Polishing a Turd and I f***ed up, Recommendations?

[DentalDart]

I’ve been rebuilding my 35 year old shop the past 2 months. New trusses, spray foamed, new 10x10 insulated doors, new wiring, and so on.

Floors are last to be done along with the wall covering.

The shop will get 2 lifts and I’ll be rebuilding old project cars in it.

My floors were pretty crappy, it was poured wet and a plastic was laid over it and it left tons of large ripples everywhere. I wanted the polished look but it didn’t work out so well. Grinded it down, filled cracks with Simiron Polyurea Crack fill, then laid down Prosoco Densifier, Prosoco SB, then an acrylic sealer… I dislike it…. The old oil stains came to the top and it looks bad then the sealer put all kinds of holes in the crack filler (air bubbles maybe?).

So time to redo it… Xylene to get the sealer up but what are you recommendations for helping get the oil stains up? What about helping with masking it?

Hellfire? Still pretty good stuff?
BallistiX? That seems like just a top coat sealer, but doesn’t help mask any staining?

I’d like to have something that goes down and I don’t have to mess with it very often and holds up over time to oils and fluids, as well as pretty tough. Then something that touch ups aren’t taking it all off and redoing the floor.

 

[duneslider]

I've never seen anything that will truely get the oil stains out. I even ran across a guy on instagram trying everything under the sun to get an oil stain out of his patio. His experience seems to match mine in that the only way to get the stains out is with a jackhammer.

Maybe your best bet would be to grind it and look at concrete stains. If the whole floor is stained then the oil stains will blend in.

 

[DentalDart]

@duneslider When it was ground down before the sealer went on it looked good to me. After putting the sealer on they came out.

Xylene to take the sealer off, then I’ll use some chemicals on it to clean it up as best as possible.

Debating between Hellfire. https://www.legacyindustrial.co/products/hellfire-concrete-coating/

Or

Armorpoxy job on a pallet level 2 or 2 with maybe BallistiX over it. I think both of those will do a good job masking/covering the staining.

Job on a Pallet - Commercial Epoxy System - ArmorUltra 3-Layer - Per Sq Ft - Low & STD VOC

Job on a Pallet Kit. Comes with complete materials for self installation! Save up to 80% OFF! Complete 3 layer epoxy coating syste. Buy now!

armorpoxy.com

Oh I’m also going to redo the crack filler with a grey crack filler.

This is before sealer and I liked it. The sealer ruined it for me.

 

[OzarkMan]

That doesnt look too bad to work with. I would roll with it. Your concrete looks better than mine did at the start. Not sure how far you are from me but I am off Blue Stem Road & Hwy NN if you want to stop by

 

[DentalDart]

That doesnt look too bad to work with. I would roll with it. Your concrete looks better than mine did at the start. Not sure how far you are from me but I am off Blue Stem Road & Hwy NN if you want to stop by

You’re right over by tractor supply, I’m about 5 minutes east of you on Cottonwood and 194

 

[DentalDart]

Some grey paint got put down to see if I like it… not sold on this grey, looks like the wall… but the wall isn’t staying grey. It will have the rusty tin on the bottom with wood on top like the other side.

 

[BillK]

Here is my worthless opinion. If you are truly going to be working on old cars just forget about it looking pretty. No matter what you put down is going to get trashed pretty quick anyway. Just put down something clear that will seal it all good and go on with life.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I would paint or stain in between the cracks different colors. Kind of like stained glass.

 

[esben57]

Appears that you have caught the three culprits on camera.


That is just a touch of levity, good they will help. My eldest washed my car just once, and under sufferance. It was worse than when he started the task. Washed it myself later.

 

[larry4406]

I think the floor looks pretty damn cool with almost lightening bolts in it!

I’d be inclined to walk away and move on.

 

[DentalDart]

Put a couple cars in it… lifts will be here soon, getting a 2 post and a 4 post. Small shop has parts and another car in it usually, but that car is currently in paint, I’ll probably put a 4 post in the small shop as well.

I force the kids to do work, I don’t care if it pains them, it’s good for them.

 

[larry4406]

Put a couple cars in it… lifts will be here soon, getting a 2 post and a 4 post. Small shop has parts and another car in it usually, but that car is currently in paint, I’ll probably put a 4 post in the small shop as well.

I force the kids to do work, I don’t care if it pains them, it’s good for them.

Love the Mopars!

Dart/******* and Cornet ‘vert?

 

[DentalDart]

Love the Mopars!

Dart/******* and Cornet ‘vert?

Purple car is a 1969 Dart GT with a mildly built 340.

Blue car is an all original 1968 Dart GTS convertible 340

Primer = 69 *******, 400 stroked to a 499 with a Dana 60 and a Tremec 6 speed…

No coronet convertible yet. I’d love to have a 70 Coronet convertible and a 70-72 cuda convertible or Challenger Convertible. We will see what I stumble on next. The B bodies and E bodies are very expensive when finding a decent builder or even more expensive when already finished.

 

[larry4406]

Purple car is a 1969 Dart GT with a mildly built 340.

