Above 1200 Sq/FT 86's 20HP shop

[JJC]

Happy Birthday !

 

[Johanfpa]

Happy birthday!

 

[bugnut]

Happy Birthday and good luck on new wheels!

 

[rmack898]

or you could buy something that you don't have to work on.....

Strouty, are you feeling OK?

86, belated happy birthday.

 

[zanyad]

Happy birthday, 86!

 

[86turbodsl]

Had my eyes on a car, it was 8 hrs away. Guy ghosted me. I'll keep looking. I'm picky about used cars.

 

[86turbodsl]

Thanks guys. I appreciate it. 1.5 weeks off for vacation, let's see what i can get done. My missus is upstate, just me and my daughter chillin.

 

[bimmer1980]

Just curious what your "ideal" used car would be? Make, models, year range, price range?

Simple transportation for work and errands or something else?

 

[86turbodsl]

For a daily, i like AWD, and i tend to stick with things i already know the ins and outs of, and have the tools for. I'm not real interested in exploring new makes all the time. I have had Fords for decades, but they don't make anything current that i care for, so i stick to the old trucks, and for cars, i've been VW/Audi for decades and have all the tools and know the ins and outs. We get enough snow here that on a bad year, i can get stuck in the driveway pretty easily. The driveway goes past the neighbor's old cattle feed lot, and it drifts pretty bad there. I have a horse fence on one side of the drive and the feedlot on the other side. there's nowhere to push the snow. It's a chore to clear. I also have a long commute, so i don't usually go for a large expensive sedan. So its usually a smaller car. I also like TDI/diesels. Of course, VW had to screw the pooch on that one. So i'm probably permanently into used cars now. Don't even speak to me about electrics. I mean it.

We had a VW passat for a while, TDI, and a Golf TDI replaced that. Wife convinced me to get a new car because a 45yr old man shouldn't be driving a Golf. I bought an A4 Quattro then. Pretty much perfect car for me. So there's quite a few A4's sitting out back now. Everybody is scared of used Audis. So i get em cheap. I understand them pretty well now. the Quattro is permanent AWD, all mechanical and pretty much bulletproof. I like that. Fuel economy could be better. I have a TDI swap planned.

 

[Strouty]

Whatever you buy, just make sure it isn't blue.......

 

[86turbodsl]

LOL!!! Learn from my friends right??

 

[Strouty]

Or by bad experiences.

 

[jbmatth]

I was really eyeballing the Audi A4/A5 with the 2.0T and a manual but never had any come up for sale in my area. The only real problem I'd heard about them was the timing chain/tensioners, seemed easy enough to fix but must be done proactively or plan to replace the engine. AWD and close to 30 mpg seemed like a good bet to me, instead I bought a car that has none of those qualities but the manual and terrible on gas so I'm keeping my 22 year old ****** a bit longer. Good luck finding a reasonably priced commuter car right now. Ouch!

JB

 

[86turbodsl]

Yeah, i started figuring it out quick, after a few conversations. I'll probably wait until the bottom falls out of the used market unless i get more desperate or a deal shows up. I'm not going to play in that sandbox unless i have to.

I really like the looks of A5/S5, and they did have manual V8s, but i'm not about to pay stupid pricing.

 

[86turbodsl]

On another note, we spent half the day running around town in my dually picking up stuff we needed. I am now setup on a 400A Tregaskiss tough gun to run 0.023 wire. lol. I have the patch for the daughter's A4 setup to zip in tonight. I really need to get cracking on my other jobs though. Her car is in the way.

 

[86turbodsl]

Checking in, been working on the daughter's Audi in place of mine, i decided i didn't have enough room to pull an engine and separate, so i have been cleaning out the shop. I finally decided to part ways with my dad's old craftsman tool chest, it wasn't getting used, and since i bought the HF ones, it's just been taking up space. I advertised it on FB marketplace for a steal and it was gone in a few hours. Then behind it, i found a whole bunch of 2x4 lumber i had forgotten about, enough to build my basement shelves as well as the cart for the engine drop, so that was nice. I will pickup a few 2x6 tomorrow for top material and get started on the cart. I moved the 36" bandsaw frame out into the yard. The goal is to get the namco out of the back of the shop so i can work with the car, and move the bridgeport to it's final home, now that the toolbox is gone.

I also taught my daughter to drive a stick today, she was ecstatic. So even though i'm not making as much progress as i'd hoped, it's making memories that counts right?

On a more sour note, my workplace has changed policy and no longer allows personal PC on their network, so i have no way to remote work anymore. I asked my boss if i could get a laptop, which i've tried for 15 years to get, and he said "lets talk about it next week" so if i can't convince him to get me a laptop, i become 100% office bound again after 2 1/2 years of mostly remote. That will be a kick in the nuts if that happens. Even the damn technicians have laptops to take home. A kick in the nuts. And i've used my custom built workstation to support that place for 2 1/2 years. Nobody asked me to, i just did it to keep working. We'll see what happens.

