Above 1200 Sq/FT Restored 1930's Auto Shop
- Thread starter BB767
- Start date
Wokspaces above 1200 squarefeet.
Homebody
Well-known member
rmalkow2
Well-known member
There’s just something about well worn but comfortable shop/work clothes that I’m sure makes us do better work. Oh, and your choice in music to repair a Corvette by is definitely spot on. Nice work getting that hard to reach screw fixed.
Bob
Bob
MG David
Well-known member
With reflections like those on the bonnet you hardly need a mirror.
Corvette Wire Harness Completed
As a matter of fact David, I did use the hood reflections along with the mirror from time to time until I removed the grill and was able to work from below.
To install the new harness I started at the end, passenger side, with the engine starter and worked my way around the engine compartment. Disconnecting components and removing the old harness a few feet at a time and installing the new wire. The routing of the new harness is critical. It must exactly follow the original harness which will make sure it's the proper length and that is doesn't interfere, chafe or bind on anything. That's why I removed the old wire, just a little at a time.
In the above pictures I've started down the left fender, approaching the voltage regulator and alternator. The old harness is piled on top of the fender and the new wire draped over the side of the fender. Note that I covered most of the connectors on the new wire with blue painters tape to keep them clean until they were installed.
This is the old wire for the headlights and motors being removed out of the grill opening (the grill has been moved forward to allow access behind it through the opening in the body) ...
...followed by its new replacement wire.
Here are the reconditioned headlight motors installed, along with that pesky new headlight motor mounting screw that started the whole project creep! This view is looking up to the underside of the front nose piece, note the "V" in the middle.
With the new harness now installed, all electrical components were powered up and the new headlight motors cycled several times. Every component worked correctly so...
... I was able to reinstall the grill, bumper and wheels. With the wheels installed, the car was then started to insure proper operation of the engine electrical components. All is well.
So the original, 54 year old wire has been replaced with new. I'll keep all the old, original electrical connectors, but the wire itself, it will be recycled as copper scrap.
Lot's of rain today so a shakedown cruise will have to wait, but I expect no surprises. All-in-all, these were very rewarding projects. The legacy of the old shop lives on some 80 years after it was first constructed. Providing a space within which automotive needs are being met. Mr Johnson would be pleased.
Thanks everyone for the continued interest and support.
Thomas
As a matter of fact David, I did use the hood reflections along with the mirror from time to time until I removed the grill and was able to work from below.
To install the new harness I started at the end, passenger side, with the engine starter and worked my way around the engine compartment. Disconnecting components and removing the old harness a few feet at a time and installing the new wire. The routing of the new harness is critical. It must exactly follow the original harness which will make sure it's the proper length and that is doesn't interfere, chafe or bind on anything. That's why I removed the old wire, just a little at a time.
In the above pictures I've started down the left fender, approaching the voltage regulator and alternator. The old harness is piled on top of the fender and the new wire draped over the side of the fender. Note that I covered most of the connectors on the new wire with blue painters tape to keep them clean until they were installed.
This is the old wire for the headlights and motors being removed out of the grill opening (the grill has been moved forward to allow access behind it through the opening in the body) ...
...followed by its new replacement wire.
Here are the reconditioned headlight motors installed, along with that pesky new headlight motor mounting screw that started the whole project creep! This view is looking up to the underside of the front nose piece, note the "V" in the middle.
With the new harness now installed, all electrical components were powered up and the new headlight motors cycled several times. Every component worked correctly so...
... I was able to reinstall the grill, bumper and wheels. With the wheels installed, the car was then started to insure proper operation of the engine electrical components. All is well.
So the original, 54 year old wire has been replaced with new. I'll keep all the old, original electrical connectors, but the wire itself, it will be recycled as copper scrap.
Lot's of rain today so a shakedown cruise will have to wait, but I expect no surprises. All-in-all, these were very rewarding projects. The legacy of the old shop lives on some 80 years after it was first constructed. Providing a space within which automotive needs are being met. Mr Johnson would be pleased.
Thanks everyone for the continued interest and support.
Thomas
Boosted1
Well-known member
I enjoy seeing your shop projects happening again.
Does look like a very enjoyable space to be working.
I just replace 3 wire harnesses in a 30 year old car that was crusty.
So I imagine a 54 year old one is definitely in need of some attention.
Does look like a very enjoyable space to be working.
I just replace 3 wire harnesses in a 30 year old car that was crusty.
So I imagine a 54 year old one is definitely in need of some attention.
Warpaint12
Member
Who could not be in love with this place? job well done!
XJSuperman
Well-known member
I came across an instagram post this week that had pictures of your Hudson remnants and your tree. I was sure to inform the poster that if he had a few weeks of time for reading, he should come by GJ and find the full story before posting pics. Then he could appreciate it all as we readers do. You've done an amazing job with the property Thomas.
jbmatth
Well-known member
Funny enough I saw photos of the Hudson as well and commented with information about your place and the GJ thread you have on it. I hope to have gained a few followers in doing so.
