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

[Cris B]

Went to Portugal on holiday, received a free hire car upgrade but was a bit unimpressed by the Mitsubishi we ended up with, it had some nice features but seemed to not be very well built. Only front wheel drive and an asthmatic 1.6 diesel engine didn't make it very capable on the local dirt roads either.

Kind of wished we had a vehicle better suited to the local conditions - the boys loved the look of this

Anyway came back and still had a day off in hand so finally fitted the edging strip on the big shelf in the garage:

The plan is for paint, but I am still deciding on the colour.

 

[Cris B]

With the rest of my holiday I then headed over to North Wales. My mum has a place up in the mountains near Ruthin. The local wildlife and scenery is amazing and my sons love adventuring in the garden.

I bought an Oregon (Stanley branded) chainsaw and began working my way through some of the wood that has been seasoning for the fire. Winters can be quite harsh up there so it's good to be sure there is a good supply of wood ready to burn.

A few tanks of gas later...

Woodpile looks a bit healthier. The store is built out of old pallets and one of the jobs is to re-roof it with mineral felt and ditch the tarp before winter comes.

I'll also need to do a bit more chopping as there is plenty more wood to prepare...

Chain needs sharpening and I'll be putting it to use in our garden too.

 

[Cris B]

Needed to finish off the gutter drain from the shed as I'd just left a vertical drop pipe when I finished the siding. Dug a trench...



Membrane and some pebbles



Used the old down pipe, cut to a 5ft length and drilled the last 2.5ft for drainage on the pillar drill



In and some finer stone for additional fill



Covered with more membrane, backfilled, relaid the grass and finished up in front of the shed as I had with the other side

 

[lakeroadster]

Very nice.

That soil looks like it's easy digging... well compared to here in the mountains of Colorado USA...

 

[Cris B]

Not a lot of progress on the garage as I've been tasked with a few jobs around the house. I did spend a couple of hours one evening sorting through some more nuts and bolts. I'd run out of TZ Tapes for my Brother handheld printer. I was going to try and get the same black on red again, but they didn't have it in store. Given the organiser boxes are mixed I have not worried about it. I guess I can always standardise it at some point in future. It's a lot quicker to find stuff now which was the whole point - that and everything in one place. I've done three drawers now - this is one of them:

I built a lipped bench table for the boys to build lego at and store some underneath. It was a bespoke build to fit around and over a radiator in one of the rooms. Garage was turned into a woodshed temporarily - Sawdust everywhere!

At some point in the construction, I ran out of PVA in the little jobber bottle. Went to refill it and found this in the bottom of the steel cabinet:

The 6 litre bottle of PVA had been punctured on something and had started leaking out... Enough to put an inch of PVA over the entire floor inside the cabinet. That was a messy job to clean up.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Love the labels on the schaller bins. I need to dedicate some time to sort my hardware drawer like that.

 

[Cris B]

The messy corner. Most of us have them in our garages but they're the bits you try and keep out of frame when taking pictures.

My messy corner is around this workbench. The bench was built for the previous garage and was based on three variables. Had to be the same height as the main bench. Had to fit four wheels from the Audi under it and I had an Oak butcher block worktop from a kitchen island for the top.



That bench transferred into this garage but it's never been right as the storage under it wasn't very useful and secondly because it stuck out about 8 inches too much. Also the wood filler in the screw holes never hardened... I decided it was time to remedy that.

My father in law gave me a 5' x 5' sheet of 3/4" ply that was left over from the re-roof of their carport so I had enough from that for two shelves. Pulled it apart, chopped it about a bit, put some new timber in as shelf brackets, primed and painted:



The excess from the worktop was turned into an upstand and the shelves allowed me to organise things better. Yet in maximising the space I'd compromised the weight the shelves could take so I decided that it needed some support. In keeping with the garage theme it was going to have a Rally feel to it...

