Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Dr. B's Rally Shop

[Cris B]

So Thursday, stripped back the corner section and chopped out all the rotten wood. It was in a bad state, not needing much to remove it. This revealed quite promptly that the whole end frame with the doors was scarcely attached to the main frame, so I then had to remove the doors and add in some additional reinforcements quite quickly to stop it blowing over onto me whilst I was working.

At some point during the day I ended making a second run to the timber yard for more treated timber as the whole end frame needs to be rebuilt, but as we were off for a long weekend that evening the work was about getting the corner done and the structure secure and weather tight (as much as possible) before we went away.

Buttoned up again

Left for a few days as below. Weather forecast for next week is better so hopefully get stuck back into it again in sunshine rather than rain and wind on Monday.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Cris_B, you have done well.

Thanks for the update..

Regards

 

[Cris B]

Getting there on the cladding...

Need to do some more repairs on the door end. Also dug out a trench, lined with membrane and backfilled with 4 bags of Staffordshire Pink aggregate. Needs about another 6 bags, but it will do for starters. Mrs B wants a flower bed in front of the wood so that will be the next job.

Bought new fascia boards to go up, but some more repairs needed before I fit those...

 

[Cris B]

Bit of any update from recent weeks after getting back from holiday. In brief, getting there slowly with the cladding. Entire end gable frame needed replacement plus two of the roofing timbers. I had a whole day at it so cracked on, first stripping out:

Working into the night finishing up, finally buttoned up again just before midnight

After that went back to finishing the cladding on the front, but had to do some more repairs on the run in:

And some late nights...

Then went back to the gable end and moved that forwards...

This weekend got the guttering mostly up, just need some new downpipe and to finish the far end, but will wait until I've finished that section...

For now the focus is on the doors, which don't fit the now square frame very well. Started making the new ones today by cutting new wood to make them sound.

Needs a whole new roof, so have been looking at options on that for a new metal roof. The current panels have 2" of foam sprayed on to the back of them providing more rigid insulated panels, at a price! Not sure that I'll be refitting like for like, but considering all options at present.

Having stripped off some of the ivy, it looks like the other gable end will also need some repairs. Sigh...

 

[madoc1]

just found your thread. amazing transformation on both the garage and shed. have you managed to get the new ceiling in the garage fitted? you said you scrapped the silver car, but is that the ebay one or the one being loaded on the trailer? what engine will you be running? will certainly be following this.

jim

 

[Cris B]

just found your thread. amazing transformation on both the garage and shed. have you managed to get the new ceiling in the garage fitted?
jim

Thanks, the shed has come a long way from where it was and was definitely worth it due to the size (12' by 30'). We have all the papers and deed maps for the house going back to before 1850 and it has had an outbuilding/shed on this site since the early 1960s.

Inside the garage hasn't really moved very far forwards. Part of the reason for this is space as it is quite full of stuff that needs to be in a shed. I'm hoping most of it will go in the shed being renovated at the moment, but I fear I will need another one in the alcove between our property and our neighbours (see early post where the old heater flue was bricked up).

What I have done is painted almost all the walls in at least a white base coat (apart from some bits hidden behind the bench for example) and in some cases I have started to top coat. Other than that it's just been moved stuff from pillar to post to get stuff done.

To put the new ceiling up, I need to brick up a window between the garage and the house and that'll take about 105 bricks by my calculations. Once that's done I can start on the new false ceiling and sort out the lights and electrical outlet wiring... That'll be balanced against other priorities in the house.

The clock I originally bought turned out to be a duffer, which used to stop randomly and then start again if you wriggled the battery. My wife thought that this was ironic given it was supposed to prevent a quick job turning into hours in the garage. I would have loved to play that card, but the honest answer was I bought the clock because I wanted to and I should have bought what I really wanted to start with. So second time round I did... a Swiss clock via the USA (cheapest deal on the Internet). I love this design and it will be familiar to any of you who have travelled on the Swiss railway system:

you said you scrapped the silver car, but is that the ebay one or the one being loaded on the trailer? what engine will you be running? will certainly be following this.

The silver car was the eBay buy and has been scrapped. It was a real lemon.

The red car is it's replacement. That's mid-renovation. 1600cc on throttle bodies mated to a 5spd Quaife LSD H pattern box (BE Spec).

