Above 1200 Sq/FT Restored 1930's Auto Shop

[HOTFR8]

Thank you. Yes that helped. How have I created more test material !!!

Well you have never been here (Australia) so perhaps I see now why you think you live in the centre of it all when I know I do .

 

[jwhcars]

I decided to retread this thread. I must say it is my favorite thread.
Fantastic work !!!
Merry Christmas to both of you.

 

[MegaManny009]

great job on bringing it back to life, i wish there were more out there done like this seeing so many abandoned garages these days

 

[MacTexas]

Just wanted to tell you again how much I enjoy watching the garage restoration and following the projects.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

 

[Sweet Old Bill]

Thomas, Miss Chris, & Cameron,

I join with the rest in wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas & may the new year bring more Tool Shed finds, more powder coating trips, & more great adventures on the drag strip & at Bonneville.

Thanks again for sharing the Adventures of Thomas & Chris!

 

[MetalMangler]

Just wanted to tell you again how much I enjoy watching the garage restoration and following the projects.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Thomas, Chris, and everyone else from the center of the universe to every corner of it, have a safe and Merry Christmas!!!

MM

 

[onething]

Well, thanks to Thomas and Justacarguy, guess how I spent Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas to all!

and a safe and Happy New Year

 

[markviii]

Christmas Eve is not over yet! I just finished my errands and will begin prep for dinner tonight with just Tom, me, and the kids. The togetherness is what makes it Christmas anyway.

Chris

 

[hobbitss]

Christmas Eve is not over yet! I just finished my errands and will begin prep for dinner tonight with just Tom, me, and the kids. The togetherness is what makes it Christmas anyway.

Chris

No Anvil???

Happy Holidays and pleasant moments to all...
Hopefully more treasures from the Tool Shed..

 

[markviii]

Joe - too far a "walk" and too many stairs for that anvil to make the trip to our home for Christmas Eve - and we're not going to spend it out in the barn just so s/he won't get lonely!

Enjoy family tonight.

Chris

 

[BB767]

Gus set the tone for us early this year. Called upon for noble duty, he upheld his role as roving ambassador for the Restored 1930's Auto Shop admirably. He's become quite the talk about town and as it turn's out, is quite the ladies man! Who knew?

As Christmas eve is now upon us here in our snug little corner of the universe, Chris and I want to give thanks to all of our wonderful, dear friends here at the Garage Journal.

It is our hope that all your wishes are fulfilled and may all your dreams come true as they have for us. The only present we wish for is that we get to see each and everyone of our good friends here yet again this coming year. Have a fun, safe and blessed Christmas everyone.

Chris and Thomas

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

May you and yours have a joyous Christmas!



(Santa in the background is thinking - 'Sleigh!? I don't need no stinkin' sleigh; not when I have Gus to go four-wheeling through the snow!' lol)

I think we are witness to a new holiday tradition in Philo, the annual appearance of Gus with a 'Guest Driver'.

"Gone Dasher, gone Prancer, gone Donner and Blitzen -
gone too are all the rest 'cause Gus is the BEST!"

 

[Amitygravel]

Hello Thomas and Chris !

A very Merry Christmas to you and your family !
Thank you for all that you share with us here on the Garage Journal.
Have a great holiday season , and to all of the members here
a prosperous 2013 !

Craig

 

[charlief1]

I waited until now to wish all of you a very merry Christmas and I hope all of you a fantastic new year. On a side note I'm watching the Vicker of Dibley Chrismas special right now and it reminds me of this board in so many ways. LOL

 

[BB767]

Thomas,

I'm restoring two Walker floor jacks similar to the ones you have. Two questions... what color blue did you use for powder coating and where did you find (or make) the red rubber (I assume) protection covers for the lift point?

Thanks
Bryan

Bryan, I confirmed today the Walker powder coat color was "Stormy Blue" made by N I C . If you need a part number let me know and I can get that as well. Best of luck with the project and please post your progress. Inquiring minds want to know!!