Had some square box tubing that was turned into angle iron, shaped some plates, welded them on and drilled them for effect.



Shot a couple of coats of primer and then some gloss black and fitted them:



My eldest son told me it needed some more finishing, so the detailing brush and a small pot of paint came out. He took the photos whilst I finished up:

 

[Cris B]

Love the labels on the schaller bins. I need to dedicate some time to sort my hardware drawer like that.

Sorry I missed your comment. This is definitely worth doing I've now done three drawers with all my fasteners from M3 through to M14. It speeds up finding what you need so much. The time invested is paid back over the long run. It's super easy to keep check on stock levels for re-ordering too.

 

[Cris B]

The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming... means garage time and some retrospective updates

I've been working on the red rallye, lots of rust repairs and Peugeot Sport build manual mods done. Engine and box in for mock up purposes and test fitted for the throttle bodies. Just about to construct the airbox. A few pics from the journey over the last year or so:

Slam Panel before and after:

Chassis Reinforcement and pedal box (no servo on this build):

Hydraulic Handbrake and Satchshift gear linkage system

Jenvey Throttle bodies test fit - windscreen wiper mechanism had to be relocated and converted from right hand drive to left hand drive.

 

[Cris B]

Did a few little jobs tidying around the garage since I modded the workbench above, including making a paper towel holder. The curled rod were the lower front seat belt mounts out of the red rallye. With a bit of chop page and some threads tapped on they've been given a new lease of life:

I've formed a plan for a painted sheet metal cover to go on as a finishing touch

Sourced a swiss made Wanner grease gun to keep the pillar drill running smooth... It needed a lot of cleaning up, but after a full strip down and some fresh grease it is as good as new.

Bought some handed tin snips as I've found the limitations of the straight cut ones on a few occasions. They seem great so far:

 

[Cris B]

A few months back I bought my first TIG welder, a Lincoln Electric V205-T AC/DC unit as I'd like to get into doing some stainless and aluminium welding. A job I am working up to is adapting the 2" bore stainless Peugeot Sport exhaust system to the 2.5" header manifold. After some looking I discovered a fellow GJer has some great designs available for you folk based in the USA.

I've taken inspiration from this for my own TIG Trolley and am currently working through making this.

Much swaging later...

Removable axle assembly

Donor go kart parts...

Those axles mean I can run these:

To go atop the rolling chassis I picked up a 1952 vintage ammo box that I had blasted at the same time as the slam panel that will serve as the on trolley storage.

I need to some add some chassis reinforcement as it turns out that a 20litre bottle of Argon creates a bit'o'flex

Rod storage sorted...

 

[Cris B]

Bit more progress on the TIG Trolley today. I bought some 50 x 50mm 3mm box and some 40 x 40mm 3mm angle to make the next sections. First up was a chassis rail. Had to hole saw it for the swaged hole in the deck and also for the axle to pass through.

Next up was the bottle base. I wanted to add some detail into this too, so bit of work on the pillar drill and some cutting and sanding later:

Welded on

Next job is to get the drawer slides on the ammo box

Here's the detail on the lid, these were generally used for mortar rounds...

 

[m5hor]

nice work!

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Loving the cart so far. Ammo boxes like that are awesome.

 

[Cris B]

nice work!

Loving the cart so far. Ammo boxes like that are awesome.

Thanks both. Not made much more progress on the cart. I had some friction slides but have gone off the idea of those and bought some 45kg rated ball bearing slides today instead.

I also went to hire a tube bender as I was intending to do a tube based super structure for the cart. Problem was that the bender creased the 1" diameter tubing I had so I left that and am thinking about my options.

Meanwhile I bought some sill stands for the Maxi rally car. They're used for when the car is parked up in service instead of axle stands, like this:



I wanted them stored out of the way as I had a big cardboard box on the workbench and out of the box they like falling over for fun and I don't want the trip hazard around the shop. So made some 1/2" ply shapes:



Painted them up and mounted them.





