What did you do "IN" your garage today?

[OccupantRJ]

I made and installed four more hangers for C clamps on the shop wall, then my wife and I hauled a love seat power recliner that she got a hell of a deal on an hour away to one of our sons. When it was in place and he tried it out he loved it so much he sounded like he was going to have an ******. We delivered the “new” chair and brought his old chair back in the “not a real truck” Santa Cruz to dispose of it today when the dump site is open.

 

[bugnut]

Installed a 48" tailgate light bar on the Ridgeline. Lotsa fiddling and testing to insure everything cleared. Using the tripod and phone video to check and double check making sure everything worked and fit.

While doing that I thought of the recent discussion about keeping spring opening pliers closed. I strolled over and grabbed my o-ring kit. Opened and searched, low and behold I have these large seldom used heavy duty rubber bands in various sizes and they fit perfectly. YMMV

 

[bmwrd0]

Took a few bites off of the elephant.


Got the two legs and the mast with the motor on it out off of the lathe and stashed in the garage. I worked smart and not hard, but that much bending over to get to the three bolts was hard on my body, so stopped there. As you can see the next step is to get the 100 years worth of swarf out of the legs before I mount it and get it in the garage. By the way, even the pan, normally sheet metal, is cast iron on this.

I also spent time working on the extractor, which being hand fitted to a hand built firearm, is taking a lot of "two file strokes and test fit, repeat as long as necessary" time. My appreciation for guild built German guns is only rising.

 

[racecougar]

Cleaned the C10 up and started packing it for Hot Rod Power Tour, did an alignment on a Wrangler, and knocked out a bunch of work on the '73 Mustang build.

 

[twinfin]

Today’s garage project was installing wheels on a heavy duty Costco storage rack. I like being able to roll the rack away from the wall from time to time in order to clean the floor underneath. The wheels have locks on them so once the rack is positioned, the wheels can be locked so the rack stays put (earthquakes ya know!).



As part of this customization hack, I also fashioned some bumpers near the wheels to keep the thin metal edge of the wheel support from gouging the wall. I just screwed a block of wood the the lower leg of the rack and stuck a piece of padding to it. When you push the rack up against the back wall, the padding makes for a softer landing and protects the Sheetrock from getting gouged by the metal plate that supports the wheels.





The thick metal plate seen here is what gives support to the wheels. The wheels themselves are rated to support the weight of the rack and all its contents.

 

[rd65]

Sat with a beer and radio for a few minutes before we headed over to the FIL's birthday bbq.

 

[Mike S.]

I had a scary moment yesterday morning opening the garage door. The door lifted normally, but when it stopped at the top position, I heard a metal clanking sound followed by the sound of a small metal object falling onto the hood of my car. I turned around and noticed that one of the garage door tracks and fallen from the ceiling. The end of the track was hanging down ~18", now only supported by the brackets at the opposite end, just above the doorway.

I ran over and pushed up on the track to find that the door is much heavier than I had anticipated. Luckily, I had my phone in my pocket and was able to call my wife and get her to run down to the garage to help. My arms were getting tired fast standing on my tip toes, and pushing the track up towards the ceiling. I let go for a couple of seconds to get some blood circulating through my arms. When I let it down, the track started to pull away from the wall. I had to put my hands back up and hold it just as my wife runs in. She was of coarse immediately in a panic. There was a bit of bickering back and forth as the two of us tried to figure out what to do. Not only was I worried that the door was going to fall, I also didn't want it to land on the two cars parked below it. Both cars have a manual trans, which my wife doesn't know how to drive, so we had to come up with a plan for her to hold the garage door while I pulled the cars out.

She found a 2x4 in the corner of the garage that was coincidentally just long enough to prop up the track. I was then able to pull the cars out and get a step ladder to investigate what had happened. It turns out the nut had backed off the bolt that holds the track to the hanger in the ceiling. We located the hardware on the ground and I was able to get it put back together. Some of the brackets that hold the track against the wall had bent, so I had to loosen them and get everything back into alignment. I took the time to inspect every nut and bolt on the garage door to be certain that something like this doesn't happen again.

I got lucky and will make a mental note to recheck the garage door hardware yearly.

 

[Beerhippie]

I got lucky and will make a mental note to recheck the garage door hardware yearly.

LOCTITE!

 

[kaymccampbell]

I got lucky and will make a mental note to recheck the garage door hardware yearly.

You also might want to consider buying the factory bolt and nut set, which have the locking teeth under the built-in washers.

 

[ObnoxiousFumes]

I got lucky and will make a mental note to recheck the garage door hardware yearly.

