Roadster build Required Garage Size

[Kjoyce178]

Hello all,

So I finally getting close to ordering my roadster kit but I needed to rebuild my garage. Looking at doing a Tuff Shed but I am concerned that a 14'x18-22' garage might not be big enough to support the build. I would love to get people's feedback. I would love to see photos of how others are setup. Looking for inspiration.

Thanks.

[BradCraig]

If you have somewhere to store the boxes and body, that's doable...where there is a will, there is a way!

[Jeff Kleiner]

The footprint of the roadster is a little over 6'x13'. A 14'x18' building would be doable but would be awfully tight---leaving less than 3 feet all the way around. 22' length would at least allow you to have a workbench at one end. That said, other guys have improvised ways to build in one car garages by storing the body and parts elsewhere. Heck, twenty plus years ago Ariel Ayubo built what became known as "the man in the box" car outside his apartment in the wooden shipping container it came in!

Jeff

[Tbev]

I'm picking my kit up in February and will be attempting the build in a slightly smaller space than you are looking at. I have removed everything from the single bay garage with the exception of my tool chest and compressor. My ceilings are 12 feet high so I will be suspending the body from the rafters. All the boxes will be kept in a separate room and I do have a shop in my basement with plenty of bench space. It's going to be tight but when you have no other options you make do with what you have. Good luck.

[jrcuz]

My garage is only 11' wide and 20'+ long with a work bench at the rear. It is unheated but I do have a propane heater and I have a carbon monoxide detector. The body was stored on a wheeled elevated body buck for over 2 years. When I worked on the build I would roll the body out of the garage. I also had the frame on a w heeled dolly I built. If I needed room to work on either side during the build I would move the frame to one side of my garage or the other. After it was a roller I could move it around on the wheels. I will say that I was happy when I didn't have to use the elevated body buck any more. All of the boxes were stored in my basement.
JR

[Hoooper]

I have a medium size 2 car garage, its deep but not real wide. Ive done most of the work with my wife's car in the garage, so the space I have is really only a few feet of extra space on the sides and ends. The depth allows for storing all the boxes, but once that space is all used up its just like a 1 car garage with the body and boxes stored elsewhere. Its definitely doable, I really havent felt its that tight on space. Just have to be a bit more attentive to keep your work space cleaned up because a few extra pieces laying around turns into a roadblock real quick

[rich grsc]

25 x 50 is ideal.

[ggunter]

I have to admire guys who want these cars so bad they will build in a shed or the back yard if necessary, and I don't blame them. When I was a young man I would have built in the back yard and covered it with a blue tarp every night just to have one of these cars.

[John Ibele]

Another single-stall builder, but with some important exceptions. I'm working with 11' width but about 22' depth, in one half of our standalone 2-stall garage. I have boxes stored in shelving units on the side wall, a heavy-duty steel workbench on the back wall, and a knock-down work table against the garage door that I can easily move or break down and store whenever I need to (slab of plywood on a couple folding sawhorses). I'm sure I would appreciate more space if I ever experienced it during the build, but I only occasionally feel cramped. But there are some important clarifications.

Most valuable garage attribute for this Minnesotan: heat. After one winter of trying to build with a portable heater I dug a trench, brought a gas line out to the garage and put in a garage heater. My main building months are not in the summer, and regardless, without air conditioning in the garage the most comfortable months for working there are when I can set the thermostat to 60F, put on some coveralls and go to work.

Second ... while I have my body on a rolling body buck, I can store it in the second stall. This is huge. I do most of my work in 1 or 2 hour chunks, and if I had to collapse the table, roll body buck into the driveway, put up the table again ... many of those 1-2 hour opportunities just wouldn't happen. Biggest thing for me is to have dedicated space which can remain undisturbed when I'm not doing the work, and I can step back in and immediately be productive. If you think a lot of the work is going to be done in bits, I'd definitely look to store the body somewhere else rather than rolling it in and out.

To give credit where its due I have to mention that the second stall thing happened without any extended conversation or negotiation between me and the wife. And losing a garage stall in a Minnesota winter is no small thing. I don't even remember hearing, "So, you're going to clear the snow off my van before you go to work whenever it snows, right?" Not the first time I called myself a lucky guy :)

I can take a few photos when I'm home tonight if that would help.

[Ray]

We built an elevated body buck on wheels and put a shelf on it. Got most of the boxes on the shelf. Hung the sheet metal on screws on the ends of the buck. I would be happy to send you some photos and the plans if you'll PM me your email.

Ray