[andykeck]

Here's the what: I've never used my garage for anything but motorcycles as the driveway is severly buckled by roots in a couple of places. So I was out standing in the ruined section getting ready to attack it with a pick, shovel and axe when the question, "Will the car even fit?" pops into mind. I drew an outline on the garage floor using specs from wherever and it appears that the deal breaker may be how wide the door opens. It doesn't do much good to park in the garage if I can't open the door to get out.

Can someone with access to an Elise measure roughly how much width an open door adds to the car?

 

[Randy Chase]

The door opens very wide, but it does not need to, in order to get out. The unfortunate thing is that there is no detent to stop the door from continuing to swing.

In my garage, I don't have enough room for a fully open door and it did not take me long to decide I needed to fix that and save the door from hitting hard things. I have a soft item where the door swings so that is stops there with no damage.

 

[dantank]

I put a tape on my car. Looks like an open door adds about 30 1/2".

 

[James A]

OK Andy I measured from a line running between the outside of the front and rear tires. The door opens to about 34 inches to its first detent. But I think it only needs to open about 24 inches to squeeze in.

 

[andykeck]

Excellent, thanks all. I have some sheets of neoprene left over from my apartment days. My spot in that garage was against the wall and I had the same problem that Randy described. I glued a few thicknesses of the neoprene to the wall at door height and will do the same here if I determine that I have 25-30 inches to spare.

I'm not really looking forward to the rest of the excavation project. I've been whaling away at these roots with an axe all morning with not much to show for it. We plan to build a freestanding garage, but we aren't planning to start until next summer at the earliest.

 

[LotusLust]

andy

having spent many hours chopping root structures out of the ground i have one valuable word of advice for you:


HIRE

 

[Miguel]

I know you already fixed it, but for the rest that want to buy something instead

http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?L1=L1_3000&L2=L2_3010&SKU=92326

I do think it's overprized, if I had the same problem I'll use glue and some kind of padding

 

[andykeck]

I know you already fixed it, but for the rest that want to buy something instead

http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?L1=L1_3000&L2=L2_3010&SKU=92326

I do think it's overprized, if I had the same problem I'll use glue and some kind of padding

Thanks for the link. I get their catalog something like twelve times a month so I've seen that already. If I didn't already have a bunch of free smooshy stuff in a box somewhere that I might have ordered it, but my garage is no showplace so it will have to wait until garage 2.0.

 

[DesignIt]

I had the same problem when I was parking 3 cars in a 2-car garage. I used a section of foam pipe insulation nailed to the walls at the appropriate height. Pipe insulation is cheap and has a pre-cut split so that the nails can be driven from the inside of the insulation. The circular shape also helps cushion the door from impact.

When the Elise comes in, I'll be relying on this again as I will have three cars in the same 2-car garage. Last time a fenderless hot rod was in the middle, but unfortunately the Elise will occupy this position next time. On the bright side, they will be the three shortest cars sold in America (see sig below), so that should help. Just for safety, and marital bliss, my wife's car gets the 3rd stall all by itself.

John