Garage or carport options for FJ40 in So-CA weather (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Aug 27, 2016
Threads
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59
Location
Las Vegas
I'm not really sure this is a "tech" question, but I didn't know where else to post this. I recently moved from Las Vegas, where I had two huge garages, to San Diego, where my garage is much smaller and taken up entirely by my business. So now my 40, which was a desert truck for as long as I can trace back, is now stuck outside. I've been here for about 4 months and have already seen rust in new places it didn't have before. It's rained a lot since we got here and I have made a good effort to tarp it when I knew rain was coming. But it has been naked for many rain storms that I couldn't cover it in time for, or was just too lazy to go out and cover it.

I want my 50 year old 40 to last another 50 years. So I am ready to build a carport or garage right away. In fact, I am going to start setting posts tomorrow morning. With the roof rack, my 40 is about 88" tall. I looked at those tent canopy type portable garages, but it seems like I need to spend $500+ to get one tall enough to fit with the rack. So I have settled on building something myself. I have the option to either just build a carport, or an enclosed garage. What I am not sure about is if the carport will be good enough to protect it from the moisture we have here.

I'm just not used to this damper weather. I go out at night and notice everything seems to be wet. Not wet from rain, but just the dew or wet fog. I am about 8 miles from the beach, so I don't have saltwater or beach issues, but things are still wet. I have been told that once spring comes, it will dry out here and we will have dry dry weather until next winter. I'm not convinced these CA folks know what dry weather is. But maybe it will be dry, I don't know. It would be cheaper and easier to go with a carport, obviously. But for those of you in a similar climate, is that enough to protect my 40 from the dampness in the air? If I went real cheap and find a canopy type garage instead, make it taller and add canvas to the sides, would this be a better option than a carport? Or would that just make a humid tent and make it worse? Finally, I can enclose the carport and make a garage, but then I lose my outside ventilation from my shop window which the new garage will be built next to.

I'm really torn between the options and need a little help deciding what to do. The only issues I have with the canopy garages is that I want a place I can also work on my truck and they are just too small. I'd prefer to build this planned 16'x20' carport or garage and pour a cement pad so I can also have a place to wrench.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will start putting my posts in tomorrow either way, but I need to decide soon if I want to enclose it or leave it an open carport.
 
Covering it with a tarp is worse in my opinion than leaving it uncovered
A tarp holds moisture against the vehicle and makes it take longer to dry out and can make your truck sweat when it isn't raining
You need airflow around vehicle to keep
It dry
Now where I live is a extreme of rain before Christmas we had 36 days of rain since we've had two snowfalls of three feet or better and right now have a 100 mm of rain warning next 24 hrs lol
 
If you go with a canopy type garage, you need to get one with very high quality canvas or it will be destroyed by sun & wind within a year.
I don't know if 8 miles from the ocean is enough. I lived several miles from the Gulf Coast and my cruiser started rusting from the top down.
Maybe enclose the carport, put a window on the far side and use fans to provide the ventilation?
 
Hell who doesnt love having a garage???? My vote is a garage but a heavy duty coveall building will work great. Up here in canada my bro in law keep his chevelle in one all winter and it works great
 
Unless you plan on moving soon, build a garage bigger and better than you think you need. It will be too small in a few years instead of next year :). Check local costs of wood vs prefab metal. Concrete floor, insulation, electricity, and plumbing. If your going to be a bear.....be a grizzly!

For heavens sake, your protecting an FJ40 not a heep!
 
Covering it with a tarp is worse in my opinion than leaving it uncovered
A tarp holds moisture against the vehicle and makes it take longer to dry out and can make your truck sweat when it isn't raining
You need airflow around vehicle to keep
It dry
Now where I live is a extreme of rain before Christmas we had 36 days of rain since we've had two snowfalls of three feet or better and right now have a 100 mm of rain warning next 24 hrs lol

Yeah, we don't have nearly that much rain here. Actually, everyone has said the rain we've had lately is totally abnormal and that we should expect it to be dry without a drop of rain all summer. Still, close to the coast, I think it's going to be moist at night in the summer, but I may be wrong. Forgot to mention, I only covered it because it's got leaks everywhere. I promptly uncovered it after the rain was done every time.

Where are you in San Diego? It can be the salt in the air from the beach.

I'm in Vista. I don't think we have any salty moisture 8 miles in. The marine layer fog stops a few miles away from us, but we get our own fog here, especially in the hills where we are.