That'll do the trick. One of them is sitting a bit out of line with the others so I'll remedy that when I'm net back out there.



Need to fit the inserts into the sill of the car now, no excuses

 

[1/2 Cup]

Cris B I have just caught up on your thread. Great work all round..

Luv the attention to detail.

 

[Cris B]

Cris B I have just caught up on your thread. Great work all round..

Luv the attention to detail.

Thanks, I always enjoy your updates too

So here is the tube that we tried to bend on the pipe bender, it just creased up:

Fitted the draw slides with some temporary rivets so I could progress the build.

I need to have a think about what I can use as a thin low friction surface between the box and the lid which will be welded in a fixed position on the cart. I think I have some thin nylon strip from another project so I might try that but open to other ideas.

 

[katotter]

Very nice threat and great neat work, good to see some familiar tools and building methods.

 

[Cris B]

I had thought that COVID-19 lockdown would be a good chance to crack on but I wasn't furloughed and ended up even busier than normal. Sigh.

Mrs B said it’d be nice if the shed was more of a usable space. At some point I had not posted about I divided the spaced into two equal halves with a stud wall and used some spare ply to create the partition. The idea is a garden room one end with the French Doors onto the garden and a shed end with barn doors into the work area between the shed and the garage.

I hadn’t planned to have an internal door between the two halves but decided it was daft not to have one so over the summer changed the studs so I could put a standard man-door in. At some point I bought a solid pine door at a closing-down sale of a local store.

The issue with the partition is that with it in, I can’t fit full length timbers in. So the plan is to retain a capability to store wood up above.

The current roof is basically a shed roof on a low grade slope - the east side of the shed has a wall 6” higher than the west. I plan on putting a more standard gable roof to allow me to store stuff in the roof space.

With this plan in mind I have undertaken the work below with a view to being able to move to a gable roof with greater ease by making sure the frame is ready and can be chopped down to a level top wall plate for the new roof to sit on.

So first things first the west side, already Tyvek’d on the outside so insulated and boarded out.

Extended the timber storage central divider of the shed end. The right hand side is going to be a bike store and the left general stuff.

The east wall plastic weatherproofing was very tired so I boarded this out then took the exterior cladding off and insulated and Tyvek’d it from the outside.

Halfway there! I didn't take photos but extra vertical studs were put into this wall for strength and to give me more to anchor the ply boards to. Made insulating a bit easier too.

You can see that I added on another soffit board at the top. The cladding runs to this so it’s up to the wall top plate. The extra Soffit covers the 6” extra height on this wall. I also moved the grey shed (currently full of car parts from one of the projects) - you can just see that in the background.

 

[Cris B]

Back in February we had a bit of good weather and I managed to get the final half of cladding off the back wall of the shed.

Only the one photo. It was all much the same story as the other half. The timbers are in good condition so it was all wrapped in Tyvek insulated and boarded out inside with 1/2" ply. So the final wall to do is the north facing gable.

 

[Cris B]

So into the end of March, time to tackle the North Face.

The metal cladding is all going in the recycling skip. So the plan is to move the grey shed onto the back wall and turn it into a lean to with a single pitch roof. Next to it on the wall I'll build a tool store cupboard for the garden tools. Well that is the plan. I'll get some more featheredge for the rest.

To make that plan work the concrete pad needed extending for the shed and the tool store.

The pad was going to be a two pour job, but I wanted to get the first part down before I took the cladding off.

Sole plate was shot:

And the wall plate:

Both were properly rotten:

New sole plate timber in:

Extra Studs added in:

Tyvek sheeting done and batons on. Extended pad shuttering in and final pour done.

 

[Cris B]

Shed deconstruction in progress. Child labour deployed.



Made a start on the reimagined version, just getting everything in the right position at this point. Loads of work to the frame to reinforce and strengthen it due to the slate roof going on.