The car being loaded on the trailer is the Maxi Kit Car and has not really progressed. That's waiting for some sequential gearbox parts to sell to free up some cash to move it onwards. Engine in that will be a 2000cc on throttle bodies mated to a 6spd Sadev sequential.

Just put a deposit down on a new practical car which I will collect this Friday. I need Quattro back in my life

 

[tracktoy]

Wow what an amazing space you managed to find- progress on the shed is great but looks like it would almost have been easier to knock it down and rebuild it

cant wait to see the progress of the spaces and the cars

 

[nosetackle]

Nice !

 

[littlebritishcar]

Lots of work

 

[Cris B]

Not updated in a while, managed to get the doors done. Took a while but I am happy. Need to do some finishing off (hinge bolts to fit) and I need to think on the locks as the current arrangement doesn't work due to the thickness of the door and the key not being long enough to reach through. Fortunately my father pointed this out before I started drilling. I'll mull that over but for now it"s secure and looking more loved. Some pics:

Old ironmongery coming off...

New ironmongery. Galvanised and epoxy coated...

Both sides done as of yesterday.

 

[Cris B]

Wow what an amazing space you managed to find- progress on the shed is great but looks like it would almost have been easier to knock it down and rebuild it

cant wait to see the progress of the spaces and the cars

Thanks. The cost of timber that would be required for the shed put me off a full rebuild, let alone the time needed. Most of the frame is in good condition but the roof never covered the structure properly (it's short on both ends) so the weather and the ivy did some serious damage over the years. I'm hoping that after the repairs it will last for quite a while

Still weighing up options on the roof, but will probably go for another box section steel solution. Rough calculations tell me the steel alone will probably cost about £650/$835 if I fit it myself including hardware. It'll need some other money spending on top of that.

Hoping to make some headway on the cars in coming months, lots of bits for sale or about to be advertised to reclaim some of the lost space in the garage. I'm trying to make some headway before the next in-the-house DIY project starts

 

[TomcoPDR]

Barn door look with the hinge, very cool

 

[sean Buick 76]

Nice work I love this!

 

[Koje]

A couple of really good spaces you have. I have no idea how you find the time for it all with a family too! Interested to see how the cars progress, once i have done a few track days and get the bug i am sure i will want to get a project started and strip something out....

 

[Cris B]

Happy holidays all. The Christmas break is one of those times I make some decent headway on projects. Just a recap on events over the last few months, which have included a new daily driver (B8 A4 Avant Quattro 3.0TDI) and very little time on the project rally cars other than buying a few parts. Back on the garage front after some debate and reading lots of reviews, I bought a new saw. Very pleased with it and enjoying the crisp square cuts it delivers:

Decided that it needed a stand for working on longer lengths of timber. These Evolution stands are branded and resold by a few different manufacturers. It should be useful for the garage ceiling, which is getting closer to getting done. It's going to be ceiling then re-wiring I think.

There was a bit of a question over where to store it as it's not exactly small. About the same time I'd become a bit bored of not having anywhere to put stuff when it came off the big shelf that runs down the garage. The most common thing being the big storage box where all the screws are stored.

After some thinking and beer I looked for a while and found some 40mm thick oak work top 'off cuts' going on eBay local to work up in the North East. Bought these three sections for £40 and they formed the basis for another workbench. A short while later I had built this:

It's not quite finished as I want to put side infill panels in to create some more hidden storage. Update to follow on that. It does provide an immediate home for the saw.

Elsewhere in the garage I had become a bit tired of the kit car body panel moulds always being in the way. These ones are just the front wings and rear quarter panel moulds. Then there's two bumper moulds, a bonnet and tailgate, a pair of sill moulds, door moulds, etc. They take up a lot of space.

I looked at lots of options, but kept come back to the only sensible one being to buy a shed. 7' by 5' was the target size but after much looking never seemed to be able to find what I wanted in the preowned market. Then out of the blue this 7' by 7' shed came up and I managed to get it delivered for a bargain price - it's as new.

I really dislike the orange finish, so a trip to the hardware store bought some suitable exterior paint and some extra timber to reinforce the structure a bit more. With the shed waiting to be installed it was time to crack on. This involved a fair few mugs of tea and a bit of thinking, but the plan was forming.

