GBsnoopy
Well-known member
Interesting mini.
31x58 UK barn conversion
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Olliecampbell
Well-known member
I dislike the fact that you have a supercar as your tow car! 
Yes, pretty much unique in hatchback form I believe - it's the only one I have seen including in all the books/magazines I have seen on Minis (including searching through the archives at the Heritage Motor Museum in Gaydon). I think it could be one of the world's first 'hot hatchbacks' since it preceded the Mark I Golf GTi by about 6 years (the 1275cc Cooper S was certainly a 'hot' car for its time)!
Apparently it was built in-house by the Austin works team as a support car for the cars they entered in the Monte Carlo rally, which is why the rear has an unusual configuration in order that they could get lots of spare wheels/parts into it.
Although I was pleased to get the frame built for the roller door I have never been that happy with the finish of the door frame as the edges of the weatherboarding could have looked better I thought...
So I got the trailer out the other week and went and bought a load of wood:
That's about 40 metres length of 7" weatherboard so I can cut it to new lengths that will overlap the frame that I built from 4x4 posts. I also got another couple of the 4x4 posts in order to bulk out the top section of the door frame and then I intend to run the weatherboard across the full width there.
So I got the trailer out the other week and went and bought a load of wood:
That's about 40 metres length of 7" weatherboard so I can cut it to new lengths that will overlap the frame that I built from 4x4 posts. I also got another couple of the 4x4 posts in order to bulk out the top section of the door frame and then I intend to run the weatherboard across the full width there.
bazzateer
Well-known member
Wow. An incredible garage you have there! That's the sort of place I plan on buying when I retire, likely to be in Wales as everywhere else will be too expensive!
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Thanks.
I made a start on pulling off the old featheredge board. My plan is to salvage the ones from the right of the frame to be able to cut them down to size to be reused on the left of the frame, which will save me painting/staining new wood! Then the new wood I bought I can use to cover the larger widths on the right.
As I was carefully removing the board on the left something dropped out and on closer inspection near my feet I found this little chap:
I'm not sure if it was still sleepy or was just shocked but it didn't move for a while. I slid a sheet of paper underneath it so I could lift it up off the floor and left it on top of one of my toolchests in case any cats would come and get it whilst it was immobile. After a couple of minutes it started looking around and then flew off to find somewhere else to sleep!
I made a start on pulling off the old featheredge board. My plan is to salvage the ones from the right of the frame to be able to cut them down to size to be reused on the left of the frame, which will save me painting/staining new wood! Then the new wood I bought I can use to cover the larger widths on the right.
As I was carefully removing the board on the left something dropped out and on closer inspection near my feet I found this little chap:
I'm not sure if it was still sleepy or was just shocked but it didn't move for a while. I slid a sheet of paper underneath it so I could lift it up off the floor and left it on top of one of my toolchests in case any cats would come and get it whilst it was immobile. After a couple of minutes it started looking around and then flew off to find somewhere else to sleep!
A minor update... A few years ago I was at an end of season sprint race and the organising motor club was selling off their old extinguishers they were using for the event as they would not be valid for the coming year. I snapped a couple up for 5 or 10 quid each. They have been knocking around in the barns ever since but I thought that really I should mount them somewhere accessible for someone to find them if they saw a fire. Last time I was out in Hong Kong I saw a small shop in one of the streets that sold safety equipment for shops and the like and I went in to see if maybe they sold brackets that I could hang the extinguisher on. They were a little bemused by my request initially, as I don't think many tourists venture into their shop, but I managed to buy three of them in the end and have now put the first one up on the wall of the barn:
And it now holds the extinguisher nicely and keeps it off the floor to avoid me tripping over it or dirt collecting around it:
And it now holds the extinguisher nicely and keeps it off the floor to avoid me tripping over it or dirt collecting around it:
Unfortunately it looks like some unwelcome visitors have returned:
or more likely they have never left. The beam to the mezzanine level was the first piece of wood in the whole garage I painted and at that time I didn't know I had an active infestation so I didn't treat the wood with woodworm killer first. I think they have been living inside since and have now bored out through the wood. I am reasonably confident that they won't lay any new eggs on the wood now it is painted as it will be less appealing to them. I'd like to treat the wood, obviously, but now it has been painted that makes it more difficult as the insecticide won't permeate into the wood :-(. I do have a cunning plan though - more on that later...