And maybe teach the wife to drive manual, just imagine if that had been a life-or-death situation…

 

[OccupantRJ]

Today’s garage project was installing wheels on a heavy duty Costco storage rack. I like being able to roll the rack away from the wall from time to time in order to clean the floor underneath. The wheels have locks on them so once the rack is positioned, the wheels can be locked so the rack stays put (earthquakes ya know!).



As part of this customization hack, I also fashioned some bumpers near the wheels to keep the thin metal edge of the wheel support from gouging the wall. I just screwed a block of wood the the lower leg of the rack and stuck a piece of padding to it. When you push the rack up against the back wall, the padding makes for a softer landing and protects the Sheetrock from getting gouged by the metal plate that supports the wheels.





The thick metal plate seen here is what gives support to the wheels. The wheels themselves are rated to support the weight of the rack and all its contents.

Good move on the bumpers.

 

[Mike S.]

LOCTITE!

Good idea! I'll put some blue loctite on them this weekend.

You also might want to consider buying the factory bolt and nut set, which have the locking teeth under the built-in washers.

The door has all of the proper carriage bolts with the serrated nuts. I made sure to inspect them all. I can't explain why this one came loose.

And maybe teach the wife to drive manual, just imagine if that had been a life-or-death situation…

You know, it's one of those things we talked about a few times. We've just never put the effort in to do it. It's time we find an empty parking lot and do some practicing.

 

[Ultradog MN]

Had to do some Jerry Rigging this morning.
I put this 75 lb gear up for some bling around my shop clock a couple of years ago.
Then a few months ago I rearranged things in here and moved the stock rack against the wall and it messed up seeing the clock.
So this morning I moved it over between the drill press and the window.
When I hung it the first time my neighbor helped me lift the gear into place.
This time I clamped a piece of angle iron on one fork and accomplished the job alone.
Jerry

 

[Beerhippie]

Good idea! I'll put some blue loctite on them this weekend.

Screw that--go right to Red! 271, baby, and never look back. Don't forget to use primer on galvanized fasteners.

Garage door opener is a high-vibration application. If you ever need to take it apart, it takes just a little more heat than boiling water to break it loose.

Think of the alternative--new windshield, replace the hood....

 

[NUTTSGT]

Changed oil in the JD 2032R and made one chain into 2 chains.

 

[Wrench97]

I had a scary moment yesterday morning opening the garage door. The door lifted normally, but when it stopped at the top position, I heard a metal clanking sound followed by the sound of a small metal object falling onto the hood of my car. I turned around and noticed that one of the garage door tracks and fallen from the ceiling. The end of the track was hanging down ~18", now only supported by the brackets at the opposite end, just above the doorway.

I ran over and pushed up on the track to find that the door is much heavier than I had anticipated. Luckily, I had my phone in my pocket and was able to call my wife and get her to run down to the garage to help. My arms were getting tired fast standing on my tip toes, and pushing the track up towards the ceiling. I let go for a couple of seconds to get some blood circulating through my arms. When I let it down, the track started to pull away from the wall. I had to put my hands back up and hold it just as my wife runs in. She was of coarse immediately in a panic. There was a bit of bickering back and forth as the two of us tried to figure out what to do. Not only was I worried that the door was going to fall, I also didn't want it to land on the two cars parked below it. Both cars have a manual trans, which my wife doesn't know how to drive, so we had to come up with a plan for her to hold the garage door while I pulled the cars out.

She found a 2x4 in the corner of the garage that was coincidentally just long enough to prop up the track. I was then able to pull the cars out and get a step ladder to investigate what had happened. It turns out the nut had backed off the bolt that holds the track to the hanger in the ceiling. We located the hardware on the ground and I was able to get it put back together. Some of the brackets that hold the track against the wall had bent, so I had to loosen them and get everything back into alignment. I took the time to inspect every nut and bolt on the garage door to be certain that something like this doesn't happen again.

I got lucky and will make a mental note to recheck the garage door hardware yearly.

Many years ago when my daughter was 16 she backed my Tbird out of the garage and caught the door track/door frame on the mirror...
pulled the wooden door frame and the track about a foot out into the driveway. When I got there the door was hanging by two rollers over the the front half of the Bird and the back half of her mothers Buick I grabbed the door trying to shove rollers back into the track and yelled for her to hand me the deadman( wooden Tee fabricated from 1x3"s to hold drywall up when doing a ceiling) she of course thought I was calling her a deadman and went and got her mother...... 20 minutes later I was able to get both cars out of the garage and had the old now broken wooden door back in the opening upside down and backwards....And that's how I found out my garage was built with a 16' opening and shimmed down for 15' door.....Tbird only had a broken mirror glass and a nick in the plastic/fibre housing.

 

[DGersic]

We’re getting a new bird. Got a new “bird mahal” sized new cage for new bird. Needed a new cover, for the new cage. Bought some material yesterday, wife picked out something. Measured, cut, and sewn.



