A proper home for the 604

[dieselnutjob]

There are two spaces on the drive in front of my house, and we effectively have a third in the road because we are the only ones who can block our own drive.

 

Normally the drive has my 604 and Jag on it, and SWMBO uses the third space.  I can squeeze the Jag past even if her hippo (Freelander) is there.

 

However recently I have been storing a friends SORNed MGR on the drive because I need to reverse engineer the Pektron diagnostic protocol so it's useful to me.

 

Unfortunately this has caused SWMBO meltdown and she says she wants them both gone because she wants to park her hippo on the drive.  I would like the Jag out of the road as well to be honest.

 

She says put the 604 in the garage.

 

It won't fit says I.

 

She says I just want it gone.

 

So can I build a new garage then? says I.

 

You have two years, says she.

 

Anyways, I got the tape measure out this morning and measured the garage.  This is what I found

 

 

I was thinking that parking conventionally in the garage, I am correct, it won't fit.  A 604 is 186" long and the garage only 170".  I would have to build a garage 18" longer and nick 18" off of the garden, which to be honest is already tiny; I don't think that SWMBO would let me get away with that.

 

Then I thought, could I park sideways in there?  I would have to sort of parallel park into the garage.

 

The door opening isn't currently the whole 204", but it easily could be.  I need a new door anyway so it would just be a case of putting a full width RSJ across the opening and cutting out a bit of breeze block each side and I would then have a 204" wide door, as per the above pic.

 

Would I realistically be able to reverse parallel park into that space?

Would the garage access road be wide enough to get the front swung out enough to make the turn (that the 125").

 

A 604 is 186" x 70" so it would fit if I could actually do the manouvre.

 

Annoyingly whoever built the garage didn't use the full width of the plot either.  There is a 6" gap on one side to the neighbour's boundary and 11" on the other side, so I could in theory knock the garage down and go up to 221" x 170" without affecting the garden at all.  It's quite a lot of expense and hassle for another 17" though.

 

thoughts?

[catsinthewelder]

Could you take a tape measure, a roll of masking tape and the 604 to an empty carpark at the weekend?

 

Alternatively could you make an 18" extension on the back of the garage that wasn't full height,  You could have a planter on top of it so the garden would be more or less the same size and the 604 would take up half the garage rather than most of it.

[simmo]

you need a set of Go Jacks or cheaper version, I have a second hand pair I haven't tried yet but you would probably need four.  I think Sealy do a basic one.

[Tickman]

Much cheaper than building work.

 

https://www.sgs-engineering.com/ws4000-680kg-wheel-skates

[worldofceri]

I reckon you could get it in. It wouldn't have to be parked exactly parallel to the door, would it? You'd have a lot of wasted space in your garage though.

 

Do you have a 1/24 model of a 605 or similar? You could build an scale model of your garage from balsa wood or something to test the theory.

[dieselnutjob]

Unfortunately the garage is built on a concrete base which is a bit higher than the access road. I have chipped of the edge to make it a bit of a ramp but there is no way those wheel trolley things are going to get up the ramp.

[Spottedlaurel]

Could you take a tape measure, a roll of masking tape and the 604 to an empty carpark at the weekend?

 

This seems like a good suggestion, with the addition of a few cardboard boxes to make the vertical edges more visible/realistic.

 

I don't know what the steering lock is like on a 604, but trying to get into a gap just 18" longer than the car seems a bit optimistic to me. Unless you possess Russ Swift's parking skills?

[pshome]

all you need is a bit of tinkering with the axles..

[Mally]

 

 

Alternatively could you make an 18" extension on the back of the garage that wasn't full height,  You could have a planter on top of it so the garden would be more or less the same size and the 604 would take up half the garage rather than most of it.

 

I have done this in the past, beam across halfway up, hole 3 ft wider than the car.

Build small walls with sloping roof to back of garage, still got another space.

[JayW]

Surely a couple of bags of cement could sort out the ramp issue?

 

Strapped go-jacks are surprisingly nimble on the bumpy stuff!

[alcyonecorporation]

Car dollies FTW. 

Glad the 604 will have somewhere proper to live soon. 

[Craig the Princess]

It's quite a lot of expense and hassle for another 17" though.

 

 

But it isn't just 17", it's a usable garage against an unusable one.

[dieselnutjob]

I guess that if I built a new garage then I could make the side panels out of metal sheet making the walls thinner getting me more like 2' more.

 

If the rear wall facing the house was removable then this might be useful for an occasional special job.

 

I would have to smash up the existing concrete base and make a new one, but maybe the new one could even have a pit.

 

The problem with this approach is that a whole new garage is going to cost at least £6k and probably £10k.

[djoptix]

Get a fork truck?