On the positive side, all the beams that I treated and then covered with plywood I don't see any new flight holes for this year so I am reasonably confident I have solved the problem there where I took direct action against them!
or more likely they have never left. The beam to the mezzanine level was the first piece of wood in the whole garage I painted and at that time I didn't know I had an active infestation so I didn't treat the wood with woodworm killer first. I think they have been living inside since and have now bored out through the wood. I am reasonably confident that they won't lay any new eggs on the wood now it is painted as it will be less appealing to them. I'd like to treat the wood, obviously, but now it has been painted that makes it more difficult as the insecticide won't permeate into the wood :-(. I do have a cunning plan though - more on that later...
On the positive side, all the beams that I treated and then covered with plywood I don't see any new flight holes for this year so I am reasonably confident I have solved the problem there where I took direct action against them!
And here was my cunning plan:
I used a syringe to inject the woodworm killer into each of the flight holes. I don't think anything resides in the holes once they have 'flown' but I am hoping that the poison has soaked into the surrounding wood a bit and will kill off any that are still boring around in there!
I used a syringe to inject the woodworm killer into each of the flight holes. I don't think anything resides in the holes once they have 'flown' but I am hoping that the poison has soaked into the surrounding wood a bit and will kill off any that are still boring around in there!
This is the other chicken barn that I am working with that is mentioned in my signature but I have not yet done much with it to post on here:
It measures about 100x30 and is a pretty basic block construction with a roof made up of concrete tiles. It's waterproof at least and is a handy place to store stuff and for the kids to play. Internally it is split into three equal sections of 30x30 and then there is a bit tacked on the end that is about 10x30 where I keep tins of paint and various other junk.
It measures about 100x30 and is a pretty basic block construction with a roof made up of concrete tiles. It's waterproof at least and is a handy place to store stuff and for the kids to play. Internally it is split into three equal sections of 30x30 and then there is a bit tacked on the end that is about 10x30 where I keep tins of paint and various other junk.
Here is another picture taken from the 'front' showing the door apertures:
And here are a couple of pictures of the square spaces inside that I started with:
The white plastic pipe in the centre below the roof ran the whole 100 feet of the building and had a screw inside which provided feed from a hopper outside to each of the chicken enclosures. Having taken an angle-grinder to it most of that is now removed!
And here are a couple of pictures of the square spaces inside that I started with:
The white plastic pipe in the centre below the roof ran the whole 100 feet of the building and had a screw inside which provided feed from a hopper outside to each of the chicken enclosures. Having taken an angle-grinder to it most of that is now removed!
And here is what one of the areas looks like today:
I stripped out the feeder mechanism and painted the walls with a load of paint I had left over from when I painted the outside of our old house. I put some more of the floor tiles down as an improvement over the hard, cold concrete floor.
I've put in a table football and air hockey table for the kids to play with and they enjoy having their friends over in the summer and we have actually had all their birthday parties at home in the barn with up to 20 of their mates over for the past few years now.
My Dad was upgrading his kitchen and was getting rid of all the old units so I saved them from the skip and put them up in the barn. It's a handy place to store away the cups and cutlery we keep for use out there for summer barbeques and the like and the fridge fitted still works and is handy to chill the beers!
I stripped out the feeder mechanism and painted the walls with a load of paint I had left over from when I painted the outside of our old house. I put some more of the floor tiles down as an improvement over the hard, cold concrete floor.
I've put in a table football and air hockey table for the kids to play with and they enjoy having their friends over in the summer and we have actually had all their birthday parties at home in the barn with up to 20 of their mates over for the past few years now.
My Dad was upgrading his kitchen and was getting rid of all the old units so I saved them from the skip and put them up in the barn. It's a handy place to store away the cups and cutlery we keep for use out there for summer barbeques and the like and the fridge fitted still works and is handy to chill the beers!
