Above 1200 Sq/FT Overcoming Good-Deal-Itis One Project at a Time

[SilverJimmy]

Quick update, retaining wall and steps are done. Crew got this done in 2-1/2 days and cleaned up the entire job site and even washed the whole side of my shop. I think I’ve found the guys for any of the other projects here at the house and yard that I don’t think I’m qualified for or want to attempt!
Very happy how this turned out, now I need a fence!

 

[larry4406]

Crew did a very nice job on that stacked wall! I have that project in the future...

 

[zanyad]

Very happy how this turned out

As you should be. Looks very good!

 

[fouckhest]

That looks amazing, Sterling!

 

[SilverJimmy]

This afternoon my wife and I got all the leftover block moved out of the storage yard area and stacked out of the way for plan B….. Privacy fence. The guy that just finished fencing for my friend’s home came over today and looked at our project. The guys who did the retaining wall has done a ton of work at their place so I’m thinking this fence guy will also be great! Thinking that I want to go with welded 2x2 line posts with 4x4 posts for all the gates. All posts will be set 2’ deep in concrete. Instead of wood or vinyl I’m leaning towards bare corrugated steel panels that will be encouraged to rust to a nice patina. FYI, out here in the Arizona State, rust on steel is natures form of powder coat, it’s a nice deep brown that looks great with our natural environment! Initial plan is 4 man gates and one double 8’ swing gate to drive thru. Fence guy is getting me a quote by this weekend, hopefully it’s in our budget so we can get the storage yard finished and then get more of my Good-Deals moved down here!

 

[madison069]

Wall looks great!

Coming from West Texas I’m familiar with the rusted fence look, it looks good in the right environment!

 

[LXCam]

Wall looks great!

Coming from West Texas I’m familiar with the rusted fence look, it looks good in the right environment!

It’ll be the perfect look for his place and the hood. It’ll a really great area and there’s not a single cookie cutter property or home, it’s a unique location and a bunch of exceptionally nice set ups.

 

[SilverJimmy]

Thanks Cam, you know, and you’re invited! I need to get the smoker going and cook some grub and drink some beer with some friends!

 

[SilverJimmy]

The wife has been wanting a new fridge for a while now, fancy KitchenAid unit with this Bell, this Whistle, and of course a couple doo-dads for good measure. So ”The Fridge” is being delivered tomorrow…..
But, in typical Garage Journal Evil Planning, the perfectly good, works like new, probably lasts for another 25 years, Kenmore fridge is getting relocated into my new shop! I bet this fridge will outlive the new one by 50%! And when the “new” one dies….. sorry, babe, my fridge is full of beer and cheese sticks, it doesn’t have any room for your stuff till the new one comes in!
Yup, I’m evil…..

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Send that steel to me in the Nov/Dec timeframe...once they throw down some mag/cal-chloride, I'll run it up and down the highway for a couple of hours...by the time it makes it home to you, it'll have a nice patina

I'd like to restore and old 60s era fridge for the shop. Give it a trick paint job and polish up the chrome parts...one of these days, when I have some spare time!

 

[SilverJimmy]

New fridge got delivered today. One of the delivery guys was cool, the other was pretty much worthless. And it was painful for me to watch these guys struggle with tools that I would have tossed into the trash when I’d get them in trade back when I was selling tools. Part of the deal with the new fridge purchase was for them to move the old fridge into my shop. If I wasn’t wounded right now I would have done the whole R&R myself but with my compromised depth perception and not wanting to wrestle two fridges in and out of some pretty tight doorways, I went for the delivery and install fee, including getting the old one into my shop.
The one guy really tried hard, he’s just young and probably new at this gig, the other guy just unwrapped the new unit and then had to take a break! Both fridges had to have their doors removed to slip thru the doorways and around the kitchen counters, thankfully no walls, counters, floors or doorways got damaged, pretty tight fit!
I had them move the old fridge down by my shop so I could thoroughly blow out the entire system and all the cooling coils, lots of dust bunnies hiding in there! They get the new fridge all installed and the good guy shows my wife all the different features and how to change the filters, etc… Then the other guy comes in yelling that they got to go, let’s go! Dude, what about putting the old fridge back together and installing it into my shop? Good thing we hadn’t written out the check yet! So not good guy now is pissed cuz he had already loaded the dolly into the truck and had it ready to roll. They roll the old fridge into my shop and then gotta go guy tells me they have to leave and I’ll have to put my fridge back together myself! WTF?! He takes the dolly back to the truck and go sits in the truck with the A/C running! Good guy then says he’ll help me hang the doors cuz it’s not really a one man job, besides it’s in the deal. Got it back together pretty quickly, only real tricky part was the freezer door with the water lines and electrical connections. I probably could have figured it out but I didn’t take it apart so it woulda been a head scratcher for sure! Guess who got a nice tip!
After I got all the handles and trim back on, I cleaned out the insides and scrubbed the outsides. Looks pretty good for a shop fridge. Later went to HD and got a water filter setup like @madison069 installed on his shop fridge. When we got home I hooked everything up and tested for leaks… leak it does! The plastic water lines are leaking in a couple spots so I’ll run by an appliance repair shop tomorrow and hopefully they’ll have some in stock and maybe a replacement hinge cover that got broken today also. On a positive note, there is beer in the fridge preparing itself for the coming celebration of one more project completed for my shop!

