Above 1200 Sq/FT Cody's 33'x62' Garage

[Bob Heine]

I’m also getting ready to install the windshield washer tank.

Cody, I touched the windshield washer tank on my '87 Corvette and it cracked. Although we no longer have vehicle inspections in Florida I decided to replace it anyway. Used ones on eBay and New Old Stock were about $100 so I chose a new reproduction one for $90. I am having flashbacks to my eurospec BMW 733i. It seems every time I need a part it's stupid expensive.

 

[madison069]

Cody, I touched the windshield washer tank on my '87 Corvette and it cracked. Although we no longer have vehicle inspections in Florida I decided to replace it anyway. Used ones on eBay and New Old Stock were about $100 so I chose a new reproduction one for $90. I am having flashbacks to my eurospec BMW 733i. It seems every time I need a part it's stupid expensive.

I hear you on the cost of everything I touch. The nut that I am waiting for that allows the pump to be attached to the tank is from a 1975-1992 Corvette. Apparently, the only source for those nuts is from a corvette site. The actual cost of the nut is $14.45 and the shipping is $10.99, so $25.44 total. For a nut/filter deal. I searched locally for a nut that would fit the pump but the thread is very course and odd. I thought I would find something in the irrigation department or something that had a lot of plastic and water involved but no luck.

So, it seems lately that everything I need is going to cost $100 or more each time I order something. Eventually I need to buy tires for the Camaro but I suspect that will be a next year purchase. Either way, I still got projects around the house so I will probably work on those as a couple of them don't require money, just labor and time. Maybe that's what I will do today, work on the trench by the grilling area and get that trench cleaned up and filled in with the rocks I recently acquired.

 

[Bob Heine]

The nut that I am waiting for that allows the pump to be attached to the tank is from a 1975-1992 Corvette.

Cody, I feel your pain. While I had that washer fluid tank out of the Corvette I ordered a new pump. I almost bought a new nut but gagged at the price and re-used the old one. Lots of fun installing it...

 

[madison069]

Cody, I feel your pain. While I had that washer fluid tank out of the Corvette I ordered a new pump. I almost bought a new nut but gagged at the price and re-used the old one. Lots of fun installing it...

I knew you would know the joy that I’m looking forward to with that nut. I was planning to do what you did and just let a vise hold my extension to allow me the freedom of using both hands.

On the plus side, I just checked under the camaro during lunch time and I’m happy to report there are no drip on the floor. I couldn’t get under the car to see if anything is slowly seeping, but figured 18hours should be plenty of time for it to drip off the pan if there was a slow leak.

 

[madison069]

Maybe some of yall will remember this area.



I finally got it finished. Now I’m digging a trench around my front porch for the rest of the rocks.

It’s all about diverting water around this house. This rock trench is on top of a wall of 2B limestone gravel that has a French drain pipe at the bottom of the cellar wall almost, which takes the water down around the cellar and to the back of the garage where there is a shallow channel. The channel goes through the neighborhood to a detention pond with an inlet in the middle. Then the inlet goes to a storm pipe that goes to a flowing creek at the ends of my block and goes all the way down to the river miles away.

How’s that for diverting water away from the house!

 

[madison069]

I promise the railing on the left behind the grill is not leaning. I have no idea why the photo makes the railing looks like it's a leaning tower of piza. It's like the whole left side of the photo is curved downward????

 

[zanyad]

I promise the railing on the left behind the grill is not leaning. I have no idea why the photo makes the railing looks like it's a leaning tower of piza. It's like the whole left side of the photo is curved downward????

Your phone/camera is drunk.

 

[madison069]

Some small updates.

Stocked the fridge for the weekend.


Change air filter on the camaro, old filter

New filter,


Got the over flow tank cap installed


The washer fluid tank pump nut won’t be in til Tuesday. So that’s sitting on the table waiting.


Went to a downtown event and saw the weinermobile.


Other then that, just doing house work.