Thomas

 

[impala4speed]

[QUOTE

It is our hope that all your wishes are fulfilled and may all your dreams come true as they have for us. The only present we wish for is that we get to see each and everyone of our good friends here yet again this coming year. Have a fun, safe and blessed Christmas everyone.

Chris and Thomas[/QUOTE]



And a very Merry Christmas to you and Chris and the rest of your family! And thank you again for this great thread.

 

[SiGmA_X]

Merry Christmas Chris & Thomas! And everyone else tagging along. I rarely to never post in this thread, but I check it every couple days. It is, without a doubt, my favorite thread on the forum.

 

[HOTFR8]

Great photos Chris & Thomas.

"Gone Dasher, gone Prancer, gone Donner and Blitzen -
gone too are all the rest 'cause Gus is the BEST!"

 

[BB767]

I know there are a few aviation buffs and pilots reading this thread from time to time, and even those who are not this will be of interest. A WW II de Havilland Mosquito flew recently after what I understand was a 5 year restoration effort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Xvp2AeM68iM

Take a look at a stunning piece of art in motion. Might I suggest using Full Screen with speakers On to better see a world class restoration effort. Well done gentleman.

Thomas

 

[flightlessbird]

also try this one

 

[ZRX61]

It's been flying for about 2 months

 

[BJ70]

I know there are a few aviation buffs and pilots reading this thread from time to time, and even those who are not this will be of interest. A WW II de Havilland Mosquito flew for the first time yesterday after what I understand was a 5 year restoration effort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Xvp2AeM68iM

Take a look at a stunning piece of art in motion. Might I suggest using Full Screen with speakers On to better see a world class restoration effort. Well done gentleman.

Thomas

Thanks. The video was great and I looked for companion videos of the restoration but could not find any. It is worth looking again.

 

[BB767]

It's been flying for about 2 months

I was surprised I didn't see you in that video Rick. That's the type of quality work you do after all. Really brings a lump to your throat to see and hear a grand old gal like that back in the air doesn't it? One of my favorite WWII aircraft.

Thomas

 

[GarageDan]

I stumbled across this site and thread and found myself reading this and going WOW WOW WOW. I joined just to tell you how cool it is the things you've done.

 

[BB767]

Just got my work/office PC back up and working after trying to load this whole thread crashed it! Haven't looked at this one for a while so decided to start at the beginning and scroll through - no joy so I'm going to guess at about page 50 and see how I go.

Wish me luck!

bazzateer, Good Luck!!!!!!!We're all pulling for you.

BTW, welcome back.

Thomas

 

[BB767]

I decided to retread this thread. I must say it is my favorite thread.
Fantastic work !!!
Merry Christmas to both of you.

great job on bringing it back to life, i wish there were more out there done like this seeing so many abandoned garages these days

Just wanted to tell you again how much I enjoy watching the garage restoration and following the projects.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

To the "new guys" welcome to the thread that will not die and to MacTexas, thank you for your continued interest and to all, my thanks for the kind words and thoughts. Knowing that others still find this of interest keeps me posting here for better or worse. A new year is fast approaching with more on it's way from TCOTU.

Thomas

 

[BB767]

I stumbled across this site and thread and found myself reading this and going WOW WOW WOW. I joined just to tell you how cool it is the things you've done.

Hello GarageDan and a hearty welcome. The Garage Journal forum is pretty special I'd say. I think you'll find it's a tremendous resource with some very talented fellows posting on a wide range of topics. I hope you come back often for a visit to this thread since I seem to be continually posting more material that I bet you'll find of interest. Thanks for posting in, Chris and I appreciate it.

Thomas

 

[BB767]

Merry Christmas Chris & Thomas! And everyone else tagging along. I rarely to never post in this thread, but I check it every couple days. It is, without a doubt, my favorite thread on the forum.

Very nice of you to say so SiGmA_X. It is gratifying to be so appreciated and thank you for your patience with the many directions this thread goes. I myself never know what might pop up out at the shop or tool shed that I wind up posting about. It seems to be as much fun for everyone else as it is for Chris and myself.

