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Mid century modern 1 car

Mr. Blewregaurd

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Joined
Nov 17, 2016
Messages
33
Location
Denver, CO
Hey guys, long time lurker of the site, first time poster! Here is a little backround on myself, I'm a 28 year old car nut that owns the biggest independent Volvo repair shop in Colorado. I recently got the opportunity to purchase my dream house in my dream neighborhood called Arapahoe acres. It is the only post war historically protected neighborhood in the country. If you are familiar with the architecture, this place is like a time capsule, with some folks still having period correct cars in their driveways. So it goes without saying that this garage's design and look will have to be very period correct to 50's modernism. I naturally am going to take lots of inspiration from Jack Olsen's garage as it has a very similar design to what I am after.
Anyways, on to the photos! I'll start with some of my vehicles, past and present that will be spending weekends in this garage.
First, the car that started it all for me, my 1985 volvo 245.


This car got a lot of attention because it was the first one on bags which I built myself. I also turbo'd it amongst other things. About halfway through my 5 years with this car I picked up the car I actually always wanted my 245 to be, a 1968 Amazon wagon. When I first got it..
I pulled it from about a foot of mud where it had been siting for 30 years with a blown motor. I only work on this car sporadically, so about 4 years later heres how it sits, still needs to be wired


Last year after watching my poor 245 sit in storage for 2 straight years, I sold it to get back into driving fast again, and doing some auto cross/ track days. My choice? Obviously a 1985 volvo 244. First day of ownership..

Some time and effort later, 200hp N/A!

cage going in

This one is still a work in progress, and will be the primary resident of the garage. The other point of this garage build is to get my back to what I enjoyed about wrenching in the first place. It feels too much like work when you work on your projects at your place of business.
Here is the other full time resident of the garage, and my summer daily driver, my 2009 Honda Ruckus
Through all of this, I have had my trusty 2004 Ford ranger. This is probably my favorite vehicle. Its main purpose in life is overland travel/camping. It obviously does all the heavy lifting around the house too.
Coilover conversion, 33s, leafs, etc...



How I spend the majority of my summer weekends

Anyways on to the garage, Here is a shot of the front of the house to give you an idea of the architecture

Kind of hard to belive it was built in 1952...
So tear down started last week, got to excited and didn't take any pictures of the original bench and shelves that were built in the 80s at some point
Found some cool artifacts while tearing into it, someone used to race SCCA in this house!

Found these old mercedes posters behind the insulation on the garage door

Started collecting cabinets and a HF tool box for my new bench

Started off by building the overhead finger pull cabinets to run the lenght of the garage. They were built around a 24" rubbermaid bin. Each one will fit 4 of them, the small one at the end had to be accessable behind the garage door track, so it will be for small nicknacks.

Used this 5/8's c channel as a slide track, found it at home depot for $8 for 10'

First one going into place, had to swipe a trans jack from the shop. My mentor once told me "boy, you'd better learn to do things by yer self"
 
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Mr. Blewregaurd

Active member
Joined
Nov 17, 2016
Messages
33
Location
Denver, CO
Built another overhead with a little different door design, Ill likley redo the first one

Then made and hung the third small cabinet closest to the garage door

The next day I got the bones of the new work bench framed out

More finger pull cabinets over the bench

Put up some peg board to hang the garden tools on, the big grey cabinet houses the mower and all other garden items

Started work on the mobile work bench. Its a standard industrial kitchen work table that im going to fasten a ikea butcher block to.

Last one for now! Everything fits with plenty of room to work still! Hopefully over the weekend I can get everything one color!
 
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FANTM58

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Feb 21, 2015
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575
Location
Brighton, Co
I love it !
We're neighbors, kinda of . Westminster . And I've seen your shop, I love the art work on it
 

kwyjibo

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Apr 8, 2008
Messages
740
welcome! I'm over in the Lynwood neighborhood. I keep an eye on the mid-century modern house listings around town so I recognize your house. Looking forward to updates.
 

-Brent-

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Dec 23, 2009
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4,709
Location
Utah
I dig your style. If you put the same effort and style as you do with your cars (into the garage) it should be a pretty neat space.
 

hewey

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Sep 5, 2014
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1,679
Location
Blue Mountains, Australia
Welcome mate! Likewise I'm a big fan of mid century modern architecture and design, would love to see more pics of the house and neighbourhood. Surprised that Palm Springs isn't protected in the same way. Love the Volvos too.
 

monty007

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Mar 4, 2016
Messages
80
Looks awesome bro! Love the bagged Volvo! The 245 would have been a very cool ride. Keep up the great work and post lots of pics.

Are you planning to put a hoist in?
 