 

[bulletpruf]

Excellent news on teaching your daughter to drive stick! I look forward to teaching my 9 y/o daughter in the next few years.

Bummer on working remote! That would **** if you're stuck in the office!

 

[Bob Heine]

@86turbodsl, sometimes I wake up from a dream that involves being back at work. Thanks for reminding me those are nightmares.

 

[Bob Heine]

I also taught my daughter to drive a stick today, she was ecstatic.

I look forward to teaching my 9 y/o daughter in the next few years.

I taught my daughter to drive a stick when she was 14 (1976), before she could get a permit to drive. There were no cell phones back then and I worried she would be out with slightly older friends who might be too impaired to drive (drinking age in Florida was 18 until 1985). Back then most teen's first car was a stick and I wanted her to be able to drive herself out of a bad situation.

 

[SilverJimmy]

I also believe everyone, especially a young woman, needs to be able to drive a manual transmission vehicle. You never know when someones life might depend on that knowledge. I also recommend taking a young driver to the local mall at about midnight after a heavy snowfall or ice storm and then having them drive about. Usually there are no cars at that time. Then I’ll reach over and grab the steering wheel at about 30 mph and put them into a slide and teach them how to drive out of it. Also how to brake and stop on ice and snow. Just like pilot training, put them in a spin so they don’t panic when it happens unexpectedly. The Drivers Ed Advanced course!

 

[86turbodsl]

Moved a lot of stuff around in the shop today, ala 'Strouty tetris'. Got the forklift freed up, moved the bridgeport over under the pallet racking in the south side front window. Fits nicely at about a 30 degree angle from the wall. Plenty of clearance to load and unload the pallet rack above it. Even with the namco. I had to get my son as additional counterweight to move it though. Once i had it placed, i started thinking about the other machine tools and where they would fit and sort of had an epiphany. The current plan had been to put the lathe under the north wall pallet racking on the opposite side of the shop from the bridgeport. Not a very good layout, but i felt like i needed it further away from the welding and grinding area. Then it hit me, if i just pull out the shelf on the south wall holding all the transmissions and engines, move that stuff into other areas, i had a nice spot on the east wall to put the lathe, half under the pallet racking and half out in the open, where it won't be in the way, we can get long bar out the spindle, and it's right beside the other machine tools on the opposite side of the shop from the dirty stuff. So with that layout, i can even put the vertical bandsaw out in the open between the lathe and bridgeport, the drill press behind that, and have all the machine tools right together. On the opposite side, i'll have welders, grinders, sanders, all the dirty stuff, all in one area. The 3 sections of pallet rack to the west of that, i have room for floor to ceiling shelves and the tire machine in front of that, since it's pretty portable. More garage tetris, but i think it works out nicer than it would have. The only place i haven't got really figured out is where the wood tools live. I think eventually i need a 2nd lean to, but for right now, maybe they go up on pallet racking.

 

[bulletpruf]

Man, that's a good feeling, isn't it? I'm envious.

 

[86turbodsl]

Lol. I'd feel better probably if it wasn't 90F out there. I bought another bunk of particle board, 36 sheets, for 67dollars. Brought that home yesterday, along with some 2x6 for the top of the motor crate. I still need to get crackin on that, but i'm taking a cold snack break. We've supposedly got rain in forecast tonight, so i needed that out of the truck. The oliver forklift is turning out to be a real nice tool. i don't have enough counterweight for 3000lbs hanging off it 8ft out, but i do have enough to drag it out of the truck, sit it on a barrel and come at it from the side. I stuck it in the house garage in my spot for time being, the door will shut. I can cut sheets right there in the pile for the shelves i plan to build in the house. I am tired of tripping over things, so i am building a wall of shelves in the basement to put some of the stuff we have sitting around on the floors. If i get really ambitious maybe i'll use it for other things as well. At under 2 dollars a sheet, i can afford to waste some if needed. This stuff appears to be used for dunnage in one of the ford assembly plants in detroit. The auction house seems to have an unlimited supply of the stuff. It comes on a special pallet 4x8 with thick ply runners. The pallet is some veneered plywood about 2in thick. I am thinking i need to repurpose that somehow, if i can figure out how. I have 2 of them now. I think plywood that thick has got to be unbelievably strong.

 

[86turbodsl]

Decided to throw the ford pallets in the burn pile. I tried to get the runners off, but there were giant staples everywhere, pulling them off was wrecking the plywood so it doesn't make sense to try to save. Oh well.

