Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The Vintage Garage - Bucharest, Romania.

[Bogdan M.]

Very nice work! Keep it up.

Thank you!

Place looks amazing!!

Thank you!

Bog: i'm not exactly sure what you changed in the corner with the sink other than maybe taking off a few inches of old mortar or cement, but i like the old brick wall.

just curious when your weather starts getting cold (below freezing)?

anything new?

feel free to post on the Get Healthy thread and let us know how you are doing with your SODA ADDICTION (or past addiction/use). ok?

Firstly, welcome back!

That corner is a work in progress. I will post more pics when it will be finished.

As a small update:

Usually in the middle of November.

I will post some updates on the Get Healty thread.

Cheers!

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: your bench re do looks AWESOME. i'm guessing you might need a pegboard or a couple toolboxes to take more advantage of that shelf?

what is the tool that looks like a jack or is it a jack?

looking forward to seeing how you are doing with your Coke addiction and if you can help some of the other guys beat it please do tell cause it's almost as hard to stop as smoking.

cheers

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thank you! That's the plan. Pegboard on the back wall.

It's a strut spring compressor.

I will post in the Get Healthy thread.
I have some major updates.

Cheers

 

[kansei]

Bogdan,

I picked up one of those strut spring compressors about a year and a half ago, and it paid for itself the first job I did with it- if nothing else, just in the time it saved me alone.

 

[Bogdan M.]

I agree.
It saves a lot of time and it is a lot safer than a manual strut spring compressor tool.

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: I read you post on the Running Thread and i'm IMPRESSED that is for certain. if you have a little time to post over on the Get Healthy thread to talk about your issues you had and how you are overcoming them i know many will be reading it cause you sir are heading in the right direction with your HEALTH.

WELL DONE!!

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thank you!
I will post there in a few minutes.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Update:

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: i'm not sure what made you think of that door re do, but i love it and i'm guessing you do too? it looks great and nice improvement

are you planning on putting in a gas stove in that corner or do tell?

cheers

 

[xtremek]

Love the door

 

[Big-Red]

When I started reading at the start I thought you where crazy for taking so much time and spending so much money on renovations. You must have really burnt threw your savings to do that. Seeing that you have stayed at this location for so long makes the investment not so bad. Sorry to hear that things with skilled labour in your country is not very good. I think that is the same everywhere to a point. I have friends who employed a professional builder to do renovations to there house, the result was quite poor.

It is amazing you do so much in a small work space. I am a mechanic also and for me having a vehicle lift would have been a priority. I have never used a pit, they have been outlawed in most work places as they can be dangerous because of exhaust fumes. I am planning to build a new home workshop later this year I hope. It will be a simerlar size to yours except a different layout. It will fit 2 cars plus a work area.

I like to recycle things and make things. I made a work bench and some shelving very cheaply, mostly from recycled materials from work. I love vintage stuff, as you said it represents quality. It can be hard to buy good quality now. I have been buying some snap-on and bluepoint tools for work lately but they are quite expensive.

Do you have a cover for the access to the attick? Otherwise you maybe loosing all your heat in Winter time.

Thankyou for sharing your adventure.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Bog: i'm not sure what made you think of that door re do, but i love it and i'm guessing you do too? it looks great and nice improvement

are you planning on putting in a gas stove in that corner or do tell?

cheers

Thanks! Yes, I think it came out great. I didn't have the proper tools, but it's decent.
I wanted to insulate the doors. I saw this pic some time ago:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=310228

I already have a wood stove in the center of the right wall.

In the corner I will upgrade the sink.
The sink corner was an ugly part of the garage. I am hoping to correct that.

Love the door

Thanks!

When I started reading at the start I thought you where crazy for taking so much time and spending so much money on renovations. You must have really burnt threw your savings to do that. Seeing that you have stayed at this location for so long makes the investment not so bad. Sorry to hear that things with skilled labour in your country is not very good. I think that is the same everywhere to a point. I have friends who employed a professional builder to do renovations to there house, the result was quite poor.

