Old cow barn becomes my workshop...

Old cow barn turns into my workshop...

So,

Even though I introduced myself in the introduction thread, I'll do it again here.

My name's Bastien and I'm a 24 year old car nut from Germany. Ever since I got my first car, I was annoyed at having to wrench in the driveway. It's taken me nearly 7 years to find a suitable garage / shop space.

I've been reading this forum for a while, ever since I stumbled upon Jack Olsen's 12-gauge Garage.

I've now rented this space in an old square farmyard just a town over - so only 5 minutes from where I live. Rent is very cheap for what it is. It's an old cow barn that last saw cows about, oh thirty years ago or so. After that it's been used up until a few years ago for germinating potatoes.

I've basically got two rooms - a bigger shop space and a smaller storage space. The shop space is about 10.2m x 4.85m (33.46ft x 15.91ft), so just under 50m² (approx 538 ft²). I didn't bother measuring the smaller storage room, but I estimate it to be about 3m x 4.85m. So the total space available is around 65m² (approx 699 ft²).

I will use this for working on my cars and maybe occasionally breaking a parts car alongside the occasional different work.


This is how it looked like when I went to look at it a few weeks ago:








Today I finally signed the rental contract and collected the keys. The landlord already did some work in that he painted the walls white and installed a single strip light.







This is the smaller storage room:





This is looking outside from my door... the house you see is currently empty as it needs quite bit of work before it can be rented or sold, so nothing like that is in the immediate future... maybe I could rent or buy the whole thing in a few years, I don't know but it would be cool, haha. The blue door leads to a toilet and shower which I'm allowed to use.



This is from the main gate looking in. My space is on the left, starting just underneath the stairs (the first small door is mine) and it goes all the way to the corner in the back. The two huge doors in the rear lead to a single barn that will possibly be rented out to a car collector who wants to store a few of his vintage cars there.



This is with my project car moved in... a '97BMW 323i Touring. Getting the car inside this area is a bit tricky and takes some careful maneuvering.



Together with my daily driver, a BMW E38 730i. Luckily, the 7 fits in as well - barely, though. The 7 is about 5 meters long and as the shop itself is only 4.85 wide, I can only fit it right in front of the door. Not a problem, as it is my daily driver at the moment and will only be inside when I'm working on it or when I'm taking the 3 out.




Next up is to get some more light in - I will be getting a few more strip lights soon, along with some shelves and such to put in here. Once the lighting is done, I will get around to building a work bench and then placing some more electrical sockets and so on.

If you paid attention in the pics when I first looked at the shop, you will have noticed an oil oven sitting there, that's currently not inside. It will be placed back inside, so I will have heat as well.


This is an estimate of what the layout will be... please don't get too excited about the masterful artwork!



I definitely want to build the workbench in the lower right hand corner, most likely in an L shape. I'm not too sure about shelving yet, I'll have to look into that and also see what kind of shelves and stuff I will be receiving soon.

I want to keep the area around the car on the left as clear as possible to have as much space as possible for working on it.


That's it so far. Feel free to chime in with tips and suggestions!

I will keep you guys updated!

Wow, what a cool place to establish a garage Bastien. Love it and looking forward to following your progress thanks for posting.

Welcome to GJ from your neighbour in the Netherlands
Great first post in your garage thread, I'm very curious how this one turns out.
Great place with lots of potential, please keep the pics coming as you progress.
BTW great Bimmers too, love the 7

Welcome!! You have a super space to begin your garage and shop. I like the whole arrangement of the site. If it were me, I would want to buy the entire place and set up my living quarters there, and use all of space. I like it a lot!! Keep the photos coming.

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

Welcome aboard! That's a great looking space...arches in the ceiling, sliding door, brick, courtyard....I love the character of the place.

Thanks for the warm welcome, guys!

Sunbimmer said:

BTW great Bimmers too, love the 7

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Thanks! The 7 is giving me a bit of a headache at the moment as it just failed it's TÜV inspection and needs some suspension repairs... not gonna be cheap, but that's what I get for wanting to drive a old luxury barge like that, haha. But it's a wonderful daily driver. Tho I have been thinking about maybe turning it into another project down the road... we'll see. I definitely want another project once the shop is all setup, will possibly either end up being the 7 or something older like a E28 or maybe even an E3.

The 3 is my baby, this is what it looks like in summer:



I bought it in 2009. A black E36 Touring was my childhood dream car since my dad had one when I was around 11, haha.

HSpencer said:

Welcome!! You have a super space to begin your garage and shop. I like the whole arrangement of the site. If it were me, I would want to buy the entire place and set up my living quarters there, and use all of space. I like it a lot!! Keep the photos coming.

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

Click to expand...

