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

[madison069]

I always find big organization attempts overwhelming. Worth it in the end but, it can be a daunting task.

I always emptied everything onto a center table, throw away what I've pack ratted away for years and start fresh as I put things in there new spot

I agree, it's overwhelming when it's a big organization. My issue is I have several of the same tool that's in great shape and I'd hate to get rid of the extra cause knowing me I will eventually burn up one of the tool. So, then it becomes a, how do you store them? I'll figure it out. Plus, my future is going to be changing so I'm planning for the change and trying to prepare for the future somewhat. But in the meantime, I need to organize so I know where everything is and also get rid of the stuff that I'm never going to use.

 

[Blackbyrd]

Oh I struggled just to change tool boxes let alone a whole room hahaha.

Yeah i had a few redundant tools myself, but mostly sockets and wrenches. Ultimately I decided to keep the newer nicer stuff in the box and the older stuff I put aside for my son. If he ever decides to follow me down the automotive rabbit hole he will have a really good basic set of mechanics tools haha.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Oh I struggled just to change tool boxes let alone a whole room hahaha.

Yeah i had a few redundant tools myself, but mostly sockets and wrenches. Ultimately I decided to keep the newer nicer stuff in the box and the older stuff I put aside for my son. If he ever decides to follow me down the automotive rabbit hole he will have a really good basic set of mechanics tools haha.

I bought my oldest son the big mechanics Quinn set from HF for his 16th bday...better tools than I own in my own box!

 

[madison069]

My youngest has a three drawer craftsman toolset that I bought before she was born. Sears clearances the made in USA tools and I jumped on the big three drawer toolset for $50. Should have bought the other 4 sets that were on the shelf.

Either way, I’ll break this organizing deal up into small steps to eventually get it all organized. But I didn’t touch anything tonight.

 

[madison069]

Buddy just sent me a photo of the door trimmed out. I say it turned out good considering the out of plumb house.

 

[madison069]

With the weather I figured it was a good day to stay in the garage.


I was able to get the room organized better.


Still could purge some more I’m sure, but it’s getting down to material I know I will need in the next two years, and tools….




While cleaning the garage some in the other bay, I figured I should wash the truck. So it got a quick wash and tire cleaned.


Now to chill and enjoy some football games.

 

[Blackbyrd]

Big turn around!

 

[jblnut]

Merry Christmas Cody !!

Hope all is well for you and yours out there !!

 

[madison069]

Not a lot have been done in the garage. Took the Camaro out for a quick drive and realized that my front brakes are still dragging. Now I'm wondering if there's another issue going on with the brakes that I'm missing. Could it be the proportion valve? It's original but I don't think I've ever experienced a failed proportion valve before. with the front in the air, the tire does spin but it's restricted like the brake pads are slightly grabbing. Maybe the car just needs to be driven, and the pad worn down some? Either way, I'll have to look at it closer soon.

Otherwise, I just took all of the Christmas presents out of the garage on Christmas morning. Last night I went through the stuff in the garage on my wife's side and started at the top so I can get the Christmas decoration back in place this week. Ended up throwing a small trailer load and a contractor bag of stuff away. Still got a lot to sort out on the floor level of the garage.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Cody, it doesn't have a residual pressure type valve does it?

 

[madison069]

Cody, it doesn't have a residual pressure type valve does it?

Good question and one I don't know the answer to.

Far as I'm aware, it's basically the factory power brake system for a 1979 Camaro. Unless I accidently swapped something in when replacing the booster, master cylinder, caliper, and pads. the brake lines and proportion valve is original as far as I know.

 

[jblnut]

The front brakes on my Ranger drug until they didn’t. I figured it was a problem that would solve itself

I have had the goofy slides rust and crud up before and they didn’t allow the brakes to loosen. Wouldn’t be an issue if that’s all new though.

 

[TurnipTruck]

The TurnipTruck drug its brakes until I found the pushrod between the pedal and the master was too long. The master cylinders (for my Hydroboost, anyway) are available with two different depths of pushrod hole.

 

[madison069]

The front brakes on my Ranger drug until they didn’t. I figured it was a problem that would solve itself

I have had the goofy slides rust and crud up before and they didn’t allow the brakes to loosen. Wouldn’t be an issue if that’s all new though.

I also thought maybe the slides are a problem. They are all new, but then again it’s all aftermarket stuff.

