Restored 1930's Auto Shop

[ZRX61]

Originally Posted by Rte66Charlie

I'm with you on the radials, but you have to admit, ZRX61 has a point about the Rolls - that is a magical sound! (BTW ZRX61 - nice TigerCat! Very few of those flying!! Maybe 6?)

Yup, currently 6 altho 1 of those isn't flown (the one at Palm Springs). We had 3 at Reno in '08...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6bKUf0kiXE


& 2 of those plus a different one made it 3 at Chino airshow in May of '09.
Hoping we manage 4 someplace/time this year.

[OUNATE]

Gorgeous shop, it's always great to see restorations. Sounds like you've got a great flying gig going, were you prior military?

[IMCA38]

Wow, two days + without a post. I'm having withdrawls!

Thomas, excellent work! It reminds me of the gas station in my hometown (pop 120). They had a concrete block shop area with the old in-ground hoist. Only difference was that theirs had an I-beam structure that lifted on the frame of the car instead of the drive on ramps. Not sure how well that would work on the newer cars.
I echo the comments of others, I believe it would be impossible for you to bore us with too many photos. This place is definately a treasure!

[BB767]

Originally Posted by OUNATE

Gorgeous shop, it's always great to see restorations. Sounds like you've got a great flying gig going, were you prior military?

No, my flight background is strickly civilian. All my flight training was done at the University of Illinios, Institute of Aviation. That´s about 7 miles from where the shop is presently located and where I grew up.
As for this being a great flying gig, I´m presently in Brazil where it´s summer and being paid to fly here. State of the art aircraft, and truly wonderful, professional people to work with. I don´t see how it gets much better frankly.

Thomas

[BB767]

[QUOTE=IMCA38;731037]Wow, two days + without a post. I'm having withdrawls! QUOTE]

I have to admit that I miss doing the posting as well. Should be home shortly and we can continue. I´ll be off for the rest of the month so I will be able to get much more out. I have more before and during pictures, some of the 1958 addition being built, a series on construction of the current benches, the coal room transformation, go karts that were made there and the jig used to make them, a ´powered vehical´ ( I just don´t know what else to call it) that we made there around 1968 from various parts we gathered and welded up that included a 1936 Anglia engine, current shop details and photos, ´saved stuff´restored ´stuff´ and as they say much more. Thank you to all for the interest.

Thomas

[SharkD]

Originally Posted by ZRX61

What??? When did they start allowing pilots to play with tools?? LOL!

This is my week so far...


Back on this next week...

SNJ and an F7F?

I didn't know that there were any Tigercats still flying.

[wagonmaster]

Nor did I! Nice bird!

[Bull]

This garage/shop has made the front page of Garage Journal!

[Dan C.]

Now this is what I'm talking about. A "real" garage. None of this man cave shit. Beautiful work.

[cyclopsblown34]

Thomas, am I remembering correctly? Don't you have another barn or garage you are storing other toys in? Maybe a thread dedicated to each of them at a later date would be nearly as appreciated as this one. You've done a great job with the work on the restoration and posting all these pictures. Any pictures of the F.A.S.T. car(s)? If so, please post them or links to find them on other sites
Thanks so much for sharing with us,
Chip.

[truckdriver]

Very cool. There is an old service station that has 2 bays that I've always wanted to buy to turn into a personal shop. Maybe when my kids are grown I can do that. Have to say it again- very cool, looks like lots of your hard work has been rewarded.

[ZRX61]

Originally Posted by SharkD

I didn't know that there were any Tigercats still flying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6bKUf0kiXE

[crewchief888]

this is possibly the best thing ive seen in a long time.


last year has been really crappy 'round here, wife's been laid off for over a year, my company has cut back severely, i work too much, dont sleep very much, and generally have a shitty attitude most of the time.

but seeing this thread, brought a smile to my face, i have a "soft spot" for all things old. i remember checking out old farmhouses with my dad's family when i was a little kid
they called it "haunted housin'" finding old stuff in an abandoned farmhouse was the highlight of my summer vacation.
i'd be like a kid in a candy store in that place, wondering what the story was behind everything that i saw....

thanks you brightened my day

[Sheepdogmarine]

I love your garage and looking at all of the old pictures.

