The home we moved into a few months ago has a service pit in the garage. It’s pretty cool having it, although it hasn’t been used much. One of the reasons it hasn’t been used was a non-user-friendly way to put vehicles over the pit. The original version had two very large, long rectangular sliding ‘trays’ that were normally closed, and when you wanted to use the pit you’d muscle the trays apart the desired amount and drive up on them; this was somewhat more difficult as the trays were about 2 inches above floor level.
My dad looked at that design for about 5 seconds and you could just see the thought racing around in his head, “I could do it better”. What followed was about a month’s planning, metal prefabrication, etc., culminating in he and I spending the last three days renovating the design. Now the driving surface is floor level, and three subgrade sliding covers, on longitudinal tracks, cover the pit. I’ve already had my car on it, and it was very solid and stable. And cool, too!. Pictures to follow, when they come back from the developers.
It also reminded me that my dad is the hardest working man I’ve ever known. More than a quarter-century older than me, it was all I could do to keep up. It was good to see mom, too, but the whole of the days were spent working in the pit.
Now all I need is a project that requires a service pit. Perhaps……………..
