Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT KC Wrenching Society garage condo

[sh944]

And here is the whole thing, basically complete except for some touch up paint work.



Next up will be an electric winch trolley system to make lifting and lowering easier.

One thing to note, I'd better hope I don't need my garage door guy out to fix anything anytime soon. The tolerances between where the shelving and the garage door operates are tight, but they *should* be serviceable albeit with some bitching from the tech... lol.

 

[sh944]

And before y'all say anything, yes, the shelf over the garage door is square with the ceiling and wall. Its just the camera angle. lol

 

[davidstutler]

Man - not sure how I missed this thread before! I've been out to those condos a few times for various open houses - great setup and looks like a great community of car lovers. I've reached out to Bill a few times about openings, but could never get it approved by my better half.

I've since expanded my garage - so I'm set - but these condos represent such a cool way to enjoy the hobby. Congrats on a great setup.

 

[sh944]

One of these days I will plan a wrenching session for the local GJers. Happy to include you!

 

[Skellyii]

I love overhead storage! Not copying off you, I hung these a month ago, most of the shelf units came from my last garage.

Excuse the mess, we haven't finished moving, and the new garage is still under construction.

 

[sh944]

Wait until you see what I have planned next.... lol I've done most of the load calculations already, I just need to calculate the deflection in a span consisting of two 1 5/8" Unistrut over a 8' distance, but I think I have a three axis lift designed using a typical electric winch and Unistrut trolleys that will allow my to raise and lower 200-300lb loads up to my shelves, and it should tuck away neatly when not in use.

I hope to be starting to build this in the next week or so, Ill try and be more diligent about taking pictures as I do so.

@Skellyii I still have that tensioner tool ready for you, let me know when you need it.

 

[Skellyii]

@Skellyii I still have that tensioner tool ready for you, let me know when you need i

Ha-ha!

Obviously, you didn't take a good look at that picture I posted, currently I'm lucky to fit one car in an oversized three car garage.

With the other stuff going on, including family coming in from out of town, I'll be lucky to start working on my 944 near the end of August.

Hey, sending you a PM.

Thanks!

 

[sh944]

I bet I could fit a 944 in there…. Lol

 

[sh944]

Here's the new logo for the expanded garage...



The sign should be hanging outside by early next week. That ought to make the neighbors happy... lol

 

[sh944]

No terribly impressive updates at this point but I am am working on an overhead bike hoist to hang two bikes out of the way. I get to play with both Unistrut and 3-d printing technology to pull this off, here's a quick picture to show where I am heading with it....


I just need to drill the holes thru the sides of the Unistrut, run a bolt through it and then do the overhead mounting. That spacer I printed for the inside of the Unistrut is proving to be handy for a number of applications, such as aligning contiguous runs of Unistrut. Fun stuff, I'm not sure how I ever got by without a 3-D printer before. lol.

I'll post a picture when I have this installed overhead.

 

[sh944]

So I realize that I have been jumping around a bit in my timeline here, please accept my apologies but my life is apparently not as structured and orderly as some of the other folks here. But then again, if it was, I wouldn't need y'all for inspiration, correct? lol

Anyway, jumping back to the garage expansion which I last mentioned in Post #39... I had taken possession, made a deal with the devil... um, err... "my wife", to sell the back half of the expansion unit and put up a demising wall. Got that done reasonably well without *much* drama, except that I didn't address recoding the garage door openers first. Oops.

Putting the wall up...


Ahh, finished! Not so fast, son...


Each garage door on the new unit had its own opener but in my haste to leave one late evening after I had gotten the 24' wall sheet rocked and taped, I left both openers in the back unit and closed the doors. To add insult to injury, you can even see them in the picture above as I had left them on top of the electrical panel (the small black spec on top) while I was wrapping up for the night and thought I'd reward myself with a picture of the progress.

This necessitated burrowing through the wall of my existing unit to the front half of the new unit, which wasn't a big deal as that wall was going to come down anyway, but then again through the wall I had just finished building separating the new unit. lol Lesson to be learned there is that working until you are stupidly tired usually leads to making stupid decisions.

First hole, sorta fun to get to punch through a wall...


Second hole, much less fun...


At least after that debacle and fixing the sheet rock between the new units, I was able to get to the fun of tearing down the wall between my existing unit and the new space I was keeping.



Which leads me to this...



More to come, the fun's not done!

