Australian home Motorsport garage

Terrovan · Jan 22, 2015

So, about 12 months ago my wife I and purchased our first home in Western Sydney, Australia. Owned by a previous car nut, the garage space is fantastic, given the location we live in.

I'm assuming the house originally was built with a two car garage underneath the existing home, and had a little workshop and storage room. Later, an addition garage was added to the side of the house, separate structure but still apart of the existing garage.

Additional to that, seems the previous own had dug out underneath the house even more, taking out piers underneath the bedrooms, addition steel reinforcement and concreting the entire area.

What I now have is essentially a 5 car garage, with plenty of floor space, but very minimal usable storage space. So now, my Garage journal is starting.

Terrovan · Jan 22, 2015

We installed a new Kitchen in September, 2014. I decided to keep some of the cabinets and fit them to the garage.

Terrovan · Jan 22, 2015

Cleaned up part of the existing bench, added 5 cabinets that I purchased auction above. Cabinets are bolted to 2 x 5m lengths of 50x75x3mm angle, which are dynabolted to the brick wall behind.

metalhead140 · Jan 22, 2015

Nice! Any pictures of the overall space? What are your plans?

Terrovan · Jan 22, 2015

10457554_10152371426273855_8087687984701599095_n_zpstbgqnsje.jpg

Both race cars parked nicely in the garage. (That's when it was clean). To the right of the image, you can see the door which leads to the extended single car garage. That's my wife's garage.

Terrovan · Jan 22, 2015

This a a couple of AFX tracks all joined together. The previous owner left it behind, and it gets stowed up above using a cable winch. It does work, not the best. The track requires some maintenance to remove all the dust and bits of surface rust on the tracks.

Terrovan · Jan 22, 2015

I like all my bits organised, and found a fantastic idea from another thread. While I'm not going to make mine anywhere near as big, It's such a fantastic idea.

Australian workshop - big plans in a small space

Terrovan · Jan 22, 2015

Motorsport will always cause problems, Had these cast up not long ago. Ended the race on lap 70 of 130.

Terrovan · Jan 22, 2015

I'm slowly gathering pictures. I thought I had a heap on the computer, seems I don't. I will post up plenty of pics as I "slowly" progress. I will also post up a layout and the plans.
(Currently all in my head)

Terrovan · Jan 22, 2015

HF Toolboxes Workbench - Phase 3
This bench is a massive inspiration for my workshop area. Can't wait to get to that part.

metalhead140 · Jan 22, 2015

Nice! Those are some good inspirations/influences. What category are you running the VH in, and what running gear does it have? Guessing sports sedans perhaps by the brakes and wing?

My brothers and I had a huge amount of AFX slot car gear when I was a kid, ill have to find out which of them has it now. Some fine wet and dry will clean up the track contacts quickly and easily. Lots of fun.

Terrovan · Jan 23, 2015

It's got a Group C style kit on it, It runs a 6.0L LS motor (stock motor with a CAM), T56 gearbox and Borgwarner diff. 6 piston Wilwood brakes on front, 4 piston Wilwood on the read. VS V8supercar wing. Virtually no interior. 16x10" wheels, I run 2nd hand Slicks from the rear of a Radical Sports Car. I'll post some more pics of the car.

Good bit of fun, has done numerous amounts of laps around Wakefield Park, just recently did a PB of 1:04.46. I normally run in SuperTT, and also run the Wakefield 300 (300km endurance race). It's a log booked Sports Sedan though. So, you are correct!

As for the AFX track, a friend of mine used to own the "Slot Shop" in sydney, gave a few good pointers like that. Rube a 10c piece around the track, double sided tape at random points to pickup the dirt from the wheels on the cars and from memory, I think he said something like a drop of transmission fluid on the connectors under the car, and that'll keep the track lubed. (I think it was something like that, so, don't quote me on that).

Terrovan · Jan 23, 2015

10707424_10152761223398384_1746893864_o_zpsrpdlyy6r.jpg

metalhead140 · Jan 23, 2015

Great car, I like it a lot. I had a VH as a road car for a number of years, nothing amazing, just a mild 253 and Supra 5 speed, but it was a great daily.

1/2 Cup · Jan 23, 2015

Fantastic and many thanks for posting. :thumbup:

All the best with the garage makeover.

Regards

vortex · Jan 24, 2015

Are you going to race in the Pulsar series too? That looks like a great little series to be a part of.

Terrovan · Jan 26, 2015

I don't mind the VH, i actually prefer the new models, but it came up at the right time. The supra boxs are pretty strong box,especially behind the 253 and 308. Got any pics of the VH.
Yes, into the pulsar series as well. Awesome category. The car isn't finished yet, i have a mate who is currently doing the work on it, hopefully ready within the next 6 months. (Needs a bit of work on it).

Have you got a Pulsar, Vortex?

metalhead140 · Jan 26, 2015

Terrovan said:
I don't mind the VH, i actually prefer the new models, but it came up at the right time. The supra boxs are pretty strong box,especially behind the 253 and 308. Got any pics of the VH.

Sure, just dug up these pictures that I took to sell it back in 2011. It was a great car, but we really needed a better tow vehicle and something that could be used for picking up hay and that kind of thing. After buying the F250, couldn't justify keeping it (including it meant we had 4 registered and insured cars between the 2 of us). It was also getting to the stage that it was going to need some rust repair sooner rather than later, and no longer had a space in the garage. It was a great car though, was my daily driver for 5 years and barely needed anything done to it in that time. I hope it survived and is still out there somewhere.

metalhead140 · Jan 26, 2015

Just had a google and read up on the Pulsar series, looks like it could be a lot of fun. My wife had an SR20 N14 briefly, and it was a pretty fun little car.

vortex · Jan 26, 2015

Terrovan said:
Have you got a Pulsar, Vortex?

Nope, no Nissans under our roof. All Mazdas.

damienga15de · Jan 26, 2015

Like the pulsar here's a few of mine, the race cars under progress no other road going ones left.

Terrovan · Jan 26, 2015

metalhead140 said:
Sure, just dug up these pictures that I took to sell it back in 2011. It was a great car, but we really needed a better tow vehicle and something that could be used for picking up hay and that kind of thing. After buying the F250, couldn't justify keeping it (including it meant we had 4 registered and insured cars between the 2 of us). It was also getting to the stage that it was going to need some rust repair sooner rather than later, and no longer had a space in the garage. It was a great car though, was my daily driver for 5 years and barely needed anything done to it in that time. I hope it survived and is still out there somewhere.

Very clean looking car there. (don't look too closely at mine :-( )

Terrovan · Jan 26, 2015

damienga15de said:
Like the pulsar here's a few of mine, the race cars under progress no other road going ones left.

Very shmick looking cars, I don't know alot about Pulsars, however, I don't think we have many 2 door N15's in Australia. They're a pretty cool looking car. A guy I know just imported two of the N15 VZR N1 Nismo cars from Japan. They are the two door car, and look pretty cool!

Terrovan · Jan 26, 2015

Here are some more shots of the garage, just took them with my phone last night.

This is looking from the Garage doors towards the back wall, just behind that door is the "official" man cave.

Ignore the shopping trolley, someone dumped it on my front lawn last week.

The roller door to the right heads under the main section (bedrooms etc) of the house.

Little workshop area, that's where I'm planning the bench setup as shown in post #10.

Now, I'm a massive IT nerd, this is a little room under the house, which will be my "Nerdy" room. Got a full size 19" rack. I'm building my own alarm system from an Arduino with an Access control system. All the garage doors, and external doors (excluding sliding doors), will be open-able from my phone, or using RFID keypads. Also running HD IP cameras around the outside of the house, shortly will be installing Clipsal cBus lighting.

The plan is to run an internal web service to allow me to control all the lights and doors from my phone or any connected device. It'll also allow me to see any window or door that is open or closed. (that's a long term project that will develop over then next couple of years).

sean Buick 76 · Jan 26, 2015

Awesome work so far! If you were to flush mount your metal chop saw it would make it even easier to cut your material on that table. Keep us posted, I like the projects.... Sorry to see the race car damage.

damienga15de · Jan 26, 2015

Terrovan said:
Very shmick looking cars, I don't know alot about Pulsars, however, I don't think we have many 2 door N15's in Australia. They're a pretty cool looking car. A guy I know just imported two of the N15 VZR N1 Nismo cars from Japan. They are the two door car, and look pretty cool!

