud up to the foyer rug but nothing beyond. my garage
is not used for our daily drivers. the sole purpose for me to do tiles
is for decoration and some insulation from the cold in the winter.

anyway for me, having those grill type tiles would drive
me more insane cause i would be trying to clean every little edge
of that grill's plastic. i was thinking about doing the coin
shaped rubber tiles as those would easily clean up with a mop
plus full isolation from the cold concrete floor.

but the problem is they get dirty very quick... means high
maintenance even for a low traffic garage. there's going to be
foot prints everywhere i walk on days my shoes are either wet
from washing my cars or sandy from polish/wax dust or dried
salt dust, etc. my bare garage floor is pretty clean...
its a new building (well, not really new but 6yrs old) and my wife
and i are the original owners.

 

Ken,

I have an epoxy floor and this will be my first winter with it. So far, I've just vacuumed and mopped it once a week, usually just after I've cleaned one of the vehicles.

Yesterday, I cleaned my winter driver (Jeep Liberty) and had the Mini in the drive so I'd have room in the garage to open the doors and work around the Jeep. Afterwards, I pulled the Jeep to the drive and cleaned the floor. Looks like new again, plus the garage smells like lemon now. (I'm not sure if that's good or bad.).

We have the circle type tiles at work and they just mop them once in a while.

One thing to keep in mind that the tiles will have the same dirt that was on the concrete. It's just more visible.

I'd still rather have tiles or epoxy over bare concrete. It looks better and it's a lot easier to clean.

 

Man...if you are THAT particular...you will have a terrible time with the dirt and the muck that will get in the seams of the tiles

I personally don't have a lot of extra time to be polishing my garage floor...so let it fall under the tile and clean it up every month or two...

 

thanks for the info, Morris. ill think it over.

longlake - you're going for mainly function, i am going for decoration.
so the difference is huge. i too don't have much time cleaning garage
floors all the time. perhaps a lighter color tile might be better for me.

 

kenchan,
You should really call and get a couple of samples of the Daytona tiles. Get both the solid tread pattern and some of the perforated Sport Court tiles. I deal with dust and grime here and decided the pale grey is going to hide the dirt much better. I am using the darker colors in areas that get less traffic. The Daytona has a more matte finish, not as slick looking as the others. We had all six samples (2 or 3 of each brand) and put them all down on the garage floor and left them for at least a week. We wanted to see which ones looked "cleaner" after some use. The dark colored slick tiles looked VERY dusty after a few days. The paler ones looked very clean and the perforated ones looked like they'd never been walked on. The pure white tiles were fairly dirty looking as well. So our decision was to do mostly the mid-grey throughout and do the black and white checkerboard in a strip that would be a quick clean up if needed.
Annette

 

BoCRon- i think i need the pale gray's too.

do they have a lighter pale gray and a slightly darker pale gray to
still have the checkered contrast?

 

As for Creepers this is the Craftsman I use. For me the storage is easy I just stand it up in end and rest it against the garage wall in front of the MINI. I'm not sure just how low it sits, my experiance has been, if the car has 2 wheels chalked and two elevated say for oil change or rear sway then it works wonderfully, when I'm on 4 jacks I can get under the car, but not with a ton of clearance (can can fit my whole body under there which with my gut is saying something) but my head feels too close (which gets the what if the car falls running through my mind non-stop) and my arms lose leverage so I usually end up not using it.

For flooring I'm currently just the bare concrete, with several industrial rugs (leftovers from construction sites so they can take a beating) strategically placed around the bonnet and drivers side of the MINI so I can go out to the MINI barefoot in the dead of winter (garage sits around 38 degrees) without feeling the cold. I'd love the expoy floor just to make cleaning easier, I've had a few of the rocks embedded in the oil filter drain chanel on my last car so naturally unscrewing the filter meant I had oil dripping from 50 spots, speedy dry sawdust and dirt over the year absorbed it but there is still a stain on the floor that I want covered up, and if it were to happen again, alittle sppedy dry and a quick mop job would have that gone in 1/2 hour, no stains. But alas that is just a dream at this point. Plus a white floor and finishing my flouresent lighting setup would mean much better under car lighting when doing work at night.

 

They have 3 shades of grey and a silver.
Annette