Reclaimed all of the shiplap from the back wall, had to make a few plugs to fill where I drilled out all of the nails.



So last photo was last weekend. In the week just gone, once the glue was dry, I ground all of the plugs flush, sanded the whole thing to key the old grey paint and managed to give it two coats of the green paint on that you can see on the wall behind the water ****.

Also did the fascia boards and managed to get the fibre cement soffit strips so ready to start the roof now. Will post some more pictures up soon.

 

[Cris B]

As mentioned here is a photo of it painted and some further progress, first door made and hung.



I made a gate using the herringbone pattern and wanted to use it again here. Bit more effort but aesthetically pleasing. All needs to come off again for a bit of filler, finishing and paint and the other ironmongery to be fitted. Just one more door to make now.

8x4' sheets and insulation getting delivered tomorrow which means I can board our the back of these sheds and then insulate and finish off the interior of the main shed. Quite looking forward to that as I can get everything back into a usable state and make it less of a temporary storage site.

 

[Cris B]

Finished the other door over the winter, painted and hung. Had to modify the handle because the first door clipped it by 2mm.



Dad is staying for Easter and made up a soffit panel for me. The festoon lights are part of our smart light setup - they’re plugged into a Philips Hue smart plug. Really handy when heading outside with your hands full and being able to get Alexa to turn the lights on.



Tool shed in use. It’s 14” deep and has storage on three sides. There’s plenty of height for the snow shovel and rakes. I may add some hand tool storage on the back of the door in future.



The screw hole filler reacted with the paint on the first door so at some point I’ll need to sort that out.

 

[Cris B]

When we moved in one of the features of the garage was this window. Notable because it provides a (frosted safety glass) window into a bathroom toilet.



To progress plans in the house and garage it had to go. Challenge was getting the bricks, this has taken several years including taking down a chimney and a wall so as to get matching bricks. They're all handmade and of a size which is hard to source at a reasonable price. These cost me nothing but time.



Going...



Gone.



In keeping with the rest of the house (dates from about 1850) a lime mortar has been used. Bit of clean up needed, then paint.

 

[Cris B]

I ordered a clamp and tie-down kit for working on the pillar drill. It came with a decent metal and plastic storage kit so I've been thinking about where that should go near the drill. Since this photo was taken I added a 3/4" ply shelf top underneath.



I decided that the clamp kit would be best on the shelf under the drill, but it needs to be wall mounted so I made an infill panel for the back out of some more 3/4" ply and added that in.



Added in the bits.



At some point I may infill the two other sides but I am thinking about extending the whole bench as I want to put my Delta belt sander and the bench grinder on the surface next to the drill. Having a think about that!

 

[Cris B]

In other news, I am still working on the cars. I have just finished this chassis dollie. The uprights that support the shell are removable after which the four plate can be shifted back and used to support the 4 wheels. The shell needs the sill replacing on one side and a new boot floor.

 

[Cris B]

Over the last couple of years of using the garage I have accumulated a few more tools and worked out what does and doesn't work.

Nothing more annoying than dropping something and it rolling under the bench or more specifically under the roll cabs under the bench. Or things rolling off the back of the bench or off one of the sides. That and the fact that none of torque wrenches and some other tools don't fit in a drawer.

I also want to make the Delta belt sander and my bench grinder more accessible, so I am going to expand the bench top to give me more work surface. So starting point:



Made a base plinth...



Painted the walls you can't normally access and added on some extra to clear the pipes that stop the bench going flush to the wall.



Ready for paint

 

[Cris B]

Over the last week or so managed to get the wood primed and painted.



As the end section is only really useful for storage, I've created a braced deck section out of 3/4" hardwood ply. I'm going to make a ramp so an engine that was on a trolley can go back underneath.



There shouldn't be air bricks from the garage into the house. So these are getting replaced as I go now.



