Barry's 18x20 Garage

[q20v]

And here are a few of the Garaga door. It's a standard size, 16x7', 1.75" thick pressure injected polyurethane foam insulation (R16), double lip PVC perimeter weatherstrip, U-shaped PVC bottom seal. It has wood end sections, triple contact air tight PVC joints between the panel sections with a thermal break between inside/outside metal skins, nylon coated steel rollers with ball bearings, etc. I know, I sound like a salesman, but many of these features I didn't realize it had until after it was installed!

It took 1 guy 2 hours to remove the old door and walk away from the new one. I was pretty impressed. I offered to help but he declined.

First impressions are really good. It's much quieter than the old door, which he attributes to the solid construction. It is definitely stout!

The big test will be coming soon, when the snow starts to fly.

 

[q20v]

Looking at those pictures again it has become obvious that I have some painting to do around the perimeter of the garage on the inside!

 

[dueydo]

Hi, All, I'm new, car ramp looks awesome!

 

[dubber]

New garage door looks great! Agreed with the painting for sure hahaha. Did they take away the old door as part of the service?

 

[Dajugganautx]

Is there a way to post a link to a gallery or something? That way we can at least see the pictures.

Personally I hope photobucket goes down the tubes for that decision, it's broken so much stuff around the internet.

Just wanted to point of if you use google chrome there is a extension called "photobucket hotlink fix". install it and all photobucket photos will magically work again

 

[R741]

Where can I find pics of this garage

 

[dummptyhummpty]

Where can I find pics of this garage

The pictures are still here. You just need to use a plugin to display them. For Chrome, I've had good luck with this: Photobucket Embedded Image Fix

 

[Bob Heine]

Photobucket has unlocked everyone's pictures. Apparently they noticed the loss of business and want us all back -- for $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year. There's an old saying: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" or something like that (go Photobuck yourself?).

 

[GirlnAgarage]

Barry, (it is Barry right?), it's neat to see the evolution of your garage from getting in it at first when it's a bare slate, to the storage, benches and shelves, to the equipment, to the work done and then how it changes after the family and the life stuff, like the recycling bins, strollers and the pink snow shovel. It's cute....uh I mean, handsome and manly.

You did a great job with the work benches and shelving. The wood stuff is my style too. The way you've organized the garage into sides (like with the main work bench) is how I've approached my layout too. A garage this size relies so much on organization to tasks and keeping the area tidy and floor clear to park a vehicle.

My garage is 18.5x20.5 and I've been searching similar sizes for ideas and your use of space is echoing the ideas I had for mine. Seeing how yours turned out, I'm positive moving forward on the ideas I had.

I like how you mounted the drill press on the bench top. I've got my DP on a floor stand and it's worked great in the previous house. But it's not ideal for this space.

Anyway, great execution on your place. Looks like you can work on the things you need to work on and the space is still enjoyable (beer fridge and cool pictures).

 

[q20v]

Thanks for the kind words GirlnAgarage! Yup, it's Barry!

The transformation over time is very telling of my growth both personally and mechanically. It's evident that I haven't been updating lately, and that's largely because I've been busy with other things and also just using the garage. I find it's very functional and fairly easy to keep tidy and clean. But another winter is upon us and I'm motivated to get some new things done.

This summer derailed a lot of my plans due to changes in personal circumstances (mostly a job and car change), and I found in the evenings after the kids were in bed, I just had no energy left for projects. I won't accept this as the new norm, so I took the plunge into a realm I've been wanting to breach for over 15 years: I bought a good amount of car polishing equipment with the intent of going over the top with my S4. The polishers, pads, and compounds/polish are due to arrive this week and that brings me to the next phase of the garage. I'm kind of out of room for it all, unless I re-organize some things.

I snapped a few pics tonight that I'll upload soon, once my picture hosting site is figured out. Gotta say I'm pretty excited to get going on this new section. More to come...

 

[q20v]

Hey,

I've finally managed to re-finish the back wall of the garage, which included taking everything down, filling the holes, painting, installing a new cabinet and shelf, and slightly modifying the shelf above the lathe. The new paint definitely makes the biggest difference.

Before pictures

Notice all the holes and dirt above the shelf backboard. The backboard is also too tall as I can't easily reach that high, so I wanted to shorten this by about 6".

The door was the worse, completely covered in dirt.

After!

Polishing equipment: Rupes LHR15 Mk2, LHR75, Jescar correcting compound, Sonax Perfect Finish, and a pile of different pads to experiment with.

First car for paint correction is the S4. Today I washed and clay barred it, hopefully I can start hitting the machines this week.

I also figured out my photo hosting issues. I'm now using Flickr which apparently is tied to Yahoo/Rogers, so I've always had an account. I found pics from back in 2004! I should have more frequent updates because of this.

Thanks for looking,

Barry

 

[dubber]

Hey Barry. Nice refresh, especially on that door. You certainly stepped up your detailing game. Good luck with the S4. Will that be occupying the garage for the winter?

 

[q20v]

Thanks! Yeah the S4 'hopefully' shouldn't move much during the winter. I picked up a Smart car for daily duties. I have a long list of little things the S4 needs mechanically as well, so this will be a good opportunity to finally tackle all those.

 

[60jerry]

The ramp system looks like my solution to the pain in the tush job of jacking the car up and setting jack stands. One question—how heavy is one of the center sections? I’m 73 and needing to use my energy more efficiently. I figure on just leaving one car on the ramp all the time.

 

[Cancam99ss]

New here love this thread

 

[q20v]

Hey everyone,

Spring is in the air and I'm well overdue for an update. I've gone through a lot of personal changes this past year but I've managed to keep the garage sorted out and have tackled a number of fun projects.

