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Enough spectating...I'm buying in. $17 in chips please.

wide2k

Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2011
Messages
6
I guess I'll call my garage/shop, "The Thrift Shop" because what's left of my budget will only allow for me to hunt for garage stuff on craigslist, garage sales, and dumpsters..lol .

But here is my deally:

Always wanted my own little slice of garage heaven but never really panned out because every house we own, the garage ends up being the storage dumpster for my fam's clutter. It gets to a point that cars don't even fit in the garages.

Due to pure chance, I stumbled on an opportunity to buy a house about 5 minutes from my primary residence. After the seller showed me the house, she had me follow her to adjacent lot beyond a small citrus grove and informed me that the small house also comes with a seperate workshop and shed that her machinist/mechanic husband built to work on his projects. Most buyers may look at it as an eyesore. But after years of following garagejournal, I saw it as opportunity.

It is at a diff loc to my primary residence so my fambam can't clutter it up and yet close enough (5 minute drive) to where I can easily access it and work on any projects I may dream up. Plus the rental house that came with it is in great shape and move in condition. I purchased it on the spot. Also purchased a 91 MR2 turbo as my first project at the new place.

Some extra perks:
-The shed is set up like a parts bin with lots of shelves and racks that the husband built in.
-The workshop is surrounded by a citrus grove and a small farm area in which the sellers raised livestock....(yes..livestock. Works for me because it is also included w the property and acts as a noise/sound buffer)
-It has it's own driveway and power meter seperate from the house....it has a beefy electrical service and has outlets everywhere (I stopped counting at 20)
-It comes w two crane systems w trolley and 3 ton chain hoists for inside the garage/shop and outside in the open area. The husband used it to lift and move steel beams, I might use it to...I dunno, swing like tarzan or lift a 4lb pegboard before installation? Or maybe to move a case of beer from one shelf to the next?

Next step, clean it up a bit, save up some cash and equip it the best I can to start working on the MR2. Craigslist and ebay, here I come.

I welcome suggestions and advice.

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383 240z

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Joined
Dec 4, 2006
Messages
4,295
Location
Findley Twp. Allegheny Co.
Love that second pic, would love to have an assembly area like that with shelves on 3 sides. However I would REALLY be considering building walls around the outside of the steel structure and disassembling the small shop, keeping the shelves and such for use in the new much larger building. Keith
 
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wide2k

Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2011
Messages
6
I LOVE your idea. I don't think I will be taking apart the small shed but...building a wall behind the shed to better enclose the open structure is definitely doable.
Also, I see that when it rains, water running down the right side of the roof falls right into the open bay area. I need to do something about that as well.

Love that second pic, would love to have an assembly area like that with shelves on 3 sides. However I would REALLY be considering building walls around the outside of the steel structure and disassembling the small shop, keeping the shelves and such for use in the new much larger building. Keith
 

nsogiba

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Messages
232
Seems like heaven...I see so much potential

That overhead beams screams "Engine hoist" to me!
 

Press_Corpse

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Joined
Jul 23, 2012
Messages
54
Location
Lemont, Illinois
I would try to find a way to enclose the open structure and make both buildings into one with a garage door on the right side where the open building was to be able to move cars in there. Definitely would help in finding a way to remedy the water leaking from the roof down the side into the open building. Lots of potential. Have fun!
 
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wide2k

Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2011
Messages
6
thanks for the feedback
-A friend of ours is renting the house. It was a win win. He is now paying substantially less than his former apt, and now he gets a house..plus even though I'm charging below market rent, I get positive cash flow even after calculating all monthly expenses and property tax. Was a no brainer.

-I love the idea of enclosing everything and make it one big garage shop. That would certainly be something I will explore in the future. For now, my budget might allow for a rain gutter on the right side of the roof :lol:

-I have told my family but the garage/shop part of the property is chainlink fenced on all four sides and I just bought a lock for the gate :beer:
My dad LOVES garage sales (among the clutter in my primary garage, we have sheets of bullet proof glass, crystal rock formation sculptures, a bronze statue of napoleon, a painting made of seagull feathers, a box of magic bullet blenders, etc, etc, etc) but I will not give him the key to this place. Not this time.
 

rockingthe2

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Messages
59
Location
Maryland
Let's see some more of that MR2!

I love mine, bought it low mileage and I'm taking it to Tail of the Dragon in a few days, awesome cars if you don't mind a bit of work, for sure join the mr2 forums (mr2.com, mr2oc.com, twobrutal.co.uk) and congrats on the space!

For the garage I agree with dreamingmuscle, pull that shed about 6-7' back out from under the larger structure to get more space, and look around for cheap/free stuff to do on the board here, it also looks like you could fit a lift under the larger structure, but you would lose most of the hoists movement with anything on the lift.

As for the MR2, V6 or Gen4 3S-GTE are the big players right now, the 3.5l V6 from most newer toyotas (2GR-FE) makes almost 300hp with a high flow intake/exhaust but it's a lot of work and runs close to 8 grand for most people, the Gen4 is less, about 6 grand to have a shop do the swap, but also is more factory and has a more reliable track record. You could also build the Gen2 or swap to a Gen3 3S-GTE or build a stroker 2.2l 5S-FTE, plus a few more V6 options.
 
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wide2k

Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2011
Messages
6
Pulling the shed out is a great idea! I will look into to that later on for sure.

As for the MR2's, I love em. I'm a MR2 and Miata guy.
Will post more pics of the MR2 project later on. The red one in the pic is actually the 'donor' car..it came with a lot of mods that I was going to buy anyway..so I bought the car and planning to swap out all the mods out to another MR2 I recently purchased in which...you already guessed it, I had a Gen4 swap done. A man after my own heart ..lol.

Back to the craigslist/freebie garage project, this weekend I will be dealing w storage and organization.

One thing I realized (took me decades to learn this) is that I am a very visual kinda guy. If I ever put things in drawers or behind cabinets or boxes or in the rafters, those things cease to exist in my mind and they stay in storage...forever. Then when I need something, I forget I own it already and I buy it a second time, and a third time. So, due to my personality I believe slatwall or pegboard organization is the route for me--if it is in my face, I know I own it and I will utilize it.

My first craigslist buy: (10) 4'x6' sheets of pegboard for $2.44 per sheet. Score! And I found all the wood I need to build the mounting frames for em in a dumpster near my house from a rehab job (picture a top down miata w a dozen 15ft sticks of wood protruding out of the passenger seat)

2013-08-22
 
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