It is amazing you do so much in a small work space. I am a mechanic also and for me having a vehicle lift would have been a priority. I have never used a pit, they have been outlawed in most work places as they can be dangerous because of exhaust fumes. I am planning to build a new home workshop later this year I hope. It will be a simerlar size to yours except a different layout. It will fit 2 cars plus a work area.

I like to recycle things and make things. I made a work bench and some shelving very cheaply, mostly from recycled materials from work. I love vintage stuff, as you said it represents quality. It can be hard to buy good quality now. I have been buying some snap-on and bluepoint tools for work lately but they are quite expensive.

Do you have a cover for the access to the attick? Otherwise you maybe loosing all your heat in Winter time.

Thankyou for sharing your adventure.

I invested far too much, but the garage has its advantages. It's situated in a very good area of the city. I have the yard for parking the cars that need more than one day to repair.
There aren't many alternatives. Most places that I would be able to rent are either too big and very hard to heat in the winter or the rent is too high.
It's hard to find a good place for a business.

It's true that a lit is better, but the pit does get the job done.
When I will upgrade to another location I will buy 2 lifts.

Repurposing and recycling mean you get top quality stuff at a fraction of the cost of something new, so it's really great.

Yes, the attic access has a wooden door that I keep closed during winter time.

Thank you!

Cheers!

 

[-Brent-]

.
I won't be able to drop down the ceiling because it would cost too much money. And the place is a rental. I already invested too much.

With every update you make, I have always been meaning to ask if you do have plans to ever move your shop?

What are the prices like in Bucharest? I assume that it is expensive to be in the city.

Oh, and keep up the good work!

Side comment: I recently had my DNA analyzed through 23 and Me and it was neat to find out that my DNA can be traced back to the Balkans (about 15%) but mostly I'm descended from Italy and then Northwestern Europe. Still, the more I read/research the more I'm really interested in traveling throughout Eastern Europe. I have always had an interest, even from when I was a child. Now, I have even more reason!

Anyway, sorry for the sidetrack.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Yes, I do. But I will do it only when I will have at least one apprentice to count on.
I have one employee, but I need more if I move to a bigger place.
It's harder than it seems because it's no big deal to rent a workshop. At the end of the day, people make the difference.
If a mechanic does a sloppy job, you will lose more than one customer. So I have to be very careful about this.

Prices are high in relation with the average income.

Thanks!

That's very interesting. Maybe I will do this too someday.

This part of the world is a land of extremes. Extreme poverty right next to extreme wealth.
The coolest thing would be to travel throughout Eastern Europe on a motorcycle. I plan to do that in a few years.
If you ever come to Bucharest, it would be my pleasure to show you around.

Cheers!

 

[Bogdan M.]

Re: The Blue Garage - Bucharest, Romania

[...]
I had something temporary built in the summer, but it wasn't what I wanted, so today I modified it. It's still not something that I like so it's only temporary, but it will get the job done. Here winters are very harsh. I still have to add some canvas. It took all day to build it, unload the firewood and move it inside.

Today I had some free time, so I added a roof to the "temporary" firewood shelter. Temporary becomes permanent.
It's not finished, but it will be before the first snow.

I don't have any carpentry skills, so it's not bat for 1.5h of work.

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: i love your attitude and resourcefulness taking free stuff (or maybe inexpensive in your part of the world) and making something useful out of it.

i really never was HANDY (probably still aren't if you ask some of my friends) and i used to pay to have work done until about 30 years ago. i try to hang around guys that are handier than me so i can learn, but i can do a few things now. the thing that got me going on this path was because i hired some guys on a job fixing a rental house and they said worked 2 days on something and it looked like next to nothing got done (it probably would have taken me a week to do it, but i was used to better workers I guess. well I didn't have internet or YouTube so i bought a lot of HOW TO and VHS tapes and started buying tools and learned. hands on is the best way and you have some benefit of youtube, Google and some of us to help you so ask if you might need an idea or help.

i just built this mailbox stand and even though i couldn't find all the right tools (that i actually own that are in boxes while i'm organizing) i needed to GET R DONE before the rains start again. here's a picture and i'm getting close to finished.

are you putting wood on top of the framing or did you find some roofing shingles?

looks like it should do the job so WELL DONE!!

how's the running and Soda progress coming along?

cheers

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thank you!