I finished the S4 paint correction which came out fantastic. I then did my dad's GS400 which also came out very well. I'm currently doing one on my brother's B6 S4 which is almost done now. Later this month I'm picking up my S4 and BMW from storage and will pick away at those over the summer. Next winter I'll have to decide if I want to work on the S4 (engine bottom end replacement) or BMW (suspension rebuild and paint correction among other little things). This is the second year of parking the dailies outside during the winter and keeping a project in the garage, and with the insulated door and walls, with a little heater the garage easily maintains t-shirt temps. When I'm not using the garage I keep the inside door cracked with a shoe and the house heat keeps the garage at about 10-15C even on really cold days. I used to watch a lot of movies during the winter and get a bit depressed, not anymore. Nothing beats heading into the garage in my flip flops when its -20C outside and being productive.

My plans for the summer are kind of open garage-wise. I have some cleaning and tidying to do but that shouldn't take long. I will chop up and dispose of my big old car ramps. While very functional they were a pain to get a car on, plus now that I have the QuickJack I have no use for them. I'll likely just get some maintenance stuff done on my winter beaters, tackle a few minor projects on the summer cars, help out a few friends on their cars, and aside from that just enjoy the summer. Actually I have a little side business I've been wanting to start (manufacturing composite parts) so I'll likely dedicate a bunch of time to that. Anyway, pictures!

Paint corrections:
S4
IMG_3263

GS
IMG_1827

S4
IMG_4861


I picked up a QuickJack from Costco last summer and it was by far the best purchase I've ever made. Literally a couple minutes to get a car in the air safely is incredible.

IMG_2751

IMG_2943

I bought a couple little shelves from Canadian Tire for the pump and lines. I strapped the pump down to prevent it from falling off! (which it did on day 1)

IMG_2731

Next up, my detailing storage was hurting, so I added a cabinet at the front of the garage. It really helped clean up that corner of the garage and get my detailing supplies behind closed doors. I still have some organizing to do but that will come in the next few weeks once my brother's car is finished.

IMG_2725

IMG_2750

This area needs to be gone through and tidied...

IMG_2728

I've always wanted to have hot water in the garage so I finally installed that. I had run a copper water line from the old hose bib location under this bench to the front of the garage (see older posts), so I wanted to make the connection to this line with 2 valves for hot / cold.

Under this shelf is where the water line enters the garage.
IMG_3759

IMG_3762

This is the hot / cold set up. The line on the right is hot, left is cold. I just reach under and open one, shut the other depending on what I want. Or open both for medium temp.

IMG_3784

IMG_3786

And finally some general pics of the cars / garage:

IMG_2774

IMG_2776

IMG_2796

Love this one:
IMG_3269

Barry

 

[sean Buick 76]

Good job on the garage and I like the cars!

 

[q20v]

Thanks again Sean. I'm motivated to keep going on some little tweaks here and there, so I'll try and keep updates coming in the next few weeks. I also want to go back and move my old pictures in this thread to Flikr from Photobucket since I don't use the latter anymore.

 

[greyghost18t]

Looks great! I used to have those wheels on my mkiv jetta that you have on your Silver S4. They are just great classic rs4 wheels. I can't wait to see your progress!

 

[dubber]

Nice work Barry. Beat me to the QuickJacks, and now i want one even more!

 

[q20v]

greyghost18t: Thanks! The wheels look great on your car too.

dubber: Thanks! Definitely buy some of the jacks. They make everything so much easier.

The other day I made some hooks for the QuickJacks to mount them on the wall. I saw some online for about $40 and would likely have just bought those, but with nothing shipping these days I came up with somewhat of a replica. I used 1/8" (maybe it was 3/16"?) steel plate and bent it into a hook shape. Mounted it to the wall and while it felt very secure, I added some support blocks underneath just in case. I have no doubts regarding the integrity of these mounts now.

First I clamped two pieces of 2x4 together and bored a 1.25" hole through.


Using a 1" dia steel bar, I pressed the steel plate into the recess of one of the pieces of wood.


I shifted the bar around to get the final shape, but in the end it worked great.




Drilled some holes and contracted out the paint portion of the job.


Had the same contractors paint the wood blocks! They do good work and don't ask for money, can't go wrong with this crew.


Slapped them on the wall using 4 beefy wood screws.




Also picked up the summer cars from storage. Here's the BMW 530i


The S4




Finished the paint correction on my brother's car last week. He brought it home the other day and today a kid rode his bike into the front bumper and bailed over the hood. I think a lot of the scratches will come out but frustrating nonetheless.






And last but not least, I organized my two detailing cabinets a bit. The small one now just has polish / compound / wax, pads, and machines.


And the big cabinet has the microfibers / towels / dirty bins / detailing products / and supplies. (clean stuff up top, dirty things towards the bottom)


More to come!

Barry

 

[Boosted1]

Nice job on the hook plates and good use of labor resources.

 

[q20v]

Thanks Boosted1! I had the kids in the garage cleaning my work bench this morning. Crazy ��

 

[dubber]

Looks great Barry. Great home made solution for the QuickJacks and solid detailing selection. Can’t believe what happened to Blake’s car after sooo much effort had just gone into it.

 

[q20v]

Thanks Dubber! I haven't inspected his car after the mishap but he thinks everything should polish out.

 

[q20v]

Not much has changed in the garage lately. Still have a few little plans but I have some car / house stuff to address first.

These pics are from a few weeks ago:















Still loving the quickjacks