TurboBlog
Well-known member
Hello All,
I discovered this forum about eight months ago while I was searching for garage layout ideas on Google. What a goldmine! The members on this site have shared an amazing amount of information and I regret not learning about this site years ago. I've read countless pages of information since I discovered the site and this post is my humble way of contributing a little something to this incredible resource.
To start at the beginning, I grew up in a service station. This isn't hyperbole, my mother and father took me with them to our old two bay Boron station every day. As soon as I was able, I was painting garbage cans, workbenches, lifts and anything that stood still long enough and did or didn't need a fresh coat of paint.
As time went by we moved to larger garages, eventually ending up in a very busy 6 bay station. All along I worked there when I could, evenings, weekends and college breaks. I watched and learned from the mechanics, who taught me how to work on cars and many other lessons, like the importance of good tools and how to properly care for them.
The service station was central to my life all through school. If I had a night off, my friends would come over and we would monkey around with our cars in those great big service bays. On college breaks, I lived in the back so I could work there and then wrench on my car without having to leave. My father sold the family business back in 1997, but all those years spent in that environment taught me many things about cars, business, people and life. So much of this knowledge can't be found in a book or passed along by a teacher. Any folks who grew up in a family business can relate, I'm sure.
After finding work in my field and turning my interest in computers and the Internet into a career, what remained from my time at the service station was my deep love for cars and making them perform. This became a great hobby and an even better diversion from a hectic work schedule. Even though I was raised on a strict diet of American muscle cars, over the last 12 years or so I've been heavy into the Mitsubishis and DSMs. I currently own a 1991 Eagle Talon Tsi AWD Turbo a 1992 DIY Turbocharged Mazda Miata (that's powered by a DSM ECU), but I'm most known for my old sleeper 1989 Mitsubishi Mirage with a 4G63 swap. I've also owned a 1991 Eclipse Turbo, 1989 Starion (swapped a 4G63 in that) and a 2003 Lancer Evolution. I recently returned back to my American muscle car roots, picking up a 1987 Buick Grand National. Feel free to visit my websites if you're into this sort of thing, I've got videos, pictures, build stories and lots more! Here are a few pictures.
If you like watching various car related shenanigans on video, please check out my YouTube channel.
So you've probably seen a trend in my toys- they're all packing a turbocharger for that kick in the chest that you just can't get anywhere else! So that extremely long winded story explains the name of my garage build. I promise to be more concise from here on out!
At my old house, I had a great basement garage. It wasn't ideal (low ceilings, damp, etc) but I took on some big projects in there and did lots of wrenching:
When we moved into a new house recently, it gave me the opportunity to build my dream garage! After working with an architect friend, we came up with the 41x31 that you see here:
I discovered this forum about eight months ago while I was searching for garage layout ideas on Google. What a goldmine! The members on this site have shared an amazing amount of information and I regret not learning about this site years ago. I've read countless pages of information since I discovered the site and this post is my humble way of contributing a little something to this incredible resource.
To start at the beginning, I grew up in a service station. This isn't hyperbole, my mother and father took me with them to our old two bay Boron station every day. As soon as I was able, I was painting garbage cans, workbenches, lifts and anything that stood still long enough and did or didn't need a fresh coat of paint.
As time went by we moved to larger garages, eventually ending up in a very busy 6 bay station. All along I worked there when I could, evenings, weekends and college breaks. I watched and learned from the mechanics, who taught me how to work on cars and many other lessons, like the importance of good tools and how to properly care for them.The service station was central to my life all through school. If I had a night off, my friends would come over and we would monkey around with our cars in those great big service bays. On college breaks, I lived in the back so I could work there and then wrench on my car without having to leave. My father sold the family business back in 1997, but all those years spent in that environment taught me many things about cars, business, people and life. So much of this knowledge can't be found in a book or passed along by a teacher. Any folks who grew up in a family business can relate, I'm sure.
After finding work in my field and turning my interest in computers and the Internet into a career, what remained from my time at the service station was my deep love for cars and making them perform. This became a great hobby and an even better diversion from a hectic work schedule. Even though I was raised on a strict diet of American muscle cars, over the last 12 years or so I've been heavy into the Mitsubishis and DSMs. I currently own a 1991 Eagle Talon Tsi AWD Turbo a 1992 DIY Turbocharged Mazda Miata (that's powered by a DSM ECU), but I'm most known for my old sleeper 1989 Mitsubishi Mirage with a 4G63 swap. I've also owned a 1991 Eclipse Turbo, 1989 Starion (swapped a 4G63 in that) and a 2003 Lancer Evolution. I recently returned back to my American muscle car roots, picking up a 1987 Buick Grand National. Feel free to visit my websites if you're into this sort of thing, I've got videos, pictures, build stories and lots more! Here are a few pictures.
If you like watching various car related shenanigans on video, please check out my YouTube channel.
So you've probably seen a trend in my toys- they're all packing a turbocharger for that kick in the chest that you just can't get anywhere else! So that extremely long winded story explains the name of my garage build. I promise to be more concise from here on out!
At my old house, I had a great basement garage. It wasn't ideal (low ceilings, damp, etc) but I took on some big projects in there and did lots of wrenching:
When we moved into a new house recently, it gave me the opportunity to build my dream garage! After working with an architect friend, we came up with the 41x31 that you see here:
) Luckily, I had some great wet 40 degree weather to do it all in. I still didn't have any garage doors, so it was time to bundle up and get to it!