 

[madison069]

Drove the camaro to the nearby park this morning. It drove a lot better with the brakes not hanging up. It also shifted into third real nice.



I need to adjust the shifter and the neutral switch, seems I need to get the shifter to go forward about 1/4” to be perfectly aligned with the indention in the transmission. I think the rear brakes has a little squeal when applied. I’m wondering if I just need to drive it some. Engine stays at 180*f and oil pressure is 40-60psi when it’s 1500-2,000 rpm. I think there is a hum in the stereo speakers that’s rpm related. Yet I have the radio off. Power steering isn’t working all that well. It’s stiff when idling and at the stop sign. Maybe it’s a bad pump? I replaced the steering box last year due to the old one was leaking.

It’s been a long time since I’ve driven an old car so I’m going to have to relearn the quirks. Along with driving a car with a large cam and stall feels different than the daily drivers. Course that’s part of the enjoyment!

 

[madison069]

Small project in the garage regarding the jack stands. I bought these hangers so I can get rid of the shelf. They are nice little hangers and wasn’t too pricey.


They work great for the 6ton harbor freight jack stands. I’ve had these stand for over 25 years, so no worries being the old jack stands. But I do want to clean them up and paint them a different color than the orange and white.
But here is the wall with the old shelves


Here the wall with the stands back up.


The hanger with the jack stand on it


The white part has to be up one notch in order to slip on the hanger properly.


Now with the jacks back in place under the stands.


Now to find a way to store the rhino ramps on the wall without the shelf.


Just worked on house project and cooked burgers and dogs for Labor Day.

I did take my father in law out for a short ride in the camaro. When I got on a short flat stretch of road in a wooded area, I punched the throttle a little hard. As the front of the camaro picked up a little, my FIL started reaching for the door handle and tried to grab the dash but he wasn’t able to lean forward due to the camaro pushing him back in the seat. Needless to say he was a little scared, lol. He not much of a performance car guy so he isn’t used to it.

I slowed down quickly as I was coming up on a hill and didn’t want to be too reckless. I’m sure he was glad to slow down too.

 

[madison069]

Stayed home yesterday to work on a house project, only thing done in the garage was clean this chainsaw and sharpen the chain. Considering it came out of trash it’s been a good saw. I wouldn’t even be disappointed if I had paid for it.

It’s being used as a sacrificed saw since I’m cutting into dirt and such, didn’t want to ruin my nice saws. So far it’s been taking it like a champ so it deserved to be sharpened.


It’s even made in USA.

 

[madison069]

Went to install the washer pump and thought I was just done tightening it when righty tighty went righty loosey…..




Yea I stopped for the day.

Ordered a new pump to install.

 

[madison069]

Got the boiler back up and running. New transformer was the ticket. Here is the new aquastat and new transformer installed.


Here is the overall boiler.


If it ever starts leaking I will replace the boiler and put two zone setup and change a bunch of the attached pipes and flue. But right now it’s doing a fine job of heating the house. Hopefully I won’t have to go in the cellar this year to tap the relay like I did with the old one.

 

[madison069]

One of my big side project has been taking care of the front porch and see about finishing it up. As I mentioned back in the days, I hated the concrete slab due to the concrete setting extremely fast on me and I wasn’t able to finish it. So first thing in order was to remove some of the dirt around the porch so the resurface material will be able to get on the edge.

Here is the before junky looking porch.

Crater and holes.



Once I got the top patched up and filled in the low spots I then spread the resurface material.

Once that was done I needed to address the water that gets on the porch when it’s a heavy pour.

So I dug a French drain around the porch to catch the water before it gets on the porch.

Here’s the French drain.


It ties into my downspout.


Then I was able to back fill the trench with the stones I recently got for free. I will be applying some algae remover to brighten up the stone. Just waiting for it to come in.

But here is the final results.




It’s a big improvement then what I start with, not perfect, but good enough that I’m able to look at it and not get irritated.

Next is to wrap the post and replace the gutter and downspouts as they are too small and the downspout looks all janky.

