Above 1200 Sq/FT Restored 1930's Auto Shop

markviii · Oct 3, 2016

It does look like one of the guys is holding up the chimney. LOL

Tom set the last stone on the fireplace, too, though he helped choose and lay many of them. (No, it wasn't difficult; just his right to set the last of the last brick and stone.)

Tom did a lot of brick and stone work alongside the crew through the entire 11 weeks of the work. In reality, Tom had his hands on all the bricks and stone because he was the one who struck them at the end of the day after the crew had left and the mortar was set the correct amount. Those 14-16 hour days are helping to move the project along.

We're really looking forward to visitors from "across the pond" and from the St Louis area later this week (Rian and Dennis). I better get busy figuring out coffee and treats! ( Hopefully we won't have to look inside the old house we're living in because it's a total disaster! The Restored 1930's Auto Shop kitchenette will work nicely as it always does for our gatherings. ) (I'm assuming caffeinated coffee is best to offset the jet lag.)

Have a safe drive. We may even have decent weather!

Chris

VMX42 · Oct 3, 2016

Hi Thomas,
Just a quick shout out from DownUnder...

I received 'Beltsville Shell' from Lyndon last week and read it in one sitting over the weekend.

What a great tale of a unique era and a cast of real characters and cars. You never could have gotten away with half of that in suburban Sydney.

A great read and thankyou for spreading the word on a great book. And a big congratulations to Cary Thomas for writing it in the first place.

I will be sending it on to 1/2 Cup in Victoria this week.

Thanks again,
Jeff

gordyy · Oct 3, 2016

Enjoying the build.
after years in the trades I find myself also moving and setting up my little shop in a new 19X 38 area doing some initial work getting ready putting a heating system in and found myself "clocking the screws on the boiler and electrical boxes" what have I become???
LOL great build keep up the fantastic work.

oldironfarmer · Oct 3, 2016

Still enjoying your thread! :thumbup:

Hope you don't suffer withdrawal when the house is finished

Bass Man · Oct 3, 2016

No, didn't read all 507 pages, I'm such a slacker

, but was wondering, how much was salvageable when you first took on this monster project?

You did an excellent job, very professional. You going to use it for yourself or museum?

Am curious though since this is GJ, what was the brand of vise in the before pics?

markviii · Oct 3, 2016

Welcome, Bass Man! We even welcome self-admitted "slackers" here. But most become reformed because they know there's a test coming up one of these days (and we have lots of fun while learning along the way). Welcome to the COTU where one tends to get sucked into the vortex. (If you continue your reading, all questions will be answered - even "what is the COTU"?) (seems like a good winter project out there on the plains)

Chris

Bass Man · Oct 3, 2016

markviii said:
Welcome, Bass Man! We even welcome self-admitted "slackers" here. But most become reformed because they know there's a test coming up one of these days (and we have lots of fun while learning along the way). Welcome to the COTU where one tends to get sucked into the vortex. (If you continue your reading, all questions will be answered - even "what is the COTU"?) (seems like a good winter project out there on the plains)

Chris

Thanks Mark.....sorta knew your answer was coming, there is so much talent on this board, it's just amazing.

markviii · Oct 3, 2016

Small correction, since you're new here. I'm Chris, wife of BB767 - my screen name is markviii for my 1993 Lincoln Markviii show car. And the restored shop is on our home property; we use it to work on our personal cars which we drive. It's not meant to be a museum. Stick around here and you'll find out all kinds of useful info.

Chris

dpljmurphy · Oct 4, 2016

Great job guys, your timing for the interior and finish work is spot on with the fall and winter weather approaching. As always reading the COTU updates makes me smile and feel better about the world. Continued success and may peace remain upon you. Cheers, David

PS, how much noise does the phase converter make, with the price of used 3 phase equipment i've been thinking about doing the same.

Grizz1963 · Oct 5, 2016

markviii said:
It does look like one of the guys is holding up the chimney. LOL

Tom set the last stone on the fireplace, too, though he helped choose and lay many of them. (No, it wasn't difficult; just his right to set the last of the last brick and stone.)

Tom did a lot of brick and stone work alongside the crew through the entire 11 weeks of the work. In reality, Tom had his hands on all the bricks and stone because he was the one who struck them at the end of the day after the crew had left and the mortar was set the correct amount. Those 14-16 hour days are helping to move the project along.

We're really looking forward to visitors from "across the pond" and from the St Louis area later this week (Rian and Dennis). I better get busy figuring out coffee and treats! ( Hopefully we won't have to look inside the old house we're living in because it's a total disaster! The Restored 1930's Auto Shop kitchenette will work nicely as it always does for our gatherings. ) (I'm assuming caffeinated coffee is best to offset the jet lag.)

Have a safe drive. We may even have decent weather!

Chris

Hi Chris

We are certainly looking forward to meeting you guys too.

Thank you for the invite and making all the effort.

I am sure Dennis would not mind my comment on here.

We are both simple guys with minimal needs. A toilet at our age is a good call when we get there.

Coffee is great, as for treats etc, please do not go out of your way as we are both "healthy"

We look forward to just getting there to pay our respects and meet some of our heroes.

Bass Man · Oct 5, 2016

Already on page 30 (year 2010 I think). For those who bypassed the thread like I did, you need to go back and take your time, study every pic, read every reply. There is a cast of characters in there, and sure there will be more. It will take me a couple of months to go through this, but it's a great read. You get to meet the whole family, and you can tell Chris is one helluva lady, just in the few pages I've read. Thomas is beyond words. (That's a good thing.) And the bad part is, after reading this, need to read some other projects that various members have stated in this thread.

I'm in for the long haul, and looking forward to all the future projects.

All the replies are amplified on how everything is turning out. Just unbelievable on how professional you guys are.

With holding all my questions until the end. Sure they will be answered.

Sorry Chris for my error on MarkVIII. My bad.

Bernie

markviii · Oct 5, 2016

No apologies necessary on the name thing, Bernie. It confuses a lot of people. I go by Chris, not Christine, so am always dealing with people who think of "Chris" as a"male" name. I'm also president of an antique/collector car club, so when people post in our facebook page or send a message to me from our webpage, it's often addressed to Mr. I just slip in Mrs. Chris P when responding the first time and that takes care of it. No harm, no foul. (Also, I waited until a month after BB767 (aka Thomas) started the thread to begin posting. I didn't tell him; it took him a while to figure it out. It's sort of become a thread within a thread.)

Also, I think you picked up the culture of our thread pretty well. Thanks! Enjoy the journey!

Chris

Homebody · Oct 5, 2016

markviii said:
The Restored 1930's Auto Shop kitchenette will work nicely as it always does for our gatherings. )
Chris

Yes, that should be mandatory! We loved it there! :thumbup:

Don't forget to fill the Pepsi machine...

Grizz, you're gonna be blown away...enjoy!!

C_F · Oct 5, 2016

markviii said:
(Also, I waited until a month after BB767 (aka Thomas) started the thread to begin posting. I didn't tell him; it took him a while to figure it out. It's sort of become a thread within a thread.)

Haha, I had forgotten about that. :lol:

Vernmotor · Oct 5, 2016

As time goes on I am thankful I was here in the beginning. I am not sure I could reread all this. I have learn so much. Even things I did't know I want to know about ! LOL ..Love the Front door !!

BB767 · Oct 5, 2016

stillp said:
I hope you had something stronger than those bottles of water for the "topping out" ceremony Thomas!

Pete

Believe it or not Pete we didn't really do a topping out ceremony. We're saving that for when we strip the crown forms off and we're really done - done. BTW, that's going to happen tomorrow!

Lotusnut said:
Thomas

How hard was it to get the last brick in? It looks like you had someone holding the chimney up from behind. Or were they just shy and didn't want to be in the picture?

If you look closely you'll see the last brick was not quite a full brick. Since we corbeled out the last 3 courses of brick we had to splice in a couple of slightly shorter bricks to make the course work out. It went in quite easily.

VMX42 said:
Hi Thomas,
Just a quick shout out from DownUnder...

I received 'Beltsville Shell' from Lyndon last week and read it in one sitting over the weekend.

What a great tale of a unique era and a cast of real characters and cars. You never could have gotten away with half of that in suburban Sydney.

A great read and thankyou for spreading the word on a great book. And a big congratulations to Cary Thomas for writing it in the first place.

I will be sending it on to 1/2 Cup in Victoria this week.

Thanks again,
Jeff

Great news Jeff and thanks for posting where it's headed next. You guys down there are showing how this is done. Receive it, read it and then mail it off to the next guy, posting here who the next guy is so we can all keep track of it. Well done gentleman. :thumbup:

Everyone who has ever read it has the same reaction. It's just a fun story well told. I'll pass this along to Cary.

gordyy said:
........ getting ready putting a heating system in and found myself "clocking the screws on the boiler and electrical boxes" what have I become???
LOL great build keep up the fantastic work.

What have I started here Gordy?????? :shocking:

I know what you mean though, you just can't help yourself.

Bass Man said:
No, didn't read all 507 pages, I'm such a slacker ..........

Am curious though since this is GJ, what was the brand of vise in the before pics?

Those were Reed vises that Mr Johnson used. As you read you'll find out...

...I'm using his old Reed welding vise on my current welding bench.

dpljmurphy said:
........ Continued success and may peace remain upon you. Cheers, David

PS, how much noise does the phase converter make, with the price of used 3 phase equipment i've been thinking about doing the same.

Thank you David for the good wishes. It's not loud at all. If you're thinking about some 3 phase equipment, steer clear of any that are 480 volts. To get 480 v, you'll need a transformer to step up each leg and new transformers to do that, unfortunately, are very expensive. You might find some used ones but it'll take some time to find them, they're not very common.

Thomas

BB767 · Oct 6, 2016

Well I was going to do a post on the chimney crown........but it's a little late for me after a long day, so it'll have to wait.

The crown has been successfully poured though and tomorrow we're removing the forms to show it off. Check back please.

Thanks, Thomas

BB767 · Oct 6, 2016

Beltsville Shell

I had a question if Cary had any more copies of Beltsville Shell. Since others might be wondering as well, I'm answering here on the thread.

Cary does have some copies that are a second printing since the first printing sold out. In fact I think one of our gang here got his last copy of the first printing. The 2nd printing allowed him to correct some mistakes in the first printing and it has also been reprinted on higher quality paper, the photographs were enhanced this time around and they now come with a swell Shell book mark as seen above. Not sure how many copies remain but he can be reached here:

http://www.beltsvilleshell.com/

He'll also personalize it for you if you like...

...as he's doing here at the Bonneville salt flats last August. I'm a bit of a Corvette enthusiast plus it's just such a fun book so I've a personal copy.

Hope that helps everyone out.

Thomas

Full disclosure; I have no financial stake it this what-so-ever. I'm just passing along information to help out fellow enthusiasts.

Lyndon · Oct 6, 2016

Thomas

Thanks for the detailed reply. :thumbup:

I've sent off an email.

Lyndon
It was meeeeeee!

VMX42 · Oct 6, 2016

Hi Thomas,
Just one question from Beltsville Shell. On page 133 it mentions Johnson's Garage... that isn't your 'Johnson's Garage' is it???

Cheers,
Jeff

BB767 · Oct 6, 2016

VMX42 said:
Hi Thomas,
Just one question from Beltsville Shell. On page 133 it mentions Johnson's Garage... that isn't your 'Johnson's Garage' is it???

Cheers,
Jeff

Now that would be quite a coincidence wouldn't it?? No, it wasn't...

...Johnson's Welding and Repair in Philo that Cary was writing about. He was 1/2 a Continent away on the east coast while Johnson's is in the Mid-West. Still kind of eerie isn't it?

Now I'm off the reveal a chimney crown!

Thomas

BB767 · Oct 6, 2016

The Latest

So here's what we did today...

...got the forms removed from the chimney crown. I'll show what all is involved to crown a chimney in another post. There's more to it than you might think.

Also got the chimney brick all washed down...

... and the scaffolding removed. With that tall of a chimney, I expect it will draw very nicely. Except for the flashing and installing the rain cap on the chimney, setting the corner stone, and installing the hearth, all the masonry items are now officially completed!! :rocker:

All the masonry equipment and material was cleaned up so...

...I can start the grade work around the house. With luck I'll get some grass seed germinating before winter to help control soil erosion.

Dry walling was in full swing...

Here they're lifting the dry wall up to the second floor and passing it through a window instead of carrying it up the stairs. 61 sheets for the second floor.

Since this is Garage Journal after all...

...here's the...

...garage. In the background is a blue ladder...

... sticking up out of the material lift shaft from the basement, the lift eye bolt overhead.

Sorry I'm short on details. There's more but those are the highlights.

Tired Thomas

oberst · Oct 6, 2016

Your house looks fantastic. It's so much fun to watch the progress.

Please, please promise us that you won't follow these fellas' lead when you install the cap on the chimney:

HOTFR8 · Oct 6, 2016

The house is looking great and again I love the stone work.

