A mobile mechanic based in Urbandale finally decided to open a fixed-location bay for restoration and metal work, and their first purchase was a pair of automotive two post lifts. They’d been working out of a van for a decade and knew exactly what they needed — enough lift capacity to handle old truck frames, enough bay flexibility to swing metal work around a lifted vehicle, and enough workflow smoothness that they could still keep the mobile side of the business running. This is that Iowa install case study: how we scoped the bay, what we installed, what surprised us, and what a year of restoration work on automotive two post lifts looks like in a former mobile-mechanic’s new shop.
Filter for 12K and 15K models if you’re lifting classic frames and body-off restorations. Ask us about accessory arm sets and truck adapters that make old-vehicle lift points easier to reach.
The mechanic and the plan
The Urbandale mechanic had been doing brake, suspension, and light metal work out of a van for a decade. Customers loved the mobile service, but restoration and body-off work needs a stationary bay with real lifts. They leased a 40-foot-deep, 30-foot-wide steel-building bay just off I-80, poured a new six-inch slab with rebar, and called us to spec automotive two post lifts before the concrete was even fully cured.
Their vehicle mix was going to be sixty percent restoration — old GM trucks, Ford Broncos, some vintage American iron — and forty percent modern general repair for their long-term mobile customers who wanted a fixed-location option. Capacity requirement leaned high because classic truck frames are surprisingly heavy. We spec’d 12,000 lb lifts to give margin for a fully loaded old truck with the bed still attached. This is the right capacity call for shops that do restoration; 10,000 lb is fine until you drop a fully assembled classic pickup on it.
Concrete verification and the anchor plan
New six-inch slab, thirty days cure, 4,000 psi mix with fiber reinforcement. We cored a sample at day 28 to verify strength — came back at 4,300 psi, comfortably above minimum. Anchor plan: eight 3/4-inch wedge anchors per column, torqued to 150 ft-lbs. That’s more anchors than the manufacturer minimum, but for restoration work with frequently-loaded lifts, we like the extra margin.
The mechanic asked why we specify extra anchors on some installs. The honest answer is that restoration work involves a lot of lifting, lowering, hammering, and pulling on lifted vehicles — the anchor field takes cyclic loading that a general-repair shop doesn’t see. More anchors distribute that load and delay the day the concrete starts to spider. Every automotive two post lifts install we do gets an anchor plan matched to the use case, not just to the manufacturer minimum. That’s one of the things you’re paying for when you use a local installer.
Bay layout for restoration workflow
Restoration bays need space around the lifted vehicle for parts staging, a welder, a plasma cutter, and enough floor for a body cart. We laid out two automotive two post lifts on opposite sides of the bay, 20 feet apart, so the mechanic could have a vehicle on each lift and work between them without either project blocking the other. Compressor drops and welder outlets went between the lifts, on the center wall.
The metal work station — a small welding table, a bench grinder, and a plasma cutter — got positioned near the back of the bay away from the vehicle-entry door but reachable from either lift in ten steps. That’s the eight-to-ten-foot rule again: any tool a tech needs regularly should be within a short walk from the working vehicle. For a solo mechanic who’s their own crew, that walk-time compounds fast. Small layout optimizations at design time save hours per week over the life of the shop.
Arm choice for classic truck frames
Classic truck frames — 1960s-1980s American iron — have body-mount points and frame rails that don’t always line up cleanly with modern lift arm reach. We spec’d three-stage telescoping arms front and rear on both automotive two post lifts, plus a full adapter set including truck frame pads, cross-frame pads, and low-profile pucks for early cars. The three-stage arms extend far enough to reach the frame rails on a long-wheelbase pickup without stacking pads.
Asymmetric vs symmetric was a close call. We ended up going asymmetric on both lifts because the modern-vehicle side of the business (forty percent of work) benefited from door clearance and the classic side (sixty percent) could still use the asymmetric geometry as long as the arms reached the correct lift points. On a body-off project — where the bed and cab come off the frame — the vehicle sits on jack stands anyway and the lift geometry matters less. Automotive two post lifts in a restoration shop are for daily service and initial disassembly; body-off happens on stands.
Install day: two techs, one long afternoon
Install took a full day for both lifts. Two techs from our Ames crew, plus the mechanic pitching in. Column stand-up went smoothly with the boom truck. Anchor drilling took the longest — sixteen anchor holes across two lifts, each hole 4.5 inches deep, cored through fresh six-inch concrete. Anchoring was clean. Overhead cable routing, hydraulic hookup, and electrical came together by mid-afternoon.
Commissioning was the last two hours: lift each unit through its full range, verify safety-cam engagement at every notch, test arm restraints on each arm, cycle up and down under load with a test vehicle. Both automotive two post lifts passed commissioning without a punch-list item. That’s what happens when the site prep is done right — the install is boring, and boring is what you want when you’re anchoring 8,000 lb columns into a new pour.
First year: restoration wins, mobile pivot succeeds
Twelve months in, the Urbandale mechanic reports the fixed bay is running roughly forty percent of their weekly hours, with the other sixty percent still mobile. That’s the split they wanted — the bay for restoration and heavier work, the van for on-site brake and suspension calls. Both lifts have been in daily use, one restoration project on each at any given time. The mechanic did two body-off restorations, three partial-frame rebuilds, and a steady stream of general repair.
Neither lift needed anything beyond a hydraulic fluid top-off at month nine. Zero warranty claims. Zero downtime. The mechanic says the biggest surprise was how much faster restoration work goes with proper lifts compared to floor jacks and stands — obvious in retrospect, but hard to appreciate until you’ve felt it. If you’re doing restoration on jack stands, automotive two post lifts pay back the investment in throughput alone within about a year.
What we’d change and what we’d repeat
Looking back, the layout we’d repeat: 20 feet between lifts, compressor drops on the center wall, metal work station at the back, tool cart near each lift. The concrete plan we’d repeat exactly: six-inch slab, rebar, fiber reinforcement, 4,000 psi mix, thirty-day cure, cored verification, extra anchors. Both lift picks — 12,000 lb asymmetric with three-stage arms — we’d repeat.
What we’d change is small: we’d have run a second compressor drop closer to the metal work station to save some hose management, and we’d have installed a wall-mounted tool board on day one instead of month three. Neither is a lift-related regret. If you’re planning a restoration bay in central Iowa and thinking about automotive two post lifts, call us at 800-674-9302 and we’ll walk your building. The site visit is free and the layout advice is honest — that’s how case studies like this one get written.
Our Clients Include: