Lift my ride: Company designs lifts for storing cars

By: PATRICK WRIGHT - Staff Writer | Saturday, November 11, 2006 6:49 PM PST ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- Gary van Eik loves old cars. The 64-year-old Vista resident loves to find them, loves to build them, and loves to collect them. As his collection grew to more than 13 cars, including two black 1932 Ford Roadsters, he ran out of space in his 2,000-square-foot garage. If he was going to increase his car collection, there was only one storage option available.

"We didn't have any more room," he said. "I had to go up."

At the 2003 car show in Del Mar, van Eik found the solution to his problem: a car lift from American Custom Lifts. The eight-year-old Escondido company designs vehicle lifts, mostly for homes and condominiums. The lifts are meant to raise or lower vehicles to create more parking or storage space in garages.

Although the average American Custom Lifts customer is a car collector such as van Eik, the company's products range from personal parking facilities to larger, corporate parking structures. Some of the products it designs could lift an M-1 tank or a tanker truck.

With neighborhood building codes limiting the height and density of homes in many communities across the country, lifts are an option more and more people are choosing. A company official said American Custom Lifts, with sales of about $2 million this year, is doubling sales every year and seeing business increase the most in urban areas of states such as Illinois and Florida. Nationally, it is one of at least 18 companies in the roughly $200 million vehicle and parking lift market, an industry official said.

Brad Davies, 52, is the man supporting American Custom Lifts. He left his job at Advantage Lifts Systems Inc., now part of industry leader Rotary Lift in Indiana, in 1998 to form his own company. While working at Advantage, Davies was amazed at how many customers wanted custom-made parking lifts for their garages. Three years later, a request from a customer in Huntington Beach helped Davies create his signature product.

"We took an above-ground lift and put it into a pit," he said. "Then we built a car (parking spot) on top of it."

What he created would become the PhantomPark. For roughly $50,000, including shipping and installation, the specially designed structures allow customers to store a vehicle underground while parking another vehicle on top of it. In advertisements, the company jokes that PhantomPark facilities can turn the average garage into "the Batcave," the underground headquarters of the comic superhero Batman.

It isn't hard to see why the company makes that comparison. Unlike common lifts where visible poles lift and drop the vehicle, the PhantomPark does the exact opposite. When a customer pulls in the vehicle to be stored into the garage, the entire unit "disappears" into the ground and the garage looks just like it did before the PhantomPark was installed.

Customers could even choose to cover the top of the PhantomPark with tile or other materials to match the surroundings. Today, Davies said the company has 20 PhantomParks being installed across the country.

The PhantomPark is a product that is spreading across the country. Last year, American Custom Lifts were installed in Newport Beach, Manhattan Beach, Huntington Beach, Calabasas, San Francisco, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Minnesota.

American Custom Lifts doesn't make or install a single product. Instead, it acts as a "parking lift" architect. The company designs the lifts, sends the specifications to a second party to make the parts, and then has them shipped to a third party near the customer's home for installation.

Unlike many automotive lift companies, American Custom Lifts orders only American-made parts for its designed lifts. Some companies order parts from China, said Davies and other industry officials.

For most customers, a standard lift is all they need. With 20 classic cars and a desire to own more, van Eik wanted to store as many cars as possible. He bought a ParkKing, a four-post lift that raises his red 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 on a platform above his 1960 Chevy Bel Air. His lift was even installed by American Custom Lifts, a practice the company has since stopped. He loves cars so much, he might have to sell one or more of them to make room for the others he wants to buy or build.

He said American Custom Lifts has helped him maximize his garage space to allow his hobby to continue.

"It's been wonderful," he said. "It's hidden, and it looks great."

Contact staff writer Patrick Wright at (760) 739-6675 or pwright@nctimes.com.

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