I take great pleasure in learning something new.

I would have paid something like $100 just for labour for someone to build a wood shelter. Too much IMHO.
After some paint it will look nice enough for its purpose.

Your mailbox stand looks great! Did you post some pics done during the build?

I will use roofing tin. I have some panels left from the door insulation project, so I will use them.

It's great. I am 211 pounds. I hope to reach 198 pounds till the end of the year.
I feel a lot better, I move a lot easier and I look younger.

Cheers!

 

[Bogdan M.]

Yesterday I also painted one of the workbenches.
It came out ok.

It's 90% ready. I still have to paint the vise, change the vise bolts with some new ones and get a new plywood shelf.

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: great work on that bench. it looks like you might need some toolboxes or more shelves under it, but it looks solid. i'm guessing you sprayed it with maybe a can or did you use your compressor?

in case you ever need to pour a sidewalk here's a way to do manageable sections. i'm doing 10 80 pound bag pours on these 4x4 sections to widen our sidewalk on the north side of our house. i need to wait for the one i just poured to dry a bit before i clean up the edges, but it hopefully will turn out pretty nice when i'm done. i poured one section yesterday and the other one just now so if you have a long enough edge board you can pour them like this.

take care and best of luck with the continued weight loss and happy to hear you are feeling better and looking good too.

cheers

 

[Bogdan M.]

The plan is to move the yellow bins on the workbench shelf.
I used 3 spray cans.

Thanks for the pics! It looks great!

Thank you for all your kind words!

Cheers!

 

[Grumblebum]

The door and bench came up well Bogdan.

Cheers GB.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thank you!

 

[drivesitfar]

BOG: how's it going? anything new to mention or just working and getting healthier?

i think those old yellow Lyon bolt or parts bins will look great in your bench and i had my blue ones inside my bench for a while until i found a cabinet that fit perfect.

I also finished about half of my cement sidewalk upgrade and thought you might like to see a picture in case you need to pour some cement in a few areas some day. find a few cement stakes as you can and with a few boards you can make a form and then just like frosting a cake so to speak.

cheers and have a great weekend!!

 

[Bogdan M.]

I'm fine, thanks for asking!
Your workbench looks very nice. I like that vintage industrial look.

Thank you for the pics!

I had a crazy week because I am repairing two engines and I removed both engine heads and send them to be rebuild.
So next week I will have to install both engine heads and have both cars delivered to the customers.

Today I had a few free hours and I worked on my tooling organization.
For the last few weeks I searched a lot of pictures online about tool walls and pegboard.
I have a metal tool board, but I am not at all satisfied with it. The hooks can come out very easily and there's also the problem with dust.
Another disadvantage is having to reach for the tools over the workbench.
I had the plan to have a large plywood tool board on the wall behind the two workbenches, but today I had a change of heart and I moved a lot of tools
in the Lista cabinets. I think this is the best way to store tools in a workshop.

I think I will no longer use pegboard in the garage.

I will add some lining. I saw some on eBay and it wasn't very expensive.
Or maybe I will use the yoga mat trick.

 

[drivesitfar]

BOG: i've tried YOGA mats and not sure i like them. sure they protect your tools, but they get dirty and can rip.

there is a fairly cheap material that is sort of a mesh made out of a plastic rubber type material i think i'm going to use in my drawers when i get to doing that job.

for a little help with ORGANIZING YOUR DRAWERS yours look great, but keeping all those tools in place might not be easy so there are a few solutions here on this Organizing 201 thread i started last year.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=6786074#post6786074

one thing i like for wrenches that is pretty simple is taking a strand of house wire with the insulation on it or i suppose you could use just copper wire, then wrapping it around maybe a one inch pipe so you have sort of a slinky or accordian type of shape. then the wrenches just lay in the gaps. i'll try to find a few pictures if you can't find any on the link i posted.

best of luck with the engine work you are doing and hope you are having a great weekend.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thanks for the feedback!
Would this be a better choice?