Truly amazing!

[Hawk321]

I've the same dream, day by day. Every evening I dream about it to fell in sleep.

Nice work.

[SharkD]

Originally Posted by ZRX61

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6bKUf0kiXE

I've always had a soft-spot for Bethpage products.

Here's a close-up of the driver's side mirror on my SpecE30:

[billspit]

Well I have just burned up 40 minutes of quota time here at work today going through this thread. All I can say is kudos on acquiring this property and actually getting it done. I'm guessing the family agreed to sell it to you because of your connection to the property. You actually did them a favor cleaning up this place. In 17 years of walking all sorts of property condcuting environmental assessments, this beats anything I've ever seen. Some close, but they were about to be bought by somebody else for big bucks.

[krooser]

Very nice... you saved a piece of history. I'd venture to say that most of the folks here on this board would have torn down that old place, junked the lift and everything in it and started with "new"...

I spent a lot of time under old Rotary and Globe "hoists" like yours but they were all air over hydraulic... I assume there is a pump that does the lifting?

[sofob0909]

Originally Posted by BB767

To fill out what was done on the wood wall replacement, here are some pictures to show how it was done. As you have seen the the wall across the front of the original shop was wood as was part of the west side. It was concrete block the rest of the way around the building. I decided since the wood wall was in such poor condition to replace it.The block also made the shop more secure and was better to prevent wind infiltration and keep heating costs down.



To start, temporary braces had to be fabricated to prop up the roof once the wood wall studs were removed. I had plenty of material on hand to make the bracing with! Seen here is that fabrication and note the old Lincoln welder in the background as well as the welding bench. None of the old welding rod left was suitable for the Lincoln welder so I used a modern one. I have since purchased good rod and the old Lincoln still works perfectly. For heavy metal it's hard to beat an old arc welder for good penetration.



This is the fab room mostly cleared out ready to remove the wall. See the grinder build into the wall on the right driven by a belt and old electric motor? I had plastic over the man door to prevent wind from coming in . This work was done in January and it was freezing most days!



The exterior clapboard has been removed leaving the wall studs. In the shadows you can see the cast iron welders bench and the trip hammer. They were just too heavy to move so they were left and we worked around them. It turned out to be a pretty neat picture with the old tools silhouetted like that I think. One of my favorites from the hundreds I took.



Here a clear picture showing the two walls that were replaced. The lean to that steel was stored in has been removed from the side of the building. New roof is in place, dry inside for the first time in years!!



Where the block juts out was a small 8' X 8' room that was where he stored his coal for the forge. Extending beyond that was the 1958 room addition. Also seen are the Terraplane with the tree growing through the steering wheel and beyond that the blue '57 Chevy and an early '60's red Ford pickup. Foreground left is part of the steel storage rack.



Here's the steel storage rack. Weighed several hundred pounds and we used a backhoe to move. Took a torch and cut it up for scrap.



Here the west wall clapboard is gone. We dug down to check how deep the footings on the original building were. They were good so block was laid on them. The brick mason was friend of mine for the last 30 years and really knows his stuff.



I eliminated the three windows on the west side and put one in on the south side. The shop sits on a small hill with a terrific view to the south. Those trees by the steel rack are hedge apple. They were planted all over the Midwest in the 1930's during the dust bowl to prevent wind erosion. Mine are are old but healthy. You don't don't see hedge rows much anymore. Period trees for a period building I think.










One of the reasons I thought the building could be saved was the concrete block on it was all solid. No cracks anywhere and straight as a string. I later found out that the fellow who laid them in both 1958 and 1962 ( same guy ) was old school. He'd soak each block in water before he laid it so the the block wouldn't soak up moisture from the joint too fast. Made for a better joint. It took time but it paid off. If the walls were all cracked and the joints in bad condition I'm not so sure I would have restored it. The roof was pretty bad but we only needed to replace a few deck boards. I caught it right at the turning point. Much longer and it would have been too expensive to repair. I do have more so stay tuned!

Thomas

what is that machine in the second to last picture? is that the hood in the open position?

[autoist]

Concrete mixer.

Any photos of what happened between the last 2?