 

[madison069]

Today was a go work on in laws water again. This time it wasn’t the water source but the water line that goes across the hill. Seems he didn’t heed my warning on sediment building up and he should flush the lines every so often. So, the sediment built up in a low spot of his pipe that travels across the hill before going downhill. The hill hole was filling up nicely with water where I did all of the cement work. I couldn’t see the end of the pipe in the hole due to the water filling up. So now I’m thinking of putting in a new poly line to go diagonally to intercept the existing poly line that’s buried in the ground and goes down hill to the tank. This will eliminate the section of clobbered together pcv, poly, rubber and what ever else he could find just to piece together for free most likely. It will also remove the ups and downs in the pipe line. Then I will build a sediment trap tank to allow the water to go in this tank and let just the top layer of water go downhill. Hopefully this will settle out the heavy stuff. No photos due to leaving my phone in the car as it was muddy on the hillside.

Then I came home and took a warm shower since it’s cold outside today and I was muddy. This way I was comfortable watching football and cleaning the garage some. Ended up taking two contractors bag out of the garage and a bunch of boxes and scrap wood junk that’s too small for anything.

I also looked over my gas cans and apparently two of them split. Probably from the vent port being placed on the seam.


So two of those gas cans disappeared to the trash can area. I did save the nozzles. That’s about it for the day.

 

[madison069]

While surfing facebook marketplace, I came across this metal work bench. The top is 38”x32”x3/4” and it’s heavy. I’m trying to remember but I think it’s 36” tall. I figured for $100 it was it just for the top plate.




Since the shelf and angle iron isn’t in a place I can use it, I went ahead and cut it all out.




I did start out using my cutting torch but apparently the oxygen hose developed a leak so I couldn’t use it anymore. But using the angle grinder and sawzall I was able to get it all cut.

I’m going to order some casters for it so it’s mobile, and I’ll start cleaning it up while I decide how I want to lay it out. But my plan is to put some shelves under the top to hold my MiG and arc welder. This will become my welding table/bench in the end.

 

[madison069]

Strange as it is, I have not been keeping a list of what I need to do for any of my projects. After reading about google tasks and other programs, I figured I’d start with Google Tasks to start keeping tabs on everything I need to do.

I don’t know if that’s a good idea or not.

 

[MadeByMiller]

Strange as it is, I have not been keeping a list of what I need to do for any of my projects. After reading about google tasks and other programs, I figured I’d start with Google Tasks to start keeping tabs on everything I need to do.

I don’t know if that’s a good idea or not.

As you saw, I'm using Tasks and so far, so good. I'm not getting crazy with it yet, I currently only have two lists, but I am enjoying it more than I expected. When I try new things like this, I usually start slowly to see if it feels like a good fit, and over time I'll increase my use and try to find new ways to implement it. Keep us up to date with how you utilize it!

 

[madison069]

As you saw, I'm using Tasks and so far, so good. I'm not getting crazy with it yet, I currently only have two lists, but I am enjoying it more than I expected. When I try new things like this, I usually start slowly to see if it feels like a good fit, and over time I'll increase my use and try to find new ways to implement it. Keep us up to date with how you utilize it!

Currently I got 6 list that basically pick one item like the camaro, or room in the house like the kitchen or porch. So far I’ve written down what I remember and also keeping notes as I make orders for parts and find details I needed and set times for order pickups and so on. Nice platform to get started for sure.

 

[madison069]

Not a lot happening in the garage since Tuesday, been working on another project and had to get a lot of material over the weekend and a lot of driving with the car trailer to haul the material to the site. Seeing a few people on here sprucing up their trailers and seeing the condition of mine, has me wanting to spruce up my trailer some. So, soon the trailer maintenance will take place as winter rolls around.

I did get my casters in the mail yesterday for the welding table. But I need the cutting torch to make plates to bolt the caster to the legs of the table.

Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the oxygen regulator on my cutting torch had **** the bed. Ended up blowing up the new torch hoses before I was able to shut the bottle close. The blowout happened 6 inches from the torch, so I got a repair kit coming along with a new hose and oxygen regulator. After a friend getting killed by a freak accident of the torch hose blowing up on him, I've been a little skeptical with repairing the torch hose. Basically, from what I was told, the hose blew up on him and somehow the hose whipped around and hit him in the mouth. When this happened the hose and gas damaged his throat, and he basically ended up choking since he couldn't breathe due to the damage to his throat. He was a welder by trade and was just working on a project at home when this all happened. His birthday was just one day after me, so he was young when he passed. None the less the repair kit is a crimp kit, so hopefully that will be better than a hose clamp repair, and I will use my crimp tool from my AC hose repair that I did on the Camaro to make the repair. I threw the old dried out hose away, the repair will be done on the new one that popped on me due to failed regulator.

New windshield washer pump for the Camaro came in, I even got it installed on the tank. This time i just snug it up a little after the initial contact and based on the water test, it doesn't leak. I figured if it did leak after installing it, it's easy enough to tighten it while in the car.
I still need to install it in the Camaro though.

Mainly just been cleaning, throwing more stuff away, and collecting tools for jobs that's going on.

 

[madison069]

A perk of driving around for my job is I get to see odd things. This one is kinda cool but odd at the same time.




Seems to be a small car stripped of the body and a roll cage installed. Street legal too! I bet it drifts really easily.

New oxygen regulator came in and new torch hose, no more issue and it worked as expected.


Here are the new wheels for the welding table. 8”x2” wheels. Should give me a couple of inches in height and be able to roll around easily. Grease-ible axle and rolling bearing swivel.


Need to still make plates but just too busy at the moment.

That’s pretty much it in the garage.

 

[Johnny Generic]

Mazda Miata.

 

[madison069]

Mazda Miata.

That’s what that is? I had no clue, still looks like fun!

 

[Bob Heine]

That’s what that is? I had no clue, still looks like fun!

Cody, back in my day there was a song about that thing: "It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater."

 

[madison069]

Cody, back in my day there was a song about that thing: "It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater."

That song was playing in my head as I was staring at it! Lol

 

[madison069]

Just a little progress on the welding table.

Used the torch to cut a piece of the 1/4” plate I have to make mounting plate for the wheels.




Four small rectangle , three on the floor.


And then cleaned up the edges and the holes were drilled to match the wheels mounting plate.



Now to clean up the mess and flip the table over to cut the old adjustable feet off.

Then weld the new mounting plates on the legs. I’ll probably clean up the legs some too.

 

[madison069]

I worked on the welding table some today.

First thing in order was to take the adjustable feet off.

Then I cleaned up the feet of the legs and the plates. Once I got the welding surface cleaned I tacked the plates in place and started burning them in. It seems I can weld when the weld is on top, but if I’m welding along the side of the plate, it seems I can’t weld very neatly. I tried going down the valley and tried going up the valley. I’m going to need to practice more.

Not the greatest, but this was a decent one.



This was a crappy one


Either way, I’ll practice on some more scraps and then I’ll grind them out and weld them again. But for now it’s doing the job.


And it’s upright on the wheels. I need to switch the wheels as I put the brakes on the back. I didn’t realize I only had 2 brakes wheels.



It’s tall enough for the MiG cart to go under the table. But the cart does take up a lot of room under the table. Was hoping to make a shelf for the stick welder to be stored under the welding table and just move with the table. MIG welder I’ll keep it mobile.

I’ll think about it some more and see what I come I come up with.

 

[madison069]

Seems like Friday was drag out all of the bikes. Seems we are looking into riding bikes again so I need to get some of them functional. Of course none of those bikes work well with the youngest as they are all too tall. So I’ll get a 24” bike for her soon.



There’s a giant, specialized, and three huffy.


Then I took the time to piddle on the camaro and got the windshield washer installed. The nozzle was on the factory hood but this isn’t the factory hood. So I zip tied the nozzle to the cowl vent. It works pretty good for old technology.