Colin Len

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Jan 30, 2013
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1,233
Location
Long Beach CA
Great stuff, can't wait to see what you have planned! I love the look of the house (at least what I've seen) - MCM is definitely my preferred style. The motorsports history stuff you found in the garage is really cool, do you plan to try and reuse any of it in some way? The posters specifically I think are really cool. If it were me I'd probably get 'em framed or find another way to integrate them into the house or garage as an homage to the history of the house.
 
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dubber

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Dec 31, 2012
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Location
Canada's Capital
I'm all over this. That first pic is epic. Good luck with the build. Those scores you have found during the demo are very sweet.
 

Todd.Brock

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Jul 15, 2008
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4,250
Location
Cincinnati
The house house and garage are looking great. I have always wanted to put a 5.0 into a 2 door 240 series. A 5 liter wagon would be cool too.
 
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Mr. Blewregaurd

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Nov 17, 2016
Messages
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Location
Denver, CO
Looks awesome bro! Love the bagged Volvo! The 245 would have been a very cool ride. Keep up the great work and post lots of pics.

Are you planning to put a hoist in?
No current plans for a hoist. I may do a floor lift eventually though!

Great stuff, can't wait to see what you have planned! I love the look of the house (at least what I've seen) - MCM is definitely my preferred style. The motorsports history stuff you found in the garage is really cool, do you plan to try and reuse any of it in some way? The posters specifically I think are really cool. If it were me I'd probably get 'em framed or find another way to integrate them into the house or garage as an homage to the history of the house.
I do have plans to have everything framed, and incorporate it into the garage.
The house seems to have an art deco vibe to it; am I mistaken?
Art deco and mid century modern do share some design traits, especially the style our house was designed in which is called usonian style, originated by Frank Lloyd wright in the 30s and 40s ( the tail end of art deco being popular)
 
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ambenz

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Dec 12, 2010
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4,236
Location
NW Chicago Suburbs
You have SO outgrown that one car garage already...plan on busting out the wall and expanding the area? I suppose you're pretty young yet and will find out soon enough...at least Jacks got double the room....have fun!
 
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Mr. Blewregaurd

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Nov 17, 2016
Messages
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Location
Denver, CO
You have SO outgrown that one car garage already...plan on busting out the wall and expanding the area? I suppose you're pretty young yet and will find out soon enough...at least Jacks got double the room....have fun!

Expansion is out of the question due to the design constraints of the neighborhood, which I'm fine with. Im having a lot of fun with this finding ways to efficiently use the small amount of space I have. This is more meant to be a place to have some hobby space. My 9-5 is running a 6 bay auto shop with a detached 8,000 sq/ft warehouse, so I don't have a issue with storage space. I may be young, but I've found that I'm into minimalism, already having gone down the big house/ lots of stuff route with my first house. I like having the few things that I do have close at hand
 

APEowner

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Oct 2, 2009
Messages
4,164
Location
Sunny, New Mexico
Welcome! I love mid century modern houses and despite a life long addiction to American V8s I've recently become a Volvo fan. A pristine 850 caught my eye when I was shopping for an inexpensive car for my wife. I liked it right away and when it sacrificed itself to protect her from injury when when she tried to drive under an F250 I became even more of a fan. I replaced it with an AWD, turbocharged S60 and while that car doesn't have the charm (or sadly, quite the reliability) of the 850 it's surprisingly fun to drive and is actually a pretty competent track car.

Anyway I look forward to watching you shop build and updates on the project cars.
 
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Mr. Blewregaurd

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Nov 17, 2016
Messages
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Location
Denver, CO
Welcome! I love mid century modern houses and despite a life long addiction to American V8s I've recently become a Volvo fan. A pristine 850 caught my eye when I was shopping for an inexpensive car for my wife. I liked it right away and when it sacrificed itself to protect her from injury when when she tried to drive under an F250 I became even more of a fan. I replaced it with an AWD, turbocharged S60 and while that car doesn't have the charm (or sadly, quite the reliability) of the 850 it's surprisingly fun to drive and is actually a pretty competent track car.

Anyway I look forward to watching you shop build and updates on the project cars.

Get yourself a s70 awd! best of both worlds!
 

kwyjibo

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Apr 8, 2008
Messages
740
Sounds like we need to get together sometime!

Have I seen your car out at Golden (Lafayette) or Vehicle Vault on Sat mornings? I hope to start a thread on my own garage addition soon, but it's been moving pretty slow so I'm reluctant to start such a lame thread. Our house started out as a 1 car garage + carport, so I wish that I had access to a 6-bay! I have seen your shop when I hit Stranahan's, I'll try to stop by the next time I'm out that direction. Otherwise, maybe I'll see you some Sat morning.