I had measured it for a 2” overlap at the front, somehow I lost 2” in assembly. Oh, well, it’ll serve the intended purpose ok. It’s basically like sewing a giant box cushion, mostly a pain due to having all that material to manage.

 

[Beerhippie]

Just another day in the life of a brewery/pub plant manager.

Fixed some insulation on a cold-water pipe that's been dripping condensate:



Mowed, trimmed... etc. Replaced a 4' LED shop light that had become a seizure-inducing strobe.

Knocked off for the afternoon and got some more progress towards de-caratting the Brick:



Finally getting around to removing the fiberglass trim before the road does it for me. A PO had made a pretty good start on the front piece of trim--the pop rivets were pulled out on the bottoms of the trim mounting pieces. Drilling out and punching through the GD pop rivets was the usual PITA.

Now for the other side. The bumper cover will have to wait 'til I have an alternative. I'm weighing the cost of an aftermarket front bumper (probably this one: https://vancafe.com/twin-peaks-front-bumper/?searchid=2871053&search_query=twin+peaks+front+bumper) vs. making my own. A "bespoke", one-off front bumper would be cool and I have some ideas, but the one above is a pretty good price that I'm unlikely to beat rollin' my own. It's also a modular design, which brings the shipping down to $75, vs. ~$300 to get a full-size bumper out here--and makes it easily repairable if I ever need to.

I can always make my own accessories--game guards, light mounts, etc--to make it bespoke.

The sides below the trim line will be getting a coat of black rubberized undercoating--eventually. I shot some white primer onto everything that had bare metal exposed for now.

 

[16again]

Bolted down the new WILTON

 

[Beerhippie]

Bolted down the new WILTON

How long 'til it becomes a Journeyman?

 

[TheClaw]

Finally moved Gaylord from the old garage into the new shop.

My great-grandfather used to take these fishing trips to Florida. Come home with big sailfish like this. This is old school taxidermy, not the b******* they do nowadays. There were two of them after he passed 50-60 years ago. I was able to hold on to one as I got older and have had it myself for 40 years maybe. It has held prominent spots in my bachelor pads of my youth and my garage as I get older.

I can honestly say this one is 70 to 80 years old.

 

[16again]

Went back out and bolted down the grinder as well. 2 years after I restored it, figured it’s time.

 

[Itinerant]

Needed to swap out the too small s-hooks on my trailer chains for some clevis hooks.



Hmm, how to remove the hooks?

Use the garage art that’s hanging on the wall.








HK Porter of Boston, overkill but it’s what I had.

Job complete.

 

[Itinerant]

Then moved a now empty drawer stack to the shed, moved it’s companion stack and a grinder over and moved my compressor from the front corner of the garage to the back wall.

 

[Beerhippie]

Change of plans. While I was getting ready to start in on removing the trim (IE, have a beer) from the other side of the Brick, this



arrived. Time to change the transaxle oil with ~1,200 miles since the rebuild!

Blow-by-blow will be over at my Vanagon project thread.

 

[Beerhippie]

Could the hose on the pump be a foot longer so I can sit down and pump the oil in? Nope.

Y'know what isn't very pleasant? Lying on my side with a rib I broke Sunday while pumping that damned gallon of oil in.

But it's done for about a year until the next change. Pretty blue oil to replace the muddy green stuff



that came out. Please try to ignore the reflection of the handsome photographer....



I'm thinking this ain't too bad for the first oil change on a new trans rebuild? No chunks, no slivers, just fine swarf.

 

[SMOKEYBEAR]

Cleaned the C10 up and started packing it for Hot Rod Power Tour, did an alignment on a Wrangler, and knocked out a bunch of work on the '73 Mustang build.

Tell us more about the Mercury cougar with the cowl hood. I had 2 Thunderbirds, Turbo coupes and Super coupes of the same era.

 

[2001ZR2]

And maybe teach the wife to drive manual, just imagine if that had been a life-or-death situation…

Teaching a wife can become a life or death situation....don't ask how I arrived at that conclusion

 

[SMOKEYBEAR]

One boat fender is mounted and complete minus the step pads (2 -3 week lead time) A last minute run to ACE for some more hardware, the bolts I purchased were to long/ not threaded down far enough. 5 min ride and back in business.

Located an orange handle Craftsman torx driver, sacrificed it for the handle for the base cover to keep debris out. Didn't know such a thing existed, there were sets of them and single screw drivers..this was a single item and lowest priced on ebay.

