My place to get away from the estrogen

colo crawler · Jan 19, 2012

I live with three girls that have no interest in anything I like so therefore the garage is all mine. It's not much just a 20x20 normal suburban garage. This is a working garage but I have got a lot of ideas from this board as to how to use all of the available space. Now onto the pics.

The outside shot

When I first moved in.

First bench.

The place used to feel pretty big until I inherited a 1968 caprice from my grandfather. And with a 20x20 space and a 19' car some things had to change. Here is the car taking up half the garage.

When I got the car I went from my big bench to just the small wood one.

And that just didn't work for me anymore so I built this. I overbuilt it but I wanted it to be free standing, the old one had to be attached to the wall.

Hole for the receiver tube.

All done and working.

Welding table

Here it is all packed back together.

I got a new toolbox and moved the freezer.

You can see the dark spots where I have lighting issues.

Painted the peg board and the underside of the shelf white and added some under shelf lighting.

Stole this idea from another GJ member.

All cleaned up.

-Tom

colo crawler · Jan 19, 2012

Re: My place to get away form the estrogen

I'm still working on it every week. The next big project will be to finish and insulate the ceiling and doors. I'll keep pulling ideas from all of you to make this place work to it's fullest potential.

-Tom

jhn9840 · Jan 19, 2012

That is a really great use of your space. Nice welding table and slick use of a receiver hitch. Does your welding table slide into the bench. Hard to tell from the pic.

jhn9840
John

wornoutoldman · Jan 19, 2012

Nice place you have there! More Chevy pics please.

impala_631 · Jan 19, 2012

I like the table set up,the fold down deal seems really cool and useful Azwell

DynoDave · Jan 19, 2012

Nice work. I have an old platform hitch I was going to send to the recyclers...

jeffmoss26 · Jan 19, 2012

Nice shop but I think I like the car more!

Nighttrain · Jan 19, 2012

Great use of space, I really like the receiver hitch/table/vise idea.

lowbucktruck · Jan 19, 2012

Yay, another 2-car garage! Good job on the workbench. Like the welding table idea, pretty slick!
Ditto, must see more Chevy Caprice pics! Looks like a nice ride. Must be a challenge squeezing that big car into the garage and still having room to work!

nheric · Jan 19, 2012

Nice place. Nice car. More about the TJ please. I am in the process of building 2 TJs and an old CJ5.

galexie64 · Jan 19, 2012

I like your setup. I also have a 20x20 garage and a large car (64 galaxie). I'm looking at doing a similar setup.

colo crawler · Jan 20, 2012

jhn9840 said:
That is a really great use of your space. Nice welding table and slick use of a receiver hitch. Does your welding table slide into the bench. Hard to tell from the pic.

jhn9840
John

Thank you. The welding table does slide in. I'll take some close up shots of it.

wornoutoldman said:
Nice place you have there! More Chevy pics please.

Here ya go. Original paint, top, interior, numbers matching car with 40K miles. I took the springs out and installed air ride. I did the whole install myself and didn't cut any of the car to do it. So if I decide to go back to original springs I can.

DynoDave said:
Nice work. I have an old platform hitch I was going to send to the recyclers...

Another GJ idea.

jeffmoss26 said:
Nice shop but I think I like the car more!

Thank you.

Nighttrain said:
Great use of space, I really like the receiver hitch/table/vise idea.

I am also making a mount for the bench grinder that will slide in.

lowbucktruck said:
Yay, another 2-car garage! Good job on the workbench. Like the welding table idea, pretty slick!
Ditto, must see more Chevy Caprice pics! Looks like a nice ride. Must be a challenge squeezing that big car into the garage and still having room to work!

Yeah it *****. Especialy with the two single doors. But I make it work.

nheric said:
Nice place. Nice car. More about the TJ please. I am in the process of building 2 TJs and an old CJ5.

I have had the TJ for 10 years. It is a 4" spring,1" body lift, flat belly skid, Dana 44 rear with a spool and 4.88 gears, dana 30 front no locker, 37inch Goodyear MTR's, cage, long arms and a few other things. Here are some more pics.

galexie64 said:
I like your setup. I also have a 20x20 garage and a large car (64 galaxie). I'm looking at doing a similar setup.