Oh and the brake hoses are new, just the metal lines are original.

 

[madison069]

The TurnipTruck drug its brakes until I found the pushrod between the pedal and the master was too long. The master cylinders (for my Hydroboost, anyway) are available with two different depths of pushrod hole.

I’ll have to check into that. I wonder if the master cylinder might have trash or is stuck in a position that won’t release all of the pressure. The master cylinder has been sitting for 10 years, so it’s not new but has been stored with fluid in it.

 

[madison069]

1/16”, that’s the thickness of these shims that was on the back of the brake pad.


Brake fluid wasn’t pressured up, so it wasn’t the hose/line/master cylinder/booster. Started disassembling and inspecting each part and nothing stood out except the pads were grabbing the rotor. I took the pads out and put the caliper on to see how it slides on the pin and there wasn’t any concerns. Looking closer at the pads I saw these shims and figured why not take it off to see what happens. Apparently they are 1/16” too much and was causing a binding issue with the pads and rotor. I know these shims are suppose to help keep the heat off the calipers so I need at least one shim on the setup. Guess I might sand the pad some to get a little more clearances or I need to find some new pads that’s a hair thinner. What’s the opinion of the folks here on GJ?

 

[TurnipTruck]

I have never seen shims on that vintage caliper from any manufacturer. If the pad has a steel backer, leave them off.

 

[madison069]

I have never seen shims on that vintage caliper from any manufacturer. If the pad has a steel backer, leave them off.

I seem to recall these shims to be on pads every so often. My understanding of the shims are they are more for noise reduction (squealing, clattering, and vibration) as they have a rubber coating on them. I think I'm just going to leave the shims off but spray a coating of disc brake quite on the back of the pad like I always do.

 

[madison069]

Talking about when it all started on another thread, caused me to go down a rabbit hole of memory lane. Ended up in my childhood hometown and from google earth I was able to see the places I first started working on cars by myself.

Here is the carport where I did the majority of my car work and repairs growing up. Sand blowing in the wind was common, so it wasn't always possible to keep everything clean. All you could do was cover up the work and hope for the best. The place looks worst then when I lived there but it's the same layout. There was a storage room in the house where I kept all of the tools and stuff in when I wasn't working on any cars. You had to walk through the laundry room, then into the kitchen, then the den to access the door to the storage room that was inside the house.




This little single car garage beside my grandparent's house was where I kept the camaro when I first got it and started working on it. It had a single outlet and a single light fixture in the open attic. So I used a work light often when in the garage.


Me and Dad also painted a 78 Chevy crew cab long wheelbase truck in that single car garage. It was tight and the bed stuck out of the garage some, but we made it work. Sprayed it with single stage fire hydrant red paint that came from the drilling rig.

You can see my childhood home in the photo of my grandparent's house if you look behind the garage on the right. Luckily it was only a short walk to the garage if I wanted to do anything to the camaro.

I eventually got a larger garage across town where me and Dad moved everything over to keep working on everything. I would go there and my buddies would also come to the garage and we would work on everyone's stuff. Some late nights were spent in that garage. Course now it's gone. But here is a past view from google earth of the garages. One was a metal tin building (on the right) and the other was a cinderblock building(on the left). The buildings circled in red. We also had access to the land around the place, but I kept my stuff close to the building along with my uncle's stuff. I also had to run an extension cord to the tin building from the cinder block building to have power.



Either way, just a little bit about my early places where I would work on any of my projects when I was growing up.

Edit: seems I don't know my right from my left this early in the morning.....

 

[zmotorsports]

Cool pictures and story Cody. A lot of similarities for sure.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

It's all about making due with "what ya got"! Thanks for sharing Cody.

I had to pull the head on my 265 slant six powered Hesston 6400 swather in the middle of the field with hay still going through the head and conditioner. Had it apart, head machined, back together, valve lash set, and was back to cutting the next day. Had just a touch more compression and boy that straight pipe on there barked!

 

[Blackbyrd]

Humble beginnings!

 

[madison069]

It's all about making due with "what ya got"! Thanks for sharing Cody.

I had to pull the head on my 265 slant six powered Hesston 6400 swather in the middle of the field with hay still going through the head and conditioner. Had it apart, head machined, back together, valve lash set, and was back to cutting the next day. Had just a touch more compression and boy that straight pipe on there barked!