Picked up this mint condition Classic 78 which is going into the bench. The steel hardtop is surplus so I am not sure whether to use it to make a worktop or sell it on. I need a welding table which the hardtop won't be a part of, but it might go in the bike shed. I'd need to make a bench for it to go on.



Wheels off and a plywood base on.



Bench greased up...



...and in it goes. Well not without a quick mod because I hadn't accounted for the extra depth and needed to modify the back of the bench to allow the cabinet to slide in further back.



Vice handle has plenty of clearance for the top drawer opening.



Managed to get this pressed aluminium rally sign. 1993 is the year Peugeot brought out the 106 Rallye and it will go well with the red, blue and white theme of the garage.

 

[Cris B]

Started prepping the two older boxes that the classic 78 is replacing for sale. The KRA545 is done, cut and polished and ready to get some photos done. Not started the other one, but all the tools are now out and into the bench whilst until I do a big reorganisation.

I'm also going to order some new rubber mat for the floor once I get stage 2 of the bench built. Need to shift the two roll cabs to give me some space back in the garage first.

 

[littlebean]

just read through from the beginning - great work

 

[Cris B]

After having made a burst of activity in the garage, I overcooked it and made myself ill. That wiped me out for a full week, I thought I had COVID but the test said not and so it was just a really bad chest infection. I slept a lot. And drank a fair bit of single malt Scotch.

During this time, I discovered the brilliant YouTube video, Simple Hacks For A More Organized Shop/Garage by Hometown Acres. Great channel, I subscribed. Any way Neighbour Doug had some good tips and based on that I took some ideas for the next phase of work - extending the bench. Critically that I shouldn't permanently mount the bench grinder and some other things I had in mind but think about how I can make them removable to keep the bench clear and multipurpose.

So the biggest decision has been how much longer to make it. I have another 26" Snap On cabinet to go in, there's the base for the pillar drill to incorporate a set of storage drawers I'm going to take the legs off and build into it too. So those added up and the fact that I have a set of wheels and tyres that need a home and I wanted to incorporate accessible storage for my angle grinders and some of the clamps means that I've ended up at a 240cm extension. This length will give me another slot for a 26"Snap On cabinet in future should I need it and in the mean time I can use that space to store the wheels and tyres.

So I have started that this weekend. One of the reasons this wasn't done previously was that the old gas main was still in the garage and fitted to the wall. The gas plumber I spoke to said that it should have been disconnected in the street when the new gas line was installed to the meter, but that the only way to be sure was to crack the seal and check. So with some apprehension I did that and fortunately it was disconnected and no gas. Phew. So pipe removed, plugged and sealed below floor level and floor made good. That was an awkward thing to have in the garage and getting rid of it makes a big difference to the usability of that wall.



Getting the pipe out took a couple of hours and in a few more I have made the base and top part, chopped the pillar drill stand up and most crucially made the wedges to go under the bench to counter the fall in the floor. I did this on the main bench and it was 0mm to 15mm. Picking up on this section the fall in the floor is more pronounced and the wedges (240cm long) take into account a 15mm to 45mm fall. That was probably the most time consuming part of the job so far.





That length will also bring the end of the bench on this wall pretty much in line with the bench I made on the other side of the garage. It still gives good access around a car parked up in the middle and means that the other half of the garage which doesn't have benches is more flexible space.

With a bit of luck I'll make some more progress during the evenings this week.

 

[Cris B]

just read through from the beginning - great work

Thanks

 

[Cris B]

Progressed the bench over the last couple of weeks, first finishing off the frame:



It was then, fillered, primed and painted, after which one evening I headed off to the local DIY store and bought another 3m Beech Butcher Block work top. Ended up cutting the worktop to size with a saw in the store carpark so it would go in the back of the Estate, really satisfying to get a perfect cut that just needed a tickle with some sandpaper.



