broke guy wants expensive garage....

[mustanglovr6473]

okay, here's the thing. i'm your basic high school student. meaning i have no money. i got a 66 mustang project car in my garage, a bunch of tools sitting around, and a whole lot of **** messing the place up. needless to say, i want to trick out my garage. i just need a clean place to work, with lots of storage space. money is tight, so i need to go simple. any ideas?

thanx, brian

[email protected]

 

[imported_banzaitoyota]

Get another job to finance purchases. GET OVER the "I got to have it all now" attitude. Clean\organize\paint what you have with available funds.
Set a budget and PRIORITIZE.

 

[trovato]

If you have a 66 mustang project car, a bunch of tools and a garage, you're not a "basic high school student". You're a "damn lucky high school student". For the most part, forget about making it pretty. You don't need the fancy floor or all the cool storage units. Scrounge used kitchen cabinets. I have a bunch in my garage. Just the upper parts. Look around for plastic storage things. Those double interlocking flip top box things are good for big stuff, and can be stacked if not too heavy. There's all kinds of other plastic storage stuff for other smaller sizes. The way to do stuff on the cheap is scrounge, scrounge, scrounge. It's difficult to give exact advice, because there's no way to know what you may find. Somebody's throwing away an old door? That's a workbench top. You get the idea.

 

[OH-MAN]

I built shelves out of 2X4s and 3/4"plywood to fit the space I had in the garage
They lasted 15 years and will hold a lot of stuff. When I put in custom cabinets I moved these to a large shed cutting them to fit.
I have since moved again and I still have most of one in a small shed.
They are cheap to build and will last a long time.
Concentrate on organizing the space you have to work for you.

 

[ZRWON]

Brian, check out the "MY GARAGE" link in my signature and scroll down to "Slideshow". Click on it and you'll see what can be done with some with limited expenditures. The cabinet area to the right of the work bench is an old kitchen sink base about 8 ft long. To the left of the sink base is an 8 foot work bench built on metal legs that were part of a "work bench kit". The 8 foot extension portion of the metal work bench to the wall on the far left was built with 2 X 4s and 4 X 8 3/4 inch chip board. With the exception of the chip board (or plywood) for tops and 12 inch wall shelves and the peg board purchased at Home Depot, all the other items were found at garage sales. I did get the little yellow containers on Ebay. My total cost for that 24 ft wall was less than $100. It's the paint that makes it look good and that's inexpensive!. The small metal cabinet and the refrig were $8 at a gagage sale. Note the bottom 1/2 of plastic oil jugs for small parts storage in the drwaers...all free at a local "quickie oil change" place. On the slide show you'll see before and after pics that'll give you a feel for how paint can make a "silk purse out of a sow's ear" especially if your let your creative talents make it distinct to your Mustang or personality. Good luck and stay with this forum. These guys are very helpful with garage ideas.

 

[TOMWELDS]

Get another job to finance purchases. GET OVER the "I got to have it all now" attitude. Clean\organize\paint what you have with available funds.
Set a budget and PRIORITIZE.

RIGHT ON!

 

[sberry]

Find a rich widow to shack up with who already has a garage.

 

[byrdman]

It took me 20 years to migrate from the gravel driveway to my garage. And that's with no wife, no kids. Start saving and maximize what you've got while you are waiting.

 

[Satatic]

Go dumpster diving at construction sites(the ones where they build homes). They are full of great wood for making shelves. The current shelves in my garage were made from the old forms from when it was poured.

 

[stioc]

All of us here would love to have a big fancy garage and I know its difficult to not be tempted when looking at the garage pics posted here. Who wouldn't want a yellow Lamborghini Mercillago and a Mercedes CSL parked on a beautiful driveway ?

However, you can still get a lot of fun, enjoyment and pride out of what you already have. When I recently had to downgrade from a nice sized two car garage to a tiny one car garage I wasn't happy. In fact, to make stuff fit I had to throw or give away lots of things including my Craftsman workbench with a vise, a bunch of shelving units, storage cabinets etc. Needless to say I wasn't happy...however, after the reality set in I got up off my **** and started figuering out how to make the best of what I have. To add insult to the injury the apt building does an inspection every few months to make sure that the tenants are not using the garages for storage space. It has to be able to fit a car. After a couple of weekends of work this is what I ended up with. Its still very small and not the most convenient to work in but it gets the job done. I recently used it to replace suspension bushings, control arms, shocks, springs, struts, waterpump, radiator etc on the bimmer.

I'm just hoping we don't get a big earthquake so all that stuff doesn't come tumbling down...on me or the car

Shelving and wall space are your friends when you have to organize stuff and make effecient use of space...goodluck and post before and after pics when yo're done

 

[kartracer55]

My advice? screw the garage, put the money into that pony of yours. If you need toolboxes, check out ebay for a used craftsman box. usually they will come with tools as well, which will save you from havign to buy more tools to get you through. As for workbenches, Even a folding table will do you tons of good for actualy working, but not so much hammering and whatnot. Maybe if you could*secure* some milk crates of the same size, you can organize parts into them, and usualy the sack up nicely. It only has to be temporary. remember, spend the money where it counts... keep the GF happy, and get that car on the road.

The other thing you need to do is pruge the place. set aside a nice weatheredweekend, and make no plans. just clean out the garage. if you havent used it in more than a year or two, and it doesnt go to the car, throw it out! stick it out on the street with abig Free sign. no sense in saving **** you havent used in years and probably wont for more to come.

The other thing you need to remember, is keep the work area clean, and dont start too many projects at once. Thats what the milcrates are for. If you are working on one thing, and you have to wait for parts, stick it all in an empty milkcrate, and stick it under the "workbench" dont mix up parts or anything like that. If you have the room, go to Hf or someplace and get the cheapest steel shelving you can find. It all helps. The key is to get things out of the way for when you want to work, and not to mix up projects. goodluck, and post some picks so we can see what your up against and make suggestions

Jim

 

[Satatic]

The other thing you need to do is pruge the place. set aside a nice weatheredweekend, and make no plans. just clean out the garage. if you havent used it in more than a year or two, and it doesnt go to the car, throw it out! stick it out on the street with abig Free sign. no sense in saving **** you havent used in years and probably wont for more to come.

You would not believe the amunt of useless junk you will find. When I first cleanout out my garage it was amazing. Who needs 3 broken electric weed whackers? Or 10 dry rotted fishing polls? God there is so much **** that can be just thrown out.