The 78 Chevy truck we painted had vacuum leaks at the intake gaskets. So of course, we tore down the engine while under the carport. When we got the intake off, we thought, might as well change the timing chain too as there was a lot of slack in the timing chain. It sat out in the open under the carport while I waited to go to Odessa which was 45 miles away to get the parts to put the truck back together. All we could do was cover the engine and then wipe it down with rags and cleaner before reassembling the engine. That engine was pulled out later on and the block lives in the Camaro. Everything else was sold off or scrapped. Heck, I had the heads from that truck rebuilt at the machine shop. But we change course when me and dad read about the vortec heads in the hotrod magazines and a mechanic buddy of ours guided us with what to do when installing those heads. Those truck heads followed me till they came up here and I finally sold them off a few years back.

 

[madison069]

Been awhile with the updates.

Been watching for a good deal on a steamer and I finally came across one locally. The seller only used it once and then it sat in the original box. For $100 I took advantage of it.


Here is a test spot

You can see the grim just dripping down the door from this one spot.


Now to do the rest of the truck and then the forester.

In the meantime, my oldest called me asking if I could check her car out due to the engine light came on.

First thing I did was checked the oil. As suspected,


2.5qts low!! I topped it off so she can drive it home without damaging the engine. I also found out that she was way over the 5,000 miles for oil change and she was driving with the maintenance required lights on. But the check engine light was for a misfire of cylinder 1. With 100,000 miles on it, it appears the spark plug might be original


So we will be ordering new plugs and ignition coil. But in the meantime I switched cylinder one and two ignition coil just to see if it follows, since the misfire isn’t consistent.

While we had the car in the garage, we went ahead and changed the oil and tightened up the front bumper with more trim clips and new inner fenders since the old one was damaged.





Then I put a reminder on her dash.


I told her next time it’s going to be a picture of my face with the note on the dash if I find it lower then a qt.

 

[madison069]

Snow has been on the ground for a week or so, so no outdoor projects.


One of the things I needed to address was a transmission leak that only happened when the Camaro was lifted up in the front. This weak hole was leaking fluid.


In the past, I’ve had this issue and the solution was to always plug this hole. Never had an issue from doing it so the hole got plugged.


But while dissassembling the u-joint, I damaged the grease zerk.


I was able to extract the broken part and got a new grease zerk back in.



I took the tires and rims off the Camaro so I can get the tires replaced in the near future. But I wanted to polish the aluminum trims on the rims before I put new tires back on. How would y’all go about getting these aluminum trims polished? The black is powder coated.


Also I think I’m just going to put the same size tire on the front and back this time around. For a couple of reasons, mostly cheaper and availability in 15” tires.



Plan is to just get some 15” tires for now so I can drive it without worrying about the tires popping from age. I’ll keep a watch out for some new rims for a future upgrade. But for now, I can get a set of 15” from the local mechanic for $500 which will be very similar to the bfgoodrich that’s on it now.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

If there is no coating on the bright parts of the wheel. Hit them with a buffer wheel/compound on a drill. That's how I did the wheels on the Suburban after I removed the clearcoat.

 

[madison069]

No coating, they were sandblasted before I had them powder coated 20 years ago

 

[Swanny1953]

You might try these with a Dremel like tool
Carving Expert 100pcs... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XJINV42?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[madison069]

I will say, the bare aluminum trim area is really rough from the sandblasting. I fear I will have to do some sanding first to get it smooth down. Should be a good winter project. Just need to secure the supply.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

The hand sanding is the worst part! I believe I started at 320 or 400 wet, and worked my way up to 2000, then hit it with the compound and the buffer wheel on the drill.

 

[madison069]

I just purchased some sanding roll lock disc for my die grinder, which is something I've been wanting to do. I also purchase a kit similar to the Swanny1953 showed along with some buffing wheels and polishing compounds. We will see how it goes, but first I'll get the tires taken off, so I don't have to deal with the tire being in the way.

Last night in the garage with the football game on in the background, I started cleaning the garage and organizing the nuts drawers some. I threw some stuff away and I also labeled some of the drawers in the bolt bins as I started sorting them out. Nothing much to show really, just nuts in 2 drawers and a drawer with odd nuts that don't exactly match the hex nuts. I need to get some bins that's 4" wide and 2" tall so I can sort the nuts better. Along with a good thread size gauge. Would be nice to sort them out by size but I'm just not in the mindset to start that just yet. Only reason I started the nuts organization was due to needed 4 Lugnuts for the camaro. I didn't want to purchase nuts if I already had some that matched, which I ended up having 8 Lugnuts that matched, and about 18 different type and size Lugnuts in the drawers also. I even had a set of four locking lugnuts and the key for them in the collection, no idea where they came from, but they are still in the drawer as I couldn't bring myself to throw them away just yet.

