eyesoreracing
Active member
Just bought a new house (1922 Craftsman) and now that I have my own dirt to build on, I finally allowed myself to start reading garage journal. I love this site! So many good ideas and so many helpful people.
I'm still living out of boxes in the house, but I couldn't wait for unpacking to get started on the garage. I'm trying to make the best of the teeny-tiny garage until I can build a bigger one behind it.
The swing-up garage door was really bugging me. Not only is it ugly, but it wastes precious storage space inside.
The hinges are huge, and when it swings up, it knocks stuff off my top shelf!
So I doodled up this more period-appropriate door that should free up a few cubic inches inside.
Since the ugly old door is still in good shape, I only needed to buy hinges and a few 2x4s to make it work. This is all the wood I had to buy:
In addition to slicing it in half, I had to trim just over an inch from the height so it would stand up straight and fill the door frame.
Actually, once i started trying to piece it together, I realized I needed a couple of 2x3s since some of the inside framing needed to be duplicated. Heading to the store is tricky when your garage has no door. Luckily, I still have a big moving truck parked in the driveway.
I temporarily screwed half the garage door in place and just trusted the truck to block the open half of the door. All those tool-stealin' new neighbors of mine had no idea...
Ok, obviously I got busy actually building things and forgot to take pictures for a while, but here it is a few hours later, with four of the 6 hinges in place.
Still working on making the diagonal bits and adding the last two hinges. I didn't plan all that well, and the top and bottom hinges ended up having to be slightly off center on their 2x4s, but I guess I can live with it...
Pre-painting the 2x4s meant I didn't have to do any pesky edge work with the paint. Very easy!
Still need to work out how this is gonna latch. For now, there's an old fence board screwed to the inside holding the doors shut. Odds are it will still be there in a month...
For one day's work, i'm pretty happy. To my eye, this looks a whole lot better!
I'm still living out of boxes in the house, but I couldn't wait for unpacking to get started on the garage. I'm trying to make the best of the teeny-tiny garage until I can build a bigger one behind it.
The swing-up garage door was really bugging me. Not only is it ugly, but it wastes precious storage space inside.
The hinges are huge, and when it swings up, it knocks stuff off my top shelf!
So I doodled up this more period-appropriate door that should free up a few cubic inches inside.
Since the ugly old door is still in good shape, I only needed to buy hinges and a few 2x4s to make it work. This is all the wood I had to buy:
In addition to slicing it in half, I had to trim just over an inch from the height so it would stand up straight and fill the door frame.
Actually, once i started trying to piece it together, I realized I needed a couple of 2x3s since some of the inside framing needed to be duplicated. Heading to the store is tricky when your garage has no door. Luckily, I still have a big moving truck parked in the driveway.
I temporarily screwed half the garage door in place and just trusted the truck to block the open half of the door. All those tool-stealin' new neighbors of mine had no idea...
Ok, obviously I got busy actually building things and forgot to take pictures for a while, but here it is a few hours later, with four of the 6 hinges in place.
Still working on making the diagonal bits and adding the last two hinges. I didn't plan all that well, and the top and bottom hinges ended up having to be slightly off center on their 2x4s, but I guess I can live with it...
Pre-painting the 2x4s meant I didn't have to do any pesky edge work with the paint. Very easy!
Still need to work out how this is gonna latch. For now, there's an old fence board screwed to the inside holding the doors shut. Odds are it will still be there in a month...
For one day's work, i'm pretty happy. To my eye, this looks a whole lot better!