Remember this space which is a setback between our house and the neighbours?

So back to the here and now and I had some help off the father in law today and jacked out the fence post. Bit of a mission, but we managed to get it done. There was a decent amount (just over 2') in the ground, but it was a bit wibbly wobbly to start with.

The wall on the right is the neighbouring house and s a bit messy to the eye:

Tidied up the neighbours wall with a few louvre vent covers with fly screens built in. Started chopped up the new shed to make it fit.

 

[RIVERWEST AUTO]

very nice reworking the siding and brickwork.also - love the bilstiens.

 

[Cris B]

So finished all the wood working on the shed, making the adjustments for the smaller width and adding in reinforcement to all the walls and floor. After that was finished I've been working my way through this over the last couple of days.

I had a litre left over from a previous job and bought two 2.5litre cans. The advantage of a really big shed is that you can do lots of useful stuff in it like painting a smaller shed

Tomorrow should be shed installation day...

 

[Cris B]

Completed the shed yesterday, but wasn't feeling good so packed in all in before getting a shot of it finished. Went outside late this afternoon and took a picture.

Everything came out of the big shed and was assembled so we could get the roof right. The overhangs from the original were a bit excessive.



Then it was a case of taking it all apart again and assembling it in the space. It's a good fit.



All assembled and ready to fill up with stuff!



Once the weather warms up I'll render and paint that bit of brickwork on the neighbours wall.

 

[EddyP]

Some nice spaces you've got there now, it's really nice to have a place like the shed to put those bits you hardly ever want but that take up loads of space.

I saw those Evolution saw stands on offer in Screwfix before christmas and must say I was tempted myself, but couldn't quite justify it yet, would love to upgrade my cheap mitre saw to the same Dewalt you got, I borrowed one once and it was lovely and cut so straight.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Looks great!!

 

[madoc1]

the new shed looks great. are you finished with the large one?

jim

 

[-Brent-]

Great save on that shed, so far!

 

[Cris B]

the new shed looks great. are you finished with the large one?

jim

It's paused until the weather gets better and the days get longer. I have had some new thoughts for it which I am developing into plans.

I forgot to say that for Christmas my wife bought me some very special tools...

...they tasted delicious!

After much looking I have bought another vice. I have been after one of these all-steel Record vices for some time, but finding a good one at the right price has been challenging.

I just need to find some one who has the pipe jaw so that I can use some photos and measurements from it to make a replacement. It'll probably go on the new bench but I haven't decided yet.

 

[Cris B]

It's only taken a year to find the time, but the last of the pebbledash is off this wall, so it's gone from this:

To this which has meant that I have been able to start painting it.

The aim with this is to be able to start on the new ceiling in this part of the garage as soon as possible. To do this, I will need to tidy up the wall above the garage door including the steel I-beam lintel, remove the old render belcast from the wall that used to be the exterior and one small remaining bit of pebbledash from the remaining section of former exterior wall.

I decided that I needed a bit more storage and that I wanted to change things a bit, so after some hunting around I picked up a couple more Snap On boxes. A second KRA 3027:

Plus a KRA 3014 top box. Both have a bit of patina on the outside, but are immaculate on the inside. They were used by an equestrian dentist and were mounted inside a van, I'm really pleased with them and have been taking some tips off GJ for toolbox organisation.

The other job has been to oil up the butcher block on the big workbench again. Took the vice off and cleaned it up with white spirit and after a light sand have worked up to five layers of Danish oil so far. It looks good, but there's a fair bit of wear in the beech from use. Scratches and gouges, embedded bits of swarf, stains, etc.

The wall behind this bench is the only other bit of the garage wall that has not had a base coat in white, so that's on the list once I get some more paint.

 

[Cris B]

So after being inspired through GJ I had spent some time looking at small parts organisation. Turns out you can't get Schaller containers here in the UK. I wrote to them expressing my interest in trying to get some of their great storage bins over here in the United Kingdom since reading about them through GJ and seeing the video of John Saunders from NYC CNC on his workshop organisation. Their eBay store doesn't offer UK shipping by default, so I wanted to know if there was a minimum order quantity if I wanted to get some over this side of the pond. After no reply I did some investigation and worked out how I could get something very similar here by buying organiser boxes with inserts...