 

[sh944]

Here's the second sign hanging outside...

 

[Jagmandave]

I never did get out to see you or the shop......maybe one of these days - in the meantime my Mini is down in Tulsa, probably till October, for paint. But............one of these days!!!!

 

[Metallitubby]

I am in Olathe/Overland Park quite frequently for work, so I kinda know the area. It's nice seeing more enthusiasts and garages out there.

 

[sh944]

I am in Olathe/Overland Park quite frequently for work, so I kinda know the area. It's nice seeing more enthusiasts and garages out there.

If you are in town, let me know. I'm a good host and happy to show you proper Kansas hospitality!

And Dave, no excuses, come on out!

 

[Metallitubby]

If you are in town, let me know. I'm a good host and happy to show you proper Kansas hospitality!

I'm not sure you want a Honda guy around. We can be a bit much.

 

[sh944]

I'm not sure you want a Honda guy around. We can be a bit much.

@Metallitubby No worries, we have a sign hanging in the garage for "your kind"...

and I pray to gawd you can take a joke. lol

 

[gdrum]

Not sure if you stated this in here already or not. But in my garage condo I went with a Gree VIRU30HP230V1AH which is a single head but the head is massive 54" wide and shoots air 31'. By far the most energy efficient for a high ceiling space. Costs me less than 30-40mo to run. Over doing multiple 2-3-4 head system which burns more juice. Just an idea to share from a fellow car condo owner.

 

[cherokee]

I am also in the "greater KC area" you know that is basically from Lawrence to Warrensburg, and the same distance north and south.

Back when I had my 944 I took it for a timing belt to some guys close to down town, for the life of me I can't remember the place. I found them to be good guys and did not charge me my first born. I really liked that car, and the wife was mad when I sold it. But it needed more work then I felt like doing.

 

[Metallitubby]

and I pray to gawd you can take a joke. lol

I dunno. I am serious business all the time. ALL. THE. TIME!

 

[Skellyii]

I am also in the "greater KC area" you know that is basically from Lawrence to Warrensburg, and the same distance north and south.

Back when I had my 944 I took it for a timing belt to some guys close to down town, for the life of me I can't remember the place. I found them to be good guys and did not charge me my first born. I really liked that car, and the wife was mad when I sold it. But it needed more work then I felt like doing.

Bob Hindson, over on Holmes. They replaced my first timing belt, that was when I was traveling all the time and didn't have any free time.
Bob could be crabby at times, but he always had people that did a great job, and like you said, the prices were reasonable.

 

[sh944]

I am also in the "greater KC area" you know that is basically from Lawrence to Warrensburg, and the same distance north and south.

Back when I had my 944 I took it for a timing belt to some guys close to down town, for the life of me I can't remember the place. I found them to be good guys and did not charge me my first born. I really liked that car, and the wife was mad when I sold it. But it needed more work then I felt like doing.

Probably Bob Hindson, correct? Not bad guys but they run hot and cold. Some folks love Hindson, some folks hate them.

Sorry I didn't meet up with you earlier, I bet I could have helped you keep that car in hand.

 

[sh944]

Oh, and Aaron took over for Bob probably what, more than ten years ago now. He worked for Bob for a long time, but Steve Cousins was Bob's factory trained mechanic and I believe he went to John Clarks fifteen years ago. Steve is an ace on most things Porsche.

 

[85mcss]

MANNNN! How have I missed this place! I'm in Stilwell, KS South of Overland Park so it would be a 30 min drive. What's the /SqFt price of those? They look nice! It's been hard to find a reasonable solution to a hobby/storage garage just for 4 cars of my own. (definitely not in JoCo!) Sounds like a fun group up there, though! I might have to swing by up there sometime soon!

The LUX wants $1/sqft to lease and $135/sqft (plus a required $70/sqft for mezz!) to buy. I struggle to think about spending that kind of money on a hobby/storage space without any return. JoCo has been a royal pain for permits and setbacks so I've about abandoned the thought of having my own garage, even though I live on an acre. Ugh.. (900sqft max, 25' side of property setbacks, etc.)

 

[Skellyii]

MANNNN! How have I missed this place! I'm in Stilwell, KS South of Overland Park so it would be a 30 min drive. What's the /SqFt price of those? They look nice! It's been hard to find a reasonable solution to a hobby/storage garage just for 4 cars of my own. (definitely not in JoCo!) Sounds like a fun group up there, though! I might have to swing by up there sometime soon!