Thomas

 

[BJ70]

I know there are a few aviation buffs and pilots reading this thread from time to time, and even those who are not this will be of interest. A WW II de Havilland Mosquito flew recently after what I understand was a 5 year restoration effort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Xvp2AeM68iM

Take a look at a stunning piece of art in motion. Might I suggest using Full Screen with speakers On to better see a world class restoration effort. Well done gentleman.

Thomas

Thomas,
An additional question, are there still warbirds flying over the Champaign area? Years ago (usually on home game weekends), there were a few warbirds that would be overhead. As I recall, there was a Wildcat, a P-40 and an F4U. I had thought of this for years and they have probably been sold and relocated to a new airfield by now.

Thanks

 

[GarageDan]

Thanks for the welcome Thomas!

I think one reason I'm so fascinated by this tread is because this Mr. Johnson reminds me of my Granddaddy. My grandfather was a welder and a farmer. If he wanted it, he built it and if it broke he fixed it. A lot of times the stuff he needed for a specific purpose didn't exist and he would just invent it. That little garden tractor he made reminds me of that type of ingenuity.

Granddaddy never ran a business, but people came from all around to get him to fix things and he always would and never took any money for anything. It must have been that generation, (lived through the depression,) saving everything.

Granddaddy saved everything! Odd bits of pipe and steel, nuts, bolts, broken tools, old lawnmowers.... If it couldn't be fixed it went into a pile because it might come in handy someday. In allot of cases it did come in handy. Have you found any tools fabricated up from two other types of tools? You know how some types of situations require a special dealer only tool to reach something – we would fabricate those tools ourselves.

While Granddaddy’s hoarding wasn't as bad as what you found, his sheds, barns and workbenches looked similar. I have memories of him needing to work on the bench and just pushing stuff out of the way to make a hole to work in. It’s easy for a place or workbench to pile up.

As Granddaddy got older he started slowing down and when the pacemaker went in he couldn't weld anymore. Add to that a new wife that didn't like the mess and it slowly started getting cleaned up. I hadn't thought much about it until I went through this thread but it's like we slowly started throwing a little bit of my granddaddy away as each load of scrap went to the dump.

Many of the things shown in this thread take me back to my childhood with my Granddaddy. When you mention the smells of welding rods burning, I know exactly what you’re talking about. A lot of the tools I see you finding he had in his shop and sheds. When you dug those little slag hammers with the spring handles out my heart skipped a beat.

As a kid, 6-7 years old, I would hammer on the welds behind him as we worked on project like building a trailer or fixing the tractor. You mention often how things were cut with a torch, that’s the only way we did it. We used a torch for so many things and Granddaddy could cut a line with a torch that didn’t even need grinding.

Speaking of grinding, that old grinder made from a little motor and axle…we had one made from an old Singer sewing machine table. I wish I’d had the insight to save so many things back then, not much of it is around anymore.

Thanks for not only rescuing this shop and making it into a working shop again, but also for the walk down memory lane.

 

[skyfright]

Thomas,
I have been in and out of here for over a year. A very interesting and informative place to visit. I am currently about 10 months behind reading/viewing posts. I usually only have time in the winter months to sit and try to catch up. I will catch up, though.

I am not sure how much I can contribute, but I will stay tuned. Thanks for the place to hang out. I just love old garages. Happy New Year!

Ron

 

[markviii]

Ron (skyfright),
You got in just under the wire with your first post on our 3rd anniversary and almost your first one on the forum). Winter is here and you have some study time, so no worries! We'll consider your participation (lurking) as moral support, how's that?

BJ70,
I'm sure Tom will fill you in on the local warbirds - yep, they're still around.

flightlessbird,
10 posts since Dec 2007 (2 years before we joined the GJ forum and started our thread). And 6/10 posts on our thread - we're truly honored! We're still looking for that McLaren orange you promised back in Oct 2010.

GarageDan,
Wonderful memories! Your Granddaddy was a special man. Glad we could bring back some pleasant memories.

More to come later tonight everyone...