 

Of course then you'd need somewhere to park the fork truck...

 

[djoptix]

OR just weld an extra sticky-outy bit on the garage door which will go over the front/rear end of the 604.

[anonymous user]

Could you get Coleman Milne to take 17" out of the middle of the 604 and turn it into a 2 door coupe?

[djoptix]

Could you get Coleman Milne to take 17" out of the middle of the 604 and turn it into a 2 door coupe?

 

That was going to be my next suggestion 

[Dead_E23]

I'd make a paper cutout 604 to the same scale and see how it fits.

 

Being so close to London, I'm sure you'll have parked in plenty of tight spaces in narrow streets - same thing!

[rantingYoof]

If it helps at all, then the general ballpark internal dimensions for a garage if it is to be formally classified as a parking space are 6m x 3.3m (236" x 130").

 

A garage should have at least 6m of space in front of it to enable vehicles to swing in and out (assuming you aren't parallel parking into it of course )

 

These requirements only apply when planning permission is required and the garage is going to provide an off-road parking space that forms one of the two (or however many) your property is considered to require.

 

In your case, it's just a guide to let you know what sort of dimensions are normally considered to accommodate most people's reasonable requirements when it comes to parking a vehicle.

[dieselnutjob]

Does a stand alone garage need proper foundations or anything?

[dieselnutjob]

and to make it bigger do I really need to remove the old concrete base, or can I dig a trench along the edge and fill that with concrete to just extend what's already there?

[catsinthewelder]

It needs suitable foundations, you wouldn't need much for a tin shed so long as it is strong enough to support the car.

 

I would have thought you would be fine to put an 18" deep strip of concrete either side of your current slab to put a tin shed up. It wouldn't need to support the car as the wheels shouldn't get that close unless you parked two shorter cars in there the normal way around.

[dave21478]

Just as a minor aside, I have the Metro and Panda parked kinda diagonally in a "garage" that isnt long enough for them to go into straight-on, and its a massive PITA to get them in and out, to the point where it makes me reluctant to drive them as I cant be bothered with the 17-point turns required to get either one out, then in again.

[D Spares & Tyres]

Is there much space at the rear of the garage? Could you not cut a section out of it, just bonnet or boot height and extend that part?

[dieselnutjob]

There is a tree behind the garage at one end which makes things more difficult.

[Spottedlaurel]

Does a stand alone garage need proper foundations or anything?

 

A domestic garage under 30m2 (internal floor area) doesn't require Building Regulations. I think there are some other criteria too, possibly distance from the boundary amongst them.

[catsinthewelder]

There is a tree behind the garage at one end which makes things more difficult.

Well just remove the bottom 4' or so of tree.

 

 

 

[carlo]

Take this as an opportunity to get a smaller, equally interesting Peugeot?  I'm sure you'd get a nice 504 in there.

[JayW]

A domestic garage under 30m2 (internal floor area) doesn't require Building Regulations. I think there are some other criteria too, possibly distance from the boundary amongst them.

Thought permitted development was 25m2? Up to 2.4m high within 2m of a boundary and 4m high elsewhere?

[dieselnutjob]

I think I have a plan.

 

The plan:-

 

Get access to the neighbours gardens on both sides.  I am pretty good terms with the neighbours so this should be okay.

On each side of the garage dig a deep trench up to the boundary of the neighbour.

Fill the trench with concrete on each side.

Lay a 6" RSJ across the concrete to spread the load.  On the side where there is only a 5" gap I will have to grind a couple of 1" grooves into the existing wall to achieve this, fortunately on that side the neighbour is really quite accommodating and wants some favours from me already etc so that won't be a problem.

Put some vertical 6" beams on top of the horizontals.  These will be the new corners of the garage.

Put X rods between the beams to stop any tilting.

Slide in beams across the entire 18' length to hold up the existing roof beams.  On the access road side there is already an RSJ arranged in this way, I just need a longer one so that it reaches my new steel corners.  I can push the old one over a bit and slide in the new one behind it.  Basically I can hammer the new one in until the old one is free.

Then I can use the old RSJ on the other side on props to hold up the roof, knock the top of the wall away and put in a new RSJ there.

 

After doing this I will have a steel exoskeleton around the old garage holding up the old roof.

 

Put some nice coated cladding to cover each end.

 

Extend each neighbours fence across the cladding to make their gardens nicer and keep them happy.

 

Knock garage walls down from inside.

 

Extend the roof on each side to cover the 5" gap on one side and 11" gap on the other.

 

This would give me a 226" bay internally with 216" opening (due to 6" corners minus 1" cladding) to get 186" car in, and I could do the project in smaller bite size chunks.

 

I could probably even get the XJ in there if I had to (200")