Attached 3 car garage

[BFHgarage]

It is nothing special when compared to some of the palaces on here, but thought I would post a couple pictures of the official home of BFH garage. When we were moving from a 2 car garage to a 3 car garage, I was excited about gaining an extra bay. I have quickly come to realize that you never have enough space!

At least the garage is deep enough to allow for a functional space in front of the cars:

I have hung reels with power and a corded light between the two garage doors:

I built some storage racks for the yard tools:

And what garage would be complete without some stuff on the walls?

Short term plans:
1. I have a 17" mazda wheel that I am going to mount on the wall to hang air hoses and extension cords (saw this idea on this forum). I just can't decide which wall to hang it on, I'm thinking either on the wall behind the miata or on the wall right next to the miata's garage door.
2. I am planning on building some cabinets above the work bench, they will extend up all the way to the ceiling and should provide some good storage. The upper section will require a ladder to access, but I will only put rarely used stuff up there.
3. I wouuld like to get some additional paint on the walls, but can't decide on colors.

Long term plans, in no particular order:
1. A heater. There is a vent and gas supply line in the far corner over the window.
2. Vehicle lift for repair work and hopefully to store a second fun car at some point. Possibly the maxjax, but probably should be a full 2 post. I have seen some interesting options for adapting a 2 post to hold the storage car by the wheels.
3. #2 will require reworking the garage door lift/tracks on the single door.
4. A real compressor, instead of the tiny one that I have, which is really only good for airing up tires.
5. Welding equipment. I've been taking a welding class at the community college and now I want some toys of my own.

Any ideas/input/suggestions would be appreciated.

-Scott

 

[robarosa]

Looks good. Dig the stop light.

 

[BFHgarage]

Yeah, the stop light was given to me by my wife's cousin. He had it laying in his basement for years and never did anything with it. I jumped on it when he offered it.

I found a controller on line that cycles it through the sequence like a typical light, which makes it even better. I got a lot of WTF looks from our new neighbors when I put it up.

 

[vortex]

Nice! I REALLY want a Mazdaspeed banner the same as the one you have!

 

[Brentocool]

Now Build a shed and you will have the whole garage!!

 

[NUTTSGT]

I'd wire up that light to turn red when the wife pulls up far enough.

 

[noodle]

Only 3 bays? Tell that old lady of yours to cut loose some of the extra change and add a lift, a welding shop, and maybe a fine old British rust bucket to wrench on....until then you're just a whipped old man who is only purpose in life is to carry his wife's purse....

Seriously, We miss you down here in Georgia....best wishes.

 

[BFHgarage]

After getting a new collection of 1/2 drive metric deep sockets, I realized I was out of room where I was storing my sockets. After reviewing the available "for purchase" options on socket storage racks, I decided to start building my own.

I'm grouping them the logical way, standard and metric, 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2. I will need to find a way to create some reference labels for some of them so I can easiy find what I'm looking for. It will be nice to have, for example, the 10 mm 3/8 drive 6pt, 12 pt and deep sockets all side by side.

I decided to mount them on separate 1x4 boards instead of one big piece, so I could pull individual groups of sockets out of the box. (Plus I was worried that I might make a drilling mistake towards the end of the build and ruin the whole board and have to start over.) They are going in a drawer in my roll around work top, so I can't really forsee a reason to pull a section out, but I guess you never know.

After putting everything together, I hit them with a few coats of the plasti-coat spray. I was originally going to use the spray on truck bed liner stuff, but the can said it was only for use on metal... It probably would have been ok, but the plasti-coat specifically said it could go on wood.

After they dried over night, I dropped them in the box and loaded up the sockets. Being a bit detail oriented, I went out and bought the 4 missing sockets to fill in the 3/8 and 1/4 sections. Will I ever need a 13mm deep? Probably not, but now the row is full.

My estimation of the thickness of the coating was a little off, so they have a little room to move around, so the rows aren't always straight. Other than that, I think that it turned out pretty good. Now I just need to add some labels so visitors can easily locate sockets.

 

[JimVonBaden]

Very nice!

BTW I use the 13mm deep pretty regularly!

Jim

 

[rmckee]

Nice work.

 

[BFHgarage]

I've roughed out a drawing for the cabinets that I want to put above my work bench. I'm planning on framing the shelves with 2x2 and lag it into the two walls that it will go against (back and left side) and then I'm going to support the front with a 1x4 that will come down from a 2x4 that I'll lag into the rafters.

It seems beefy enough to me, but thought I'd get another opinion. I'll be storing misc. stuff up there like audio equipment, helmets, cleaning supplies, small car parts, etc.

I'm planning on using sliding doors and I'm going to set the front of the top shelf back an inch so I don't have to do a door on each level.