Wait? what car is going under the s2000? a Civic? who the eff cares? stick it outside. it's a commuter car. How long do you realistically plan to hold on to that Civic? Do you think that the resale value will some how be 10x better in 7 years because it was garage kept?

Damn, this is a a really stupid problem.

If you had an NSX and an S2000 and were trying to fit both cars in the garage, I could understand your pain, but essentially, you're racking your brains and resources over trying to garage a CIVIC, not an s2000. It's a given that the s2k goes in the garage.

Stick your s2k in the garage. Throw a car cover on the Civic and be done with it. Take the money you would have spent on the lift and all of the extraneous logistics and throw it into your kid's 529b....

The problem with the Civic is that you bought it new, so it's some how more special to YOU. Trust me. It's a civic. It's special to no one, and in 5 years it'll be a civic like every other civic. In fact, your 2018 civic will hold the same status as a 2013 civic - used commuter, disposable, beater car. Don't get me wrong, I like the civic, and would love to have any generation built within the last 7 years, but there's nothing special about it...

 

A couple of things.

I would personally find it much easier, and much more likely that I'd use the car, if all I had to do was air all 4 tires, vs wrench wheels on and off and stack and unstack them. I would just rig something up where I could hook all 4 up to an air source and fill them all at the same time. That might also simplify the lift, if it doesn't have to accommodate wheel swaps. Does letting the air out of the stock size tires give enough clearance?

Which way do the ceiling joists go? I'm thinking about what if you could do a notch in celing, to accommodate S windshield. If notch spans from one joist to the other, thats almost 16" of notch, so you should be able to park the S correct position so it fits into notch. None of this works though if joists run front to back.

I agree though the real solution is one car lives outside. You don't even live in snow country! Get a sun shade, and park a car outside. If you don't want wife's car outside, and you can't bear to leave a brand new car outside, sell the Civic and replace it with something you are willing to leave out.

Yes, you will lose a little selling Civic, but not much, those cars hold their value. Its way cheaper and less hassle than all this lift craziness.

My S is my three season dd. It lives in garage. Wife's RX suv in the other bay. My '09 G37xS lives on the street. I really like that car. But it sits out in the sun and weather all day, and all winter it sees snow. At least it gets to park on the driveway (which blocks S in garage) all winter.

 

It's been a while since I measured but I think you should have enough room (barely though, which is better than my position).

Plugging your numbers into this calculator Direct Lift Ceiling Height Calculator gives you just enough (again, barely) room for this particular lift (not recommending this, just found the calculator in google).

Maybe I missed it but what's the 3rd car involved?
How deep is the garage (ie. any possibility of offsetting the cars)?
How about installing a car park, to protect the civic, outside (you could always get jack stands and a floor jack to work on the cars in your garage, a lot of us do this)?

You could also consider lowering both the civic and the S2000, you can gain about 1.5-2" of space this way.

 

That was great, thank you very much; I am at work and I do not have everything in front of me. I thought about tires for so long, that, when I learned something new, I forgot to go back and change some assumptions that I made. Thinking about it, I do not think that the stock rims would work -- plus, I am afraid of the tires being compromised. I thought about the joists, actually... and forgot about it. Without knocking in some holes, I have no idea... I am not much of a carpenter at the moment, to be honest -- but, it would be worth knowing. I am not too worried about the wheels, honestly.

 

If I was worried about my problem being labeled stupid, I would probably say that the point is really about the lift and not necessarily about the cars -- that would not be untrue, but, in truth it does bother me to park outside. I am not sure that there is anything else that I could say about it -- there are reasons, but, thread-wise, it would only be trying to justify how I feel.

 

Thanks for the link, I will view it when I get home. I was trying to view excel sheets from other message boards, but, did not really want to make all these accounts. The 3rd car is a current generation Ford Explorer, it will be parked next to the lift; I am considering a wider lift than I thought initially... but, the narrow one should be fine at least. I do not remember the depth off-hand, but, off-setting will not work. The HOA will not allow me to have a car park (roof) over my driveway.
I have jack stands and such already... I suppose part of the issue is that, well, let me put it this way. I think that two of the most valuable things we have is time and money... I can make/save more money, although, I cannot get time back. Maybe that helps? I know the wheels are bothering everyone still...

I am hoping to lower the S2000 at some point, at least.

 

I personally don't think you have the ceiling height to make this work. Sure, could you technically, but it's a monumental effort and rather inconvenient. It seems like people don't consider lifts until at least 11' of ceiling height. And generally both cars using the lift aren't dailies. What if you change your daily driver? Do you really want to crawl into your car everyday? Or inflate/change wheels just to drive your S2000? Are you a mechanic by trade to where you'll be working on your car regularly? Is having a car lift really saving you that much time as opposed to jacking the car up?

What people are trying to do is talk some sense into your situation. It's coming across in a crass tone, but the point remains.

 

for this part, to save time, there's always a QuickJack

 

To figure out which way the ceiling joists go, all you need is a stud finder, and a ladder. Or just stand on Explorer roof and no need for ladder.

You want an electronic stud finder. Like $10 from Home Depot. Or Amazon probably has many good ones.

You just press the button, and slide it along the ceiling and it will beep and light up when you are over a joist. So first try it front to back, then try it left to right. You'll be able to see which way they go.

One trick, you may accidentally start out right over a joist. That messes with its head, and it never finds the next joist. When you think maybe that happened, just start in a different spot.

The way these things work is compare the hollow area you started with to the echo it gets back when it moves over something solid. So if it starts off over something solid, it uses that as the 'hollow' baseline, then it never finds anything more dense to see as a stud.

 

Thanks, I am actually going to look into this. I think every time I have used one, I must have been on top of a stud!