The LUX wants $1/sqft to lease and $135/sqft (plus a required $70/sqft for mezz!) to buy. I struggle to think about spending that kind of money on a hobby/storage space without any return. JoCo has been a royal pain for permits and setbacks so I've about abandoned the thought of having my own garage, even though I live on an acre. Ugh.. (900sqft max, 25' side of property setbacks, etc.)

Wow, you're in Stilwell? I just moved to what used to be Stanley, we're not too far from the line between old Stanley and Stilwell.

The Lux hasn't updated their website in awhile, the current lease price is $1.20/sqft, and there was only a 1750 sqft space available for sale when I talked to them last month. I was originally intending to buy some property in Shawnee (It's AMAZING what they let you do there, even in the city ) and building my hobby/storage garage out there, but then I heard about the "Garage Condo" concept.

I had never heard about them till I ran across this thread. I needed storage space immediately, so I snagged the only available leased space at the Lux, it was 600 sqft, I wanted 800, but it's only three minutes from my house, it was available NOW, so I compromised.

The LUX has NO wrenching community, unless you count the lawn service guys that have space and work on their mowers over the weekend. I had done drive-bys on all of the available condo spots in advance, so I knew which one's were active and which ones weren't.

I'm just leasing at the moment to see how it works out. I reserve the right to stay at the Lux, move over to the OP's spot, or go with my original plan and buy property and build my own place.

If you want a list of what's currently available around town with pricing and contact info, you can DM me or the OP.

 

[sh944]

I'm going to be ******* with business stuff for the next couple of weeks but I am thinking around the 15th of August, I'll host an open house and have yall come out to see what's going here. No apologies if it plants bad thoughts in your mind... lol

 

[Jagmandave]

OK, if you do, I'll come.....

 

[Skellyii]

Sure, let me know what time.

 

[sh944]

Time for me to get back to this thread…. After traveling waaaay too much lately, I think I’ll be in town for a couple of weeks. Assuming the temperature drops soon, I’ll plan on an upcoming Saturdayto host a gathering. Being out there when it’s 100 degrees is overrated, in my opinion. lol

In the meantime, I finally got a dry erase board for the condo and hung some plywood to hang my Quickjacks on. I’m not convinced that those are the most compelling pictures to post, but if anyone wants to see them, just say so. Lol

 

[HogDude]

Time for me to get back to this thread…. After traveling waaaay too much lately, I think I’ll be in town for a couple of weeks. Assuming the temperature drops soon, I’ll plan on an upcoming Saturdayto host a gathering. Being out there when it’s 100 degrees is overrated, in my opinion. lol

In the meantime, I finally got a dry erase board for the condo and hung some plywood to hang my Quickjacks on. I’m not convinced that those are the most compelling pictures to post, but if anyone wants to see them, just say so. Lol

I’m down with any pictures you’d be willing to share.

 

[sh944]

I’ll post some more pictures up soon, but in the meantime, on Saturday, Sept 23rd from 6 to 10pm, the Carriage House car show is taking place, so I’ll plan on hosting a gathering at my condo unit if y’all would like to come out. I’ll post details in the next day or so, but they always get a good number of cars at the show, have a decent band playing and food trucks and whatnot.

 

[Skellyii]

I bet I could fit a 944 in there…. Lol

Well dangit! You're right! I can fit a 944 in there.

After some really severe cleaning and organizing...

 

[sh944]

Okay, so I have been slacking a bit when it comes to posting. I've actually been fairly busy, mostly with work but also doing a few things around the garage condo.

First up, I've been doing some electrical work routing circuits to new locations after taking down the wall between the two units. There's really nothing there to share, picture-wise, especially since I didn't burn anything down or electrocute myself, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Its been done properly and to code, and I have a good bit more to do before I am done but I am making some headways. Some of it is mundane, such as converting to electrical gray devices with stainless steel faceplates to match my wife's vision of "décor", some is more functional such as replacing 15A outlets with 20A outlets since the breakers are indeed 20A, but all of its pretty boring.

But, since I know this forum thrives on pictures, who am I to deny you? Here's a picture of some of the plywood I am mounting on a side wall to support hanging my quickjacks and various other things that I don't want cluttering up the floor or taking shelf space.



The plan is to build a fold up workbench space on the full sheet so that I have space to put parts and whatnot when working in that stall. I also plan on painting all the plywood the same color as the metal structure just so it looks a bit more finished.

