Mark's Monster Garage....3800 sq ft

[IGO2XS]

Dang, I sent the PM message above and nothing has come on since. Hope I didn't kill this baby. I promise I was just lurking around in the posts.

I have finally finished reading the previous 91 pages if this thread. While I must say that in the land of automotive aficionados, you are a ROCK STAR!!! However, You my friend have managed to ruin my life as I have previously known it.

My wife has threatened to cancel the internet connection if I don't get out of GJ for a few days. Then I showed her some of the work you are doing and that beautiful garage, home and park-like setting. I have promised that IF, she finds a plot of land that will give me space for a nice 45' x 60' shop with my very own 4 post lift, I am willing to undertake another house project. Your floor plan may be in jeopardy.

Great work, and a fantastic thread. Please keep the stories and Pics coming.

You might remind your lovely wife because of her beauty you refuse to look at some of the other desirable websites a man enjoys looking at and in exchange just want to look at a bunch of garages!!! Yes tonight my wife reminded me how blessed we are. We love this place so much and are so lucky to live here.

I have shared my floor plan with others so if I could ever be of service to you let me know. I think a 40 x 60 would be a perfect size garage and I would certainly suggest making it tall enough for a nice loft for storage or even a 2nd floor office where you could look over your beautiful facility and enjoy a nice cold one!! Yes, I feel this is definitely in your future.

Just to refresh your memories i live next to a really nice subdivision of primarily white collar professions.........you know the kind!! This operation I have going on as we all have seen has grown a little out of proportion. Therefore as I have relayed to you guys I have been out looking for something commercial. Here in the last 8 months I have insisted on keeping the garage doors closed as much as possible even running the A/C all summer to keep the climate cool and the sound inside the garage. From time to time we have been a little careless and occasionally an angle grinder gets used outside.

I had a visit from one of the neighbors this morning. He actually came to the garage looking for me and Deanna greater him outside. He was a little upset because of the noise, the sound of hot rods and loud motors, and so on and so forth. I asked him to meet me tonight at my house so we could have a face to face talk. He told me it was a very quiet peaceful neighborhood until I moved in.. He said the noise was upsetting his wife. I assured him i was working on a solution and would be moving most of the operation to another location. He was happy with this and we parted with a handshake. I was happy he settled it with me man to man. Looks like I decided to make the move at the right time. This will not be the end to the Monster Garage.....I don't know, maybe we could turn it into a micro brewery!!!!

 

[Bob Heine]

Mark,

You could always pick up an electric car if the ones you have are too noisy for your neighbor. Just something to get from the Monster Garage to the new shop. Say, a Tesla Roadster? Zero to sixty in 3.7 seconds with almost no engine noise (not sure what an electric car burnout sounds like).

So, are you are saying the 2014 Cacklefest isn't going to be held under the oak trees?

 

[Audicon]

I know exactly what you mean. I had a neighbor complain about the noise fromm my garage one time. Right before he took off on his Harley. We all know how quiet those are

You might remind your lovely wife because of her beauty you refuse to look at some of the other desirable websites a man enjoys looking at and in exchange just want to look at a bunch of garages!!! Yes tonight my wife reminded me how blessed we are. We love this place so much and are so lucky to live here.

I have shared my floor plan with others so if I could ever be of service to you let me know. I think a 40 x 60 would be a perfect size garage and I would certainly suggest making it tall enough for a nice loft for storage or even a 2nd floor office where you could look over your beautiful facility and enjoy a nice cold one!! Yes, I feel this is definitely in your future.

Just to refresh your memories i live next to a really nice subdivision of primarily white collar professions.........you know the kind!! This operation I have going on as we all have seen has grown a little out of proportion. Therefore as I have relayed to you guys I have been out looking for something commercial. Here in the last 8 months I have insisted on keeping the garage doors closed as much as possible even running the A/C all summer to keep the climate cool and the sound inside the garage. From time to time we have been a little careless and occasionally an angle grinder gets used outside.

