C5Registry "Stack your Corvettes right here!" Lift Party II

To refresh your memory:

As part of a little remodeling project at our home, we built a four-car garage. It's a bit unconventional; since the lot wasn't wide enough for a four-car garage, we built it two cars wide by two cars deep.

But even a four-car garage really doesn't handle our needs. We have two daily drivers and four Corvettes.

Half-jokingly, I thought that what I really needed was a hydraulic lift so I could drive one 'Vette on, lift it up and drive another under it. Voila! Two Corvettes in one space!

Being an internet junkie (as well as a C5 junkie) it didn't take long to find the right answer -- and it's surprisingly affordable. I ran across the web page for Bill Anstine (C5R#W0303) and he has THREE of these suckers in his garage! Multiple telephone calls later (thanks to Bill's incredible generosity with his time) I ordered my first (of two) lift from Autolifters of America in Wichita, KS.

Autolifters makes several models; the one I needed (their model M6) is a four-post lift, 6000 lbs. capacity, that simply stands on the floor (no bolts). It has a ramp and tracks you drive onto. The whole assembly goes up using an electric motor to drive a hydraulic pump -- and then you drive another car under. They have a pretty nice sales video so you can get the idea for how all this works. The M6 Autolifter costs $2,795. Their website used to be www.autolifters.com but, unfortunately, the company has ceased operation.

I ordered the first lift in November 1998 (thinking the remodeling project begun in May would SURELY be done by then; HAH!) and it was delivered on December 12th. The thing weighs 1500 lbs. and the most agonizing part (at the time) was arranging for a fork lift/flat bed truck person to pick it up at the freight terminal and bring it out to the house.

But we got it delivered and had a lift party in January to install it. To review those pictures, click HERE.

So here we are today (only eight months later).

This shipment arrived damaged. Dunno where it happened but somewhere someone banged the thing hard on one end and made a parallelogram out of of a rectangle.
	Rick Sailors (the same guy as last time) picked up the lift at the freight company, loaded it onto his flatbed, brought it to the house and unloaded it with his forklift today (Sunday morning).
Here it comes into the driveway.
	I stripped off the packaging and, though the end panels were bent, the contents were just fine. The end panels are just packing material so no foul.
Since I didn't know for sure that the lift would be delivered this weekend until late Saturday night, I had only a little while to drum up some help. An email to the Atlanta Area C5ers did the job! Left to right are Ken Gaines (C5R#X1982), Joe Blumberg (C5R#X2046), Ron Floyd (C5R#X2186), Bill Donovan and Chris Giovanielli (C5R#X2421). Present but not in this picture were Pete Butler (C5R#W1005), Mike McDermott (C5R#W1481) and Vince Pedraza (C5R#X1576).
	This time we put the thing together in the driveway -- AND we had INSTRUCTIONS! Here it is going up for the first time with me at the controls...
Here you can see the new lift in the foreground and the original one behind it. The lifts themselves are easy to move around 'cause I have wheels for them. Admittedly there's some hassle if you want to get the top car on the back lift down...
	Mike riding up with the (covered) red '90 Roadster while Ron is ready to yell "STOP!".

Here are all four in place; beer in hand!

Thanks to everyone who helped!

For those who've asked, click here for all the specs for the Autolifter M6.

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