Thank you!

Cheers and a great weekend to you too!

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: i'm sure most any of the choices you've mentioned would work ok, but since you might be sticking your dirty or greasy hands or with dirty gloves on reaching into the drawers and grabbing your tools so you might want to use this one that i think i'm going to use.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001AH8PLI/?tag=atomicindus08-20

not sure if you have a Harbor Freight store or some other store that carries this brand, but i've had it in a couple drawers and i like how easy the tools are to grab.

i'll try to find some ORGANIZING IDEAS for your wrenches that are easy to make and work great when i get a chance if you might want a few options.

have a great day!!

 

[Bogdan M.]

I will search for something like that locally.

Thanks!

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: i hope they have it in your area or the other stuff probably will work ok.

here's some inexpensive ideas on how to keep your wrenches and pliers from moving around in your big drawers.

hope this helps.

 

[Bears Fan]

Great photo's! I really like the bench and tool organization in the Lista cabinets

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thank you!

@drive: Thank you for the pics! Neat ideea with that house wire. Very cool!
Here I didn't find that anti slip stuff in large enough sizes, but I am searching for it on eBay.
The drawers are 60x60 cm or 23x23 inch.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Today I had a bit of time so I did a little organizing before leaving for home.

 

[drivesitfar]

BOG: just when you said you weren't going to have any pegboards you post that beautiful one set up with your nice tools. gonna keep it or just seeing what it looks like? looks good from my chair, but i don't have any wall space so hanging boards unless they are vintage tools are not in the cards for me.

is that hanging being the bench you just painted that you maybe are going to put the yellow bins on the lower shelf?

in case you run across a cabinet called an addresOgraph it's a beast and this 133 drawer one might weigh 500 pounds empty. i also have a few that are smaller that i just moved under my new ship hatch bench i'm setting up as a vintage area in my shed. i didn't get finished in my shed, but getting closer now that i moved these in there.

hope you don't mind the pictures of my stuff and just trying to show you what you might look for if any of them made it to your part of the world.

 

[Bogdan M.]

I will keep it. I was thinking about removing it, but I will keep it because I thing it will work ok.
No, it's next to that bench

Thanks for the pics! We don't have goodies like that over here. I would love to have something like that, but stuff like that it's non existent around here.

I plan to buy some wall storage bins to hang next to the metal pegboard. I need a place to store small parts.
It's not vintage, but it will be functional.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Some more reorganizing:

 

[Bogdan M.]

Some pics from today:







It's a 3 liter diesel engine from a BMW X5 E70.
New timing, engine head rebuild, new exhaust valves.

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: nice work with the engine and hope it all turns out OK.

i love the big old yellow Lyon bins on the lower shelf of your steel workbench!!

you might want to build a rolling bin for long steel and or wood so you can store it upright instead of maybe hitting it with your shin or shoulder when over in the area where they stick out.

take care

 

[Finallygotit]

WOW! That's a big job on that diesel.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thank you!

Bog: nice work with the engine and hope it all turns out OK.

i love the big old yellow Lyon bins on the lower shelf of your steel workbench!!

you might want to build a rolling bin for long steel and or wood so you can store it upright instead of maybe hitting it with your shin or shoulder when over in the area where they stick out.

take care

Thanks! I finished work on that car yesterday and it's running as it should.

I will take a picture tommorow. There I store a big torque wrench, a large pry bar and a pipe.
A bit difficult to find a proper place for them.

This is what I did today. Tommorow I will remove the engine head from the BMW E32 735i and on Monday I will install the rebuild one.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Today I worked on the E32 and made good progress. Still have to remove the head, but it won't take long.




I hope to finish the car on Monday.