Herb,

yes, that thought crossed my mind actually! But at the moment it is not in the cards. While the land lord IS open to selling or just renting the place, that would exceed my current budget. Not to mention that it needs quite some work, for example a wall in the kitchen is damp, all the electronics are from the 1950/1960s and lots more things that would need taken care of. But it's got great potential. I'll be keeping an eye on it, for sure. He's not actively advertising the place anywhere and with the work it needs and where it's located it's very unlikely that he'd find a buyer soon anyways.

Cool space. I have owned a 2003 325iT for just over a year and love it. It is black as well.

Cool. I was stationed over there in the late 70's, and I always liked the small towns. They had the fields outside of town, and the farm houses (with the courtyard set-up) in town.
I've always wanted to set up a place like that here in the States. Live in the front section, garage/shop/etc in the other 3 wings. Then there is the courtyard to have the keg parties in.

Very secure setup, almost a small fort.

I remember the small villages with the compounds. Occasionally you would see a compound by itself out in the farmland. But not often. The villages were often close together but they always had a place where you could get brotchen and wirst. Always a pleasant treat when eating cold Army food out of a tin can. I was in Berlin, Bamburg, Baumholder and Stutgart in the 60s.

What an awesome place!! Great cars, too!!

That will be a nice place when you have set it all up !

The E36 looks super clean !

Awesome place, lot of potential there. What are your plans for that stunning E36?

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Thanks guys!

Looks like I will be getting some more strip lights next tuesday and maybe some shelving too!

Bempa said:

Awesome place, lot of potential there. What are your plans for that stunning E36?

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No real plans at the moment. I need to fix a few minor issues it has so it can be TÜVed again to be legal to drive... I would like some different suspension that is a bit stiffer, as my current coilovers are rather a bit too soft in the rear for my liking. The car is only a 323i, so a 2.5l 6cyl with 170hp... it is enough to be fun, but I've been entertaining thoughts of more power for a long time now... if the swap to a M60 V8 out of a 540i or 740i wouldn't be so complicated, I knew what I'd have on my plans. Maybe one day when I've gotten more experienced with fabricating things, haha.

I am actually planning on taking the E36 to visit Gatebil this July. I just know that after I've been there I will be bitten by the big power bug...

The place looks great. I really like the arched ceiling.

Dr.AK said:

Thanks guys!

Looks like I will be getting some more strip lights next tuesday and maybe some shelving too!



No real plans at the moment. I need to fix a few minor issues it has so it can be TÜVed again to be legal to drive... I would like some different suspension that is a bit stiffer, as my current coilovers are rather a bit too soft in the rear for my liking. The car is only a 323i, so a 2.5l 6cyl with 170hp... it is enough to be fun, but I've been entertaining thoughts of more power for a long time now... if the swap to a M60 V8 out of a 540i or 740i wouldn't be so complicated, I knew what I'd have on my plans. Maybe one day when I've gotten more experienced with fabricating things, haha.

I am actually planning on taking the E36 to visit Gatebil this July. I just know that after I've been there I will be bitten by the big power bug...

Click to expand...

If you are thinking of more power out of your E36, check out the BMW section at www.vorschlag.com. They have some cool stuff for these cars, well engineered. Terry Fair at Vorschlag Motorsports,LLC . Neat garage; like Herb said, owning it all would be soo neat.

Nice place. I've been to Germany a couple of times to visit my wifes family. I love going over there but it's been awhile. Nice Beemer too!

thats a **** e36

and yes i am with every one if you could figure out a way to get it or work on getting the whole place that would be awesome looks great i like the lay out

Managed to hang a few more lights yesterday after work. Bad picture, taken with my cell quickly before the battery died... will get some better pictures once all the lights are up.

I installed 4 double striplights above what will be the main wrenching area. Before, there was only a single strip light near the main door and a single old bulb light in the rear. I kept both of these to use as backup or minor lighting when I don't need the full lighting. I was rather surprised yesterday evening - it was dark outside and with only the two old lights in there it was already pretty bright.

I have another 4 of the double strip lights to be mounted above the planned workbench and shelving area, I expect once all 8 are on and connected, this shed will be so bright you might see it from orbit, heh.

So,

got some stuff done today.

Again, please excuse the cell phone pictures... I keep forgetting to take my real camera with me.

First things first, took care of the most important thing and set up this old Philips stereo for some tunes... scored this for free from a neighbor who didn't use it anymore. The speakers will later be hung from the wall and the stereo itself will be placed in the planned shelves.






Then we wired up the 4 double strip lights we had installed last weekend.




Installed new switches... you can see the holes from the old one. One on the left switches the single strip light in the middle of the room and the one on the right switches on the 4 doubles over the car.




One of the doubles up close:




The other side of the room, also installed 4 doubles. So now I have 8 double strip lights and 1 single strip light, so that makes 17 neon strips in total, plus an old lightbulb. Everything together is somewhere right around 1400-1500 watts, I'm not sure right now. Might seem a bit overkill for such a small-ish space, but in terms of lighting there's no such thing as overkill in my opinion.
The double strips I also scored for free.