As you can see from the wall in the backdrop to that photo there is still more filling and painting to do on that brick wall. The removal of the pebbledash render left one big hole that I bricked up last night.

I also bought plaster so I can render this section above the garage door

I also need to clean up the I-beam and paint it.

 

[Cris B]

In prepping to cleaning up the I-beam it became apparent that there was no insulation in the cavity wall.

So a trip to the local hardware store secured plenty of this sheep wool insulation to fill the void. It certainly smells like the real deal:

Gave the beam a good going over with a wire cup in the angle grinder and then hit it with some iron oxide primer.

Sealed the bottom with some quarter-inch ply which was clamped and bonded on. A storm came in over Friday night which helped reveal many drafts from a poor fitting of the garage door. Plenty of caulk inside and out helped seal it up.

Did my first ever bit of plastering and should be ready for paint next weekend.

 

[madoc1]

nice work!

jim

 

[stsmytherie]

Great garage space, and loving your work so far.

Once the weather warms up I'll render and paint that bit of brickwork on the neighbours wall.

Terrific job on the shed. Looks like it was meant to be there.

Since I don't suffer from an abundance of OCD, I rather like the contrast of the unfinished wall. It gives the space some patina of age and authenticity. I may be in the minority in this opinion, especially among GJ folk.

 

[dw_riley]

Great garage space, and loving your work so far.



Terrific job on the shed. Looks like it was meant to be there.



Since I don't suffer from an abundance of OCD, I rather like the contrast of the unfinished wall. It gives the space some patina of age and authenticity. I may be in the minority in this opinion, especially among GJ folk.

I agree 100%! Wall looks good to me and that little shed may be just the answer I'm looking for at my place.

Love your work Dr B!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cris B]

Not updated in a while but of course work goes on. Finished the bit above the garage door:



I decided on an brushed alloy silver finish on the beam. I think it looks okay, better than white.



With that done it was time to get some insulation in - blown EPS beads. Turned out that after a survey there was no insulation within the cavity walls of the house.



Well that's what we thought until the insulation guy started to try and blow some in at which point it turned out some walls had insulation, but most didn't. Based on this it appears that the garage was extended at least three times with construction eventually being added on the top of each extra bit.

Inside the garage for many years I have had a wooden chest that I picked up from a barn sale with some other furniture. It'd needed the floor reinforced and I'd then stuck castors on it and used it for all sorts of work. With the new Snap On cabs I needed the space it occupied under the main work bench back so I decided to give it a new lease of life.



A bit of new pine decorative wood to replace some broken and missing bits, lots of cleaning and degreasing, filling, undercoat, painting, etc. I masked off the front, top and ends to add in some colour. I'm pleased with how it came out and with some turned beech feet, it's now full of dressing up costumes and toys in the kids play room.



In the big shed out side I've got the stud wall up to partition the space and have started to line walls with some of the ply I had. I'll post some pics up of that as I get further along with it.

 

[Cris B]

Decided I could not live with the bare wall next to the small shed:

Did the render in a couple of stages and filled in the post hole from the concrete post that came out:

I didn't render the end bricks because I thought that it would look wrong. They were painted originally so I did some repointing of these and the capping stones and then painted. I am not sure if the capping stones should be left bare or painted a dark slate grey. I need to have a chat with our neighbour about that at some point as it is a shared boundary and it's not the sort of thing that you can half paint.

I think I'm going to make and paint a small piece of wood to fit on the front of the shed to tidy up the bottom section when I get the time. However the next job is to finally finish the work on the exterior of the big shed which has been left like this for several months.

Over the winter I did some work in the garden and then finally dug out a big stump yesterday so that is most of the ground works done, other than putting in a soak away for the down pipe to drain into. Pulled off what was left of the old wood and now need to start the rebuild work.

 

[ajohno]

Thanks for the update Cris. Looks like everything is coming along nicely.

 

[Cris B]

Made a small bracket to mount the shed find spanner on the wall





Added an extra piece of wood under the shed to fill the gap. Turns out that the wood in the door had a lot of sap in it so I have some runs in the paint to deal with at some point.