Tomorrow is going to be nice so I will get some more over all garage shots.

-Tom

GirlnAgarage · Jan 20, 2012

The receiver hitch in the wood caught my attention. I have been thinking of trying the same thing. I've only seen them in metal/welding tables, never in wood so I was curious how it was holding up. How long a receiver tube did you use? Is it supported further underneath the bench?

re1 · Jan 20, 2012

Some nice ideas on the bench. :thumbup:

colo crawler · Jan 20, 2012

GirlnAgarage said:
The receiver hitch in the wood caught my attention. I have been thinking of trying the same thing. I've only seen them in metal/welding tables, never in wood so I was curious how it was holding up. How long a receiver tube did you use? Is it supported further underneath the bench?

I bought a 12" piece of receiver tube an only used about 5". First I traced the tube on the wood and then drilled a 1.5" hole in the 4x6. The just went to town with the Sawz-all. As you can see from the first pic the hole isn't cut even or square and I did that sort of on purpose. I wanted it to be a really tight fit and it was. I had to beat the tube in with a 15lb sledge and ended up ruining the end of the tube, which I didn't care because I was going to cut it flush with the bench. The support in the middle of the table is also a 4x6 and hangs lower than the 2x4's because it is actually 4" thick. The tube butts up to that support and then on the front I welded a tab and drilled 5 holes for some 3.5 inch heavy duty screws.

Here are some random pics of the rest of this cramped two car garage.

That is the dog kennel for those days when it is below freezing outside and where they eat dinner.

-Tom

Rolling_Thunder · Jan 20, 2012

Nice setup, love the welding table attachnebt. I might steal that one!! I like looking at all the fancy setup garages on this forum but really love lookikng at the working gagrage setups the most! Lots of good ideas to steal!!! Thanks for sharing!!

markv · Jan 20, 2012

My first car was a 1968 BelAir 4door with a 307 two barrel, and 3.08 rear I thought it was the baddest thing on the road! I love this car today! There was a guy that lived near me that had a 68 Impala convertible, SS 427 turbo 400! I still get a bone thinking about that car.
Mark

MDSPHOTO · Jan 20, 2012

Nice. Love the trailer hitch idea, very creative.

Thruxton · Jan 20, 2012

That sure looks familiar! Nice work, cool car!

jcp907 · Jan 20, 2012

I have seen (and will steal) the receiver idea. But, I will be certain to steal your welding table idea as well!

colo crawler · Jan 21, 2012

Rolling_Thunder said:
Nice setup, love the welding table attachnebt. I might steal that one!! I like looking at all the fancy setup garages on this forum but really love lookikng at the working gagrage setups the most! Lots of good ideas to steal!!! Thanks for sharing!!

Thanks for the compliments. My local metal scrap yard had a stack of these 36" round cut outs for $.50/lb. I like the round table better cause there are no corners to get caught on.

markv said:
My first car was a 1968 BelAir 4door with a 307 two barrel, and 3.08 rear I thought it was the baddest thing on the road! I love this car today! There was a guy that lived near me that had a 68 Impala convertible, SS 427 turbo 400! I still get a bone thinking about that car.
Mark

I just picked up some rally wheels last night and I LOVE the look it gave my car. I'll get some more pics for you to drool over.

Thruxton said:
That sure looks familiar! Nice work, cool car!

Yeah it does look a lot like your shop, I just wish my car was a little smaller.

jcp907 said:
I have seen (and will steal) the receiver idea. But, I will be certain to steal your welding table idea as well!

Go for it, like I said most of my ideas are stolen.

-Tom

colo crawler · Feb 8, 2012

I was was at a buddy's house the other night and we were in the garage having a few beers and I asked him where he got his parts drawers from. He said that they had a old service truck at work that was just sitting there and was free to be picked apart by the mechanics. It had 4 sets of these drawers in it. He told me if I wanted one he would grab it cause the truck was scheduled to go to the scrap yard next week. This is what he brought me.