The tank in the driver side corner,




You can see the pump but the wiring and hose is routed in the fender area so it’s not exposed.



That’s pretty much the list of things done over the weekend minus cleaning the garage.

 

[madison069]

Not a lot in the garage as I’m doing other projects currently out of the garage. But I did get a couple of things done on the camaro.

I hooked up the vacuum pump to the AC just to give it an extra hour of vacuum before I charge it. Before I connected the pump, the gauge showed the system was still under a vacuum, meaning there is no leaks.

So started charging it and put 2lbs and 2oz as per the direction.


Nice cold 39*F was blowing out of the vent just sitting in the garage running.


I also got the front grill installed. That wasn’t easy since the nose of the car was deformed from years of just sitting around the garage unsupported and so on. But, I got it in and it’s looking more complete.


Overall it’s been a decent productive two days.

 

[madison069]

Since inspection is due on the truck I decided to get the truck ready for some fluid film. I got a 5 gallon bucket coming in this week to spray my fleet with this fall. First up is to pressure wash the truck underside to knock off the mud and dirt build up. It’s been a couple of years since I sprayed it since I don’t drive it much.



Then I went around with a wire bush and knocked off any loose rust on the frame and body. I never done this but I knew there was some flakes on the truck before it came to Pa. After 40 mins or so of wiggling around the ground and brushing loose rust off I got a dust pan of rust off the truck.


Not too bad I thought for a 12 years old truck.

Since I’m waiting for the fluid film I turn my attention to the garage.

I decided I wanted to air cooler off the wall. Maybe I can come up with something that takes up less foot print and does the same job. I also wanted to get my welding table against the wall so it’s out of the way while I wait for winter to work on it some more. So, I moved a few things in the corner where the air compressor was and took the air cooler off. Then with the stuff moved around I was able to squeeze the welding table in place.



I’ll take the time to de-solder the air cooler and remove the hardware for the future cooler. The air compressor is now more into the corner. I can roll the welding table out and access the air compressor when needed. But I can turn the compressor on and also drain the tank without moving the table.

Other then clean the yard, throw trash away, and put stuff away that’s been the gist of my day today.

 

[Blackbyrd]

I don't known how I've missed your thread, but I like the 2nd gen!

Nice find on the welding table too. I keep checking market place for one myself.

 

[madison069]

I don't known how I've missed your thread, but I like the 2nd gen!

Nice find on the welding table too. I keep checking market place for one myself.

Welcome to my mess. It's a constant switching of projects depending on my mood and mind process. So, hang on for the ride of trying to keep up to speed on all of these projects! I got one cooking up as we speak since I need to give some attention to my car trailer. Hence why I have my car trailer's toolbox and winch in the garage by the welding table area. But I need to take care of car maintenance as I got 5 possibly 6 cars to fluid film this fall.

The guy I bought the welding table from was from a navy yard maintenance. He said they used the table for prop balancing on a rotary table that used to sit on this table. The hole in the table was to let power cables to pass through for the rotary table. Some of the props they worked on was 4-5ft wide he said. So, that's why the tabletop was 3/4" thick to handle the weight of the big props. I don't know much about the process of balancing the big props, so I took his word for it. He is part of the military reserve, so it seems to add up with his story.

 

[Blackbyrd]

That's some serious stuff! I'm not sure the process they use to balance them. But I'd say that table is overkill for most at home needs...... which means it's perfect.

 

[madison069]

Just cleaned up this corner a little bit. Picked up the hose, dismantled the air cooler, and cleared off the bench some.


Not much time In the garage but it’s better then nothing done in the garage.

 

[madison069]

Got the truck fluid filmed.

I used the fluid film black to spray the fleet with this time around. Stuff looks black as tar.



Filled up my canisters for my wool wax spray gun.



After spraying 3 quarts, I was able to get a good coverage. Looks like I painted it black instead of just looking greasy.



