13x24 Single Car Shop

I have been thinking about making some changes in my garage lately and came across this site while looking for some ideas. What a great site! Unfortunately, I know all the great ideas I'm seeing on here are going to end up costing me money Nevertheless, I thought I would post a progress thread for my garage.

My wife and I bought the house almost 2 years ago and shortly after moving in I made some changes to the previous owner's setup. I was fortunate that there is a decent set of cabinets and benches already in place so I had something to work with.

We moved from the Columbus, OH area and at that time had really been into rock climbing. We had an indoor climbing center nearby and really enjoyed that activity. So what were we going to do now that we had no facility close by? Of course I had to build my own.


My wife in action


Here's me with our pup

Fast forward to yesterday and the wall has started coming down. Over the past two years, interests have shifted and the wall hasn't seen much use. I am going to leave the second half up in case we get the itch to climb again. Its something fun for my niece to do when she visits too.

I am now in the process of building up my 1994 Acura Integra for street & autocross use and the extra work/tool space is more a of a priority at this time. The plan is to install new shelving around the upper perimeter to add more storage space. I want to be able to clear as much floor space as possible. I am reconfiguring my bench/cabinet layout to give me more room to work on the sides of the car. Back at Christmas, my dad gave me his old air compressor and got me a hose reel to use with that. I still need to get all of that installed. He also gave me a rolling tool cabinet/work bench that he wasn't using anymore. I already had a small tool chest I picked up as a scratch & dent at Lowe's for cheap so I set that on top and now I have some nice rolling tool storage. Here are some pictures of the current state.



















I put up a temporary wheel storage rack to give me some extra room to walk around




Making some progress on the shelving

The mess you see here is actually worse than usual. A lot this stuff occupied the space on my bench though so by adding more overhead storage, I'm hoping to actually have space on the workbenches for work. You can't see it in these pictures but there is some makeshift overhead shelves in place. At some point a previous owner had put some in and I added to it with scrap materials. All of that will be replaced with the style you see in the last pictures. I want to have a nice uniform look and will eventually add some paint.

Next step is to continue work on the shelving so I can get my floor space back.

Welcome to GJ. There are plenty of ideas here to use for your garage.

Pictures are always required since we like pictures and we can help spend your money.

Post your location in your profile. I see you have snow outside so do you heat the garage?

Snow isn't typical for early April but you never know in Ohio. I do have a wall mounted natural gas heater in the garage. I worked out there all afternoon yesterday and ran the heater on and off. It was about 45 degrees when I started it and was up to 55 in about an hour on a medium setting. When I finally went inside for the night it was 68 degrees and I was working in shorts and a t-shirt! Its definitely a nice feature to have for the winter months.

I got a little done today. I thought I had more 2x4's in my storage shed but unfortunately not so I just did some cleaning and organizing so I'll be prepared when I get some more supplies. My wife's car also needed an oil change so I needed to clear some space to get her car in the shop.


Enjoying the extra storage on these shelves already


Did a little rearranging


Here's a shot with the door closed. You can see the overhead storage there

The shelves above the door have been invaluable space but I would like to upgrade them to something stronger and more aesthetically pleasing. I also added the two lights running lengthwise a few weeks ago and that has been the best addition I've made to the garage so far. It has made a huge difference!

Finished the shelving along the side wall.




I moved a few things into the attic to free up some space on the shelves for "garage" stuff. Eventually, the attic will get organized so other things that I don't really need access to often can be put up there.

Cleared a few things off this wall and organized what is left on the floor.


Once I re-do the shelving above the garage door, most of this stuff will be moved up onto the shelves to clear more floor space. The workbench is still a mess but I did put some 1/2" plywood under one side so that the two surfaces are now level. More to come on the work area and organization in the future.



Getting closer to things being functional. Once I get to that point, I can take some time to repair a few spots in the drywall and do some painting.

What are you using to hold the ceilings to the walls and ceilings?

Garage looks different and empty now when things are stored on shelves.

i see a Transition bike banner wheres the bike? lol

Welcome, and congrats on the home purchase! BTW, we have very similar tastes in cars - I have a 92 GSR which is my track day car and an 04 Impreza wagon as my daily.

captain14 said:

What are you using to hold the ceilings to the walls and ceilings?

Garage looks different and empty now when things are stored on shelves.

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I have 2x4's lag screwed into the studs for the lower portion and the upper part is attached to 2x6's that were lag screwed into the wall studs and ceiling joists. The framing was then attached to those using joist hangers. Based on others walls I saw when doing my research it should be more than strong enough.

dawgee said:

i see a Transition bike banner wheres the bike? lol

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I USED to have a TransAM 29er but I ended up selling it There is only one trail within an hour of here and its not really even worth riding. I'm now down to just my cyclocross bike that I can use as an all purpose bike for some easy trails and road riding. The TransAM is an awesome bike though especially for this part of the country. I still miss it from time to time.

Colin Len said:

Welcome, and congrats on the home purchase! BTW, we have very similar tastes in cars - I have a 92 GSR which is my track day car and an 04 Impreza wagon as my daily.