My uncle dropped by with some cabinets he had kicking around, which I got... you guessed it, for free. They are apparently from some kind of communal office and are sturdier than they look. I placed them next to the door-side wall next to the car, as there ended up being still more than enough room. I will place a nice piece of wood on top of these cabinets to make for a sturdy work surface.








Next was some more wall sockets on the back wall.




The Bosch Hammer proved rather good today, even though the Hilti I use at my current workplace makes it pale in comparison.




Some more impressions:










Also, scored some nice 10x10 cm wooden beams... for free. I will use these to build a work bench. I am doing some planning on the construction of this right now... I think so far the total amount of money spent was, uh... 15€ for some cable clips, everything else I got for free or already had at home, haha.


And something completely unrelated, but as I am so stoked about it, I'll share: My E36 made it into this month's BMW Scene - one of the two big BMW magazines here in Germany. Feels so good to have your hard work recognized in print.

Just some workbench planning.

I had originally planned to build the bench only into the lower right hand corner and have it wrap around the corner, up until the barn door. But I am afriad this might interfere when it comes to maneuvering a car in or out of the left side of the barn (where my E36 currently sits).

So I did some re-planning and think this will end up being my layout... Just a very quick Photoshop-image for size.

The thing between the two benches is supposed to be the oil oven that will go back in soon.

The bright green thing on the lower right wall is supposed to be my rolling tool chest. It's an old one, rather similar to this one here (not mine), but it's green and could use some work down the road:



Anyways, that thing has a nice height of about 93.5 cm. Which made me decide on building the bench to exactly the same height, so I can pretty much roll it against the bench and use it as an extension if need be. It should also be visually pleasing at the same height, haha.



I am also planning to later integrate some drawers for fasteners underneath the bench, but I haven't gotten around to planning this yet. I will most likely build this later, after the bench itself is set up.

I have a Hazet assistant tool trolley and I always wondered if those Trabant trolleys were 2 stroke....

So,

I spent today building two workbenches together with my old man.

Yesterday I picked up a few wood slabs, OSB plate and some brackets.

Like I said, I got a lot of wooden beams from the landlord. Nice, thick 8 x 10cm beams. No idea what kind of wood, but they were free. But they were also old. Very old. They've been kept in the big barn alongside mine for a few decades at least.

So they weren't 100% straight and needed quite some sanding to be smooth again, but hell, it's just a workbench, it's not meant to win a beauty contest. As long as it's sturdy, it's fine.

So, we went to work.



Here you can kind of see what the wood looked like before. I trashed this piece as it looked like it was wet inside.



Here it's during sanding. Right half has been sanded. Can't really see the difference all that good in the pictures, but it was quite a difference in reality.



So a short while later we got this:



The top is 40mm spruce - actually quite a soft wood, but getting a harder one would've meant quite a price difference. These tops already were 100€ together. It should hold up fine for the time being.



Lower part was cut from 18mm OSB.





A bit later we had another one together.



Both feel very sturdy and don't move at all. We had to put some wood pieces under the front legs to raise them up to get it to sit somewhat level since the floor is not level at all. Both benches have also been screwed to the wall. These things are solid and should last a while.


I also had some shelf brackets left over and also a wood piece I had sitting around at home. So I quickly threw this on the wall:






While we were working it also started to rain quite a bit... It felt really good to be able to finally work inside in the dry after all these years of having only a driveway to work in haha.




I will now slowly start getting some of my tools and other stuff over, so that I can start to really use the shop soon.

Great job on the benches.

Thanks!

Brought my trusty rolling tool chest over today along with some tools.



And also discovered by pure chance that the space under the workbenches fits perfectly for these boxes. I will store stuff I won't need very often in there and such.

So...

today I brought this over, which I got from my old man.



Then I collected this from my uncle.



As you can see, it wasn't exactly pretty. But I had a lot of paint sitting around unused, which I once bought to paint something with but then changed my mind.



So... not exactly my first choice of color for a workshop, but it's what I had sitting around, so it was essentially free.



Next up, I also got this vice a few days ago. No markings on it, but it's heavy as hell. But also, could use a spot of paint... It's not mounted yet, I'll get around to that in the next few days.







And also, finally got around to setting up this to collect trash... super cheap, but it does the job.




It's starting to look like home, heh.

I'm really enjoying your thread. It's such a rustic looking shop with so much character.
Off topic, my wife is getting her first BMW in a few weeks; a 2008 335XI.

Thank you!

Nothing much new to report. Only got around to mounting my vice. Sturdy as hell.




And here's just a quick pic showing it in use while test fitting my wheels to a friends car since he just bought some wheels in the same dimensions and wanted to see what he would have to do in terms of fender work.

Nice and bright in the workshop now.