Progress on other jobs has slowed because three things have happened. First some one crashed into our fence and broke one of the reinforced concrete fence posts. It took two days to dig that out, set a new one in and replace the timbers. Of course that turned out to be a proper job because the timbers were pretty shot too. The feather edge panelling still had some mileage in it so was reused:







Then we had a big storm and the roof over the kitchen started leaking so I took all of the tiles off to reveal this:



Not good! So all the old felt off to reveal an old flat roof below that:



Old felt on that had gone too and the chipboard underneath had collapsed. So cut all that out and fitted some marine ply, fitted new felt and sealed it up. I'm not sure what the stones were for but spread them out over the repair after the photo.



As the only insulation in the roof turned out to be some 1" thick polystyrene in the original flat roof decided to remedy that with some rock wool.



New membrane and batons and going back together



Finished sealing up the edges of the roof with cement this weekend and was then hit with the final big job. It turned out that we had a leak in the shower in the en-suite which is above the garage. It wasn't just a case of new silicon sealant - it was a case of tiles off and applying new grout and having to dry it all out first too. Never simple!

 

[Cris B]

Some progress in that we had the heating system replumbed. Last April we had a new boiler and all the pipework replaced. This year we replaced all the downstairs pipework. There was a leak in the pressurised system so it was letting out water somewhere and losing pressure. Enough for the boiler installer to be called out to top up the system.

The downstairs pipes ran in the concrete under the kitchen floor so we suspected they'd corroded and were leaking there. When the accessible parts were inspected on removal this seemed the likely cause. More critically, so the gas main also ran buried in concrete and it had a crazy path through the garage. So that's all changed.

New pipework is in with a new gas supply pipe from the gas meter now running in through the house rather than through the garage. I've sealed up and painted the previous pipework route on the external wall.

Before:

After:

All of this pipework off the wall in the garage. There's a bit of gas pipe still in the floor in the garage behind the main work bench, but it's out of sight for now.

You can see some of the pipework craziness in this photo from just after we bought the house:

The vertical black and yellow is the old gas main. We're assuming it's disconnected from the gas main in the street, but I've not cracked the cap off it yet to check.

 

[Cris B]

After nearly a year found time to do some more frame repairs and get the siding on the shed. I'd already taken off the remaining old siding and started some of the prep work earlier in the summer:



It was then time to cut out the rot and add in some new material.



Had to jack up the roof to repair the top plate as I cut right back to a repair earlier in the work and put in a new 2.5m length.



Then sheeted with Tyvek and started adding the siding. The wood for that had been sat in the shed as I'd bought enough to do the whole job at the outset.



As a bit of a flashback this is what it looked like when we moved in:



This is what it looks like now:



Need to do a bit of ground work for the gutter down pipe to drain into for which I have the aggregate waiting. Once that is done the roof is next but I am still thinking on the best way to approach to that.

 

[madoc1]

it is looking great. good work.

jim

 

[Martin F]

Really interesting thread and some great work!

Keep it up

 

[Bears Fan]

Just found your thread!!! Great work The shed looks awesome!!! I thought you might of tore it down at first

 

[Cris B]

Thanks for the positive comments and support.

Just found your thread!!! Great work The shed looks awesome!!! I thought you might of tore it down at first

Yeah, it looked bad in the photos but the main frame turned out to be in okay shape overall once it was cleaned up. The previous owners did not look after the place so a lot of what we have done in the 18 months we've had he property has been getting it respectable again and making some sensible improvements along the way.

There have of course been numerous distractions along the way like putting up a greenhouse and making some pottingers to improve the garden and let us grown some of our own vegetables and fruit. This time of year it is really churning out some produce and helping reduce our weekly shopping costs.

Have been working on the red project car too. Ended up having to replace most of the drivers side chassis rail and inner wing from the passenger compartment bulkhead forwards. Nearly there with that work...

 

[Cris B]

After the plumbing work was finished there were a few more copper pipes to pull out of the house, but that were only accessible from the ceiling in the garage. For whatever reason when the central heating was extended into the bedroom above the garage the pipes were laid under the joists. The boxing in for them was hardboard and sections were missing. So time for a tidy up to improve the appearance and sound protection and draft exclusion.

Old pipes coming out:

New plywood boxing going up:

Filled a few holes, sealed it up and painted: