My budget garage-makeover. All your "fault"!

Budget makeover of my rented garage. All your "fault"!

Hi!

My name is Fredrik, I´m a 26 year old.
I am a mechanical engineer, and for a living I design sandblaster machinery,
We build one of a kind machines, all from manual small automatic cabinets, to 15 meter high rotation machines. Think we got one machine in Canada, one in Indonesia, and many hundred in Sweden/Norway/Finland

Been hanging around here for about ½a year now, don´t remember how I found GJ, but after looking at Jack´s 12-gauge and the 1930´s restoration I became addicted... damit!

Background then...
I live with my fiancée in a really nice 900 sqft penthouse apartment.
We like that allot, but we are looking for a house, but that might take another 2-3 years..

So the garage then?
Rented a really small place before, about 1200sqft, but we were 4 guys..
That place was really bad, floor was asphalt, good isolation thow, but it hade some moisture damage..
And for 8 years I have been using my car mainly on racetracks.
But with not that big garage, I used my parents loft on top of their one car garage to store parts for my car, extra tires etc.
Rented that place for about 5 years...

Then one day, I ran in to an old friend from my former work, took a cup of coffee, and I ended up visiting him the next day to look at his place.

He lives at a farm about 15km from where I live.
He got his house, one stable for 15 horses, one barn (5000sqft) with ground floor (I think you call it that, pure dirt.. ) and one garage for his 2 BMWs and his brand new wheel loader.
His garage is apx 2800sqft, and we decided that I could rent one "corner" in there.
So I got 590sqft.
He is a farmer, so not to make my corner dirty, he put up some crimps (?) around it.

I pay $100/month and that includes the electricity
He is really nice, gave me a drill press to

Okay. Enough s*it chat about it

This is what it looked like when I moved in, in late august last year (2009)

This picture shows about 1/3 of the total garage.
All right of the big wheel is mine.


My (old) work bench


My creative corner..
Bench grinder, TIGwelder, MIGwelder, chopsaw.




And the drill press he gave to me.
it was missing the chuck? But for some reason I hade one


And one day when i arrived, he hade put up these crimps (correct word?)
So when i use the 9 kWatt heater the temperature goes from 35 deg F to 60 in about 30 minutes. And I dont need to heat up the entire garage..




thats it for today...

it looked like this from when i moved in till august this year..
thats when I started hanging alot here on GJ.. and thats when the transformation started...
TBC...

Now thats a great start! It's nice to have a friend who can rent you some garage space. You are to be commended on you language skills, your English is very good. I'm not familiar with Halmstad but I've spent some time in Södertälje on business. Keep up the good work and post more when you have time.

It's hard not to become addicted it seems like I came around the time when all these people were posting great shops. I'm fairly sure you may see my remodel soon. But I thank everyone for their ideas. Your garage has lots of space and room for improvement but you have everything you need right now for a very good start.

Ahhh... A fellow countryman. I'm just a couple of wolf howls south of Halmstad. Nice place you got there! My space is in need of a fix up, but that has to wait until I'm finished with the ongoing project.

-Paul

Eyy Warg, from where? Skåne or Halland?

Yes, pretty good start..
Actually it all started back in 2000, i was 15 years old and started to work as a motorcycle/boat/lawnmower repairer, then i ended up studying (2006-2009) to a MSc. Mecanical engineer.
At work we have all kind of CNC machinery, manuel mill and lathe, and we are a small company, only 15 persons, and the boss is really nice.
Doing things to your self is okay during lunch, after normal worktime or saturday/sunday.

Södertälje is on the eastcoast about 260miles (uk miles) from Halmstad, which is on the westcoast.

my English is okay i believe, my sister was an exchangestuden in Littelton, Denver for a year, and i have some relatives in London.

I do all different kind of stuff.
Built a new 7inch extended backswing for a 400bhp suzuki GSXr Turbo..
Rollcages for racingcars, and to do that, I needed a pipebender, so I drew one on the computer, and then i made the bender my self
Here is one smaller cage I built for a Ford ****** RS turbo.




and here is a picture of my shift linkage for my racecar..



I´ll do a update tomorrow from when i started my makeover
after all, the thread is about the garage, not my car

okay.. back to the garage..
first off, cleaning the windows.. man that was discusting!
alot of old spiderwebs, dead bugs and eiiiiiiiiiiiiierk!
borrowed an industrial vacuumcleaner from my dad..
and then some clorine and water..

before:


after:


my little farmer that owns the place havent had any time to fresch up the garage, he works fulltime at a hardwarestore as a seller and repairman on ESAB welds, and then beside his work, he got 1,2 million sq meters of fields, so I dont blame him.

My dad is a handicraft teacher, and got nice price on paint through his work..
so i sent him to the paintshop to by filler, paint and rollers. All of that costed me around $160
2.6 gallons of wallpaint and 3,3 gallons of floorpaint.
dident by any fancy epoxyfloor, remember I only rent it, and if i leave it after 2 years it would be very un-economic...


Started with the walls. Down with everything from the walls and put it in the middle of the space
Filler where there was some old holes and wounds..
then paint.. just white, nothing fancy..


wallpaint dried, and all the things that was on the floor, was put back on the bench or outside the crimps.
the floor was concerat that was done for about 15 years ago.
But on my side he havent had any cars or machines, mainly used it to store potatoes and wood..
so it was just to wipe it of and then paint it


here´s when I did the first coat (of 2)
first coat was, according to the can, thin out with 20% white spirit (i think you call it that)


And this is still after the first coat.
When I did the second coat, I removed the bench hand the shelfs


okay, that´s all for today
cant give you the entire story at once

Fixxer said:

Eyy Warg, from where? Skåne or Halland?

Click to expand...

Skåne ofcourse... My place is just outside of Malmö. Y'all wanna see a bit of it, just take a peek at my website. Link in my signature...

-Paul

Hello again..

Next to fix was my workbench..
My old one was about 5-6 years old, and for a time I used it as a welding table aswell..

During a lunch break I did some drawings and printed it..


and a more colorfull picture..


I liked the design, so it was just to get started..
All the material needed.


Great to have a little shopsaw!


One of the cabinet modules.


Make one more and paint them.. Painted the legs on my other workbench aswell..


Then I made the shelfs and doors.. and painted them..


Starting to come together..


and the finished bench!




It is 36" high, 120" long, and 24" deep.


Next up to fix was some tool hanging board.. (you call it that? )
ended up with three 32x48".




Most of the handtools is up..


Screwdriver-hanger that i made from some 1/6" scrapmetal..


And my zip-tie storage.. I saw someone here on GJ that made somthing like this.. so i copy-paste it


And then I hade some open shelves... Open shelves just collect dust.. and I hate it!
So, my uncle who is a sheet metal worker, mainly doing roofs and thin sheet metal work like that (not any thick sheetmetal) So I got 95sqft of 1mm black sheet metal to dress my shelves with.
I need some square metal to build a frame to the doors, so the doors are just standing next to the shelves here..
Also, under the knives is my homemade hanger for mandrel and cold chisel (dont know if that is what you call it at all.. used GoogleTranslate here...)



Here is a bad .gif picture of the garage



That is pretty much where I am right now with my workshop makover..
Winter is here in Sweden, got about 4inch of snow and it is about 25-30 deg F during the days...
so it is garage-time, and by that i mean time to fix the racecar for the upcoming season.. Building a new engine, changing to a Quaife quicksteerrack, Honda NSX brake calippers and alot more..

Here is a picture of the first job I did on the bench..
Adjusting, checking and cleaning of my adjusteable KW coilovers.

Very nicely done!

Excellent use of the space. Keep us updated on your progress.

jhn9840
John

Looks fantastic! I get so many good ideas off all you guys on this site, I can't wait to get some walls up in mine and make some of these ideas a reality. Definitely keep us updated as things come along!

Great job! To answer your earlier question, some people call "tool hanging board", Peg Board.

Nice job on the clean-up and organization! I really like the new workbench, good choice of color. Gives you a more work-friendly space.

Nice work. The benches you made are awesome.

keduner said:

Great job! To answer your earlier question, some people call "tool hanging board", Peg Board.