 

[bulletpruf]

Lol. I'd feel better probably if it wasn't 90F out there. I bought another bunk of particle board, 36 sheets, for 67dollars. Brought that home yesterday, along with some 2x6 for the top of the motor crate. I still need to get crackin on that, but i'm taking a cold snack break. We've supposedly got rain in forecast tonight, so i needed that out of the truck. The oliver forklift is turning out to be a real nice tool. i don't have enough counterweight for 3000lbs hanging off it 8ft out, but i do have enough to drag it out of the truck, sit it on a barrel and come at it from the side. I stuck it in the house garage in my spot for time being, the door will shut. I can cut sheets right there in the pile for the shelves i plan to build in the house. I am tired of tripping over things, so i am building a wall of shelves in the basement to put some of the stuff we have sitting around on the floors. If i get really ambitious maybe i'll use it for other things as well. At under 2 dollars a sheet, i can afford to waste some if needed. This stuff appears to be used for dunnage in one of the ford assembly plants in detroit. The auction house seems to have an unlimited supply of the stuff. It comes on a special pallet 4x8 with thick ply runners. The pallet is some veneered plywood about 2in thick. I am thinking i need to repurpose that somehow, if i can figure out how. I have 2 of them now. I think plywood that thick has got to be unbelievably strong.

$2 a sheet??? You done good.

Isn't it fun when you have too much weight on the forklift forks? When I worked in a lumberyard (back in the 80's) we had a Clark forklift that was light in the ***. No big deal if you're expecting it, but pucker factor goes wayyyy up if/when it catches you by surprise!

 

[harley jim]

I put the second lean to on my shop for the wood tools, now if I could just get my bil's car out of it I could clean up my shop like you did.

 

[Strouty]

It will be worth the effort to have all the machine tools in one area, I spent a bunch of time to figure out my layout, unfortunately for me, I am going to have to move everything again when I start to build my stockroom. Glad to see you found a good use for your son......



I can remember when I was a teen, I was used as counterweight for logs, I would hook them up with tongs, but I had to balance them out, by riding the log while Dad ran the crane. I would hazard a guess doing that today would be frowned upon. I just looked at it like riding a surfboard.

 

[86turbodsl]

$2 a sheet??? You done good.

Isn't it fun when you have too much weight on the forklift forks? When I worked in a lumberyard (back in the 80's) we had a Clark forklift that was light in the ***. No big deal if you're expecting it, but pucker factor goes wayyyy up if/when it catches you by surprise!

I wouldn't call it fun... no.

I've had forklifts on 2 wheels rocking side to side. I was a bit.... reckless... in earlier life.

 

[86turbodsl]

Well i spent today building this thing, a cart for dropping my engine and trans down onto. I was originally planning to build it in steel from pallet racking, but quickly realized that i was not going to be able to get that done very quickly, since my HF bandsaw doesn't actually cut straight. So i whipped this up from spare lumber. It should be sufficient i think, most of it is in compression. And plenty of triangles. Now i am prepping the car for disassembly.

I also thought it might be quite a bit easier to tack down blocking for keeping the engine where i wanted it if i was screwing into wood, of which i have a lot of.

 

[bimmer1980]

Good choice! Looks plenty stout for the job.

And the real plus side, you got it done!!

Ready for the next step.

 

[Monza Harry]

I expect that will see use well beyond his upcoming project! Looks sturdy and to be an all around useful size for many projects, and mobile for "just outside" the barn. Harry

 

[racer-john]

Nicely done.

 

[86turbodsl]

tore into the audi this morning. whew. I sure hope i can get all the parts that car is going to need... pretty crusty in front. I'll get pics after lunch.

 

[86turbodsl]

And i'm totally stopped right now, by a stupid wiper arm which is stuck on, because the VWAG group decided to put a retaining bolt for the ECU/harness UNDER the cowl, where you can't get at it without removing the wiper arms and windshield trim. And to top it off, i have a wiper removal tool SOMEWHERE, that i can't find so i had to order an amazon tool for tomorrow. I guess i'll go clean then...

 

[Strouty]

That is a nice safe place for the connector, wouldn't want it to accidentally get unplugged when you are checking your oil....

 

[86turbodsl]

Yeah, the ECU is inside a plastic box, the harness runs thru the false firewall, there's a retainer on it inside the box, and a 2nd cover over it. There doesn't seem to be much opportunity to mess with it.

 

[86turbodsl]

The crunchiness continues. I have the brakes off, i need new brake lines, there was a crunchy looking spot on the passenger fender, that turned to dust when i touched it and about a cup of sand poured out of the hole.. I am now looking at paint and body panels in addition to all the other work. I suppose i could just scrap the car, but in that event, what do i replace it with that isn't as crunchy in the great white north? Anything newer is $$$$ right now.

 

[Strouty]

Take a "carcation" and go on a trip to find something from a less rusty area.

 

[83VillageRepair]

The crunchiness continues. I have the brakes off, i need new brake lines, there was a crunchy looking spot on the passenger fender, that turned to dust when i touched it and about a cup of sand poured out of the hole.. I am now looking at paint and body panels in addition to all the other work. I suppose i could just scrap the car, but in that event, what do i replace it with that isn't as crunchy in the great white north? Anything newer is $$$$ right now.

I can look for a rust free texas transplant candidate down here. Give the exact specs and I will look.

 

[86turbodsl]

I could look for something in a southern area, but the go-get cost would outweigh anything i would get around here. It's a 2002-2005 A4.