JB
rlwhitetr3b
Well-known member
Funny enough I saw photos of the Hudson as well and commented with information about your place and the GJ thread you have on it. I hope to have gained a few followers in doing so.
JB
Did you see it on the FB group ILLINOIS Abandoned Images? They were guessing why it got left there and I told them the building used to be a repair shop.
I also messaged the poster a link to this thread.
Vortex Strikes Again
All of you do realize what you've done don't you?! Once they start reading this thread they'll get sucked into the vortex. Resistance is futile!!!!!!
Seriously, thanks guys for the recommendation to others.There's a little something for everyone here.
I've been working outside lately, weather permitting, but before I get into that, up next I'll post about the last big project in the house.
The wood shop lighting, sound system and ceiling tiles. They were all integral with one another. It was a very big project, but as you'll see, it turned out rather well. Coming this way next. Please check back. Thanks again.
Not done yet Thomas
All of you do realize what you've done don't you?! Once they start reading this thread they'll get sucked into the vortex. Resistance is futile!!!!!!
Seriously, thanks guys for the recommendation to others.There's a little something for everyone here.
I've been working outside lately, weather permitting, but before I get into that, up next I'll post about the last big project in the house.
The wood shop lighting, sound system and ceiling tiles. They were all integral with one another. It was a very big project, but as you'll see, it turned out rather well. Coming this way next. Please check back. Thanks again.
Not done yet Thomas
C_F
ALLIANCE MEMBER
No kidding, I can only imagine the kind of rigor mortis that old wiring had.
I bet the new stuff going in all flexible-like was so nice.Thomas, I'm sure you now also have some peace of mind knowing that the under hood wiring won't be a potential fire hazard any time soon.
No kidding, I can only imagine the kind of rigor mortis that old wiring had.
Thomas, I'm sure you now also have some peace of mind knowing that the under hood wiring won't be a potential fire hazard any time soon.
Everything was working correctly but you're right, I feel much better knowing a potential reliability problem or fire hazard has been removed. Looking the old harness over didn't revel any wire cuts or skinned insulation. But there were some repairs that had been done that, over time, potentially could have caused a problem. With old wire in all my older cars is a big reason I disconnect the negative battery cable when I'm not around them.
We've has a couple of inches of rain the last 24 hours so no test drive yet. The farm fields have a bunch of standing water so the grounds pretty saturated. Interesting to note in the house; my basement sump pumps have no need to operate because the house is on a small hill and gravity is draining the water away via the surface grade and...
... the 8" (20 cm) tile line that is hooked up to my footing tiles. That tile line is big enough and with enough slope away from the house so that it drains the footing tile before water has a chance to back up in it and trigger the sumps into operation. I manually test the sumps operation about once a month in spring when we get our heaviest rain, just in case.
Thomas
Old Man Roger
Well-known member
What a cool looking piece of equipment. I assume it's just like the tiling machines you see on farms? Digs the trench and lays the pipe all at once?
That's exactly correct Roger. This outfit normally does farm field tile work with occasional home tile lines.
I think the owner/operator told me there are only 6 machines identical to this one in the world.
Go back to page 469, starting with post #9371 and you'll get more detailed information on the tiling process for the house.
Thomas
Old Man Roger
Well-known member
What a beast..lol
zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
That's exactly correct Roger. This outfit normally does farm field tile work with occasional home tile lines.
I think the owner/operator told me there are only 6 machines identical to this one in the world.
Go back to page 469, starting with post #9371 and you'll get more detailed information on the tiling process for the house.
Thomas
Yikes. Look at those marks in the lawn. Oh the humanity.
Basement Ceiling-Lighting-Sound
The basement, and specifically the wood shop was the last aspect of the house to be set up.
This is the raw starting point. Temporary lighting was seen in use here.
The 3 components left that needed to be addressed were:
1. Cosmetic appearance
2. Quality work lighting
3. Sound system
They were all interrelated as they involved the ceiling area. Starting with the sound system here's how I worked through those various projects.
The house uses SONOS for it's auxiliary sound system in the bedrooms, garage and basement. A convenient feature of SONOS is I can completely control it with my phone via WiFi. I have a very robust, commercial grade WiFi system in the house with transmitters on each floor level including the basement.
For sound delivery I selected these Polk speakers, 6 for the wood shop (3 pair) and 2 (1 pair) for Chris's picture framing area. These could be used in-wall or in the ceiling and are flush mount. They are exactly like all the other auxiliary speakers used throughout the house.