 

[Bob Heine]

Cody, my go-to place for metal polishing is Benchmark Abrasives. For small areas like the spoke faces on your rims, I use their Roloc discs in either 2- or 3-inch sizes. If the surface is deeply pitted I use surface conditioning discs first, from coarse to fine.

2" Surface Conditioning Quick Change Discs - 25 packCoarse (tan)

Benchmark Abrasives 2" Surface Conditioning Quick Change Sanding Discs are available in Fine (BLUE), Medium (RED), and Coarse (TAN) Grits. These discs are perfect for cleaning, finishing and deburring of contoured or irregular surfaces.

benchmarkabrasives.com

There's even finer gray surface conditioning discs but best not go there.

If it's just a dulled or oxidized surface I use wet sanding paper on a block of wood starting with the finest grit that gets the surface even (400) and going as far up the scale as needed to minimize the buffing time (2500 or 3000 grit).

For the buffing, I start with felt discs and white compound. Works especially well on that flat part of the rim edge.

2" Felt Polishing Quick Change Discs - 10 Pack

2" Quick Change Felt Polishing Discs are great for polishing/buffing in small areas that larger abrasives can't reach. The compressed wool is used because of its natural durability and versatility.

benchmarkabrasives.com

For the final step I usually put a little Mothers Magnesium & Aluminum polish on a fresh felt disc. I recently tried Jay Leno's All Metal Polish for S&Gs and it works great on all kinds of metal but at around four times the price of the Mothers paste, it's hard to justify. I mostly wanted to try Leno's product on some stainless steel and it worked great.

All-Metal Polish

Restore a brilliant shine with minimal effort! A great solution for polishing aluminum, brass, chrome, billet, copper, stainless, and other precious metals. Remove oxidation, shine and protect all in one easy step.

www.lenosgarage.com

See, I figured out how to spend almost sixty of your dollars without hardly trying. My bad.

 

[madison069]

Cody, my go-to place for metal polishing is Benchmark Abrasives. For small areas like the spoke faces on your rims, I use their Roloc discs in either 2- or 3-inch sizes. If the surface is deeply pitted I use surface conditioning discs first, from coarse to fine.

2" Surface Conditioning Quick Change Discs - 25 packCoarse (tan)

Benchmark Abrasives 2" Surface Conditioning Quick Change Sanding Discs are available in Fine (BLUE), Medium (RED), and Coarse (TAN) Grits. These discs are perfect for cleaning, finishing and deburring of contoured or irregular surfaces.

benchmarkabrasives.com

There's even finer gray surface conditioning discs but best not go there.

If it's just a dulled or oxidized surface I use wet sanding paper on a block of wood starting with the finest grit that gets the surface even (400) and going as far up the scale as needed to minimize the buffing time (2500 or 3000 grit).

For the buffing, I start with felt discs and white compound. Works especially well on that flat part of the rim edge.

2" Felt Polishing Quick Change Discs - 10 Pack

2" Quick Change Felt Polishing Discs are great for polishing/buffing in small areas that larger abrasives can't reach. The compressed wool is used because of its natural durability and versatility.

benchmarkabrasives.com

For the final step I usually put a little Mothers Magnesium & Aluminum polish on a fresh felt disc. I recently tried Jay Leno's All Metal Polish for S&Gs and it works great on all kinds of metal but at around four times the price of the Mothers paste, it's hard to justify. I mostly wanted to try Leno's product on some stainless steel and it worked great.

All-Metal Polish

Restore a brilliant shine with minimal effort! A great solution for polishing aluminum, brass, chrome, billet, copper, stainless, and other precious metals. Remove oxidation, shine and protect all in one easy step.

www.lenosgarage.com

See, I figured out how to spend almost sixty of your dollars without hardly trying. My bad.

These days I'm fine with spending a little money if it gets the results I want. I'm going to get some of those felt disc. I got everything else coming in your list but the felt disc. I've been wanting to beef up my polishing kit so here's my excuse to do so!

