Art & Inspiration Aesthetically Pleasing Oil Drip Pans

I have been informed by management that the several sheets of year-old, oil-soaked cardboard under the Model A are unsightly and that a better solution is needed so that innocent users of the garage aren't stepping foot into an episode of Sanford and Sons every day of their lives.

Does anyone have a Holy Triangle (good-looking, cheap, and easily serviceable) solution to catch oil drips underneath a 100-year-old automobile?

I thought about those plastic interlocking grid things over top of some carpet, but I hate the way they look in a traditional-themed garage.

 

Cheap…….and Amazon delivers


Seriously, try looking for new pigg. They make all types of absorbent material pretty much for what you are talking about

 

Was gonna say a pig mat, or any oil absorbent mat on a typical steel oil drip pan. Easy to see and not messy to move or pickup if need be. And when hasn't an oil drip pan not been traditional with a road draft tubed car?

 

I put a 3'x12' wide heavy vinyl strip on the floor, centered directly in between the wheels and laid front- to-rear. I also placed large, commercial bread pans I bought at a garage sale, one under the engine/transmission and the other under the rear axle housing. I wipe them off once or twice a year. Keeps the floor clean & neat.

 

When you own Harleys and Cummins diesels , best to have a wooden pegged wood floor and Oil Treat it .

 

I park over a full sheet of plywood.

 

Get yourself some of this cardboard

Fancy pinkies out cardboard

 

I use the biggest boot trays I can find.

 

I let my old cars drip naturally as God intended.

 

Water heater drain/drip pans in many sizes and shapes.

 

Search "garage oil mat" on Google and you'll see a lot of nice options.

 

Aircraft drip pans.

 

I use the plastic trays from large dog cages.

 

I use an all-weather cargo liner from a Subaru. Think big, black plastic liner with raised edges. It hoses off easily and slides right back under the car.

 

Do you park in an open lot in the garage, or up to a wall?

 

The oil soaked cardboard is not the problem unless its been there a long time without being changed. Its apparent the problem occurs when the car is not there.

Anything you put down on the floor to get the job done will be like a magnet to the small innocent feet. Anything that they find that marks the trails they walk with their little foot prints, makes them feel important and is fun to them.
How many kids do you know won't go out of their way to walk through a water puddle?

Maybe its time for the management to teach the innocent ones what is appropriate and what is not. Understanding discipline and responsibility are two of the more important of life skills.
They have been replaced with "remove the objects we don't want to deal with" way too often.
Male and female management need to become parents again and teach the children rather then remove the problem so someone else will have to deal with it in the future.

 

I put a cheap area rug from goodwill over the cardboard.
Eventually I'll get the leaks fixed.
Or pick up a fresh rug.

 

Drip pans become an awful sight to see after sitting and collecting oil
then dust ferries, bugs and dust sticks to the oil and becomes really obnoxious

can’t beat old fashioned cardboard
seams the longer it sits the better it looks
and
whenever you decide it’s had enough
light it on fire and watch it burn

 

I bought a large galvanized drip pan that's about 36" long and 24" wide for $25. Not sure why anyone would want to use anything else? I occasionally wipe it out with a rag to get rid of whatever drips it catches.

 

^ I have one of those large drip pans. I cut a piece of cardboard to fit in it. When the card board gets dirty I throw it away and replace it with another piece. Nice and clean, looks good and no wiping up oil mess.

 

They spent MILLIONS OF DOLLARS on advertising and nobody ever heard of them?
https://www.weathertech.com/?utm_so...rand&msclkid=fbb820295c4f19b97749478aaed367b5

Guess I'm lucky, nobody wanders into my garage.

 

Anytime the old lady wants to replace an area rug, I confiscate the old one for garage and shop flooring.
Drips and spills disappear. Plus it actually looks decent.
When it gets too grimy just give the boss a hint or two about needing a new rug in house...

 

The burning after use gets done with all my oily rags / shop towels . I never leave anything that may combust in a trash can or near where I may be welding and forget it is there . I witnessed a pipe liner - welder forgot he his Bic lighter in his pocket and be came a human torch . It’s a tough thing to chase him down and knock him off his feet and roll his Richard Pryor lookin azz around .

 

Why don't you just fix the leaks?

 

Hello,

Having lived in an apartment building with a concerned manager/owner, it was a great thing that he was so specific to require the residents to fix their oil leaks for the public/apartment dwellers parking spots. He had a couple of cars and the area below his cars was always clean concrete. So, he required the residents/renters to have the same situation for their cars.

Since the parking spaces were on a first come basis, the area had to be clean or now, carpet and sidewalk oil dots had to be cleaned up at extra costs. At first, we thought it was outrageous. But, when I had to fix a Triumph 650 Motorcycle with new parts and pipes, I did not want to sit in oil leaks while doing the work. So, for me and others. I definitely agreed with the policy.

If maintained, there is no need to have a sheet of aluminum pans or absorbent oil cloths below car parking areas. If there were individual stalls for each resident, then fine, take care of your own space. But, for the 20 or so folks staying in the random parking spots provided by the landlord, it was not unreasonable to have a non-staining, oil leaking car or motorcycle on the provided parking spots.

Jnaki

From that experience and our own hot rod building in our backyard garage, it was a spotless work environment and with several projects going on at the same time, each designated work space needed a clean concrete floor to work. We were lucky to have a nice workplace.

Our dad’s Buick sedans never leaked and to top that, since our mom’s laundry area was in that old garage, her constant washing and mopping the floor made any mistakes in laundry a clean workplace, in case one item dropped to the floor. So, it happened to be the same place as our motor lift/install chain hoist area and we had to have a clean workspace floor surface.
For all of the hard charging done at the local dragstrip and on the city streets of our Bixby Knolls cruising scene, not one leak for all of those memorable miles...

None of our cars leaked oil, even the old Flathead motor in my Ford Sedan Delivery was a hard running motor/transmission combo with many miles from our long coastal road trips. But, the cars never had oil leaks. If any indication of a leak, it was removed and fixed before more oil could get on the concrete floor.
There were none... for the whole 5 years of many coastal road trips up and down the coastal surf spots of So Cal and Baja, Mexico.

But, as we moved on in life and were in rental apartments, a clean renter’s concrete parking spot is necessary for all concerned. YRMV
As oil drip free 327 SBC motor provided, we were ok in parking inside of our mom's pristine garage when we went to visit.

Later on, our 327 powered sedan delivery had a small leak on our own concrete garage floor. It was a water pump that needed radiator removal and a full replacement of a new water pump to take care of any future leaks. Even my wife was a stickler for a clean concrete floor in the garage. During rainy days, the clean concrete floor became an indoor play room for our toddler son and while I was working at the workbench area. So, it had to be clean...

 

just explain to the management that it is not leaking it is marking its territory

 

how will I tell if it has oil in it, if I fix the leaks?

 

A suitable cheap sheet pan lined with oil absorbent pads works well and doesn't make a mess. I have two under the bed of my lathe. Easy to switch out and not messy if you don't wait until the pads are too saturated. I buy cheap alunimium sheet pans at Walmart or Amazon, but foil ones could also work.