I had a visit from one of the neighbors this morning. He actually came to the garage looking for me and Deanna greater him outside. He was a little upset because of the noise, the sound of hot rods and loud motors, and so on and so forth. I asked him to meet me tonight at my house so we could have a face to face talk. He told me it was a very quiet peaceful neighborhood until I moved in.. He said the noise was upsetting his wife. I assured him i was working on a solution and would be moving most of the operation to another location. He was happy with this and we parted with a handshake. I was happy he settled it with me man to man. Looks like I decided to make the move at the right time. This will not be the end to the Monster Garage.....I don't know, maybe we could turn it into a micro brewery!!!!

 

[IGO2XS]

I know exactly what you mean. I had a neighbor complain about the noise fromm my garage one time. Right before he took off on his Harley. We all know how quiet those are

This guy was a banker/real estate broker so he was pretty straight up. I doubt if he had anything like a Harley

Mark,

You could always pick up an electric car if the ones you have are too noisy for your neighbor. Just something to get from the Monster Garage to the new shop. Say, a Tesla Roadster? Zero to sixty in 3.7 seconds with almost no engine noise (not sure what an electric car burnout sounds like).

So, are you are saying the 2014 Cacklefest isn't going to be held under the oak trees?

Bob, we did have a Tesla sedan here for the Corvette show......did you see it?? Wow, they would really freak next door if we brought in a dragster.

Right now I am just laying low and we are keeping the doors down. I have to keep everything other wraps until we get into our new facility. Once I get the body shop out of here we can get all crazy again. I have never had the desire to be a good neighbor!! I got sent home a lot in school with a note that said "does not play well with others".

The first building I looked to buy didn't not work out. I made an offer and he declined. The guy bought the property and the building in 2007 and paid a ton of money for it. I told them we would have it appraised and I would pay whatever the appraised value was. He declined so we found another place and made another offer yesterday on another place. Wish me luck.

 

[Wingnut65]

Just so long as you didn't run with scissors as well.

Good luck on #2. Some people would rather write off the monthly expenses than admit they paid too much.

 

[IGO2XS]

Just so long as you didn't run with scissors as well.

Good luck on #2. Some people would rather write off the monthly expenses than admit they paid too much.

I know Wingnut........the guy won about $150 million in the lottery about 8 years ago and now is starting to have money problems......wife divorced him and too many expensive cars. He probably did me a favor because #2 is freakin awesome.......we will see what happens.

 

[rixtrix1]

Best wishes on getting #2!

 

[Speedfreak5150]

Best of luck with option 2

 

[Audicon]

Good luck Mark. The right place for the right time. Maybe this is the right place

You deserve it.

 

[tskills10]

Things tend to happen for a reason. So maybe number 2 will be a better option. Good luck

 

[Bob Heine]

I got sent home a lot in school with a note that said "does not play well with others".

The first building I looked to buy didn't not work out. I made an offer and he declined. The guy bought the property and the building in 2007 and paid a ton of money for it. I told them we would have it appraised and I would pay whatever the appraised value was. He declined so we found another place and made another offer yesterday on another place. Wish me luck.

Mark,

"Does not play well with others" is my wife's favorite description of me, just because I like to do things myself. Friends used to come over to help me because I was "handicapped" but it rarely turned into help. It turned into me watching them use my tools to do the job I was already doing. 90% of the time I just work in the garage with the doors closed. When I do venture out I step in and take the tools from my friends and do the job for them. Most of them don't seem to mind....

It's funny how faith and patience pays off. I made an offer on a house with a 3-car garage and it was turned down. It was in my price range if I took out a mortgage and worked for another 15 years, it could have been all paid for. I stopped looking for a while and stumbled upon the house we're in now. It's the perfect size for the two of us, the 3-car garage is a little oversize and it has a workshop out back. Best part was that we could pay cash for it and I didn't have to keep working. It's not in a gated community and the traffic noise drowns out the noise from my air tools.

Not sure it works for everyone but I believe the dream facility will find you. You certainly deserve it!

 

[56vette461]

When you play well with others, at least in today's thinking, you have no imagination or drive. IMHO that just makes you part of the problem.