 

[madison069]

Last night I piddled with more of the bolt drawers as I wait for parts to come in and the snow to melt some more. I had no problem throwing away slot head screws but these kinds stand out to me. Why is it hard to toss these screws? I'm looking at the Schaller corporation toolbox storage bins as they are the perfect size for the bolt bins. But if I was to try to keep every like type of screw in their own bins, even the little 2x2" bins will take up a lot of room in the bolt bins. I'll think of something, but this is one of the reasons for not pulling the trigger just yet on bins. How do I decide how many I need???? First world problem I guess.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Cody, you appear to have a screw loose

 

[madison069]

Cody, you appear to have a screw loose

I'm doing my best to contain them until i find a hole for them! I need to hurry before I lose the last screw in place that's holding my head on!

 

[Bob Heine]

Cody, for me, Benchmark Abrasives is my crack cocaine dealer. I go there for one thing and end up with a large box on my doorstep.

I have a bad habit of saving abrasives when they are "almost" worn out. Yesterday I went through my die grinder abrasive drawer and dumped them out on the bench. Threw out at least 100 2- and 3-inch Roloc disks. Ran my thumb over the surface of each one and if it was smooth, I tossed it.

I often fail the due diligence test when I buy stuff. I ordered some 2- and 3-inch flap disks and put them away, assuming they fit the mandrels I already had. When I went to use one I discovered there's more than one quick change design. Apparently there's TN, TP, TR and TS style. Most of my Roloc discs are type R (TR), but the Elite discs I bought are Type S (TS). The money I saved on those flap discs was offset by having to buy new mandrels. I'm not sure what type mandrel is on the far left -- it has a smaller stud buried below the surface so I don't know what type or size it is. Live and learn.

I managed to get the die grinder abrasive drawer better organized but some 3/8" x 13" belts and multi-tool sandpaper snuck in when a little space opened up.

The larger 4" and 4.5" angle grinders outgrew their drawer in the toolbox and ended up in one of my workshop homemade cabinet drawers. A bunch of the abrasive wheels, the surface condititioning and felt flapdiscs are also from Benchmark Abrasives.

 

[madison069]

Cody, for me, Benchmark Abrasives is my crack cocaine dealer. I go there for one thing and end up with a large box on my doorstep.

I have a bad habit of saving abrasives when they are "almost" worn out. Yesterday I went through my die grinder abrasive drawer and dumped them out on the bench. Threw out at least 100 2- and 3-inch Roloc disks. Ran my thumb over the surface of each one and if it was smooth, I tossed it.

I often fail the due diligence test when I buy stuff. I ordered some 2- and 3-inch flap disks and put them away, assuming they fit the mandrels I already had. When I went to use one I discovered there's more than one quick change design. Apparently there's TN, TP, TR and TS style. Most of my Roloc discs are type R (TR), but the Elite discs I bought are Type S (TS). The money I saved on those flap discs was offset by having to buy new mandrels. I'm not sure what type mandrel is on the far left -- it has a smaller stud buried below the surface so I don't know what type or size it is. Live and learn.

I managed to get the die grinder abrasive drawer better organized but some 3/8" x 13" belts and multi-tool sandpaper snuck in when a little space opened up.

The larger 4" and 4.5" angle grinders outgrew their drawer in the toolbox and ended up in one of my workshop homemade cabinet drawers. A bunch of the abrasive wheels, the surface condititioning and felt flapdiscs are also from Benchmark Abrasives.

I feel very inadequate in my abrasive collection. I tend to buy as I need them and if I remember I order more of the one I bought at the store, somewhere online, to keep extra in stock. I'm hoping with the push on Organization, I will expand my tool collection where I'm lacking, and purge where it's not needed.

Although, I would say I might have a leg up on you with the bolt/screws/pipe fitting collection, but something tells me you might have me beat still. Most of my collection came from the oil field and working on cars. But I'm sure in your lifetime, you've accumulated more than me.

Tonight I will be helping the girls work on their pinewood derby cars. Maybe I can trick them into sorting more bolts and screws for me.

 

[bj383ss]

Cody,

The best way to store all those bolts and screws would be 3D printed containers you made yourself.

20220126_135235 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

Bret

 

[madison069]

Cody,

The best way to store all those bolts and screws would be 3D printed containers you made yourself.

20220126_135235 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

Bret

I don’t know if I have the time to get started on a 3D printer, heck I’m trying to find time to work on a Architect design software!