I'm searching for a place where car enthusiasts and such can make
repairs/modifications to their own vehicles in a garage for rent. I'd
heard of fully-equipped garages with lifts, etc. along with full
complements of tools as well available for rent. I live in Washington,
DC and would be willing to travel up to 1 hour to such a place. If
there are any places that offer such facilities for free, that would
be wonderful.

Hi, bigrich-ga:

This is merely my personal experience from having moved up from the
"south" where such places were available on both formal and informal
terms in my youth, to Washington, DC and points north of there (PA,
DE, MD, VA).  I looked around for such businesses and came up empty. 
My impression is that maybe the liability insurance (at least in those
areas) made such enterprises untenable.  I did quite a bit of calling
around in the DC area, though this was...ummm... a number of years
ago!  Off-hand I might be tempted to think North Carolina.

Good luck with your search, and I'll be watching to see what a fellow
researcher may find out for you!

regards, mathtalk-ga

I've actually been thinking about the same thing, except for use as a
woodworking shop, rather than an auto repair shop, and in the Philly
area. I imagine the same liability issues would apply, but can't you
sign a "hold-harmless" waiver or some such?

A search on "automotive self repair" turns up exactly one Google hit,
this site associated with Columbus Air Force Base in northern
Mississippi:

http://www.cafbgrapevine.com/Skills%20Development/SkillsBottom.htm

Looks like they also have a woodworking shop!

regards, mathtalk

Here's one in the Toronto suburbs:

http://www.rentabay.com/

bigrich --

After some research into this interesting question, I have tentatively
concluded that such public facilities are few and far between,
although they do seem to exist in Canada, and, strangely enough, I
have found a couple in Camden, N.J.

Interestingly, though, such auto self-repair facilities seem to be
commonly associated with military bases.  However, at least at the one
I found in Washington area, you have to be active or retired military
or an active or retired Defense Department employee to use the
facility.

If you happen to qualify, let me know and I will provide the
information on this Washington area facility.

markj-ga

The person looking for a woodworking shop to rent sparked a memory. In
Oregon we have junior colleges that rent classrooms from the k-12
school districts. These are usually in the high schools, which have
auto shops and wood working shops. I had a wood working project (30
years ago) and signed up for a term through the Junior College. I had
access to the high school shop for two or three nights a week, three
hours each night. You really had to plan your work, but it was worth
it given the equipment I had access to.