Now it’s the Subaru forester’s turn to get prepped for fluid film. I got a few covers to take off on the Subaru and then air spray all of the crease clean before I spray the fluid film. I should be able to do that in one afternoon. Maybe I’ll assembly my canopy I bought to contain the fluid film in the garage without covering up everything. Kinda like a paint booth.

Speaking of covers, I need to put the fender liners back on the truck. The front liners is that cloth type deal, not a fan of it. Either way I got some new hardware coming in since the hardware was a little crusty and afew was missing.

 

[madison069]

I’ve had this 10’x20’ carport for some time now, 11/25/2023 as per emails. I initially bought it to do fluid film jobs inside to keep the overspray down.

So I went ahead and started slowly putting this thing together and now that I got it together I’m wondering if I should put it over the camaro?






My truck is too long but other wise it can fit inside it. The garage door flap is too short without the tarp dragging across the roof as I backed the truck into the temporary carport.

I’m planning to put a box fan with a filter on one side to help on minimizing the overspray on the inside.

Who knows if I would want to use it for events when it smells like fluid film.

I will also use flood lights on the inside to provide lights while I’m spraying. Am I crazy for doing this??? I should of bought the ones with windows.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

I lay down a bunch of masking paper and use a plastic sheet to cover my benches/tool boxes/etc...honestly, its not a crazy idea.

Also, I buy a throw away painter's suit with a hood from HF so I can spray everything and not have my clothes smell like a 1890s sheepherder for a few weeks.

 

[madison069]

I lay down a bunch of masking paper and use a plastic sheet to cover my benches/tool boxes/etc...honestly, its not a crazy idea.

Also, I buy a throw away painter's suit with a hood from HF so I can spray everything and not have my clothes smell like a 1890s sheepherder for a few weeks.

1890 sheepherder!!!

 

[madison069]

Brought the forester in for its fluid film treatment. Got it up on ramps and jacked the back end up to put it on Jack stands



Here is what it looks like after two years of Pa driving and being treated with fluid film each year. Still looks nice and clean under there. Can’t say the same for the exhaust though.




I also covered up the Camaro to keep the fluid film from getting on it.

That’s a car cover with a plastic sheet on top.

It only took me 25 mins to spray the underside of the forester. Overall it was a positive experience shooting the fluid film in the carport. I had a box fan with a filter on one side to catch the overspray and pointed the box fan outside. It kept the fog down and I didn’t notice any overspray in the garage.

No after photos since I had to hurry up and get over to my in-laws place due to an issue with their light in the bedroom.

Seems this old light switch has finally gave up.




It’s an old Bryant porcelain light switch. Not sure of the age, but the house is old, pre world war 1 home for sure with updates throughout its care.

Maybe I’ll get the 2024 outback over to the fluid film booth for its first coat tomorrow. But first I got to go cook breakfast for the church.

 

[madison069]

Kinda switched gear since the weather is nice. Worked in the front yard to clean up the flower bed some. One of the issue I had was this buried dryer vent and water spigot line. Always bugged me that it was buried so I decided that I would dig up the dirt around it and build a box for it. I also took the time to clean the dryer vent and I’m glad I did as it was coated and thick in some spots with lint.

Here it is dug up and ready for the stone layer and box.



Layer of stone and the first section of the wooden box.


Second section of the wooden box and the lid. It’s sloped so the water will run off if it actually got a lot of water.


Then installed a dryer vent guard.


I’ll stain it with some dark brown stain to help blend in with the house. I will also clean the gas meter and get it prepped for a coat of paint so it looks better then the rusty green color.

Then I’ll put some more stone around it and lay down some plastic before the final layer of stone. I’m also taking the time to build up the dirt against the house to get the water sloping away from the wall. It seems there some water getting into the downstairs laundry room on this wall and this ground is a low spot.

That’s where I stopped for the day. I’ll stain it tomorrow maybe and spray a little foam on the inside to fill the gap between the wall and box.