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Nice! Any pictures of the GSR? I wish now that I would have held out and gotten a GSR. At the time, I wasn't really even looking for Integra's specifically and sort of stumbled upon this one. It was cheap, ran well, and had minimal rust so I pulled the trigger. Its still basically stock at this point but I have a bunch of parts in the garage waiting to get installed when I get some time.

jkrout said:

Nice! Any pictures of the GSR? I wish now that I would have held out and gotten a GSR. At the time, I wasn't really even looking for Integra's specifically and sort of stumbled upon this one. It was cheap, ran well, and had minimal rust so I pulled the trigger. Its still basically stock at this point but I have a bunch of parts in the garage waiting to get installed when I get some time.

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Unfortunately I don't have anything that's very good or current as far as pics. My 2nd car was a 91 Integra GS and that got me hooked on 2nd gen Integras, I've had multiple over the years - most were bought for parts, but we did buy a 92 GS that we turned into a LeMons car and around 6yrs ago I bought a GSR shell from my friend and got rid of my 91 GS. Here's what it looked like when I first got it put together after buying it as a shell:



It's been through a LOT since thing, different engine, suspension/brake overhauls, weight reduction...etc. At the end of 2012 it looked like this:



At the beginning of 2015 I was in a parking lot fender bender and the car sat for a year - primarily because I bought my 1st home and obviously priorities have shifted. But it's now finally underway being repaired along with a full exterior repaint. It's currently still at the body shop:


I'm really excited to get it back but I know it's going to take me forever to put it back together. I can get a bit OCD so I had to strip absolutely every little seal, trim...etc piece prior to paint - which means all of that needs to be cleaned, refinished and reinstalled.

Colin Len said:

Unfortunately I don't have anything that's very good or current as far as pics. My 2nd car was a 91 Integra GS and that got me hooked on 2nd gen Integras, I've had multiple over the years - most were bought for parts, but we did buy a 92 GS that we turned into a LeMons car and around 6yrs ago I bought a GSR shell from my friend and got rid of my 91 GS. Here's what it looked like when I first got it put together after buying it as a shell:



It's been through a LOT since thing, different engine, suspension/brake overhauls, weight reduction...etc. At the end of 2012 it looked like this:



At the beginning of 2015 I was in a parking lot fender bender and the car sat for a year - primarily because I bought my 1st home and obviously priorities have shifted. But it's now finally underway being repaired along with a full exterior repaint. It's currently still at the body shop:


I'm really excited to get it back but I know it's going to take me forever to put it back together. I can get a bit OCD so I had to strip absolutely every little seal, trim...etc piece prior to paint - which means all of that needs to be cleaned, refinished and reinstalled.

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Very nice! Bummer about the fender bender. That fresh paint will look good when its back together though. My first car was 94 Civic Si hatch and that got me into Hondas. I miss that car now. This is my first Integra but since they are basically the same platform its a familiar feeling. Thanks for sharing the pictures of the Teg!

Thanks! Yeah, I'm pretty excited to get it back. Due to weight reduction the car had a white/black color scheme going on which I hated. I'm looking VERY forward to having it all be one color again!

Did a little more cleaning and organizing the other night so I thought I'd post a few pictures.


Now that things are semi-organized I was able to finally fix the leaking valve cover gasket on my Integra.



Also got this idea for spray bottle storage from somewhere on here. Its just a 24" towel bar from Wal-Mart. This area is going to be my car wash/detailing storage area. I will end up using the cabinet for microfiber storage and that cabinet is probably going to go to free up some space or make room for another service cart.


Also thought I'd post some of my new tool storage solutions.


Harbor Freight socket organizers for my metric sockets. I need more!


These are what I was using for all my sockets but found them difficult to remove sockets with greasy hands, etc. Now I am just keeping the less used ones here which are SAE, torx bits, and hex drive


HF wrench organizers


I made this holder to keep some of my hex bits organized. I will label them individually at some point

Lookin' real good! It's funny, I see so similarities with my tool box org I started a few years back in my rental garage. I really like the HF socket organizers and keep buying more and getting more of my sockets on there. I'm still using those silly metal rails for a couple smaller things like my torx but that's it. The Hansen ones are a bit nicer but IMO you simply can't beat the price of the HF ones. I've even been cutting 'em up a bit and customizing them to my box.

How do you like the HF wrench holders? I tried them and absolutely hated them. Ended up getting some from Ernst. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005ZIS8QU/?tag=atomicindus08-20

They aren't perfect, mainly because they have a tendency to move around a little due to opening/closing the drawers but I like the ease of acces to the wrenches. Plus it's very customizable to different sets of wrenches.

Colin Len said:

Lookin' real good! It's funny, I see so similarities with my tool box org I started a few years back in my rental garage. I really like the HF socket organizers and keep buying more and getting more of my sockets on there. I'm still using those silly metal rails for a couple smaller things like my torx but that's it. The Hansen ones are a bit nicer but IMO you simply can't beat the price of the HF ones. I've even been cutting 'em up a bit and customizing them to my box.

How do you like the HF wrench holders? I tried them and absolutely hated them. Ended up getting some from Ernst. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005ZIS8QU/?tag=atomicindus08-20

They aren't perfect, mainly because they have a tendency to move around a little due to opening/closing the drawers but I like the ease of acces to the wrenches. Plus it's very customizable to different sets of wrenches.

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Yeah I really like the socket organizers. They make getting sockets in and out so much easier than the metal rails. I like the HF wrench holders so far. I bent some of the tabs slightly so the wrenches release a little easier and they are much better now.