I’ve been a long-time lurker here and haven’t shown anything but have mostly enjoyed seeing other’s shops.
A bit of background on me – long time car/slot car enthusiast. I’ve restored two 1968 Chevelles over the years but sold my last on back in 2008 and I decided to focus on my 1:32 slot car hobby as it was far less expensive
I now have a Challenger **** Pack in our stable along with two Jeep Wrangler JKUs that we’ve built into nice trail runners.
I’ve always needed a basement and a garage for the slot cars as I owned a successful resin model hobby business on the side until I closed in 2019 due to me becoming sensitized to resins. All my casting tanks were in the garage, and my slot car track and work area were in the basement.
In late 2019, we moved from Colorado to West-Central Florida for my job. We were looking for a home that would allow for the track and parking. Basements exist here, but are rare, and homes with “bonus rooms” are usually expensive if they are part of the home footprint. We found it a more reasonable option was to find a home with a detached garage and finish it off.
We purchased a home with a 30x40 detached garage. The previous owner had supposedly built race cars at one time and had added both sizes of circuits and a PVC-based air tool setup (I know all about the dangers of that, and promptly removed it). It was jammed so full of stuff we couldn’t get most of it inspected. One item of note – he had the garage permitted and then added a ¼ bathroom in it…where the service panel is. As it isn’t a living space, they let that fly. There are two low spots in the floor by the man-doors that cause the sill to catch a little water during a heavy rain and I’ll have to deal with that at some point soon.
The garage would reach a sweltering 110 degrees as it was simple block construction with no insulation in the ceiling and he’d installed 4 junk-yard sourced fluorescent fixtures from a drop ceiling that 2 of which had completely dead ballasts. It was also INCREDIBLY filthy and due to him leaving the doors up all the time – had its fair share of all things creepy and crawly.
The intent has been to get it clean, cool, and able to be used as a slot car room in lieu of a basement as well as a parking spot for my 1:1 slot car and my mower. A dart board and foosball table are also going to reside in here - along with a small fridge for "refreshments".
We began with a thorough cleaning. There was so much dirt on the walls, windows, floors, (not to mention the disgusting bathroom) that it took DAYS to get it clean. I removed all PVC (that was still charged with pressure and full of moisture) the PO installed for his air system. It was so brittle I'm shocked it had not already turned to shrapnel.
There were cobwebs on the windows that were so thick, I used a stick to initially clean them off - it looked like the scene in Shrek, when he gathered all the cobwebs and bugs on a stick for a snack. The wife was less than pleased with that. We had it professionally exterminated and keep up with that, so that issue has been resolved.
I pulled back all the bad ceiling light circuits and rewired them properly into two completely new circuits. One controls the LED high-bay lights and the other a series of barn lights. There are 3-way switches are both man-doors for each. I also wired in a new circuit for ceiling fans, and an outlet of a garage door opener. I also re-purposed a 220/240 he had for a welder for the Mr. Cool Split-Mini I planned to install and installed an internal surge protector as we moved to the lightning capital of the world.
I contracted a local person to install and finish sheetrock since I hate finishing sheetrock, and it was so hot. I happily paid some cash out for that job! I blew in about R50 cellulose insulation over that and the garage dropped almost 20 degrees immediately. It was shocking how much it changed, even though the 92 degrees it settled at was way too hot and humid to live with.
Once the ceiling and insulation were installed, I installed a 24k MrCool split-mini unit and we spent almost 2 full days to do a serious clean on the place.
I had to re-jamb and re-hang the bathroom door, since the PO had also sourced that from a junk pile somewhere and it would never shut originally. Trust me, when I say this is a theme with anything the PO touched, and don’t get me started on how much duct-tape we’ve found everywhere over the almost 3 acres we own.
With that done, we painted the ceiling with standard ceiling paint and a concrete/stucco paint for the block walls. As the PO had painted the floors, we left those alone, even though they are scraped, and in some places stained. I liked the patina, and it is a man-cave, so I simply added some rubber base boarding and called that done.
I installed a LiftMaster wall-mounted garage door opener that works exceptionally well on the tall doors. I’ve installed this model in several homes we’ve owned and found them to be reliable.
With all of that done, we’ve done some decorating and I’ve managed to get the track back up and running over the past months. I’m enjoying working on that again and have my computerized timing system running now as well.
The future includes painting the exterior, dressing up the yellowed plastic on the inside of the garage doors, and fixing the low spots at the man-doors.
More to come, but that is where I’m at with this project now. Thanks for all the inspiration on this forum!
When we first saw the home:
Day 1 of ownership:
Progress:
Paint:
Mostly together:
I've hit the limit of pics, I'll post a few more in another reply.