It had been in this truck for some time so it was a little dirty.

A far cry better than what I was using.

Now I just need to figure out where I am going to put them.

Oh and the pics of the new wheels on the '68

-Tom

machine_punk · Feb 8, 2012

Dude...great score on the metal parts bins...I've been drooling over those for years and plan to pull the trigger on new ones soon.

M_P

colo crawler · Feb 8, 2012

Thank you. I like it a lot. But it has made me realize that I have serious shortage of small parts to fill it.

-Tom

GirlnAgarage · Feb 8, 2012

Tom, hit one estate sale from CL and you'll end up with so much of the extra little doodads you'll want a bigger doodad box

Nice set of drawers. They are handy.

Oh an thanks for the additional pics on the receiver hitch in the wooden bench. Nice and solid for sure.

colo crawler · Feb 8, 2012

I never thought about hitting up estate sales for stuff like that, I will be looking on CL for ones this weekend. Thanks for the great idea.

-Tom

B-RAD77 · Feb 9, 2012

Very nice! belive it or not I took the body off my Jeep twice and preaty much built it in my two car garage and wife made me make sure to put her Jeep back in the garge every night
<---------- this Jeep

B-RAD77 · Feb 9, 2012

oh ya love the receiver idea!!!

colo crawler · Feb 10, 2012

Wow nice jeep. Got any more pics and specs?

-Tom

colo crawler · Apr 10, 2012

Some new updates on things going on here. I got my small parts organized and put in a new spot.

My old trusty beer fridge died I had it for over 13 years. It had a good run.

Old

And the new one that I got for free. :beer:

I also picked up some insulation at the surplus building materials place my dad told me about. 440sq feet of 2inch foam board for $150.

After it goes up I will skin the whole ceiling with re-used 6" fence pickets. Much like the Pedestrian Garagehttp://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99486
I was reminded this weekend that my wife's great uncle works a major fence company here in Denver and he welcomed me to come down to the yard and pick out whatever I want of the "tear out" pile before they trash it. He said with all the wind we have had they have more than usual. I am excited, it is way easier than searching CL.

-Tom

jackylcrackyl · Apr 10, 2012

Your garage is coming along nicely! I love the use of the receiver for a small welding table or vice. It seems that there are a ton of things you could build for the receiver and keep tucked away in storage until you need it (drill press, grinder, etc.).

You definitely have the same issue as me, which is getting storage so that things are up off the floor. I really like what you're doing so far. Keep up the momentum, it's paying off.

rmckee · Apr 10, 2012

Looks like a great place. The hitch receiver is one of the best things this forum has informed me of, thanks to your thread. I definitely can't wait to see what else you come up with. Fitting a 19' vehicle in a 20 foot space seems like it's the basis for a garage joke somewhere in there.

And nice TJ. You're in good company with that thing on here
<------

colo crawler · Apr 10, 2012

jackylcrackyl said:
Your garage is coming along nicely! I love the use of the receiver for a small welding table or vice. It seems that there are a ton of things you could build for the receiver and keep tucked away in storage until you need it (drill press, grinder, etc.).

You definitely have the same issue as me, which is getting storage so that things are up off the floor. I really like what you're doing so far. Keep up the momentum, it's paying off.

Thanks, I started a mount for my bench grinder a while ago but haven't finished it. I really don't use the bench grinder a whole lot.

rmckee said:
Looks like a great place. The hitch receiver is one of the best things this forum has informed me of, thanks to your thread. I definitely can't wait to see what else you come up with. Fitting a 19' vehicle in a 20 foot space seems like it's the basis for a garage joke somewhere in there.

And nice TJ. You're in good company with that thing on here
<------

Thanks, everyone that comes over ask how I get the car in and out, Magic is the answer.

Nice jeep, I wish I got to wheel mine more but it is really more of a drive way decoration than anything. I sold it to a buddy a year ago and then ended up buying it back. It was the first car I ever bought so I had a hard time letting it go.

-Tom

My place to get away from the estrogen

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Active member

Well-known member

Well-known member