Ever worked on a car at a storage unit?

Just curious. My turbo FC and two spare S5 13BT engines been collecting dust and lightening my wallet in storage for a year now. I have a driveway spot for it, but it's on a slope. Not good for a car that requires an engine swap. I might just do the swap at the storage unit instead. Anyone else do major surgery on a car at a storage unit, and if so were you given any trouble for it?

I have many times, but the storage place always knew about before hand. Never had an issue.

Most storage units around here strictly forbid working on cars in the bays. For liability reasons among other things. Not saying um...."people" haven't done it here and there though.....

Some storage places allow it and others don't, you need to contact and discus it with the manager

If you can do it 'behind closed doors', then how would they know? OTOH, you'd need to provide light, and some kind of cooling (generator, and portable A/C?). For that much trouble, I'd use a rope or cable to secure the car on your sloped driveway, and pocket the money saved from not renting the storage unit.

The place I used to rent a unit from didn't mind. Just check your rental agreement.

Did a chassis swap in one. Yep. Pulled the KA out of a chassis and put it in another. I don't know if we had permission, but no one complained. The place was a E36 M3hole anyway, so I kin of doubt they cared. One car was inside the unit the other was outside, so it was kind of obvious. Got enough done in one day to tow the old rolling chassis away.

i've considered it in the past... even talked to the various places to find who would allow it.

the one issue is most don't have power outside of a single light bulb... (suppose you could get a light socket adapter thing to run a few extra lights and maybe a fan)

the other thing to check is if you can phisically get the car into the bay... sometimes storage sheds are setup weird and there would be no way to get a car into a bay...

I did a lot of work in one on a car. In that case, the one light bulb had a timer on it, so every 40 minutes or so it would go off and I'd be in the dark, unless I left the door open or had another light.

The ones I've been in have had a single gang electric socket, as well, with no more than 15 amps. So forget about running some compressors, welders, etc.

Place I'm renting now has some guys running small businesses out of them. One guy works on BMWs and has epoxied the floor, upgraded the electrics, and has a lift in it. The owner is a major car guy, so there is a lot of that kind of stuff in there. One shop is a pull-through RV space with lifts, air conditioning, sand blasting cabinet, etc., etc.

I've used storage units myself and had buddies who use them as garages. As has been posted several times; it depends on the storage unit company. Usually a local operation is easier to deal with instead of any of the major store-it chains.

Be up-front about you plans with your plans about doing auto work on you own vehicle in the storage unit. You don't want them thinking you're trying to run an auto repair shop out of one of their storage units.

Being up front is the best thing you can do to avoid legal trouble or cops being called over your activities. Make sure you keep the place clean, too.

Nobody is going to want you dumping old motor oil all over the floor of their storage unit. Since it can spread to adjoining units they will not want to deal with damage claims from such spills. Keep a clean operation and you won't find yourself and your project being kicked out of the place.

I helped my buddy put an LSX in an FD. The heavy lifting was done already, we just wire it up and plumbed the fuel. It sucked though.

I quit using the u-store type units after a break in and losing a nice engine stand, tools, SBC and FZR parts. After talking to other renters, it sounded like an inside job. Never again.

Definitely get an A/C unit, my garage is a lot like a storage unit and that bad boy gets unbearably hot in the summer with the door OPEN, couldn't imagine with the door closed!

I had a storage unit once, and a friend of mine built a Honda CB750 out of a frame and 10 boxes of parts in it. They technically didn't allow any working on anything for liability reasons, but they didn't seem to mind that he was there all day working on the bike while they were there doing maintenance. I think it was a matter of being held liable in case someone gets hurt. They didn't really care if you did it, but couldn't officially condone it just in case.

You poor bastards... Made writing that mortgage check a little easier this month.

I used to keep a Sea Doo jet boat in a storage unit that was a mile from the boat ramp. I got hassled once because they said absolutely no oil or gasoline was permissible inside the locker. I told them I always bring it back empty and they left me alone.

When I first moved to Charlotte, I did a tranny swap at a storage facility, and spent quite a bit of time working on stuff - never a peep out of anyone. Got lucky and even had a light bulb socket to tap into for electric tool power when needed.

fasted58 wrote: I quit using the u-store type units after a break in and losing a nice engine stand, tools, SBC and FZR parts. After talking to other renters, it sounded like an inside job. Never again.

I used to work for U-Haul. I would HIGHLY reccomend not using their storage units, as this kind of, er, thing, was VERY common when I worked there. I can't say with definition that it was management but it sure seemed like it.

I also know U-Haul's contracts forbid fuel/oil storage, and only the most expensive RV storage units (read: not cheap) offer any kind of non-timed accessible power. Even the lights are automated fluorescents!

In reply to Myselfstorage115:

I don't think I want my car stored anywhere around this, OK, there Captain. Back to your canoe, now...

(when you have reading problems, you learn real quick ha words such a Toronto, look a lot like tornado...)

I haven't had storage since someone who was replacing shingles dropped their box cutter on the roof of my Saleen.

I had a storage space when I was in the Navy. The owners were pretty lenient because they knew 99% of us didn't have an option otherwise.