If you go with a canopy type garage, you need to get one with very high quality canvas or it will be destroyed by sun & wind within a year.
I don't know if 8 miles from the ocean is enough. I lived several miles from the Gulf Coast and my cruiser started rusting from the top down.
Maybe enclose the carport, put a window on the far side and use fans to provide the ventilation?

Yeah, that's exactly what I don't want to happen. I guess enclosing the carport is the best option. I can get a temporary canvas garage, but a good one will cost $500+. A little more and I can build the enclosed carport.

Hell who doesnt love having a garage???? My vote is a garage but a heavy duty coveall building will work great. Up here in canada my bro in law keep his chevelle in one all winter and it works great

Yeah, I had my shop, plus an oversized 4 car garage in Vegas. Here, I barely have enough garage for just my shop, so the cars are outside. I miss my garage something fierce.
 
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Unless you plan on moving soon, build a garage bigger and better than you think you need. It will be too small in a few years instead of next year :). Check local costs of wood vs prefab metal. Concrete floor, insulation, electricity, and plumbing. If your going to be a bear.....be a grizzly!

For heavens sake, your protecting an FJ40 not a heep!

I'll be here awhile, but I don't think we'll be able to tolerate Commiefornia THAT long. Already spent a ton of money moving, remodelling and building additions. This garage is gonna have to be made on the cheap. I was thinking of going with clear polycarbonate roof, just as many posts as I need to hold it and whatever I choose for walls. Not even pouring a pad yet, gonna have to come back and do that later. So for now, I won't even be able to jack it up in this new "garage". Will still have to use the driveway for now.

Now I'm wondering, with the clear roof, is it going to turn into a greenhouse? Maybe I should just do regular shingled roof. I was really trying to keep it open and light because my office window will be going right into it and I don't want to lose the ventilation and light I have in the shop. I have plenty of land, but the lot is narrow, and made even narrower by the creek running alongside us. There just isn't enough room to turn around the cruiser very well anywhere but right behind my garage where I want the carport to go. Plus, down on the end of the property, the mud is so bad, and all clay, I get stuck every time I drive down there after rain.
 
Thanks, I'm a member there. Were you trying to link to a thread? Or just sharing the board as a resource? The link just goes to home page. I'll poke around anyway.

Just a link to the forums in general. Glad you're there already!
 
Yeah, thanks for reminding me. I went to look around and wound up reading a bunch of unrelated stuff for fun, totally forgetting about my project!

Anyway, in what I have found, unless I do code type, stick built construction with a proper roof, slab, etc, I am going to be building myself a nice big greenhouse. I can't pour concrete right now, so the moist dirt is going to make a nice steam room. At this point, I'm being told by locals that the rainy season is almost over. So back to my original thought.... is just making a lean to carport with clear poly roofing about 20'x16' good enough to keep my truck from rusting away? I could go with the alpine temporary garage that's big enough for the 40, but I wouldn't be able to pour cement right away with that either. The ground is so moist right now, I would have to leave the "door" open all the time to ventilate anyway, which makes the carport just as good. Now when summer comes and everything dries out, enclosing it would be fine as it would keep moisture out in the evenings. I don't know guys, I came from the desert and this is just all new to me.

I've got my contractor here today, was going to have him set the posts for me to save me from having to dig. Just not feeling confident any choice I can afford to do is really going to help protect the truck.
 
Several years ago I got one of those cheap Costco 10 X 20 carport "tents" for my travel trailer. The frame is too short for any vehicle or trailer, but I added length to the legs with metal conduit just smaller than the diameter of the frame legs. I used the hole that was there to pin the plastic feet on and used the same pin planned for the feet to hold the conduit in place, "drill and 3/8ths bit required".

I don't remember just how much I added, maybe 2ft, but that can be changed depending on the height needed. Because of winter winds that we occasionally get I got pyramid blocks with the metal 4 X 4 saddles in the top. The conduit end sat in the saddle and I drilled through the conduit, using the nail hole in the saddle as a template for the hole in the conduit, and used 3/8ths bolts to hold it to the saddle.

The south side of the carport that caught the wind was like a sail. With the weight of eight of the pyramid blocks holding the canopy down it would still move during the strongest wind gusts. So, you will probably want to get some beefy stakes and use for tie downs. The stakes should not be driven straight down. Instead they should be driven into the ground at a sharp angle (for holding power) since this adds resistance to the straight upwards pull that wind gusts against the canopy have.