Click to expand...

i thought pegboard was the wooden type, with hangers that are like "hooks" that grips in the holes of the board?

i think this type is metal and you use screwes to fasten the hangers.


maybe its called pegboard both of them...



sorry for my bad grammars and spelling

Thank you all!
Yes, I will keep you updated when i do more things with my garage


I realy like the outcome. Tried to keep the colors to a few.
White/lightgrey, black and blue.
Why blue? My MAG and my TIG welders are old Migatronics, and they were blue, also my big plastic boxes were blue..

The pegboard for tools is pegboard, but only 1/8 inches thick, so they are mounted to a 1/2inched thick chipboard (packed sawdust). So i can screw hangers whereever i like to..

I have also filled up the shelves under the bench with plastic jars, five on each shelve 16x10x6 inch (LxWxH) big.

SoL: Nice with more people from Sweden
where are you from?

I like you wall storage ideas.....I guess you are paying it forward - becuase now I HAVE to go do some of this stuff too - DANGIT!!

Fixxer said:

Thank you all!
Yes, I will keep you updated when i do more things with my garage


I realy like the outcome. Tried to keep the colors to a few.
White/lightgrey, black and blue.
Why blue? My MAG and my TIG welders are old Migatronics, and they were blue, also my big plastic boxes were blue..

The pegboard for tools is pegboard, but only 1/8 inches thick, so they are mounted to a 1/2inched thick chipboard (packed sawdust). So i can screw hangers whereever i like to..

I have also filled up the shelves under the bench with plastic jars, five on each shelve 16x10x6 inch (LxWxH) big.

SoL: Nice with more people from Sweden
where are you from?

Click to expand...

Im from Karlsborg (vid vättern)

Looks great what you've done with the place. You can't beat that for $100/month.

The CRX looks sweet - great condition for the age. It have a B16A in it? I'm guessing that's why the hood has a bulge in it. Unfortunately we never got that engine in the US CRXs.

aah,
my girlfriend is from Tidaholm, so i know where it is
I usually pass it when I´m heading to Gälleråsen raceway.

Now I'm thinking of painting my stuff blue.
Looks good

bchee said:

Now I'm thinking of painting my stuff blue.
Looks good

Click to expand...

X2!

The place looks great!

Thank you all for all the nice comments!
I really enjoy being there alot more now!
The blue is a bit "cold" color, but its not to bad..

Scotto said:

Looks great what you've done with the place. You can't beat that for $100/month.

The CRX looks sweet - great condition for the age. It have a B16A in it? I'm guessing that's why the hood has a bulge in it. Unfortunately we never got that engine in the US CRXs.

Click to expand...

Thanks! 100/month is really cheap for a rented garage in my town..

The car got some bumpes and scratches.. Race patina but no rust.
No, actually the CRX is a 89 non vtec, D16Z5 124bhp from the beginning..
in 2006 I built a B18A with a vtec head, got about 220bhp..
then there was a little accident with my fuelpump, found the pistonrings in the header..
then I was a student, with not alot money, so i got a B16a for 3 years now..
but this winter I´m building a B18C6.. aiming for about 230bhp..
1988-1990 we got non-vtec crx..
But yes, 1991 we got the crx with the B16 engine.

Hehehe... when you talk about B16 and B18 I get totally different vibes... Guess you get the drift.
Those were the days. Anyhow, the place looks a lot nicer now, almost too clean. Time to get it dirty!

-Paul

what you're countertop made of? looks good!!!

dirty enough?
pulled out the engine today. 3 hours from when i popped the hood till the engine was standing next to the car

old volvo really is nothing for me
funny thing, my ****** is called S80... its from a japanese integra type R..


ocejo: thank you! the countertop is actually for kitchens.
Dark granite look, 30mm thick (1 & 1/5 inches) but its mainly packed sawdust..
the countertop costed $40.. the intire bench costed me about 120..

I just noticed the date was 2010 and today is 6/25/2014!
I am late to this party. None of your pictures came through. Did anyone else have this problem?
It might be because it has been 4 years.
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