Fourth coat of Danish oil going on this morning, Then I need to make the filler piece to go between the brickwork and the worktop edge and screw that on. Once I finish the outstanding work I'll give the exposed red sections of wood a final coat, but as is, it's all wipeable and easy to keep clean.

I have all the base board infill panels made. I don't bother with these in the slots under the Snap On cabs. I am just working on the other divider infill panels for the uprights. I decided I would put these in to help keep things organised and to give me better options for shelves in future. All the infill panels are 3/4" ply so they add in loads of structural rigidity to the bench which will be useful for when I work on it.

I think for all the upright infill panels I am going to paint them white. You can just see in the photo below that the new back panel for the old drill press stand which was incorporated into the build was painted white. I was really pleased with the outcome. It's a bit more work, but I think it's worth it



The far end of the bench is designed around incorporating this old British made drawer cabinet. I know it does't look that special but its close to 2mm thick steel and really well built, plus the drawers are perfect size for lots of bits, for example in one drawer I can keep three boxes of Nitrile gloves so I always have those at hand.



To make it fit the legs had to come off which was simple, just spot-weld drilling on each corner and then about half an inch needed to be cutoff the base to get the right height (to match the Snap On cabs). Final job was gluing on a piece of cut-to-size ply to the base. I have bought some red spray paint which is supposed to be SO red. If it turns out to be a good match I will spray this cab at some point, however in the design as it fits into the end it's a low priority, because it's not so visible.



Next jobs are to finish and paint the upright infill panels, then build the angle grinder and clamp storage around the green drawer cab at the end of the bench.

 

[Cris B]

Finished the infill panels, painted and installed. I need to work out the clamp storage and rig up the angle grinder storage, but ended up a bit distracted.



As I was trying to get the work top on the new bench to align I couldn't work out why everything was running out on the bench extension. After checking levels, things for square and such, I realise the bench top on the original bench wasn't aligned square to the base and whilst I'd never noticed it, the extra length made it noticeable at the end of the new section.

This was not good news as it meant everything had to come out of the bench to be able to move it and access the worktop screw fixings from underneath. I then discovered that I must have run out of screws when originally fixing the worktop as it only had about 50% of them fitted. This meant making a mess:



That took 4 hours what with car shuffling non-runners, taking drawer contents and drawers out of the cabs etc. Then once the worktop was squared up, then fixing it and putting everything back in. Thank goodness that's over with.

In preparation for the roll cab they used to sit on moving into the bench, I also relocated the top box and mid-section to the back bench, relegating the smaller box to bike shed duties. Bike shed is the next job after the bench...

 

[Cris B]

With the new setup, I wanted to make my tools a bit more organised. I have two socket sets that have always lived in the moulded plastic carry cases. This has made accessing them trickier than it should be, so after some research I ordered some of these Tekton/Ernst twist lock organisers and a bit organiser. Import took a few weeks, but the wait was worth it. Really good quality kit that matches the reviews posted on YouTube by a few folks. Of course I didn't order quite enough, so I will need to do a follow up order to get the other best I need:



In the old setup I used to keep all the drill bits for the pillar drill in a small set of metal drawers on top of the green free standing drawer unit. The green drawer units now incorporated into the end of the bench and the small set of drawers in now being used to organise sheets of sandpaper in my big storage cupboard. That drawer of bits next to the pillar drill was super useful and so I have been thinking about how I can add something into the new setup.

After a bit of lateral thinking I discovered that a firm called Penn-Elcom makes a neat line of under desk metal drawers for storing laptops. They offer a range of sizes and I went for a 14" version, partly because the next size up was just 3/4" too wide to fit in the gap. Solid bit of kit on ball bearing sliders.



I have a third wooden organiser tray which came as part of a set of three from a hobby store which I am going to cut down to fit in the centre section.

Modified the bench to accommodate it before the top was screwed down. The drawer is setback so it is hidden from view, but the drawer slides extension makes it really accessible.