A bit of background on me – long time car/slot car enthusiast. I’ve restored two 1968 Chevelles over the years but sold my last on back in 2008 and I decided to focus on my 1:32 slot car hobby as it was far less expensive
I now have a Challenger **** Pack in our stable along with two Jeep Wrangler JKUs that we’ve built into nice trail runners.
I’ve always needed a basement and a garage for the slot cars as I owned a successful resin model hobby business on the side until I closed in 2019 due to me becoming sensitized to resins. All my casting tanks were in the garage, and my slot car track and work area were in the basement.
In late 2019, we moved from Colorado to West-Central Florida for my job. We were looking for a home that would allow for the track and parking. Basements exist here, but are rare, and homes with “bonus rooms” are usually expensive if they are part of the home footprint. We found it a more reasonable option was to find a home with a detached garage and finish it off.
We purchased a home with a 30x40 detached garage. The previous owner had supposedly built race cars at one time and had added both sizes of circuits and a PVC-based air tool setup (I know all about the dangers of that, and promptly removed it). It was jammed so full of stuff we couldn’t get most of it inspected. One item of note – he had the garage permitted and then added a ¼ bathroom in it…where the service panel is. As it isn’t a living space, they let that fly. There are two low spots in the floor by the man-doors that cause the sill to catch a little water during a heavy rain and I’ll have to deal with that at some point soon.
The garage would reach a sweltering 110 degrees as it was simple block construction with no insulation in the ceiling and he’d installed 4 junk-yard sourced fluorescent fixtures from a drop ceiling that 2 of which had completely dead ballasts. It was also INCREDIBLY filthy and due to him leaving the doors up all the time – had its fair share of all things creepy and crawly.
The intent has been to get it clean, cool, and able to be used as a slot car room in lieu of a basement as well as a parking spot for my 1:1 slot car and my mower. A dart board and foosball table are also going to reside in here - along with a small fridge for "refreshments".
We began with a thorough cleaning. There was so much dirt on the walls, windows, floors, (not to mention the disgusting bathroom) that it took DAYS to get it clean. I removed all PVC (that was still charged with pressure and full of moisture) the PO installed for his air system. It was so brittle I'm shocked it had not already turned to shrapnel.
There were cobwebs on the windows that were so thick, I used a stick to initially clean them off - it looked like the scene in Shrek, when he gathered all the cobwebs and bugs on a stick for a snack. The wife was less than pleased with that. We had it professionally exterminated and keep up with that, so that issue has been resolved.
I pulled back all the bad ceiling light circuits and rewired them properly into two completely new circuits. One controls the LED high-bay lights and the other a series of barn lights. There are 3-way switches are both man-doors for each. I also wired in a new circuit for ceiling fans, and an outlet of a garage door opener. I also re-purposed a 220/240 he had for a welder for the Mr. Cool Split-Mini I planned to install and installed an internal surge protector as we moved to the lightning capital of the world.
I contracted a local person to install and finish sheetrock since I hate finishing sheetrock, and it was so hot. I happily paid some cash out for that job! I blew in about R50 cellulose insulation over that and the garage dropped almost 20 degrees immediately. It was shocking how much it changed, even though the 92 degrees it settled at was way too hot and humid to live with.
Once the ceiling and insulation were installed, I installed a 24k MrCool split-mini unit and we spent almost 2 full days to do a serious clean on the place.
I had to re-jamb and re-hang the bathroom door, since the PO had also sourced that from a junk pile somewhere and it would never shut originally. Trust me, when I say this is a theme with anything the PO touched, and don’t get me started on how much duct-tape we’ve found everywhere over the almost 3 acres we own.
With that done, we painted the ceiling with standard ceiling paint and a concrete/stucco paint for the block walls. As the PO had painted the floors, we left those alone, even though they are scraped, and in some places stained. I liked the patina, and it is a man-cave, so I simply added some rubber base boarding and called that done.
I installed a LiftMaster wall-mounted garage door opener that works exceptionally well on the tall doors. I’ve installed this model in several homes we’ve owned and found them to be reliable.
With all of that done, we’ve done some decorating and I’ve managed to get the track back up and running over the past months. I’m enjoying working on that again and have my computerized timing system running now as well.
The future includes painting the exterior, dressing up the yellowed plastic on the inside of the garage doors, and fixing the low spots at the man-doors.
More to come, but that is where I’m at with this project now. Thanks for all the inspiration on this forum!
When we first saw the home:
Day 1 of ownership:
Progress:
Paint:
Mostly together:
I've hit the limit of pics, I'll post a few more in another reply.