 

[madison069]

Glad you got the fridge moving situation handled. It’s a shame you had to deal with the one bad delivery guy.

I guess the old fridge wasn’t hooked to water for awhile?

 

[SilverJimmy]

It was, but the loser broke them rough handling it. He was going to just toss it into the truck for the landfill. When I explained this wasn’t a blow and go job is when his attitude went to ****. Oh the horror, he had to actually work for his paycheck!

 

[Old Man Roger]

It was, but the loser broke them rough handling it. He was going to just toss it into the truck for the landfill. When I explained this wasn’t a blow and go job is when his attitude went to ****. Oh the horror, he had to actually work for his paycheck!

Well with his millennial sensitivities it‘s no wonder he was upset, you made a very suggestive comment.lol They do consider that violence you know.lol

 

[signcrafter]

Appliance delivery guys are something else. Most of the appliances we have bought come with free delivery and removal of the old. I just ask them to leave it in the driveway and I'll get it from there. After watching them fumble with things and seeing them grab their cute little plastic tool box with a screwdriver and crescent wrench in it I didn't really trust their ability to get them in, let alone hook up things like gas and water.

 

[SilverJimmy]

Got all the leaks repaired on the shop fridge, pretty simple with some 1/4” and 5/16” tubing and push lock couplers.

Then I used a couple -32 (2”) Adel clamps to mount the filter up on the wall.

I need to get a couple -28 (1-3/4”) clamps from the race shop today as the -32 are a bit loose. Spent a bit and cleaned up the inside and outside of the fridge, looks pretty good moved into its new home.

Filter is tucked in nice on the side and the install date is visible. Future servicing should be quick and easy!

Time for a beer cuz I can cross one of my tasks off the list!

 

[madison069]

I would leave it loose so you don’t have to remove the screws to change it out. That’s how mine is on the back of the fridge.

 

[SilverJimmy]

Time for an update. That old Price Club pallet racking that I had repurposed for my lathe and bandsaw area is getting a new life! Back in 2023 I had wrapped it with plywood to segregate my clean area from the dirty/welding area in my old shop.

The shelves reached all the way to the 12 ft ceilings in the old shop so it worked pretty good as planned. Before my eye surgery my wife and I disassembled them and hauled it all down here to Prescott, cuz I’ve got a new plan. I’m going to use them to partition off my RV/storage bay from the rest of my new shop and they’re going to also be the shelves that I store all my engine parts and pieces on. I have 4 verticals and 20 8’ horizontal beams and also 4 12’ horizontal beams. So two 8 ft sections with 5 shelves each and then a 12 ft section with two shelves. The 8 ft shelves will start @ 26” off the floor and then 24” between each shelf going up. I figure I can store engines on those dollies under the 26” shelf and 24” is a good spacing for the rest going up. On the 12 ft section the first shelf will be @ 6 ft so I can fit my stomp shear and sheet metal brake under it, and maybe a drill press, and then the 2nd will be @ 9 ft.

 

[SilverJimmy]

Not wanting to put these rusty blue old shelves into my new shop means that I need to learn a new skill, painting with a HVLP spray gun. I’ve been in over 100 body shops during my tool selling career, sold many paint guns to the guys, and seen this process done thousands of times, but I have never attempted to spray paint with a gun! So first step was sand all the rust and loose paint off….

A buddy loaned me his pop up canopy shade so I didn’t melt here in the Arizona sunshine! And another friend came over and walked me thru the actual process of spraying Rustoleum! Armed with a Harbor Freight $8.00 purple HVLP spray gun and a gallon of gloss black RustOleum he helped me spray the first couple of pieces….. Wow! So simple to do and the results are amazing!
The racking went from this….

To this, with not a lot of effort!

Got the last of the 8 ft horizontal beams done tonight, the paint laid down beautifully!


I really am amazed how simple this was and can’t believe I never attempted to do it before, I’m done with rattle cans, no more sore fingers for me!

 

[larry4406]

Not wanting to put these rusty blue old shelves into my new shop means that I need to learn a new skill, painting with a HVLP spray gun. I’ve been in over 100 body shops during my tool selling career, sold many paint guns to the guys, and seen this process done thousands of times, but I have never attempted to spray paint with a gun! So first step was sand all the rust and loose paint off….

A buddy loaned me his pop up canopy shade so I didn’t melt here in the Arizona sunshine! And another friend came over and walked me thru the actual process of spraying Rustoleum! Armed with a Harbor Freight $8.00 purple HVLP spray gun and a gallon of gloss black RustOleum he helped me spray the first couple of pieces….. Wow! So simple to do and the results are amazing!
The racking went from this….