The south of the UK is due to be hit with some very high winds overnight and into tomorrow morning. My trains to work have already been cancelled for tomorrow morning as some sort of pre-emptive strike! It was kind of blustery earlier today but didn't seem anything too bad but when I got home from taking my son to his football match it was a shame to see this lying in the drive:
The other face was about ten feet away with another pile of smashed glass around it that needed to be picked up off the drive. It's not salvageable.
On the positive side, we changed our clocks to winter time here last night so at least it saves me the job of going up on the ladder and moving the hour back to correct the time!
The other face was about ten feet away with another pile of smashed glass around it that needed to be picked up off the drive. It's not salvageable.
On the positive side, we changed our clocks to winter time here last night so at least it saves me the job of going up on the ladder and moving the hour back to correct the time!
T.E.D. Jordan
Well-known member
That's some spare shed you have there!
Shame about the clock though :/. At least nobody was around when it fell. and no cars!
Jordan
Shame about the clock though :/. At least nobody was around when it fell. and no cars!
Jordan
Spent a good bit of time picking up all the bits of broken glass yesterday and putting them into our glass recycling bin. Stupidly I forgot to secure the box inside a barn and left it outside, so when the winds really hit this morning, despite having a good bit of weight inside in beer bottles and wine bottles, the thing still managed to blow about and dump its contents all over the drive, so now I need to scan for shards of glass again but over a much larger area. Damn, why did I do that?
The winds were really strong today so the clock would have come down even if it hadn't yesterday and today there was enough wind that it probably would have travelled far enough to reach one of the cars and damage that as well, so it was fortuitous it dropped yesterday in many ways. Other than that we have a few fences down and the 50 gallon drum thing that I use as an incenerator for sticks and garden waste was blown 200ft down the field, but structurally everything seems to have stayed together okay and no big trees have been blown down.
Power went off at 7:30am this morning and we're still waiting for it to come back on. At least I can catch up reading some GJ threads to entertain me tonight, and I have a log burner in the lounge so can get a decent fire going later for a bit of warmth!
The winds were really strong today so the clock would have come down even if it hadn't yesterday and today there was enough wind that it probably would have travelled far enough to reach one of the cars and damage that as well, so it was fortuitous it dropped yesterday in many ways. Other than that we have a few fences down and the 50 gallon drum thing that I use as an incenerator for sticks and garden waste was blown 200ft down the field, but structurally everything seems to have stayed together okay and no big trees have been blown down.
Power went off at 7:30am this morning and we're still waiting for it to come back on. At least I can catch up reading some GJ threads to entertain me tonight, and I have a log burner in the lounge so can get a decent fire going later for a bit of warmth!
964haus
Well-known member
thanks for the car pics (I was brought home from the hospital in a mini van just like that one....Stockport in the early 70s).
However, I also spy a 550 and a GT3RS (?) in the night shot...you're holding out on us. And please don't say that the 550 is a paddock car.
Great build so far,
Matthew.
However, I also spy a 550 and a GT3RS (?) in the night shot...you're holding out on us. And please don't say that the 550 is a paddock car.
Great build so far,
Matthew.
Very good eyes you have there Matthew! Unfortunately the GT3 is only a 'standard' model rather than being an RS.
I've made some progress on the (re)boarding up of the area around the roller door:
I reckon I am probably about half way to completing it now. Progress has been a bit slow as I have been staining one side of a couple of lengths of board every few days and then doing the other side and letting it dry before fixing it up and then giving a second coat on the outer side, as each length seems to be a mm or two different in length to the other so I don't want to rush in and cut them all the same size and then go to fit them and find a couple are shorter than they need to be, so I have been trial fitting each and then measuring the exact dimensions needed for the row above.
I think I already have enough wood to complete the project although since the new wood looks different to the old wood I am now wondering whether I should actually rip off the old pieces at the top corner and replace with new so that it all matches. I think I'll stop when I get that far and see how it looks first before making the job bigger than it needs to be!
