I must admit, at first, movable car jacks did not seem a very important addition to my meager garage. Those are for elite collectors, and like most car enthusiasts, I do not own a 3,000-sq-ft warehouse sheltering a stable of automobiles. I do not own Delahayes or Cisitalias. Memorabilia does not hang in my garage nor is there room for a vintage gasoline pump with the glass lollipop on top. The floor is not even painted. The tiny structure extending from the side of my home may be designated a two-car garage, but as the walls have been thickened with haphazard shelves and the corners are guarded by rusty lawn tools and dusty bicycles, it can hardly swallow a pair of Hondas.
Movable car jacks are for the aristocracy. The automotive connoisseurs who display historical Mercedes beneath overhead lighting, edge their D-Type Jags to the side so the pontoon-fender Testa Rossa can be waxed--by someone else, of course. Wheeled jacks are not for people with project cars. Or so I thought. We all have one of those cars. It is an old piece of Detroit iron, vintage truck or English roadster. It is the car we had in high school or a sad rendition of the hot rod we always wanted. Regardless of its condition, we are certain it is going to be a valuable classic, that is, once the car market rebounds. It is also the relic our wives wish we would move out of the way.
My project car is an early 911 and has undergone not one but two restorations in the past 5 years. The latest undertaking is going on its 24th month. Most of this time it has stood on solid jack stands in the center of my less-than-two-car garage. Needless to say, to my wife's chagrin, her station wagon has been reassigned to the driveway.
When the car was stripped bare it was bolted to a chassis dolly, which made it easy to move about. Now, nearly complete and saddled with engine and transmission, it is resting on 8- and 9-in.-wide gummy tires that seem to have bonded with the concrete floor. There is no moving it.
Roll in the movable jack stands from Griot's Garage. Built with sturdy box-steel tubing and gliding on 4-in. ABS plastic casters, the U-shaped units slip around the tires. Ratcheting down the foot-pedal mechanism draws two rollers against each face of the wheel lifting it off the ground. A flip of a lever and the ratchet reverses itself to set the tire back down.
With jacks set on each corner, not only could I easily edge the car to one side of the garage, but I could turn it 360 degrees without need of help. The casters roll so smoothly, in fact, that I had to be sure the Porsche did not head down the driveway on its own.
I now move the car out of the way when I am not working on it, thus offering my wife some garage space, but when I do attack a particular job, I can position the Porsche exactly where I need it. This was extremely helpful when I set about fitting the new fiberglass doors. Again, with my less than adequate working space, I was able to hang the doors without worrying about them swinging into a cabinet or shelf.
The Griot jacks are not only an efficient tool of my garage, but they have raised the standard of my modest warehouse. I might even clean out those lawn tools and paint the floor. Now if I could only convince my wife we need a Delahaye.
• For tires up to 9-in. wide; set of two 1,250-lb rated jacks: $333.00
• For tires up to 13-in. wide; set of two 1,500-lb rated jacks: $438.00
• Four-unit storage rack: $79.95