To this, with not a lot of effort!

Got the last of the 8 ft horizontal beams done tonight, the paint laid down beautifully!


I really am amazed how simple this was and can’t believe I never attempted to do it before, I’m done with rattle cans, no more sore fingers for me!

Paint looks great!

I am sure that the hot weather and full sun helped bake it quickly!

 

[madison069]

a little paint goes a long way in the look department!

 

[Swanny1953]

Really nice transformation, Sterling!!

 

[zanyad]

nice job!

 

[SilverJimmy]

My contractor’s son has a favorite saying…. “Putty and paint will make it what it Ain’t!”
But these actually turned out wonderful. Today after being baked by the sun most of the day we had a nice rain. I wiped down a couple of the beams I painted last night with a microfiber towel, the paint is so nice I can’t believe I painted them! I have four 12 ft horizontal beams and a couple verticals left to paint and this project is one more step to being done.

 

[LXCam]

My contractor’s son has a favorite saying…. “Putty and paint will make it what it Ain’t!”
But these actually turned out wonderful. Today after being baked by the sun most of the day we had a nice rain. I wiped down a couple of the beams I painted last night with a microfiber towel, the paint is so nice I can’t believe I painted them! I have four 12 ft horizontal beams and a couple verticals left to paint and this project is one more step to being done.

Most excellent Sterling, I’m glad that storm on Saturday didn’t ruin the effort. Also be glad you’re not buying new right now. Yesterday I ordered 6 - 12ft’rs and 6 wire mesh shelves to the tune of $1300 and change.

 

[zmotorsports]

My contractor’s son has a favorite saying…. “Putty and paint will make it what it Ain’t!”

Sterling, I used a very similar phrase back when I was building hot rods and trying to convince clients to spend the money and fix stuff correctly, "filler and paint will make it what it ain't".

I think the shelving turned out great. Will look much better just being a uniform color and being rid of the corrosion.

 

[Jgaz]

One saying that I believe is used by most of the AZ. high end tract home builders:
If it don’t fit, caulk it.
If it still doesn’t fit, f@#k it!

 

[SilverJimmy]

I think the shelving turned out great. Will look much better just being a uniform color and being rid of the corrosion.

With both my lifts and my Snap-On tool boxes all being black any color other than black would have caused so much disturbance in The Force that I think you would have driven down here and painted them! I have a condition called “OCD”…. You may have heard of it?!

 

[zmotorsports]

With both my lifts and my Snap-On tool boxes all being black any color other than black would have caused so much disturbance in The Force that I think you would have driven down here and painted them! I have a condition called “OCD”…. You may have heard of it?!

Never heard of such a thing. Sounds like hogwash Sterling. What are the symptoms?

 

[signcrafter]

Never heard of such a thing. Sounds like hogwash Sterling. What are the symptoms?

Mike, I'm not real familiar with it myself but you might find a few examples in this thread, https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/zmotorsports-shop-projects-2-0.366802/. It's a good thread I've learned a bit from!

 

[SilverJimmy]

Most people when they hear a rattle just turn up the stereo, I’m just happy I can still hear a rattle!

 

[Finallygotit]

How's the eye doing?

 

[SilverJimmy]

Go to Dr tomorrow morning. Gas in eye is mostly gone. Driving up yesterday from Prescott (5150’ elevation) to Flagstaff (7000’ elevation) was a non event. Still stopped at the same places as trip last month but this time zero discomfort. Last trip a month ago it hurt so bad I thought I was going to puke! Vision is better, still have some distortion in straight lines but no blind spot. Been told that my vision may improve over the next year to 1-1/2 years. I believe I got lucky and glad I instantly had my eye looked at as I could have gone blind in that eye. A Pirate’s life is NOT for me!

 

[madison069]

One saying that I believe is used by most of the AZ. high end tract home builders:
If it don’t fit, caulk it.
If it still doesn’t fit, f@#k it!

I thought the saying was “Just turn the yard into a rock garden!”

 

[madison069]

Most people when they hear a rattle just turn up the stereo, I’m just happy I can still hear a rattle!

Me and my profound hearing loss where hearing aids still allows me to hear, agrees with you.

 

[madison069]

Never heard of such a thing. Sounds like hogwash Sterling. What are the symptoms?

Make it all gray and stainless steel.


Wait that’s my symptoms.

 

[SilverJimmy]

Last Friday a fence contractor started phase 2 of my outside storage yard by concreting all the 2” and 4” steel posts for the privacy fence.

Then on Tuesday morning he came over and started welding all the horizontal steel onto the verticals.


I’ve been in Flagstaff since Tuesday for a eye Dr appointment today, but when I get back to Prescott later today the fence panels should be mostly up and installed.
Great news today from eye Dr, my eye is in great shape, nearly back to normal and my vision should improve over the next few months to almost 100%! Very happy not to be a Pirate!