If this canopy is right next to your garage it could be tied to the garage with conduit clamps and screws around the vertical legs. This would add a lot of rigidity to the structure. Also, holding the canopy structure down during a wind storm is IMPORTANT! You don't want to be out there during a storm trying to figure out how to hold the canopy down. (don't ask how I know)

What I used was: 8- pyramid blocks, 8- 3/8ths X 5" ? bolts with doubled nuts (for locking power), 20 ft ? of large diameter (1 1/2" ?) conduit. I had a wire fence to tie to so I didn't need stakes, but you may need them, and something to tie the stakes to the canopy frame. Although not a long term solution this is inexpensive, and the canopy cover should last at least 3 years.

Don
 
Thanks for the recommendation. I was considering doing exactly that. I have an industrial sewing business, so I was just going to sew additional canvas to the bottom after raising it up. Although, now that I think about it, on a dirt floor it may need the ventilation around the bottom.

I just asked my neighbor if the nights get damp here in the summer and he said it's pretty much dry all summer here. Every night is wet basically oct-mar, and the other 6 months dry.

So what I'm thinking is maybe just build the carport that will at least keep the rain off. It will also keep a lot of the dew at bay being under the cover. I could probably add some barn doors or roll up canvas sides, but I would have to close it up at night and open it every day. Not a big deal, I suppose. Just open it up when I go collect the chicken eggs! Or what do you guys think about just putting canvas walls half way down or so. It would allow a lot of ventilation, and the night mist would hit the ground by the time it made it to the truck if the bottom is only open 4 feet or so. This way I still have my ventilation into my office window and when it's dry I can leave it open all the time.
 
Here is a picture of where I'm talking about. The window on the right is my office. The smaller window on the left is the bathroom. Completely enclosing a garage here would seal those off, which is not ideal.....but I was willing to do it for my 40! I built that office with the window right where my desk goes because it has a great view of the property. But again, my truck is more important! I have a couple other places I could put a tent type garage. I just don't know if the tent will be better or worse for moisture if its on dirt and not concrete. Seems you guys think open air allowing ventilation will be better than enclosing it if not in a proper garage.
 
Got any old friends in Vegas? Take it back until you get the garage thing sorted out.
 
Ha! Yeah, I've got some friends that would love to babysit it. Visions of Ferris Bueller's Day Off are popping into my head! Unfortunately, it's kind of a daily driver. I don't commute, as I work at home in that shop right there. But it's my only vehicle that can tow my utility trailer, which I use at least once a week because of all the construction we are doing here at the new house.

I have zero experience with vehicles in this climate. Is it really going to start rusting apart if I can't garage it properly? People rave about buying CA vehicles because they are so rust free, so I really didn't think it would be this wet when we moved here. But it really is only wet at night if it's not raining, so is nighttime dew going to be that destructive? Maybe I ought to just rub the whole thing down with oil top to bottom, inside and out!
 
Ha! Yeah, I've got some friends that would love to babysit it. Visions of Ferris Bueller's Day Off are popping into my head! Unfortunately, it's kind of a daily driver. I don't commute, as I work at home in that shop right there. But it's my only vehicle that can tow my utility trailer, which I use at least once a week because of all the construction we are doing here at the new house.

I have zero experience with vehicles in this climate. Is it really going to start rusting apart if I can't garage it properly? People rave about buying CA vehicles because they are so rust free, so I really didn't think it would be this wet when we moved here. But it really is only wet at night if it's not raining, so is nighttime dew going to be that destructive? Maybe I ought to just rub the whole thing down with oil top to bottom, inside and out!
You are still close enough to the salty air, but not too bad. You will likely get surface rust and it will stay like that. I do recommend spending the extra money for a fully enclosed garage. Mositure from the air, the fog, and being close to the water doesn't help, having the extra protection is highly recommended. I have a home off the beach and I don't leave my older cars around there. They all start to rust. As for your comment about Commiefornia, I totally agree, all carpool lanes have now turned into a damn Fast Track lanes where they charge per mile.
 
I totallt agree. Unfortunately, spent way more than budget allowed on the house already. So not enough money to build a garage right now. Plus, I would probably build it myself and I dont have time now even if I wanted to. On top of that, we may not want to live here that long, so not sure another garage would be a good investment since this house already has a very oversized 2 car garage. I do have a place I could build one later, but I need something in the meantime that needs to be cheap, which is why I was looking at the tents.

So I guess this brings me back to my original question. Would the truck be better off in a tent garage on dirt/gravel (either open on the bottom 2 feet or so, or closed all the way), or an open air carport? Either of those options are much more doable for me to pull off quickly and without a huge expense, allowing me to save time and money towards a real garage.
 
I am voting for tent garage. At night, it will still not be as open as a car port and lessen the moisture that would be around the vehicle. Just use ebay and type "portable garage".
 

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