The speakers are somewhat heavy so I used 1/4" or 3/8" scrap plywood to backup the ceiling tile to keep the tile from sagging under the weight of the speaker. Here's a trail mock-up of the speaker ceiling installation which would be cut to fit the individual tile later.
Additionally a Niles speaker selector switch system was used, 4 pairs of speakers.
Next was the lighting. I used 30 of these 2' X 4' (.6m X 1.2m) Lithonia Fully-Luminous LED Flat Panels:
https://lithonia.acuitybrands.com/p...panl-flat-panel/fully-luminous-led-flat-panel
Overall they are about 1/4" thick except for a small area where the electrical connection is made. They are designed to drop into the grid tracks for a suspended ceiling.
I did a mock-up of 2 panels at the approximate installation height to get an idea of the amount of light I could expect...
... and to help with the light fixture layout. I am extremely happy with the amount and quality of light they produce. The whole panel surface lights up with soft, even lighting.
To wire for the fixtures I used deep electrical boxes and lighting whips. The whips I used are 6' (1.8m) long greenfield that is pre-wired for 3 wires. In most boxes I used 2 whips per box but occasionally I used 3 in each box. I used romex wire to daisy chain each box together.
To ground everything...
... I used "greenies"...
... and made up a ground pigtail...
...that were installed in each box...
The boxes were then screwed to the floor joist. Once the romex wire was run, it was a simple matter to tie all the various same color wires together. With all the boxes and whips installed and the romex run, next was installation of the ceiling tile grid. That's up for next time. I think you'll find it interesting how the various challenges the ceiling presented were solved. Thanks all.
Thomas
The basement, and specifically the wood shop was the last aspect of the house to be set up.
This is the raw starting point. Temporary lighting was seen in use here.
The 3 components left that needed to be addressed were:
1. Cosmetic appearance
2. Quality work lighting
3. Sound system
They were all interrelated as they involved the ceiling area. Starting with the sound system here's how I worked through those various projects.
The house uses SONOS for it's auxiliary sound system in the bedrooms, garage and basement. A convenient feature of SONOS is I can completely control it with my phone via WiFi. I have a very robust, commercial grade WiFi system in the house with transmitters on each floor level including the basement.
For sound delivery I selected these Polk speakers, 6 for the wood shop (3 pair) and 2 (1 pair) for Chris's picture framing area. These could be used in-wall or in the ceiling and are flush mount. They are exactly like all the other auxiliary speakers used throughout the house.
The speakers are somewhat heavy so I used 1/4" or 3/8" scrap plywood to backup the ceiling tile to keep the tile from sagging under the weight of the speaker. Here's a trail mock-up of the speaker ceiling installation which would be cut to fit the individual tile later.
Additionally a Niles speaker selector switch system was used, 4 pairs of speakers.
Next was the lighting. I used 30 of these 2' X 4' (.6m X 1.2m) Lithonia Fully-Luminous LED Flat Panels:
https://lithonia.acuitybrands.com/p...panl-flat-panel/fully-luminous-led-flat-panel
Overall they are about 1/4" thick except for a small area where the electrical connection is made. They are designed to drop into the grid tracks for a suspended ceiling.
I did a mock-up of 2 panels at the approximate installation height to get an idea of the amount of light I could expect...
... and to help with the light fixture layout. I am extremely happy with the amount and quality of light they produce. The whole panel surface lights up with soft, even lighting.
To wire for the fixtures I used deep electrical boxes and lighting whips. The whips I used are 6' (1.8m) long greenfield that is pre-wired for 3 wires. In most boxes I used 2 whips per box but occasionally I used 3 in each box. I used romex wire to daisy chain each box together.
To ground everything...
... I used "greenies"...
... and made up a ground pigtail...
...that were installed in each box...
The boxes were then screwed to the floor joist. Once the romex wire was run, it was a simple matter to tie all the various same color wires together. With all the boxes and whips installed and the romex run, next was installation of the ceiling tile grid. That's up for next time. I think you'll find it interesting how the various challenges the ceiling presented were solved. Thanks all.
Thomas
Yikes. Look at those marks in the lawn. Oh the humanity.
I got a kick out of that Mike, thanks. If you think those were bad...
...they were nothing compared to what they did to the rest of the lawn! That's the barn on the right in the background.
They torn the snot out of everything they touched it seemed. Ya gotta have some pain to get the gain.
Am I ever glad that's all behind me now!!Oh, by the way, here's a before picture...
Thomas
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mybigwarwagon
Well-known member
That's exactly correct Roger. This outfit normally does farm field tile work with occasional home tile lines.
I think the owner/operator told me there are only 6 machines identical to this one in the world.
Go back to page 469, starting with post #9371 and you'll get more detailed information on the tiling process for the house.