Chris

 

[BB767]

It's that time already, when I note it was first 1, then 2 and now 3 years ago, Dec 28, 2009, that I first posted here on The Garage Journal about the Restored 1930's Auto Shop. 308 pages, over 6,150 replies and more than 1.9+ million views. Everyone here is sure a glutton for punishment is all I can say. With that as a intro, Chris and I took some time to reflect on this past year and all the projects that were done and various events that made quite a year for us here in the Center of the Universe. Here is one of those events that took place just today.

As you all know of course being TCOTU is not just an idle boast.

Philo might be small in terms of population with now about 1,500 folks in residence,...

...but we enjoy all the amenities that a much larger community would. For example this is our fine village meeting center and...

...a world class Post Office and one of the area's finest...

...fire protection teams which is across the street from...

...our Library of which Chris has been a board member for over 34 years.

That the community is progressive is easily seen today by...

... the school gymnasium...

...built in 1898, over 114 years ago, when Philo was a very tiny village.

Here is a mural painted on the end of one of our buildings downtown...

...which depicts life much as it was when I grew up here...

...including what our old water tower looked like. Yes we've been the Center of the Universe for some time now. Perhaps that's why Mr Johnson decided to build his Welding and Repair shop here?

As befitting such a fine community I decided that the security for the Gold Bar...

...found in the Tool Shed earlier might not be up to the quality standards found else where. With that in mind I decided to employ the services of...

...our very own Philo Exchange Bank.

Here Kevin Rogers, bank President and CEO, greets me and...

...said he'd handle the transaction personally. He told me and I quote "that's a mighty fine gold bar you have there Tom". He's such a nice man.

After it was weighed and logged in, it was off to the vault with it.

It was soooo heavy and the vault was so far away we put in on a 2 wheel dolly to make the trek easier.

That vault is made of real steel, made in the USA.

They didn't have a large enough safety deposit box for it right now, so we left it securely on a step stool in the vault.

Kevin tells me the vault door is a "2 hander, weighs about a hundred pounds". Chris and I feel so much better now knowing the Gold Bar is secure. Kevin is such a nice man.

We took one more peek into the Tool Shed and...

..and Lean-To to make sure there weren't any more Gold Bars and then it was off to the shop for some reminiscing on this last year. That can be seen in...

Part II - 2012, What a Year it Was.

Thomas

 

[BB767]

Part II - 2012, What a Year it Was.

Unexpectedly earlier this year, I came across...

...this swell Wilton bandsaw to replace the older one from the shop. Powder coating the base orange was a nice change of pace for me.

The PPGS, Portable Pedestal Grinder Stand was a welcome shop addition, keeping everything much neater and tidier in the shop.

The Portable Dirty Room, PDR was really fabricated for bigger tasks than polishing the Beacon Ray but it works well for that too.

The welding table/bench was retrofitted with new casters and given a shiny coat of powder coating. The Reed vise is well into being refurbished and standing tall once again.

The shop is still a fun place for Chris and I to share.

"want some candy little girl?"

Here Chris is showing off her picture framing skills. On the left is a 1948 Jeep Truck advertisement and on the right an original shop painting from a local farmer, now 86 years old, who used the shop often "back in the day" and knew Mr Johnson quite well. You'll hear more about him and some of his shop stories shortly.

We learned all about "shooting anvils" from this thread so I decided to try my hand at it. Chris convinced me it would be better to do this outside, so it'll have to wait for another day.

The TR4 came to live with us this year and it was a complete surprise. I still haven't told that story, but Craig I promise to do so in the coming year, honest.

The jack stand storage shelve unit (say that fast three times!) helps keep the barn tidy and works as well as I'd hoped.

Two racks were installed in the barn this year. One for tools and the other...

..for my furniture lumber. That's a mighty big board for such a little girl.

I used some of the wood shop equipment for shop projects again this year. I can't wait till everything is all in one location. This gives some idea of just how big that Yates American jointer really is. Nice and stable too.

I found a better way to fuel the John Deere and Kubota this year also. No muss, no fuss.