Sweet Old Bill · Oct 7, 2016

Will there be a time capsule, with a photo album of construction highlights, for the cornerstone??

stillp · Oct 7, 2016

Good plan, making the upstairs windows tall enough to allow the drywall sheets through.
House is looking great - will you be moving in before the end of the year?
Something that's been puzzling me (sorry if you've already explained) is why you chose to have the workshop in the basement rather than in a separate building, as you seem to have enough space. Apart from the potential noise and dust issues, won't access to the basement restrict the size of projects you can work on?

Pete

C_F · Oct 7, 2016

Wow, it's a good thing that upstairs window isn't 6" shorter!

Nice work, it really looks like a house now.

markviii · Oct 7, 2016

Why expand the footprint of the house or build another building when there's perfectly good space under the house? Now every project space (except automotive-related projects) we need is close and we don't even have to leave the house!

Chris

1/2 Cup · Oct 7, 2016

markviii said:
Why expand the footprint of the house or build another building when there's perfectly good space under the house? Now every project space (except automotive-related projects) we need is close and we don't even have to leave the house!

Chris

I totally agree, smart thinking.. :thumbup:

Your build looks a treat.. :thumbup:

Regards

Nuts · Oct 8, 2016

I've always thought roofs tended to be expensive, basements and second stories are cheaper. Might not be so now a days

Unless you are building with brick and stone.

That front entry way is just gorgeous.

Doug

csp · Oct 8, 2016

Nuts said:
I've always thought roofs tended to be expensive, basements and second stories are cheaper. Might not be so now a days

Doesn't every second story also have a roof over it? :headscrat

Basements mean (more) concrete and concrete is expensive.

Boosted1 · Oct 8, 2016

Another great update.
I probably missed it earlier, but what are the dimensions of the new house garage.
It looks to be quite a bit more spacious than a normal 2 car.

stillp · Oct 8, 2016

markviii said:
Why expand the footprint of the house or build another building when there's perfectly good space under the house? Now every project space (except automotive-related projects) we need is close and we don't even have to leave the house!

Chris

Makes sense Chris, I'm obviously too used to being in trouble for making too much noise/dust/smells...

Pete

BlueBomber · Oct 8, 2016

csp said:
Doesn't every second story also have a roof over it?

Basements mean (more) concrete and concrete is expensive.

I think he means that it is less expensive to go up or down than to go out.

If you compare the cost of, say, a 1000 ft2 house with a full basement to the cost of a 2000 ft2 single level house, the first one is cheaper per square foot.

Nuts · Oct 8, 2016

BlueBomber said:
I think he means that it is less expensive to go up or down than to go out.

If you compare the cost of, say, a 1000 ft2 house with a full basement to the cost of a 2000 ft2 single level house, the first one is cheaper per square foot.

Yes this is what I was attempting to say.

Doug

Grizz1963 · Oct 8, 2016

Just a quick, out of sync posting.

Mainly to get the pics into Thomas and Chris' thread.

Dennis and I spent 6 hours on the road today. Diving up to The Centre of the Universe.

We met up with Chris and Thimas and spent around 6+ hours with them.

Full report in a day it so.

Massive thanks to Dennis for having the idea of popping up to see them and their restored 1930's workshop and new home.

THREAD HERE.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51567

A massive thank you for everything.
I will do full update when I get time.

Chris, Thomas, Dennis and myself.

Ando ne of many highlights.

The restored 1928 pillar lift.

HOTFR8 · Oct 9, 2016

As I posted in the Grizz1963 topic.

HOTFR8 said:
Now the only problem with some of those photos is no one is wearing a Garage Journal T Shirt.

Sweet Old Bill · Oct 9, 2016

Please note Miss Chris is stunning, as always, in her Garage Journal finest!

HOTFR8 · Oct 9, 2016

Sweet Old Bill said:
Please note Miss Chris is stunning, as always, in her Garage Journal finest!

The only one I should have stated wearing the correct T shirt.

BB767 · Oct 9, 2016

Sweet Old Bill said:
Please note Miss Chris is stunning, as always, in her Garage Journal finest!

That she is Sweet Old Bill! :bounce:

[URL=http://s171.photobucket.com/user/BB767/media/Personal/IMG_3749.jpg.html]

[/URL]

Of course I think she's stunning even when she's not wearing Garage Journals finest. :drool:

She's my sweetie and the best thing that ever happen to me....for over 41 years no less!!

Love struck Thomas

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