Blue car is an all original 1968 Dart GTS convertible 340

Primer = 69 *******, 400 stroked to a 499 with a Dana 60 and a Tremec 6 speed…

No coronet convertible yet. I’d love to have a 70 Coronet convertible and a 70-72 cuda convertible or Challenger Convertible. We will see what I stumble on next. The B bodies and E bodies are very expensive when finding a decent builder or even more expensive when already finished.

E-body ‘verts are 70-71 only.

I’ve got ‘72 Cuda hardtop. It’s been smashed by a tree. Sad. First car bought it ‘79-80.

I’ve also got a ‘71 barracuda vert that I bought in ‘83. Second owner. One day I hope to fully clone it to 440-6 4sd Dana 60 with shaker. I have all the parts. Other projects always in way it seams. Last on the road 1985……

 

[DentalDart]

E-body ‘verts are 70-71 only.

I’ve got ‘72 Cuda hardtop. It’s been smashed by a tree. Sad. First car bought it ‘79-80.

I’ve also got a ‘71 barracuda vert that I bought in ‘83. Second owner. One day I hope to fully clone it to 440-6 4sd Dana 60 with shaker. I have all the parts. Other projects always in way it seams. Last on the road 1985……

Guess I’ll only be looking for 70-1 vert lol, never have I had an E body and I wasn’t even born yet, my parents were barely born then haha.

There has been a 70 challenger convertible for sale near me lately for 50k, it’s super clean but only a 318. I mean, I do have a 408 sitting to the side and a built 440 I could swap into it if I wanted to. But we have to many projects going on right now as well (shop finishing and starting an addition on my house next week), my wife would kick my *** if I brought home another car.

 

[PCustoms]

I've likely shared this before, but will again.

Years ago worked in a large fab shop where all manner of glues, paints and **** was used and dropped on the floor, not to mention forklifts and heavy carts. 2-3x a year a department would get picked, clear everything out and vacuum/scrape everything down. We'd then dump a couple cans of light blue or grey floor paint and squeegee or roll it out. Place looked great for several months, then started to show wear (mostly sticky stuff dripping onto it). Usually by the time the paint was wearing off it would be that departments turn again.

You can spend a ton of money on a floor and maybe have it come out well, and maybe it lasts. Or you can spend a little on a good floor paint and touch it up as needed.

My woodshop had oil stains, I used oil eater, then Behr (gasp!) garage floor paint. 10yrs in it needs touch-up in one spot..

 

[NUTTSGT]

Here is my worthless opinion. If you are truly going to be working on old cars just forget about it looking pretty. No matter what you put down is going to get trashed pretty quick anyway. Just put down something clear that will seal it all good and go on with life.

This is what I would do.

If it's a working garage, you're going to be upset when you get it where you want and then have a spill or scrape that destroys it.

Get it sealed, wipe up spills as they happen with something not harsh. Sweep it when it needs it and once a year (or after big projects) mop it with some hot water and Simple Green.

 

[Mike65]

This is what I would do.

If it's a working garage, you're going to be upset when you get it where you want and then have a spill or scrape that destroys it.

Get it sealed, wipe up spills as they happen with something not harsh. Sweep it when it needs it and once a year (or after big projects) mop it with some hot water and Simple Green.

That is what I did with our garage. Since we do work on our trucks, my 69 Mustang & my wife's motorcycles in there, once the concrete cured, I laid down a matt finish sealer so if spilled anything I could wipe it up without staining the concrete. It is after all a working garage.

 

[bluedog225]

Another vote for it looks good. Has character.

 

[DentalDart]

I’m going to be leaving it this way for a bit, until after my house is done. Still will install the lift and will move my tool boxes in and install some older cabinets on the walls that I took from my office, I thought about getting new age cabinets but are they really needed? Meh.

 

[oldmachinenut]

Spend absolutely every minute you can in that garage with your kids and ignore the floor. Mine are all grown and out on their own with families.
I would give anything to spend more garage days with my 4 when they were that age.

 

[FJ4FUN]

 

[DentalDart]

Haven’t done anything to the floors…. Maybe I’ll come back around to them. If and when I do them I’ll be using the alpha garage product.

The lift was installed last week, new concrete driveways should be poured soon for the front of the shop.

Then the mini splits have shown up to make it perfect temperature in here year round. I got a 24k and an 18k Senville unit. I thought about Mr Cool but I got 42k btus for half the cost of the Mr Cool.

I also started bringing in some old cabinets I’ve been saving for 1.5 years, these were taken out of my office when I remodeled it. I’ve thought of doing metal new age cabinets but don’t know if it is worth it to spend the 10k on cabinets when these are free. I already have 110in of lower tool boxes that are in perfect shape, so I may just need to find some upper metal cabinets in the future.

Oh also installed my compressor, I’ll run the hard lines in the next couple of weeks with air drops on each wall.

 

[larry4406]

Filled cracks in slab give it a lightening bolt effect. Pretty cool actually.

I’d let it ride I think.

 

[Gangly]

I may be going against the grain, but I like it as it is. It's a shop floor, its unique, and "imperfections" add character. A clean shop is a great thing, a spotless shop floor with no stains is not