A collector we installed for on the Iowa-Nebraska border sent us a photo last month — his 1969 Camaro on one of the automotive two post lifts we set for him last summer, oil pan gasket half off, a work light clipped to the column. His caption was three words: “worth every penny.” That story starts a year earlier, when he called us about a 30-by-60 pole building he was finishing and wanted advice on how to spec his lifts before the concrete crew came out. What follows is his first year of ownership — the site survey, the install, the first oil-pan job, and the lessons any collector planning a shop of their own should read before they pour concrete.
Collector-grade columns with the arm geometry, pad styles, and safety cams that keep classic sheet metal safe overhead.
The building — 30 by 60, 12-foot ceiling, no floor drain
Our customer’s pole building was already framed when he called. Thirty feet wide, sixty feet deep, twelve-foot side walls, insulated ceiling but not yet finished on the interior. He had space for two automotive two post lifts, a workbench wall, a rolling toolbox, and enough clearance to open the doors on any car in his collection. What he did not have yet was concrete. The pour was scheduled for the following week, which meant our site-survey visit was the last chance to influence it.
We walked the building with him. Ceiling height at the truss came out to 11 feet 10 inches — two inches short of the true 12-foot minimum we want for standard-height overhead lifts. We recommended he order baseplate columns instead of overhead. Baseplate models route the equalizer cable through a floor channel between the columns and avoid the overhead beam entirely, which buys back all of that ceiling height and then some. Problem solved before the concrete truck ever showed up.
Getting the concrete right on the first pour
ALI’s minimum concrete spec for a two-post lift is 4 inches at 3,000 PSI cured 28 days. That is the minimum. For a collector installing lifts he wants to run for the next 25 years, we recommended a full 6 inches of 4,000 PSI with #4 rebar on 12-inch centers. The upcharge on a 1,800 square foot pour was manageable — a few hundred dollars over the base bid, well worth it for the lift pad alone.
The concrete crew came out ten days later. Our customer had a marked drawing showing where each column would sit — 12 feet apart on center, offset 8 feet from the back wall to allow room for the trunk of a long car to swing clear of the door on drive-in. The crew set expansion joints outside the lift footprint, which is critical: a lift anchor drilled through an expansion joint is a lift anchor that will fail. Twenty-eight days later, the pad was ready and the automotive two post lifts were on our delivery truck.
Install day — two lifts, one collector, ten hours
Our crew arrived on a Saturday because the customer wanted to be there for the install. We prefer that on collector jobs; the owner learns his lift, we get real-time input on placement, and there is never a question about where a column ended up. Both Challenger CL12s came off the truck by 8 a.m., columns set and plumbed by 10, overhead-equivalent baseplate channel routed and welded to the floor plates by noon. Cables tensioned and equalized after lunch.
By 4 p.m. we were running an empty cycle on both lifts and walking our customer through the safety-cam clicks, the equalizer inspection points, the swing-arm restraint mechanism, and the monthly PM checklist. He wanted to know how to spot a cable ready for replacement — we showed him what a broken strand looks like inside the cable jacket and how to run a rag along the cable to catch snags. He kept notes. The best lift owners in our customer base are always the ones who take notes on install day.
The first month — light use and dialing in adapters
He lifted his 1970 Chevelle first, and immediately learned that classic-car unibody lift points do not always match the standard adapter stack that ships with modern automotive two post lifts. The Chevelle wanted a specific pad location right behind the front subframe, and the stack pads that came with the lift were too tall. We shipped him a set of low-profile pads with pinch-weld adapters that swap in and out for different vehicles. Every collector we install for eventually needs a mixed adapter kit; we bundle it with every collector-focused quote now for exactly this reason.
Once he had the adapters sorted, he cycled through his collection — the Chevelle, the Camaro, a 1966 Mustang, a 1972 Datsun, and his daily-driver Silverado. Every vehicle got a written adapter chart taped inside the toolbox lid. That chart is what separates a collector who breaks a rocker panel in year two from one who runs the same lift for 20 years without a single accident.
The first oil pan gasket — where the lift earned its keep
Six months in, the Camaro started weeping oil at the pan rail. Small-block Chevys are notorious for pan gaskets that give up after a decade, and pulling the pan on the ground is a two-person job with the engine hoisted. On the lift, the same job is a solo Saturday afternoon. He raised the car to 6 feet, pulled the crossmember hardware, dropped the pan onto a jack stand, cleaned the rail, and glued in a new one-piece silicone gasket. Total time: about four hours including cleanup.
He texted us the photo when he lowered the car — no leaks, no drips, and a clean rail he could see from the ground. On automotive two post lifts, oil-pan work is one of the highest-value jobs a collector can do at home, because the alternative is paying a shop $600 for the labor. If he does three of those in his collection, the lift has paid a meaningful chunk of its own cost.
Twelve-month PM check and what we found
We came back a year after the install for the ALI annual inspection. This is a $200-range service call for us and it is not optional if the collector wants his insurance to keep covering the shop. We inspected the safety cams (both engaging on every tooth), the cables (no broken strands, correct tension), the equalizer bar (level within manufacturer spec), the hydraulic fluid (clean, correct level), and the anchor torque (no loosening on any of the eight anchors per lift). Everything passed.
What we replaced during the visit was two grease fittings on one lift and a rubber pad on a lift adapter that had a chunk missing. Total parts cost was under $30. That is the profile of a well-installed, well-maintained pair of automotive two post lifts: annual inspection, minor consumable replacement, and no major service in the first five to seven years. Owners who follow the PM schedule get 25 years out of their lifts; owners who ignore it get five.
What we tell every collector before install
If you are a collector planning to install lifts in your shop, three things matter more than brand choice. First, pour concrete right the first time — 6 inches, 4,000 PSI, rebar or fiber. Second, pick columns to match your ceiling; baseplate saves low-ceiling installs and there is no shame in it. Third, order the mixed adapter kit up front, because your classic cars will not match the modern stack pads.
Call us at 800-674-9302 before your pour if you can. We do free site surveys anywhere in a three-hour drive of Ames, and the Iowa-Nebraska border is well inside that radius. We install what we sell, we service what we install, and we stock every wear part for immediate shipment. Our full inventory of automotive two post lifts is online with configurator pricing and Iowa install quoted at checkout. The customers who call before the concrete crew are the ones who end up sending us thank-you photos a year later.
Our Clients Include: