Since selling my Camaro a few years ago I have been suffering from automotive deprivation. I said that I would wait until I graduated college to get back into working on cars. Well as it turns out I will be moving to Seattle where houses are small and very expensive and my dream garage (or even a garage at all) is looking like less and less of a possibility.

This got me thinking about an idea I have had before. Why not start an auto garage co-op. What I mean by this is to form a group of automotive enthusiasts to come together and rent a commercial building that could be made into a dream garage. By pooling resources this would be a way for people to be able to afford space and equipment that they may not otherwise be able to afford.

I picture it as something like this. An warehouse space or better yet an old auto garage that could have a couple bays and plenty of storage. Large ticket items such as lifts, welders, compressed air system, paint booth etc would be community items but basic hand tools and the like would be personal items that each member would have in their own tool locker.

In terms of the operation, I think it would have to be a relatively small group in order to make things run smoothly and to be able to schedule time in the facilities. It would operate like any other co-op. It would have an elected board that would make decisions on purchases and operations and there would be dues charged to all members to belong to the co-op.

There are obviously some concerns about an operation like this. The primary one to me being liability. How do you manage liability and insurance of a group like this, especially since automotive work does have some real risks for serious injury? How does one schedule time and structure membership? Is everyone on the same level or can people have different levels of membership with different benefits. etc.

Has anyone belonged to a group like this? Would anyone be interested in a group like this if it was in your area? Give me your feedback and thoughts on how a group like this might function? What are the obvious pitfalls that I am overlooking? How many members do you think would be practical? What do you think would be the essential requirements for space, facilities, and equipment to make this functional? How much would you be willing to pay in dues for a group like this? How far would you be willing to travel to the co-op? Any other comment you have? Thanks all for your help.

Sounds like a great idea. A Co-op sounds like it might work if you can get the right people to join. I thought about moving to the Seattle area when I retired, but as you mentioned the prices are out of sight.
When I lived in Illinois ther was a NAPA auto parts store that rented bays and equipment. Plus they had the knowledge of the employees that worked there that could assist if you got into a bind.
Now that I live in Michigan I have only seen one spot which rents bays and equipment, but never stopped in to talk to them.
I think we all have our "Dream Garage" plan in the back of our heads. how many get built is another story.

It could be a workable idea, the benefits to those involved might be worth the cost and effort. Make 2 lists, one the benefits and the other is the negatives. This second list will be what has to be over come to make it work.

Just off the top of my head one of the biggest problems is nobody works at the same pace and if you get a guy that puts his car on a lift and pulls the rearend and front suspension apart he could tie up the lift for weeks. It might not be intentional or a slow worker, it could be wrong parts or unforseen problems. How would you regulate this? Can you just move the guys car? Who's going to touch someone elses car to get it off the lift?

Next, you have a pig pen that doesn't clean up and dumped 5 qts of 30wt and went home. Do you hire an attendant to watch over the place?

Who takes care of waste removal, oil, coolant, batterys and old parts?

One last big one is as much as a guy might love to have a place to go work on his car, is the expense worth it for a couple wrenching sessions a year? Even if a guy has an ongoing restoration there could be months between needing the shop. It could cost $10,000 per month for a shop with a couple lifts and a good compressor in a commerical business area. That's 50 members @ $200 per month without turning the lights on, administrative costs or insurance.

Don't let the negatives deture you, if you can overcome them the idea becomes workable. Another way to go about this and would involve less people and be much more informal is find 4 or 5 friends and go rent a barn that has water and power. Split the costs of a lift and compressor. Now you are dealing with the guys you would be drinking beers with and helping pull and engine out so many of the "coop" issues are avoided.

I'm sure most of us have had this thought when garage deprived.

I see a few issues. You'll need liability insurance and a strong waiver of liability for personal injury and proprty damage/loss from each member. If you can't get insurance, I'm not sure I'd be involved in any official capacity because the waiver of liability only means that you might win a case brought by an injured member after a long and expensive (to you) trial. It's just not worth risking your personal net worth to have access to a garage. In addition, you'll probably have to restrict access by "friends" of members, just as most commercial garages don't allow customers in the bays. A "friend" won't have executed a waiver of liability and could recover from everyone involved in the co-op. In short, your insurance coverage and the conditions of that coverage are crucial.

Next, I think in addition to monthly dues, you'll need to adopt some basis for allocating time in the garage. You could charge for use, or at least any use over some number of "prime" and non-"prime" hours each member gets per month. Weekend use between 7:00am and 8:00pm and weekday use between 5:00pm and 8:00pm are probably "prime" time, other time is not. That said, some jobs just take a while. If a member can't use the garage for longer jobs, it might not be worth it to them. In other words defining what members can do, when and for how long is a major undertaking. Some of this could be accommodated by a system of trading hours among members.

You'll need to control overnight storage of vehicles and other bulky items at the garage, or you could quickly end up with a public eyesore and a space that can't be easily used.

Some folks are naturally neat and others are slobs. You'll need to establish and enforce some minimum standards of cleanup after use and be prepared to terminate memberships if your standards aren't maintained. Also, some people are harder on expensive tools than others. You'll need some basis for confirming the condition of the major items of equipment after each use, so as to make those who damage equipment responsible for their abuse.

You'll need to define what can be done where. Primer overspray on a new paint job might lead to blows. Grinding grit flying at polished aluminum parts isn't pretty.

You'll need to adhere to the strictest environmental standards for disposal of fluids and the release of VOC's. Environmental enforcement departments don't fool around, and landlords/property owners don't take a "oh, that's okay" position.

You'll also need to think about security. Some of our cars are pretty valuable and have expensive and easily removed parts on them. In addition, folks might want things like engines, transmisions, subframes and the like delivered to the garage. Without decent security, all of that becomes an issue.

Other than that, this should be a walk in the park. :D

LOL, you can tell who lives in California and who doesn't.

alan-living in SoCal, the land of way too many attorneys.

we had a auto hobby shop while i was in the Navy and it ran pretty smoothly.
they had a flat rate for the stalls and of course stalls with lifts cost more.
I bet if you charged by the hour you wont run into too many people holding up a stall.
they even had tool rentals etc.
heres some interesting reading:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1971-09-01/Co-op-Garages-Start-of-a-Trend.aspx

we had a auto hobby shop while i was in the Navy and it ran pretty smoothly.
they had a flat rate for the stalls and of course stalls with lifts cost more.
I bet if you charged by the hour you wont run into too many people holding up a stall.
they even had tool rentals etc.
heres some interesting reading:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1971-09-01/Co-op-Garages-Start-of-a-Trend.aspx

There were a couple of by the hr bay rental places here and they couldn't get the prices down enough to make it work for the hobbiest. The only business they got was freelance mechanics that charged back the bay rental to their customers.

we had a auto hobby shop while i was in the Navy and it ran pretty smoothly.
they had a flat rate for the stalls and of course stalls with lifts cost more.
I bet if you charged by the hour you wont run into too many people holding up a stall.
they even had tool rentals etc.
heres some interesting reading:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1971-09-01/Co-op-Garages-Start-of-a-Trend.aspx

Thanks to Uncle Sam, that was one BIG positive for me!

It's a great idea and would probably be fun.......2 things the insurance industry and environmental people hate. I'm willing to bet the cost to comply with them will be too much to bear.
Good Luck........:)

My Dad and his buddy almost did that. They both have RV's, boats, Harley's, muscle cars, etc. Instead of paying lots of money every month on storage fees, tying up garage space, & cluttering up the street. They were gonna round up a few guys, myself included, and go in a wharehouse. We almost go a nice sized wharehouse, it would've fit everything indoors including 2 36+ft RV's. With a couple lifts even, man that would've been sweet. But unfortunatley it never panned out. We would've had to get more people together to cover the rent, most places were $6k or more. If you can get all the loose ends tied up it's be a great idea. :beers:

you could have the customers pay an upfront fee for upkeep (cleaning etc.)
and an hourly -daily and weekly rate.
you can also rent out the tools etc.
have a guy standby for tuneups and a scan bench operator.
It can be done just takes some effort.
And a bit of overhead

Sounds like an awesome idea. THere is a guy around here who does that who does that with a machine shop. He make people sign a waiver and charges a very reasonable hourly rate. You can also buy materials from his yard and he walks around and assistes people w/equipment.

Did you see http://bayareamotorclub.com/aboutus.html

also there is a place called the tech shop www.techshop.ws that's cool for the techie.

Jeff

Did you see http://bayareamotorclub.com/aboutus.html

also there is a place called the tech shop www.techshop.ws that's cool for the techie.

Jeff

Is the BAMC re-opened? Their home page says closed, looking for new facility... It's dated sept 2006...

The tech shop gets used by the Mythbusters from time to time if I remember correctly do they allow automotive work?

Both are great examples for Robin to pull ideas from :thumbsup:

Thanks all. some great comments and suggestions. A setup like tech shop sounds awesome. That is really the kind of place I was getting at. and they are building a new one in Seattle. Perhaps my problem is already being solved.