Bench top fitted and screwed down. It was a bit of a faff, as this worktop turned out to have 5mm less depth than the original one despite supposingly being the same so I had to put an extra wooden spacer in between the worktop and the wall.



Really pleased with how this worked out, as George Peppard would say I love it when a plan comes together.



So next on the list are to sort out the wiring into some wall mounted conduit and to get some new rubber floor at ordered. In the meantime I have a little cabinet making / IKEA hack project to finish and the barn doors on the big shed outside are being replaced with a single man-door so that will keep me busy for the next week or so.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Wow Cris! After all your years here I JUST found your thread and I'm impressed. You've made tremendous improvements.

I was aching a little thinking you were going to paint the brick walls. I'd LOVE to have the look of an old brick wall in my garage. But I think your choice was right. It cleaned up and brightened the overall look tremendously. Keep going, man. I'm enjoying watching your progress. Best to you and yours, Dan

 

[kjdhawkhill]

was a bit unimpressed by the Mitsubishi we ended up with, it had some nice features but seemed to not be very well built. Only front wheel drive and an asthmatic 1.6 diesel engine didn't make it very capable on the local dirt roads either.

Always looking for high speed soft-road cornering benefits, huh?

I've never been impressed with any Mitsubishi product here in the States, but its also pretty rare I was impressed with any of the rental fleets... having spent two years in college working for a rental company, I know most rentals are ****. Combine the brand and the rental factor... Just a recipe for disappointment.

Wow Cris! After all your years here I JUST found your thread and I'm impressed. You've made tremendous improvements.

I was aching a little thinking you were going to paint the brick walls. I'd LOVE to have the look of an old brick wall in my garage. But I think your choice was right. It cleaned up and brightened the overall look tremendously. Keep going, man. I'm enjoying watching your progress. Best to you and yours, Dan

I'm so glad I found it. It was a great read this AM. That ever-evolving bench its fantastic.

I agree, from an ambiance standpoint, raw brick is tough to beat, but from a "workspace with good light" standpoint, light walls are better than dark walls. I'm facing a similar dilemma with my bike-shop-garage-office-weight-room and its dark-stained tongue and groove walls.

 

[Cris B]

Wow Cris! After all your years here I JUST found your thread and I'm impressed. You've made tremendous improvements.

I was aching a little thinking you were going to paint the brick walls. I'd LOVE to have the look of an old brick wall in my garage. But I think your choice was right. It cleaned up and brightened the overall look tremendously. Keep going, man. I'm enjoying watching your progress. Best to you and yours, Dan

Thanks Dan, appreciate you taking the time to read through and add the comment. The space was really dark with the brick - they’re a ver dark red shade, not like some lighter more orange bricks you can get, that’s because the local quarried sand is that shade and when kilned the bricks go even darker.

I don’t regret painting the wall. For sound insulation purposes I have toyed with putting sheet rock over the whole of the wall. Then I had a chat with an acoustic engineer and may look at other ways to manage the problem. The planned suspended ceiling will play a big part in that (I hope).

 

[Cris B]

Always looking for high speed soft-road cornering benefits, huh?

I've never been impressed with any Mitsubishi product here in the States, but its also pretty rare I was impressed with any of the rental fleets... having spent two years in college working for a rental company, I know most rentals are ****. Combine the brand and the rental factor... Just a recipe for disappointment.



I'm so glad I found it. It was a great read this AM. That ever-evolving bench its fantastic.

I agree, from an ambiance standpoint, raw brick is tough to beat, but from a "workspace with good light" standpoint, light walls are better than dark walls. I'm facing a similar dilemma with my bike-shop-garage-office-weight-room and its dark-stained tongue and groove walls.

Thanks KJD! Yeah, the bench has some history and in keeping with the garage contents the wood it is made from is well travelled having come from the Jura mountains in France when we had our house there. This weekend I have been doing that cabinet work I mentioned and that extra work space is just transformational. So glad I did it.