Thomas
That looks like what my ex wife used to dig up the past.
landroversforever
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2011
- Messages
- 86
Great to see you guys keeping well. Loved reading about the Route66 trip. It also made me think of The film Cars. Sadly as a society globally way too many people just up and abandon the old. Be it a car for the latest model, technology or historical stuff. Glad to see a lot has been preserved along the route but that’s only going to be a fraction in comparison to what’s being lost. Keep up the good work Thomas.
Bob Heine
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Thomas and Chris, I believe you two quietly celebrated your anniversary last Sunday. A belated...
Happy 45th Anniversary!!
Happy 45th Anniversary!!
Homebody
Well-known member
TimeWarpF100
Well-known member
Slotblog I size my pictures 800 X 600 to get them full size on a page. I'm also using Photobucket. If I just used my computer to host them, they'd come out small like yours in a post. I've checked with Ryan who owns Garage Journal, and he is leaving his software platform as is. I went through a whole slew of different ways to host pictures within GJ and the only way I've found that works well here is using Photobucket. I'm not a big fan of Photobucket but it does work for me.
Thanks for the links, looking forward to reading about your trip. Drive a Model A in Atlanta traffic; never, never , never!!
Thomas
It's been a while since I posted here & it's taking a long time to get caught up!
I have been using photobucket for more years than I can count. Very recently pb finally updated it all. I just updated yesterday as it had gotten so slow quit using it. For last couple years I have been using the G-J app which I have found much faster and easier to use.
The Route 66 part I found very interesting and have in the past few weeks been to parts of it here in AZ.
Wife & I are planning on doing a lower 48 state trip later this year in my '66 F100. Slowly getting it ready for the trip. Figuring it will be 9000 miles at a minimum! Had hoped to tow a old Airstream behind it but that will not happen now.
Following along here but do not post often.
Thomas and Chris, I believe you two quietly celebrated your anniversary last Sunday. A belated...
Happy 45th Anniversary!!
WOOT! Happy Anniversary!
Wow, thanks for noticing guys! What a nice way for you to acknowledge a bit of a milestone for us. Yes, we did celebrate quietly at home last Sunday. It's true...
...for 45 years that little girl has put a twinkle in my eye! If you think the way I'm dressed with the shirt un-tucked is a little goofy, here's the rest of the story...
It was a very hot day but Chris suggested we get a picture with us in somewhat formal attire. I was wearing shorts and thought with a good crop of the picture nobody would be the wiser. Shows what I know! Chris just happens to be wearing her wedding dress from 45 years ago which coincidentally, she also made it herself. Even back then I knew I had chosen wisely.
Here we are as juniors in high school and then later...
I hit the jackpot when she said yes, she would marry me! A faithful, loving companion for 45 years, who could ask for more.
What has this got to do a Restored 1930's Auto Shop? Absolutely nothing........except without her unwavering support, none of this would have happened. She is still the object of my affection!!!
Hopelessly in Love Thomas
ZRX61
Well-known member
Where was that last pic taken?
stillp
Well-known member
Great photo series Tom, and congratulations to you both!
Pete
Pete
red
Well-known member
Thanks for sharing your story!
The pictures are priceless.
They put a smile on my face.
Congrats on 45yrs
RADcustom
Well-known member
Congratulations. Certainly an achievement worthy of celebration.
Boosted1
Well-known member
Congratulations and thanks for sharing.
Great pics!
Great pics!
BORING HOP YARD
Well-known member
What a nice couple!
Congratulations.
Congratulations.
Sweet Old Bill
Well-known member
Thomas,
My condolences to Chris!!!
Although her smiles in pictures with you, say a lot about the past 45+ years!
My condolences to Chris!!!
Although her smiles in pictures with you, say a lot about the past 45+ years!
BuffettFan
Well-known member
Congratulations to you both!
Happy Belated Anniversary!
Happy Belated Anniversary!
Congratulations Thomas and Chris! Happy 45th and many more to come! I have a theory about a long happy marrige (my wife & I will celebrate our 50th this December) and the theory is: "Always think We and not Me"! I think that is all it takes. You two seem to be a perfect example of this theory. All the best to the two of you!
Calvin
Calvin
Brian R
Well-known member
This might be on the test and I think I know the answer. HotSlots 1/32 Slot Car Shop. Where I believe the truck was displayed (in Urbana, IL or thereabouts) and where I've ordered all my slot car stuff in the past.
Sadly out of business I think.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/hotslots-1-32-slot-car-shop-urbana
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mybigwarwagon
Well-known member
Congrats on 45 years.
zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Congratulations on 45 years together. That is AWESOME!
My wife will be celebrating our 31st next week and I can't imagine my life with anyone else. I wish more people could experience that kind of happiness.
My wife will be celebrating our 31st next week and I can't imagine my life with anyone else. I wish more people could experience that kind of happiness.
WinonaRail
Member
Congrats on your anniversary!