Secondly, I started hanging some overhead lighting under the mezzanine as its a bit dark under there. Here is the first row, I ham hoping one more row of lights a few joists back will be enough.



Once I am done mocking up the lights, I will run conduit and outlet boxes to tidy up the wiring as I don't like draping extension cords overhead. I am also printing up custom beam clamps on my 3-D printer for the light supports as I think it will look better and because I can. Thats why I have a 3-d printer after all. lol

We are having a car show and the complex will be open to the public on Sat, 9/23 from 6 to 10pm. I'll be out there and will be showing my two Porsches and there will be a pretty neat collection of various types of vehicles, plus I'll have some refreshments, there will be bands playing and a food truck or two, so y'all are welcome to come out. The address is 29230 W. 83rd Street, DeSoto KS, just look for me at the "Scott's Tool Worx" sign.

 

[sh944]

More on the lighting installation...

First, this isn't necessarily the product I would have bought as its Chinese manufactured LED lighting, but my wife bought it as a birthday gift for me and I am appreciative that she made a thoughtful purchase AND I appreciate that she supports my "garage habit". Also, its certainly much better than what it was.

But... its Chinese and so you get to deal with the typical issues that comes with that. First, the mounting brackets that they sent were made out of a special kind of "tin foil" that doesn't hold for ****. Secondly, to mount them on overhead joists requires more effort that I want to put into it as drilling overhead through thick gauge metal isn't my idea of fun. Here's what came with the lights...



Its flimsy as hell and even worse, after I test fit the first one and then called it a night, I parked my Spyder under it and the next morning came back to find that it hadn't properly secured the light and the light fell and put a small dent in the fender of my car so now I get to make a visit to my PDR guy. $@&$#%%#! At least the light still works.

I already knew I wasn't happy with the brackets so I drew up a quick design and ran a prototype print that would better secure *and* center the lights on the joists. After I test fit the prototype, I made a few minor tweaks... here's a pic of the prototype and the final product side-by-side....



I built a collar on revised part just in case I needed to run a bolt through it for additional clamping strength, but I built some spring tension into and it seems like it has enough clamping strength and surface area contact on its own to hold with no worries.

Here's a picture of the clamp holding the light to the joist.



And just to satisfy the inner-nerd in me, I worked on the tolerances of the fitment to the luminaire itself and was pleased with how it came out on the first try. I might actually be getting to the point of being able to accurately measure things... finally. lol



So far, I only have two of the printed clamps, I used mechanical beam clamps and ty-wraps to secure the rest of the lights for now but it is definitely much better lit than it used to be under the mezzanine. I *may* add one more row of lights at some point, and I will run EMT conduit and permanently wire the lighting before I call it good.



Lastly, I finally got around to mounting an old Borg-Warner cabinet that a friend gave me... should be handy and gives a nice sense of authenticity to the garage, like we actually work on stuff in here (which we do, honest! lol).

 

[wasfast]

I had similar issues with the Barina lights. The LED assemblies are excellent. The spring brackets are not good. Glad you worked out a 3D printed solution.

 

[sh944]

Weather update…. Car show tonight has been cancelled.

I’ll host my own gathering out there in the near future.

 

[Skellyii]

Weather update…. Car show tonight has been cancelled.

I’ll host my own gathering out there in the near future.

Ha-ha!

I was monitoring their Facebook page, can't say I blame them, at the time they cancelled all heck was breaking loose weather-wise, and the weather folks said that the evening was going to be worse.

However, as luck would have it, the weather was fine out my way during the time that the open house was scheduled.

I wish I could have had one of those weatherman jobs, wrong 90% of the time and still get paid!

 

[sh944]

Yeah, it was amazing how nice the weather was *after* they cancelled the show. lol

I used the time that I was planning on getting ready for the show to do some sheet rock work and a few misc things in the condo. Its slow progress but its moving along. Next up will be additional lighting and electrical upgrades. I'll be posting pictures shortly.

 

[sh944]

I am gonna try for some garage time tomorrow midday if any locals want to try and come on out. DM if you want to try and get together.

 

[sh944]

And of course it rains today…. Lol

while I am still working inside on stuff, not being able to park cars outside while I do so is a bit of a drag, especially since I was planning on doing drywall work which typically creates a huge dust storm.
oh, well…. Lol