I've made some progress on the (re)boarding up of the area around the roller door:
I reckon I am probably about half way to completing it now. Progress has been a bit slow as I have been staining one side of a couple of lengths of board every few days and then doing the other side and letting it dry before fixing it up and then giving a second coat on the outer side, as each length seems to be a mm or two different in length to the other so I don't want to rush in and cut them all the same size and then go to fit them and find a couple are shorter than they need to be, so I have been trial fitting each and then measuring the exact dimensions needed for the row above.
I think I already have enough wood to complete the project although since the new wood looks different to the old wood I am now wondering whether I should actually rip off the old pieces at the top corner and replace with new so that it all matches. I think I'll stop when I get that far and see how it looks first before making the job bigger than it needs to be!
bazzateer
Well-known member
Maybe give the older boards a quick sanding then stain them? Might make them blend a bit more, over time it'll all merge into one colour. At least yours is basically all one colour! I've got dark brown doors, light brown walls and white window frames!
Well, I've finally reached the level of the top of the door:
Ignore the wood down the sides. That will be stained to match the rest and cover the ends of the overlapping boards. I'm wondering how best to deal with the cutout at the top of the planks though?
I have done a mock-up with my CAD software ( )of the four options that I think I have for the profile:
Are there any recommendations of which would look best or stay sound the longest? Option 1 is how it is now. 2 and 3 would let the rain run off the top I guess. Option 2 would help 'lock' the board above in place but it could be a water trap and start to rot the wood?
Ignore the wood down the sides. That will be stained to match the rest and cover the ends of the overlapping boards. I'm wondering how best to deal with the cutout at the top of the planks though?
I have done a mock-up with my CAD software (
)of the four options that I think I have for the profile:
Are there any recommendations of which would look best or stay sound the longest? Option 1 is how it is now. 2 and 3 would let the rain run off the top I guess. Option 2 would help 'lock' the board above in place but it could be a water trap and start to rot the wood?
Bob Heine
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I would do #3 with a screw through the face of the top board into the vertical piece. Countersink the screw and caulk over it.
bazzateer
Well-known member
Lippyp
Well-known member
Yep, agree, slopes is best!
Well, it has been a while since my last update but it is that time of year when the evenings are closing in again and there is less stuff to be done outside and more time spent indoors on the forum!
I've had a few bits of progress over the last few months - I also have an interesting garage-related project on the go inside the house, in my son's new bedroom, which I will post once I complete it.
I had a party at home for my father's 70th birthday a couple of weekends ago so took a week off work to get some home projects completed in readiness for about 80 guests coming over. In one of the outbuildings we have an outside toilet. It had been connected to the waste by the previous owner, and obviously had a water supply at some point, but when I bought the property there were just unconnected pipes that went to the cistern. There was also no glass in the windows, or what was left of some old rotten frames, when I bought the place but I quickly had some new frames and glass fitted in order to make the building secure, dry and useable. When the builders came a couple of years ago to do the extension to the house I told them to make use of the toilet rather than charge me an extra fee for a portaloo. The flush seemed to work fine with a bucket of water chucked into the cistern so whilst they were on site I just jubilee clipped a hose onto the inlet pipe to the cistern and told them to turn the tap on every day. This is how the bathroom looked at that point:
My wife was less than impressed that there was nowhere for one to wash their hands so I bought a small sink and tap for a bargain £60 that I saw on offer one day. A few bits of pipe to plumb that in, run water through the loft space to the main feed and also a waste pipe for the sink and we had a working washbasin. I then went for my signature 'white paint everywhere' look on the walls and ceiling and found a mirror we replaced in the house that could go above the basin. A loo roll holder and towel ring at £5 each completed the fittings. And a carpet offcut my Dad was going to chuck out that was luckily 1cm wider than the room was cut to size and laid and I ended up with a much more glam facility:
I've had a few bits of progress over the last few months - I also have an interesting garage-related project on the go inside the house, in my son's new bedroom, which I will post once I complete it.