Yeah I seen that on Facebook, they are all n1 s that I have owned. 1600cc 8200rpm 200bhp much fun

Terrovan · Jan 26, 2015

sean Buick 76 said:
Awesome work so far! If you were to flush mount your metal chop saw it would make it even easier to cut your material on that table. Keep us posted, I like the projects.... Sorry to see the race car damage.

Thanks Sean, The plan is to cover that bench section completely. I have this OCD that things must be symmetrical and level. Those pieces of pine are not flat and quite lumpy. That section will have a level bench, probably using 25mm Ply, and have a "splash back"?, not showing any brick work.

I know I will loose a bit of space, but meh! She'll be right!
Thanks for the tip with securing.

Terrovan · Jan 26, 2015

damienga15de said:
Yeah I seen that on Facebook, they are all n1 s that I have owned. 1600cc 8200rpm 200bhp much fun

8200RPM? That's nuts, and only 1.6L? No SR20s?

damienga15de · Jan 26, 2015

No the tax is too high here on a 2.0 the racecar I'm building will run a sr20 vzr pistons high lift cams and some bolt ons a vzr box cusco diff possibly a m factory 4.7 final drive.

Terrovan · Jan 26, 2015

metalhead140 said:
Just had a google and read up on the Pulsar series, looks like it could be a lot of fun. My wife had an SR20 N14 briefly, and it was a pretty fun little car.

They're awesome little cars, this was actually a wedding present to my wife. I got married two years ago, and the car was in the same state as it was when we got married.

Terrovan · Jan 26, 2015

damienga15de said:
No the tax is too high here on a 2.0 the racecar I'm building will run a sr20 vzr pistons high lift cams and some bolt ons a vzr box cusco diff possibly a m factory 4.7 final drive.

Now THAT is sounding pretty serious...

roadhouse · Jan 26, 2015

Great space! Love the race car...many things are better when LS swapped

Terrovan · Jan 26, 2015

roadhouse said:
Great space! Love the race car...many things are better when LS swapped

LS motors are fantastic! Great RELIABLE horsepower!

vortex · Jan 27, 2015

Terrovan said:
The plan is to run an internal web service to allow me to control all the lights and doors from my phone or any connected device. It'll also allow me to see any window or door that is open or closed. (that's a long term project that will develop over then next couple of years).

Wouldn't bother with Arduino for that personally. RasPi has way more power than you will need for a security system with the convenience of Linux. Or if you need more GPIO pins a Beaglebone Black is probably a better choice.

Terrovan · Jan 27, 2015

vortex said:
Wouldn't bother with Arduino for that personally. RasPi has way more power than you will need for a security system with the convenience of Linux. Or if you need more GPIO pins a Beaglebone Black is probably a better choice.

I have a RasPi, but I also have a heap of Arduino Megas. The Mega is just going to talk with an Internal web API, then the actual web service will manage all the logic. Pretty much telling the web server when a state has changed, oh and the web service will tell the arduino which relay to activate etc, when needed.

I must say, I haven't looked at the Beaglebone before, but I will now.

I didn't want to have to deal with an actual operating system. Don't get me wrong, I'm a linux man, just wanted it "simple", well hopefully. ;-)

Terrovan · Jan 28, 2015

Managed to spend another hour in the garage yesterday after work. Another couple of cages gone and another pallet gone. Only 3 to go! Still trying to work on my organisation skills, and trying to keep focused on one job.

dr_obson · Mar 29, 2015

Terry!

I found you haha

Nice size space you've got there, done anymore work to it or has the little man taken priority?

Dane

Terrovan · Apr 22, 2015

dr_obson said:
Terry!

I found you haha

Nice size space you've got there, done anymore work to it or has the little man taken priority?

Dane

Hi Dane,
I've now found you too! It's a pretty decent space. Harrison has taken a little bit of time, I haven't spent much time down there, but had been working on the car in preparation for Bathurst. Bathurst was AWESOME! although, now needing some panel work to make the car a little cleaner!

Terry.

Terrovan · Apr 22, 2015

Not much progress recently, although due to closing down one of our three Sydney offices, the chances of procuring freeies is awesome.

I've managed to score a heap of timber and panels.

Also managed to obtain a safe, not needed by anyone, I thought It'll be a great piece for the Man cave or Garage. This thing is only about a tonne, and should be good for storage of my millions of dollars of cash or the kids birthday/Christmas present. (more likely the latter).

dr_obson · Apr 22, 2015

That's what happens when you let Geoff drive

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