Edit: I did start a thread but there isn't much info on the current place.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=6123963#post6123963
 
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Mr. Blewregaurd

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Nov 17, 2016
Messages
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Location
Denver, CO
Have I seen your car out at Golden (Lafayette) or Vehicle Vault on Sat mornings? I hope to start a thread on my own garage addition soon, but it's been moving pretty slow so I'm reluctant to start such a lame thread. Our house started out as a 1 car garage + carport, so I wish that I had access to a 6-bay! I have seen your shop when I hit Stranahan's, I'll try to stop by the next time I'm out that direction. Otherwise, maybe I'll see you some Sat morning.

Edit: I did start a thread but there isn't much info on the current place.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=6123963#post6123963

That is the new owner of my old bagged wagon. I haven't made it out to one of those cars and coffee evens yet, none of my projects are road worthy yet!
 
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Mr. Blewregaurd

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Nov 17, 2016
Messages
33
Location
Denver, CO
While I was waiting around for turkey on thursday I stepped out to stare at the garage for a while. All the extra lumber stock leaned up against the wall started to bother me. So I got the bright idea to make up a "simple" rack to store lumber in that is tucked out of the way in the dead space to the left of the garage door. As always with my projects, things spiraled out of control quickly. I figured that since you could see it from the street with the door open, it had to look nice. So I studied the front screen door of the house (which is original) and decided to copy its design to dress things up a bit. But before I could start, I had to finish up my rolling work bench to have some place to use the miter saw. Used some 1" lags to fasten the top to the stainless. I also shortened the legs to match the counter height of the rest of the work bench just in case. Also cut the butcher block down to fit better.
Frame structure up and ram set'd to the block

I also took this opportunity to come up with a nicer looking solution to mounting the garage door tracks. The previous handy work....

So I designed the facia of this rack to also double as the mounting for the track on the left side. After about 2 days worth of head scratching and several home depot trips, I got the front made and in place
On the opposite side, I made up a little 90 degree unit and lag bolted it to the main beam.
So now that I have the door tracks mounted perfectly level and parallel (they were very sloped towards the rear of the garage before) I thought Id give it a try and watch it work better than it ever had! WRONG

Door hits the first main beam and rips the opener off the door. :mad: looks like the tracks were dipped down for a reason. There isn't a lot I can do about it either seeing as I designed the entire lumber rack around the track being level. Im not overly upset though, because I was on the fence about tearing the opener out anyways, and just using the door manually as it was designed. Even hitting the beam, the door still opens enough to get my truck in. Oh well! live and learn.
Sure looks good though!
Its cool that you can clearly see whats in there looking straight on at it, but from the street, you cant see a thing
and yes, the last foot was intentionally left blank, had to make room for the garage door spring. Havent decided how Im going to fill that yet.
Last thing I did for the night was mount this old Co2 extinguisher I found in the garage to the lawn cabinet. Now to get it recharged.
 

bj383ss

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Sep 29, 2011
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Location
TX
Looking forward to seeing how you evolve this. The ceiling of your garage is just beautiful. Built in 52' you won't find any lumber like those nice beams.

I like your lumber rack as well. Maybe you could sneak in a peak of your 6 bay shop and give us a view of your work.

Bret
 
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Mr. Blewregaurd

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Nov 17, 2016
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33
Location
Denver, CO
Ask and ye shall receive. My "Office"..


During a little first friday party


My favorite part of the building, the new entrance we cut into the wall.

Customer waiting area

One of our specialties besides Volvo repair is high performance suspension setup and alignment. Here is a sport quattro we setup and crewed with that ran the pikes peak hill climb
 

-Brent-

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Dec 23, 2009
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Utah
Awesome shop!

Too bad about that door hitting. I do love the look of that lumber rack, though. Going to paint it to match the door?
 
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Mr. Blewregaurd

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Nov 17, 2016
Messages
33
Location
Denver, CO
Awesome shop!

Too bad about that door hitting. I do love the look of that lumber rack, though. Going to paint it to match the door?

Box, bench, all cabinets, rack, and door will all be painted the same undetermined color. The house will eventually be repainted too. My designer wife hates the color palette.
 

TahitianGreen

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Aug 20, 2010
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65
Location
WI
Both garages look great! A workshop with an aesthetically pleasing waiting area? You're offering the dream!

More pictures of your house? From the small preview in the OP it looks great.
 

kwyjibo

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Apr 8, 2008
Messages
740
Your garages look great!
Since we have similar garages, I thought that I would point out that the install could be worse - at least your house didn't have previous owners that did this:
 
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Mr. Blewregaurd

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Nov 17, 2016
Messages
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Location
Denver, CO
Your garages look great!
Since we have similar garages, I thought that I would point out that the install could be worse - at least your house didn't have previous owners that did this:

They actually Did notch the beam unfortunately, so i will have to repair it :sad:
 
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