 

[mikegt4]

Finally finished my fuel pump replacement on my 1999 Ford Ranger, the original pump had died two weeks ago at 285k miles. Yesterday I pressure washed the frame and let it dry overnight in preparation for a quick coat of paint. Started the day with the weather forecast "no rain for the next 5 days". Mid painting it started to sprinkle, fortunately it didn't bother the fresh paint although it did sprinkle off and on a few times while I installed the bed back on the truck. Even working by myself everything went back together easily with the help of my heavy lifter friend.

To my surprise after pulling the plastic bed liner out I found the bed to be in excellent condition, the frame was just as good. A vindication of my "never drive it with salt on the road" policy since the day I drove it off the lot in 1998.

BTW, in the photos one can just see the rear anti sway bar that I installed within the first year of ownership. It was off a Bronco 2 which was based on the Ranger frame. It bolted right on in existing holes, best mod I ever did the the truck.

 

[BonzoHansen]

Turns out prepping for surgery is twice as hard as prepping for vacation. last 2 weeks has been all work and house/life stuff.

*Wife's pool is up (we use those simple Intex pools, new one every 3 or so years - much cheaper than a real pool and i can get rid of it in a day).
*Currently painting 2 bedroom doors in my a garage. Want to do some trim touch up tomorrow but that just might wait.
*bunch of random yard work done
*koi pond spring cleaning is done.
*got AC units in the new windows w/o drilling one hole.
*1st & last autocross of the season (for me) yesterday. My buddy co-drive with me and the old car didn't miss a beat. that was nice. a bit of lift, for sure. Skinny pedal makes fun noises.
*Saw my youngest off to his new life in Wisconsin! As if Michigan wasn't too far away for 4 years, now its worse. Kinda hit me, not gonna lie
*helped said youngest get some dad level details in place - how to get a new WI DL & plates, got car insurance & utilities in place, worked on his budget, helped him find subscriptions to kill, etc. Ohh, took him off our car insurance! FYI WI car insurance is MUCH cheaper than NJ.
*put a nice small tool kit together with him for his new apartment
*bunch of other nonsense too.

Once more day of work, then the real fun starts

(having 'anterior cervical decompression fusion' - ie having bad discs in my lower neck fixed so my arm & shoulder stop constantly hurting)

 

[INSP380]

Finally brought my car out of hibernation.. It’s been chit weather all year and the days are finally looking better….

Steve

 

[Old Man Roger]

Love the classic wheel and tire setup, looks awesome.

 

[GrayFlattop]

Teaching a wife can become a life or death situation....don't ask how I arrived at that conclusion

If asked, I always recommend subcontracting that task to a third party. It’s just safer - in oh so many ways.

 

[M.Brane]

Could the hose on the pump be a foot longer so I can sit down and pump the oil in? Nope.

Y'know what isn't very pleasant? Lying on my side with a rib I broke Sunday while pumping that damned gallon of oil in.

But it's done for about a year until the next change. Pretty blue oil to replace the muddy green stuff



that came out. Please try to ignore the reflection of the handsome photographer....



I'm thinking this ain't too bad for the first oil change on a new trans rebuild? No chunks, no slivers, just fine swarf.

With the frequency of replacing gear lube in the race car we threw away the stupid hand pumps, and used garden sprayers with the tips removed. Much quicker, and easier.

 

[Beerhippie]

Finally moved Gaylord from the old garage into the new shop.

My great-grandfather used to take these fishing trips to Florida. Come home with big sailfish like this. This is old school taxidermy, not the b******* they do nowadays. There were two of them after he passed 50-60 years ago. I was able to hold on to one as I got older and have had it myself for 40 years maybe. It has held prominent spots in my bachelor pads of my youth and my garage as I get older.

I can honestly say this one is 70 to 80 years old.

I just feel so... diminished....

 

[INSP380]

Love the classic wheel and tire setup, looks awesome.

Thank you! It’s a true “Day Two” restoration and period correct all the way. I’m 16 every time I get behind the wheel..

Steve

 

[four.cycle]

An old friend left me a voice mail telling me "Happy Birthday", and followed up with an email. I called him back and asked him if he could help with my garage door. He came by last week and we got the thing working again. Apparently one of the cables jumped off the pulley, and the cable cut through the bolt that holds it all together, ultimately causing the spring to snap. He managed to get it working again.
Life is much better with a garage door that opens and closes on demand.

So while I'm here... let me ask you:
WHAT tool are we supposed to be using to cut that 1/8" steel wire cable? Obviously those tools I currently own are not up to the task.

 

[Wrench97]

Wrap with tape first then a cut off wheel, or I even used a the cutter section on a pair of vice grips.

 

[SRU1436]

Finally brought my car out of hibernation.. It’s been chit weather all year and the days are finally looking better….

Steve

Beautiful Camaro. Is that a turn signal light on the top of the fender? I didn’t know that was an option and never seen it before.