I was the recipient of a spare engine for GUS by Earl Hale who, at age 92, still drives to our car club meetings and is very active. Additionally we learned the ancient art of book making courtesy of Mr Chris Hohn, of the Lincoln Book Bindery. He patiently spent a day with me/us showing all the tricks of the trade while creating a lasting shop manual for GUS.

I refurbished 4 SPOSE benches this year, two powder coated grey and...

...two in blue. Turns out they're the perfect spot to do a little smooching too!

The BB had a few finishing items that were completed and you'll soon see a post on them. Removing a splinter just as this picture was taken she said, "there'll be a little pressure"... a little pressure????????

I bought the shop to have a nice place to work on my cars, and that I have.

I started this thread as a way to share with some fellow enthusiasts...and that I have. Thank you again everyone for all your support and enthusiasm for my/our ramblings here. I believe there is some more to share here. I can't wait to see what this next year will bring!

Chris and Thomas

 

[HOTFR8]

To think this Guy is a Pilot. You should have been a Comedian. As usual a great story, what did the Bank manager do to get into the story ?

 

[GGB]

Chris and Thomas, your stories and pictures continue to make me smile. Keep it up, please!

GGB

 

[markviii]

No "Mank" manager there HOTFR8. The actual President. He just said "yes" when Tom asked and he wanted to see and touch the gold bar - even let us come in after hours so as not to rile up the town (don't want to tempt fate, although Tom did a fairly good job being obvious carrying it into the bank!). Kevin said he would only accept gold bouillon to be held in the safe - nothing less! Didn't you see his eager expression as Tom handed over the gold bar? And then again as he was trying to swing that heavy vault door shut on the last business day of the year at the Philo Exchange Bank to keep it safe? Not too many small banks can claim they have genuine gold in their vault! He can hold bragging rights at the next Illinois Banker's Association meeting (he's Vice Chairman). We're not in the Center of the Universe for nothing!

Happy New Year!

Chris

P.S. We do feel that the gold bar is safer now. Takes a load off our minds. The "lock" on the tool shed has always worked fine, but since we "let the cat(gold) out of the bag" by showing where it has been before, we thought the bank vault was a safer place. Don't want any potential felons to be attracted to town from our GJ posts.

 

[HotrodHR]

It's a sad deal Thomas I feel so bad for all that's involved...

I was starting to sort some more of the Tool Shed material I've removed. Here's a quick look at some of the hood ornaments I found out there.

I'll try to get close ups posted shortly and hopefully some of you might be able to help ID some of them. I think they are amazingly cool!

Thomas

Third from the left (front) is a Hudson Hornet hood ornament (circa 1948 - 51)

 

[HOTFR8]

No "Mank" manager there HOTFR8. The actual President. He just said "yes" when Tom asked and he wanted to see and touch the gold bar - even let us come in after hours so as not to rile up the town (don't want to tempt fate, although Tom did a fairly good job being obvious carrying it into the bank!). Kevin said he would only accept gold bouillon to be held in the safe - nothing less! Didn't you see his eager expression as Tom handed over the gold bar? And then again as he was trying to swing that heavy vault door shut on the last business day of the year at the Philo Exchange Bank to keep it safe? Not too many small banks can claim they have genuine gold in their vault! He can hold bragging rights at the next Illinois Banker's Association meeting (he's Vice Chairman). We're not in the Center of the Universe for nothing!

Happy New Year!

Chris

P.S. We do feel that the gold bar is safer now. Takes a load off our minds. The "lock" on the tool shed has always worked fine, but since we "let the cat(gold) out of the bag" by showing where it has been before, we thought the bank vault was a safer place. Don't want any potential felons to be attracted to town from our GJ posts.

Typo BANK Manager Oops. I was so busy laughing I missed that typo

 

[Grizz1963]

Just caught up again.....

I continue to preach the gospel of your thread as the most amazing thread anywhere.

The hood ornaments were a high light to me.

Thanks for continuing to share and teach on here guys.

May 2013 be as good as all the others before.