A 'compact' garage from England

[stuartm375]

Dear all,

Another long time lurker, been wanting to contribute for a while and a period of enforced inactivity (recovery from an operation) means I have a bit of time on my hands.

Just got to say thanks first to everyone who contributes on here. There are some really good ideas and tips which I have adopted, and some proper clever people, I am what you Americans would call a 'shade tree' mechanic, so don't expect any thing fancy!

This may end up in the Motorcycle garages section, as that's what it's used for, but here goes anyway...

To the garage!

The house was built in the 1930s and must have been among the first to incorporate a garage, as car ownership was not as common then. It's a single car job, 9ft x 15ft but the space above goes all the way to the top of the house. More of that later.

I have lived here about 15 years and so this has been a long term labour of love, but I think I'm just about there with it.

 

[stuartm375]

The first thing I did was to build the workbench at the back to suit me, it puts stuff at a nice height for standing, I think I read somewhere the ideal height is up to your elbows as you stand with arms by your sides.

Then painted the interior white and got some decent strip lights, unfortunately I didn't document much of this until recently but you get the idea.

The floor is concrete, not very good quality and a bit uneven in places. I tried sealing and painting it, but that didn't work very well and so I have used carpet tiles, I bought a few hundred from a guy who was refitting a local bank and they work quite well. When stuff gets spilled just replace the tile and it's all good.

This is one of the few pics I have from the early days, with the Mk1 work bench I made from scrap wood. It worked well enough but has since been replaced with a metal hydraulic one from Machine Mart. I can recommend one of these, it saves the knees!!

It has been pointed out that a mug of tea is prominently displayed (Isle of Man mug) anyone familiar with British industry and workplaces knows that not much gets done without it!

 

[Bib Overalls]

An amazing amount of high end work comes out of small workshops like yours. Interested in seeing how you do it.

 

[Shehzada]

Before the hydraulic workbench, how did u get the bike up there?

Sent from my mobile device

 

[stuartm375]

Wheeled it up a ramp, which was always a bit risky, had to have straps handy to secure it and be careful not to over balance, see post from Bronson somewhere else on this forum?

 

[stuartm375]

Anyway after returning home from working overseas, during which time the house was rented (to a US military family who left the place in better condition than when they arrived!) we decided to do a bit of re modelling, new kitchen etc.

Ideal time to get they guys to put in a second floor above the garage and make use of that odd triangular space. I now have a loft with the same floor area as the garage below, very handy for storing stuff. The usual few months of trial and error, anything you want is upstairs and vice versa, but it's working well now.

 

[madmanc]

excellent use of space there, maybe build your own custom shelving next

 

[madmanc]

machine mart has a bike work ramp , just had there cat through the door

 

[stuartm375]

Anyway here's where we are now, the trouble with extra space is that it is soon filled!

Still sorting my toolboxes, the orange one on the left came from my dad's, I am slowly sorting tools into Metric (red Halfords cabinets by the bench) and Imperial AF, Whitworth and BSF (boxes on the left)

The lathe is a 1930s Harrison which I refurbished, bit of a dilemma as I'm not sure if I'll ever get the use out of it, and perhaps more crucially it takes up a motorcycle sized space.

The ladder to the loft can be hung up under the rafters but it doesn't really get in the way and I leave it where it is as it's handy not having to get it down every time.

May get round to tidying up but there never seems to be time.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Looks like you have come up with a nice motorcycle workspace there. I did motorcycle work in an 8’x8’ building for about 5 years. EVERYTHING had a designated space because it had to.

 

[bmwrd0]

Very nice! I used to work on my RD in the kitchen before I was married. Is that a MotoMorini I spy in the early photos?

 

[stuartm375]

Not a Morini but it is Italian, a 1978 Ducati 900GTS. A restoration project, a 50th birthday gift from my wife, got it together and rode it for a few years, went into storage in my brother's factory when I worked abroad. Now in my old mate's garage while he fabricates some mountings for rearsets that won't kill my knees!

 

[bmwrd0]

Very nice! I had rearsets and clipons on the RD, I found it to be a nice position when I was in my early 30's. Now, not so much. But they were not so good on the old BMW I used to ride.