I am very impressed!! The shop transformation is outstanding. The benches are first rate and I like everything your doing in there. What a great shop!!! The new lighting is very nice! Excellent work on all things!
Keep us posted with pictures, we love it!!

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

How are the cross braces on the benches attached to the legs?

Nice place and a great car!

I'd be really careful about spray painting in there with your Beamer in the room. Overspray seems to get everywhere and you wouldn't want it on that black paint.

Nice benches and bins. You're going to enjoy spending some time in here with your toy!

ZRX61 said:

How are the cross braces on the benches attached to the legs?

Click to expand...

The whole thing is screwed together using angle irons. I'll try to remember to take a pic next time I'm in there. I know it's not the perfect solution but it's simple and it ended up being very sturdy, so it's fine.

dirttracker18 said:

Nice place and a great car!

I'd be really careful about spray painting in there with your Beamer in the room. Overspray seems to get everywhere and you wouldn't want it on that black paint.

Click to expand...

Thanks, yeah I get what you mean. I try to keep it to a minium and to mostly do it outside, but... yeah. Still, I'm careful.



Slight update:

These parts will end up being a holder for that roll of paper towels.




And I did some decorating, haha.




Also, went to see how well my daily fits in here... well... just barely!

Got that paper towel holder done... super simple, but it does the job and it was free since I had everything just sitting around.

Good stuff, nice to see a shed coming together with cheap, free & repurposed stuff rather than the just-add-money approach

Dr.AK said:

Thank you!

Nothing much new to report. Only got around to mounting my vice. Sturdy as hell.

Click to expand...

If you mount that vice further forward, so the back (static) jaw is forward of the front edge of the bench, you will be able to hold long items vertically

Cheers
Clint

ClintNZ said:

Good stuff, nice to see a shed coming together with cheap, free & repurposed stuff rather than the just-add-money approach

Click to expand...

Thanks!

Yeah, I am kind of on a budget but I try to make the best with what I have and can get... I try to get the most effect by investing the least possible amount, heh.

If you mount that vice further forward, so the back (static) jaw is forward of the front edge of the bench, you will be able to hold long items vertically

Click to expand...

Yeah, that would indeed be a bit better. I didn't really think about that when I mounted it. I think it's fine for now... if it turns out that I need the extra space, I'll just move it, it's not like it is a lot of work!


In the mean time, I did some decorating with some BMW Posters I had sitting around which were not good enough to use in the house since my cat got to em and mangled them a bit... but still, fine for the shop.

Also, I set up this small grey plastic cabinet which I had in my home's garage previously (which really was too small to drive a car into and open the door, so it was just a kind of storage / micro-size workshop). I store my detailing supplies in there.












Oh, yeah, and...

the hole for the pipe of the oil oven has been re-opened... now only the pipe needs to be fitted and I'll have heat in the shop for winter useage!

The Ring - raced around that last October - awesome time!

Good looking shop!

wow, nice shop. Greetings from the south of Germany

Nice Job! On both the car AND finding the cool space.

Haven't checked in here for a while...

Have some news about the shop.

Not much happened until June / July thereabouts. I sold my 7-series because the fuel mileage was eating me up and replaced it with a E39 523i converted to LPG fuel - super cheap, can drive 500kms for 30€.

Then in July I drove to Norway for the Gatebil festival which I photographed for PerformanceBMW magazine, the photos can be seen in the current issue actually!

But on the way home, I crashed my E39 into the guard rail as I fell asleep for a second. No technical damage luckily, only cosmetics.

I bought a parts car and have been busy the pasts months fixing my car and parting out the parts car so the shop still looks a bit like a mess.

The E39 is fixed bodywise, and will be painted in a few months time. Will fit suspension and wheels before hand first as I may need to do some further alterations to the fenders.

But onwards...

A few months ago, I think it was in late June I scored these two cabinets - for free. The locks were damaged and I removed them, will probably get around to isntalling some door pulls and some magnets to keep the doors firmly shut. They also require some visual freshening up, but as they're currently stuffed full of smaller car parts, it's not a priority right now as I need to organize my second room at the shop beforehand so I can store stuff more efficiently.




A few other guys moved into the barn units next to mine, the whole farmyard is now rented out. The guys renting the biggest space scored 10 or so of these nice cabinets for free from a local power plant where they were used to hang fire hoses.

I don't have a good before picture, you can kind of see it here to the left:



I applied a quick coat of paint a short while ago and hung it up today.






Then I scored another free cabinet today. A wooden one this time and it does look a bit trashed but nothing a bit of time won't be able to fix.






And here's what I'm up to currently in the shop, building a set of wheels for the E39... these are the front wheels. Just in the process of cleaning them up and sanding for paint, also started sanding the lip for polishing. Still need to order new lips for the rear, as I am going for 4.5 inch lips in the rear...