No one who ever drew outside the lines made a good follower. They tend to lead from the front, step out and sometimes even make a difference. Having lurked around more of these threads than I can admit in public, (my bride reads the forum with me sometimes), I think there are a lot of folks who the teachers would say didn't play well with others

 

[Leyenda30]

Mark, Good luck on #2 however if that fails you could always build your own and we could have another garage build with ALL the neat ideas. Whatever happens it will be a class act. JP

 

[IGO2XS]

Wow guys thanks for all of the support. I really appreciate it!! I got the contract signed and right now going through my due diligence I got back in the building today just to check it out and prepare for inspections next week. I rented a couple of lifts for Monday. One for the inside to inspect the A/C handlers. The interior is around 24 ft tall in the main warehouse. Here is a snapshot of a portion of the warehouse. The entire 15,000 square foot facility is air conditioned!!





I guess we also should pause for a celebration............we just pasted the 1,000,000 view milestone.........unbelievable

 

[Wingnut65]

AWESOME! So much potential with that blank slate.

 

[e-tek]

WOW!!!!!!!!!



​

PS - It wasn't too difficult to see this coming and while I'm not saying I told you so I think I mentioned it way back: either neighbors complaining or it being too much for zoning, but I'm glad you are able to move it to a great facility like that. You'll be much better off - other than the commute!

I have older, single women living on either side of me, and another across the back lane, so I have to be very careful like that too. I shovel and blow their snow in the winter, clean their eaves and cut their lawns in summer and always tell them to let me know if I'm making too much noise. It's an important balancing act!

As they say: "ONWARD and UPWARD!"

 

[IGO2XS]

AWESOME! So much potential with that blank slate. :thumb up:

and thats only half of it!!!!!

WOW!!!!!!!!!

​

thanks e-tek...........you post was a real celebration​

 

[IGO2XS]

We have really been kicking but on this 66 Nova this week. Finally have this car in a final prime. The underbody of this car was a mess and we have managed to clean it up real nice. Not really nice enough for a shiny paint job but good enough to spray Raptor which is a very durable finish with a little texture. We ended up putting the car up on a lift and encasing it in plastic. Bob and Jason double teamed it and knocked it out of the park.

 

[Audicon]

Looks good. Nice to see a use for the Camaro wheel.

New place looks great. Hope everything checks out.

 

[ZRX61]

Now, what I need help with is a name for this new business. I was thinking of all kinds of names and have been unsuccessful. Someone suggested I use my last name in the name of the business......example........"Pierson Performance Restorations". I don't know if Mark's Monster Garage is really a good name either. The only reason why I liked it was because it is the name that got me started. I don't know if the name should suggest what we do which is restorations???

any ideas????? lets hear them fellas!!!

Had a customer who said "You should call this business *Ten Grand Aviation* because every time I walk into this hangar it costs me ten ******** grand"

 

[Red05GT]

Congrats on your new space! What a journey.

 

[Fastphil]

Mark, what are the benefits of such a high ceiling for an automotive operation? Besides the height of the racks at the rear. Looks like a nice place, can't wait to see more!

 

[JCQuick]

15k sq ft wow go big or go home congrats wish I was still selling bodyshop equipment I'd be knocking on your door

 

[nmcqueen469]

Holy smokes, what an awesome building that will be!!

 

[kered]

WOW the new place looks fab

Can't wait to see what you're going to do with it & look forward to a new build thread being created to document it all

One thing though, what's going to happen to the beautiful "Monster Garage", when you move out ??

I'd hate to think of it being just left idle !

 

[4thgentech]

looks really nice, cant wait to see it finished

 

[4thgentech]

very nice !!

 

[sean Buick 76]

No offense but holly **** you must be making a million dollars a year the way you are spending cash! I make $200,000 a year and there is no way I could pay for a full time crew to work on my projects... Please let us know what line of work you are in so I can make a career change!

 

[Dodge]

No offense but holly **** you must be making a million dollars a year the way you are spending cash! I make $200,000 a year and there is no way I could pay for a full time crew to work on my projects... Please let us know what line of work you are in so I can make a career change!

If you would have read thru the whole thread, you would know what he does for a living. Doesn't matter, he has his %^&# together.

 

[mygarageone]

No offense but holly **** you must be making a million dollars a year the way you are spending cash! I make $200,000 a year and there is no way I could pay for a full time crew to work on my projects... Please let us know what line of work you are in so I can make a career change!

$200,000 a yr isn't exactly chicken feed ! That kind of money should allow most anyone to do special things in there life , it's called priorities .

 

[IGO2XS]

Had a customer who said "You should call this business *Ten Grand Aviation* because every time I walk into this hangar it costs me ten ******** grand"

That might be a good name!! I am lucky this building is very nice and I will have little to do as far as building repairs. The big ticket is going to be outfitting this shop with prep stations and a downdraft paint booth.

Congrats on your new space! What a journey.

Yes it is isn't it

Mark, what are the benefits of such a high ceiling for an automotive operation? Besides the height of the racks at the rear. Looks like a nice place, can't wait to see more!

A ceiling of this height has no benefit other than the fact it makes this place look like an indoor basketball gymnasium! The negative side of this is it will just make it more expensive to cool in the summer. I really like it though and it makes the place look really cool.

15k sq ft wow go big or go home congrats wish I was still selling bodyshop equipment I'd be knocking on your door

I wish you were too because I am going to be asking you guys some questions about some equipment I am looking at.

WOW the new place looks fab

One thing though, what's going to happen to the beautiful "Monster Garage", when you move out ??

I'd hate to think of it being just left idle !

No it won't be left idle. I will be able to turn it back to a show garage instead of a work station. I will have to figure out what new decorations I can hang up. I will be leaving one of the lifts but I would imagine most of the toolboxes will go to the new building.

No offense but holly **** you must be making a million dollars a year the way you are spending cash!

I might want to have your job as it sounds like you are doing quite well. Over the last year I have moved from doing work on my stuff to working on other peoples vehicles. I definitely could not afford this operation if it was solely meant for my cars.

 

[IGO2XS]

OK guys I am looking for some direction. We have up until this point been using a pretty nice paint booth at another location. With this new building I need to purchase a paint booth. The paint booth is definitely the most important part of the operation so I need to make the right decision. Other the set up is much more difficult I would like to have a downdraft booth. I really have just started looking but any advice would be appreciated.

The other piece of equipment I am considering is prep stations. I would rather not start building walls in a building and close in the bodywork. I think is would be nice if the whole room was open so none is stuck in a room by themselves. The operation would be much more impressive if all of the departments were visible. I realize a prep station does not catch all of the dust but it would keep it under control Deanna likes a clean shop and so do I so I am looking for a solution.

 

[ZRX61]

I am going to be asking you guys some questions about some equipment I am looking at.

I assume you are already on the mailing list for www.autobodytoolmart.com ?

 

[Homebody]

Congrats on the new shop!!

 

[IGO2XS]

I assume you are already on the mailing list for www.autobodytoolmart.com ?

Yes I do and they have some booths I was looking at. Are you familiar with the quality of their products?

 

[Kevin54]

No offense but holly **** you must be making a million dollars a year the way you are spending cash! I make $200,000 a year and there is no way I could pay for a full time crew to work on my projects... Please let us know what line of work you are in so I can make a career change!

Holy **** You're balking at $200g's a year?

Just an FYI...common courtesy dictates that you don't ask what someone makes a year, even in a round-a-bout way I know you didn't mean it like it sounds, but there have been a few thread where people wanted to know what other people made an hour or a years, and it didn't go too well. Just sayin'

 

[Kevin54]

This picture reminds me that I need to get another roll of Sharkskin. I have a couple of things to paint in the garage, and I don't need overspray. I sort of wish I hadn't removed the wall in my garage now.

 

[Re-Volv]

Mark, Congrats on going under contract on the new place!! It took me 5 months to finally pass papers on mine (just last week), but it's worth it! Expect the worst and hope for the best.

Have you considered a setup like the Duster prep stations?

I have no personal experience with them, but it seems a lot of people like them. Not sure on cost, but the portability is nice.

 

[kered]

No it won't be left idle. I will be able to turn it back to a show garage instead of a work station. ......

That's good to hear

Hopefully you'll be kind enough to offer your Garage Journal friends another opportunity to visit the Monster Garage sometime again in the future.

I missed the last meet up & would seriously consider "popping across the Atlantic" should the opportunity ever arise again

In the meantime, I'm really looking forward to the new build thread getting started.

 

[lolife99]

Any plans to build an upper level in your new shop to add storage space for parts?
That is a really tall ceiling height!