Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT Big Country Texas Shop

[83VillageRepair]

I take it that those tires had calcium in them??

Good to hear that you are getting that estate business wrapped up. I don't think I've ever heard of an estate cleanup that was anything but a negative experience for all involved.

They definitely had some kind of flat additive in them. They actually cleaned up pretty good.

Estates are not fun, especially if you are the executor. Dads estate was very large in items, not necessarily in value.

 

[83VillageRepair]

Got started on the wife's garage this last weekend but first we built a jib for setting the beams. I have a lot of scrap steel so it wasn't hard to find some good ingredients. Stick welded with my Trailblazer 6011 followed by 7014. It turned out ok.


Got the plates anchored to the concrete and the outside wall up.

This is what it will look like.

 

[83VillageRepair]

These are the pictures of the Jib I couldn't get to attach above.

 

[83VillageRepair]

So last weekend I took a slight detour on my focusing on the garage build. You might remember I acquired a 1950s? Gulf Gas Station in pieces a few years ago. I am in need of all the doors and windows and these popped up on facebook marketplace last week. The station they are in is a early 60's Conoco station. One of the porcelain bolt together prefab buildings but totally different than the Gulf. But the doors will work great. All of the old Conoco's in Abilene got bought out and are all being converted to C-stores. This was/is the last full service station in Abilene.



So this weekend three of us pulled a 10 hour day removing them. All Square headed bolts that mostly needed to be cut off with a grinding wheel. It was the coldest day so far in this part of Texas, 30deg F at daybreak. I know warm for most of you but my crew whined loudly.



In addition, I got this Lincoln hose reel set up. i am also on the list for the Aluminum Rest room doors.

 

[83VillageRepair]

I got back on my garage project this weekend and got a couple more uprights in the air. I also mowed about 4 acres of dead grass to keep it from becoming a fire hazard.

 

[83VillageRepair]

My wife tells me that whatever you do on New Years day you will repeat all year so I started a new project. I have been without a trailer toter for a while so I acquired a F350 Chassis Cab project that I will be rebuilding. I was looking for a the latest model Ford with a manual transmission I could find and a gas engine (not a fan of 6.0 or 6.4 diesels). So anyway, I started on my 2007 F350 project. It is a 6.8L V10 ZF6 and it is a loaded Lariat work truck.

First project is removing all of the gaudy stripes to get myself excited about the look. I got most of the right side done. Still have the left and the hood and removing all of the running lights. I am going to get it cleaned up and looking better and then work on the mechanical (I know thats backwards but it helps with my motivation)


It suffers from tank delamination so I got a new gas tank for it, NAPA had a 20% off new years sale.

 

[83VillageRepair]

I have 2 parts vehicles both also chassis cabs.

 

[jollygreengiant]

Is the new truck a local one? I'm surprised to see that much rust on it since you're in Texas.

 

[83VillageRepair]

Is the new truck a local one? I'm surprised to see that much rust on it since you're in Texas.

It is surface rust from gravel road driving in dry Western South Dakota. The body is amazingly good. The parts trucks are not near as nice though.

 

[83VillageRepair]

So last weekend I build man baskets for the telehandler and the skidsteer. A little 6 footer and a 14 footer. Should get the job done for working at height on this project.




I also put up one more upright. The hole we augered four weeks ago filled up half way so I cleaned out with the shop vac. Next I need to concrete all the uprights and cut the angles on the top.

 

[83VillageRepair]

I have been without a full sized pickup for a while. My project trucks are going slower than I would like so I bought a temporary work truck until I get my project done. I look at marketplace most days and this popped up a cheap price so I bought it. 150k miles on a 1999 is pretty low and everything works.



I will change all the fluids and do some other maintenance on it this weekend. Been driving it to work for the last week and, other than the gas mileage is everything I could wish for.