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Cut to four weeks from now when David gets a call asking why there are ten (or so) lifts occupied with non-customer cars.
How was “Can I wrench inside?” or “Can I have garage space?” not in the initial deal struck for this website?
I guess if you’re used to wrenching in mud and snow all the time, just dry pavement’s a massive improvement.
That and wrenching in the bays probably takes way more planning. Gotta schedule it, and plan work out such that you can clear it out of the bay when it’s time.
I was wondering why they hadn’t taken pity on DT yet and let him work inside.
Autopian Tech Center here we come!
You already are a wrenching God, David! Also, junkyards are truly heaven already too
In parking lots, fractions of a car still count as whole cars. It ain’t the same as a backyard where you can have a chassis, a short block, some half cuts and doors and it could be counted as just one car
Does a car plus its parts car really count as two cars?
Is it was like taking an imaginary friend with you on a trip where you don’t have to pay for an airline seat, or like taking a cello where you have to pay for an extra seat?
Asking for a friend.
Sounds like DT found the gearhead Holy Grail of places to work.
I see the transformation is picking up speed. Old David would politely refuse, stating that he doesn’t need a lift, as he can botch one of his cars into temporarily working condition and drive himself.
Crazy thought here but would it be cheaper for David to find an old abandoned two bay gas station to store his cars at and work on them instead of renting a storage place?
In LA? You must be joking!
Possibly. I never checked the prices out there.
Unless there’s a landlord looking for a tenant merely to keep out squatters. I once rented an art studio on that basis,
Now, if David could turn himself into an artistic/educational organization, he could register as a 501 C3 , then the money that a landlord loses by giving him space is tax deductible. My landlord was basically a mobster and didn’t want anything to do with tax deductions and the attention they attracted, but I had lots of friends that did exactly that.
Actually, in the 70s and 80s in New York City they were quite a few mobsters that rented cheap space to artists. They were actually pretty nice guys to deal with if you didn’t mind certain aspects of it.
Maybe out around Palmdale, Victorville, or Temecula, but that’s reaaaally stretching the definition of “LA”.
A transition to lift bays would involve time management on these projects. Experience teaches us that we wrench when we can / feel like it, so for ppl paying for said bays this may look like procrastination. They’re wrong of course.
Hollywood David Tracy.
I bet fancy boy eats shower sushi now.
Does David carry insurance on all his cars? I’d love to hear his conversations with his agent. And is there a limit to the number of cars before you’re forced to get a fleet policy?
Where I live you can put not driven cars on fire/theft insurance for very little money per month. Paying full insurance for that many cars at once would be stupidly expensive no matter where you live I think especially since most aren’t drive able.
I hope not. Most of them could be replaced for less than the annual premium would be.
“$220.75 for my burned car? But it was a Holy Grail!”
I’m guessing it differs by state, but here in Iowa it was really only the first two or three cars that seemed to add any significant cost to the policy so long as it’s liability-only. At one point I was up to seven on my “daily driver’s” policy since it was only another $30 or $40 a year for each one of those past the first three. Granted, I also had some stacked discounts – rental properties, house, a wife that lives two blocks from her job, and an umbrella policy all brought the price down, and for awhile I was only paying around $350 per year for that whole collection on a half-million dollar liability policy. My nice cars, the classics, are all insured through Hagerty and since the nicest of those was only worth maybe $7500, that policy ended up quite cheap as well.
Of course then my daughter turned 16 and the liability policy has almost tripled. Still not terrible, but enough that I removed a couple of the project-cars I know won’t make it back on the road for awhile.
I would guess Mr. Tracy is doing something similar – as others have mentioned, full-coverage on all of those would be atrocious.
Also in Iowa. Yeah, I’ve noticed that when you have more cars than drivers the insurance is really cheap. Those discounts are amazing too. When I married my wife, I dropped my insurance (which was more expensive than hers even though I had liability-only) and added myself and my car to her policy. Her policy went up by some single-digit number of pennies per month.
Ima be honest here as another person with access to lifts and air conditioning at the same time. Sure, it’s nice for some things, but there’s few things quite as comfy as snuggling up on your creeper with your shins in the sun
I guess Galpin’s legal beagles don’t visit the back lot if ever?
I just discovered that there’s a “rent a hoist” place less than 5 miles from me. For $40 an hour, you get a hoist and a rolling toolbox of tools to use, as well as access to air tools. Or they have a yearly membership for $50 a month that gets you 2 hours a month that roll over for up to a year. As soon as I get a free day, I’m taking the Miata up there to change the diff and trans fluids so I don’t have to do it on the floor of my garage.
It gets expensive when you have to tow your cars to and from the place each time.
Thinking maybe some point soon DT should look for some storage for the back burner’d projects, help keep in Galpin’s good graces, and help keep them from becoming more cat houses, especially as he seems to be getting something called a social life, socal life?
In my experience, an abandoned project car moved to paid storage will be promptly forgotten until the day you realize that you have spent more money on storage costs than the project car cost to buy in the first place, still have made zero progress on the project car, and still have zero space or time to work on it. So the car sits in storage, becoming a hole that you throw money into every month with nothing to show for it.
Getting rid of my 944 was the right thing to do, and the money I lost on it helps keep me from burying myself (too far) over my head with projects again.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Woohoo! A tour of their space(s) would make some interesting content.
Bruh
Speaking from current personal experience, at some point it comes down to one’s definition of “car.”
Oh, man, I totally forgot about the Nash! It looks so neglected in that picture! Poor little thing…
Does the guy realize how many calls he’s going to get!
While this does take away some pathos, does it add some drama?
As in, I’m guessing, Galpin being a money-making venture and all, that projects can’t be left on the lifts/in the bays indefinitely?
When I was in night school auto shop, you could bring your vehicles to work on, but critically, you had to take them with you at the end of the night, no exceptions. It added a wonderful ticking clock, “24” vibe to things as you reached the point of no return on a repair, or when the instructor tried to talk you out of an overly-ambitious project.
I used to create drama in the Land Rover studio because all the CMF girls used to comment my nail polish was better than theirs.
How goth would it be to get Vantablack for your nails? They’d look just like your soul: an unnervingly black nothingness.
I bought a bottle but put it down on my Vantablack table and now I can’t find it.
I fart in your general direction…
Definitely can’t keep them there long; those lifts are worth gold!
It’s so DT to not even consider the company he’s in bed with has lifts a few feet away from where he’s wrenching on his back on the hot asphalt. He may eat salads out of dinnerware now, but the “gotta get it done” attitude remains. I bet they have a parts washer too that’s not also a dishwasher. A madlad of the best variety. A real lift is a dream come true for most of us.
Can confirm. My cousin has a heated/air conditioned barn with a lift and about any tool you could want. I miss being able to work on my vehicles over there, but I’m 1100 miles away now…. working in a driveway. The rule was you brought a case of beer for shop rent on a Friday night and whoever was there (sometimes 10-15 people) would help you do whatever needed done. It was glorious.
I have a barn, but it was built like a barn. Far from air-tight. It would cost me a fortune to heat or cool it, but at least I’m not directly exposed to the elements.
I wish I had a cousin, or a friend’s cousin with a situation like that. I’d drive 200 miles on a Friday afternoon and keep the beer cold for my entrance fee.
The progression is roll around in the dirt, then street, driveway, carport, garage, garage with something on the floor besides bare concrete, portable lift in garage, full size lift in garage, then full size lift plus HVAC. Although even getting out of the cold wind is a win.
Next thing you’ll tell me is they offer “shower” spaghetti in the break room and give away oil-soaked T-shirts…what madness is this? Ha ha