I had a party at home for my father's 70th birthday a couple of weekends ago so took a week off work to get some home projects completed in readiness for about 80 guests coming over. In one of the outbuildings we have an outside toilet. It had been connected to the waste by the previous owner, and obviously had a water supply at some point, but when I bought the property there were just unconnected pipes that went to the cistern. There was also no glass in the windows, or what was left of some old rotten frames, when I bought the place but I quickly had some new frames and glass fitted in order to make the building secure, dry and useable. When the builders came a couple of years ago to do the extension to the house I told them to make use of the toilet rather than charge me an extra fee for a portaloo. The flush seemed to work fine with a bucket of water chucked into the cistern so whilst they were on site I just jubilee clipped a hose onto the inlet pipe to the cistern and told them to turn the tap on every day. This is how the bathroom looked at that point:
My wife was less than impressed that there was nowhere for one to wash their hands so I bought a small sink and tap for a bargain £60 that I saw on offer one day. A few bits of pipe to plumb that in, run water through the loft space to the main feed and also a waste pipe for the sink and we had a working washbasin. I then went for my signature 'white paint everywhere' look on the walls and ceiling and found a mirror we replaced in the house that could go above the basin. A loo roll holder and towel ring at £5 each completed the fittings. And a carpet offcut my Dad was going to chuck out that was luckily 1cm wider than the room was cut to size and laid and I ended up with a much more glam facility:
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Another small project I have done over the last few months is to construct a fuel storage area. What with the cars, the buggy, the mowers, chain saw, strimmer, hedgecutter, etc. there is a need to keep a fair bit of petrol on site but here in the UK they have introduced a law where you are only allowed to keep 30 litres (about 8 gallons) of petrol at an address unless they have granted you a permit to store more. We love our red tape here! I contacted the Petrol authority saying that I intended to store more than this and needed them to give me a permit and they called around to inspect the property. Even though I am not storing any petrol in the house they had a number of criteria to be met and there weren't any current locations in any of the outbuildings that they were happy with. In the end I agreed to construct a 'bund' in one barn to retain any fuel that might leak out if my metal jerry cans were to suddenly disintegrate. This basically consisted of building a wall in one of the barns using some old bricks that I happened to have lying around anyway:
I picked the size based on the fact it could accommodate 5 lots of 20 litre jerry cans, giving me a maximum storage of 100 litres. They then issued me with the permit which I think actually allows me to store up to 275 litres. I have now slotted the cans into place and actually have 4 20 litre cans and 2 10 litres which I can stack on top of each other within the 'bund':
I picked the size based on the fact it could accommodate 5 lots of 20 litre jerry cans, giving me a maximum storage of 100 litres. They then issued me with the permit which I think actually allows me to store up to 275 litres. I have now slotted the cans into place and actually have 4 20 litre cans and 2 10 litres which I can stack on top of each other within the 'bund':
bazzateer
Well-known member
Nice work. I only tend to have one 20 litre can so it just sits in the corner.
Do you ever have any trouble filling it up Baz? They were illegal to use here until Oct 2014 when the lawmakers saw sense and legalised them but one year on a number of petrol stations around here still don't seem to be aware and challenge me when I try to fill mine. I take a copy of the 2014 Act with me and my petrol storage certificate and have been able to convince them to let me continue in the end!
dutchgray
Well-known member
With cans I have found you need to use the small independents over the big chains.
Or pick a location where they cant see what type of can you have from the shop or any cameras when you get it out to fill. It could just be that things are a bit more relaxed around here.
Or pick a location where they cant see what type of can you have from the shop or any cameras when you get it out to fill. It could just be that things are a bit more relaxed around here.
Cris B
Well-known member
Looking forward to seeing more on the barn build. I wasn't aware of the law, you mentioned above, never had a problem filling up the 20l cans though. There are many independent petrol stations left in these parts so hope it isn't an issue in future.
bazzateer
Well-known member
I usually have mine in the boot of my estate car and fill it up in there. Never had a problem and my local station is a large Shell about 100yds from home.
dutchgray
Well-known member
My local station won't let you fill a can unless its on the ground, which is a pain as you can't watch the can and the pump at the same time. So I go the an independent a little further away and pay a couple pence more, and they fill them for me, there isn't many left like that.
mtm_motors
Well-known member
Beautiful transformation of the barn, looks like it is home to some worthy steeds as well!
bazzateer
Well-known member
Nice, how do you get in the room? Through one of those hobbit doorways?
