Falcon's next shop - build thread

[Falcon67]

I had a tooth filled this AM. Well, the dentist is near Home Depot and I couldn't eat lunch just yet and I knew HD had a partial spool of 2-2-2-4 aluminum and that they can't sell cuts on 2-2-2-4 after the existing cuts are gone, only whole spools of 500' and...

So I made a stop and had them drag down the partial and helped the guy spool it off through the meter. I made off with 130' and the reel was tagged at 1.47 /ft. This is the good stuff, with the proper rating for wet locations (USE-2). I had my eye on a 24 slot Square D box at Lowes for $80 but I spied a 20 slot at HD for $48, plus buying a grounding bar. $245 total out the door. I only need right at 100' of feed wire, but better 30' extra feet than 6" short. Copper #4 would have been better - but the only way to buy it and get a price is to buy 500' - that'd be $450 for the roll. I'll breaker the feed at 70 or 90 depending on the breaker price and availability. 70 is really plenty.

The filling was $168, I told the wife not to take that out of the building fund!

 

[TwistedRay]

Nice little build Chris! Nice to see a fellow Ford guy and racer building a project here.
I should be on the first leg of my shop build this Friday, by closing on the sale of one of my farms a bit east of you in Brock. I haven't raced at Crandal yet, but I'm prolly gonna go there on Sunday to meet up with a few old friends. I've TnT at your home track quite a few times back when my Mach1 was N/A.

 

[Falcon67]

We're here at Dallas now. About 600 cars is what I heard. Lost one trailer tire and one more tire on the way out, so it's an expensive weekend already. Test n tune was open from 6 to 9. We hotlapped the cars and managed three time trials. I did finish getting paper on the building before we left.

Brock is a nice area. Lots of post oak around there.

Rumor is that if you haven't run at Crandall, you might never get to come next year.

 

[Red Leader]

Would love to see pictures when you get back and settled in

 

[Motown 454]

Your progress looks great. Its got to be nice to be under cover now. Nice job.

 

[Falcon67]

It's getting tested right now. 4" of rain in Merkel, flash flooding in Abilene. We'll find out how that roof paper holds up when we get back from the race tomorrow. Get to pull the cars through Dallas in the rain. gaak. Race update- falcon broke before eliminations, won first round in truck, out second round -.02 red 10.58 on 10.57 dial. Wife going to 3rd round.

 

[Red Leader]

So some good, some bad...

I hope the whole thing is fun!

 

[FRENCHBLUE72]

I cant believe you are this far along building it by yourself...

 

[Vernmotor]

What broke on the car ??

 

[Falcon67]

Good news - got back late yesterday after a long pull through the rain. Coming down Cedar Hill in Dallas, on I-20, in a driving rain, in traffic, pulling a trailer is...not fun. Glad to be here, not a scratch on anything.

Shop content: Building paper still on the roof, work platform in attic all dry. We got enough rain that you can see where the runoff and mud flowed back over the foundation and sole plates in a couple of spots where the slab is only about 3" off the dirt. I hear 4~6" in one day - a LOT for us anytime. Everything looks so clean and fresh and the ground feels like ground, not concrete. That'll last...oh, maybe a week. Maybe it'll pack down the dirt - where there is no grass around the building, the ladders were starting to sink 1~2" inches into the dirt because it was so dry and chewed up.

What broke on the car ??

Don't know - maybe hurt an intake/exhaust valve. Might be just a carb gone really bad - put a kit it in, changed plugs twice, change power valves twice, put new wires on. Ran great again until I got back in the lanes, then went to hell. Lost 3 MPH, no where near ET, banging and all - put it up and we'll figger it out later. When it starts leaning out (as in - shut off fuel pump, run fuel out of carb) it sounds like the gun range with all the poping and banging. Have to run a compression test when I get it off the trailer. It was fine Thursday, went .012 on the tree, 1.71 60' and 8.09 @82. Last pass 8.4x something at 79, bad, bad.

BUT - dialed the F150 at 10.57, had a .040 light and ran 10.60 for the win first round. Took out a guy dialed 6.36, made him break out by .006 and I took the stripe by .005. Second round I went .02 red dammit, 10.58 on a 10.57 dial. Hard to cut a light in that big truck with no practice. So we had a good day, made a point for the team!

 

[Vernmotor]

Well it sounds like you made fun day out of anyhow..Bummer on a broke car.. loosing 3 tenths in the 1/8 is really Bad !

 

[Falcon67]

Nothing much new. After getting past the rain storm, wind yesterday tore off part of the roof paper. I'll fix it when I get that far with shingles. Dropped another $900 Friday morning for a pack of starter strip and 14 square of Estate Gray Owen's Corning shingles.

I did finish the bracing

Why bracing - because

2900 lbs. LOL. Oh my aching back. This is when DIY Guy says "I shoulda hired this out".

 

[tinbender 66]

You're a glutton for punishment!! I wimped out and paid the extra .50 a bundle for rooftop delivery.

 

[Falcon67]

Well, I didn't get too much done Saturday due to work and PeeWee football. Sunday, I was able to get the starter strip put along the eves and I humped some of the bundles up on the roof. It was hot, and after about 16 of those I called it off until dark. Some more delays ensued, so at about 10 I got after it. By 11, I had all 42 bundles up. Graiiny cell pic for ya.

So good thing - got a jump on it for Monday. It was hot today (Monday) and was 96F when we got home. And to show that no good deed goes unpunished

Moisture in the bundles had wicked out in the heat and allowed many to slide down the roof and rip the starter strip to shreds. One bundle even made it to the ground. !@$!#@. OK, damage control starts. The weather service said Sunday that we'd be getting a good size cold front Monday night. About 6:30, we got it. I'm working the back side (north face) first and about half way through the second bundle when the wind makes it to 30 MPH. It got them down and didn't lose any, but it was touch and go for a while. I tried to hang on to my hat, but it ended up across the street. When the front came though Lubbock, it turned Lubbock into a dust bowl and winds were 61 MPH. If we get that here, most of what I've done will just fly away. Arf. I moved most of the bundles up close to the peak to try and pin down the paper, so we'll see what happens overnight. Right now it's 73, down from 96 (a record of course), wind steady at 15, gusts to 24. IT's going to hit 40 tonight, so anything I put down won't stick until tomorrow in the sun/ Not much I can do but sit and wait it out.

 

[rickairmedic]

Will wish you luck for tonight . We have had some wind but nothing like you guys are having course we had that a month ago .

Rick

 

[TimeWarpF100]

Looking great! Whats the falcon powered by?

 

[Falcon67]

Looking great! Whats the falcon powered by?

Right now, a possibly wounded 302.

Well, what I managed to get done yesterday is still there this morning.

That tree was beating the **** out of me last night!

Having got a good start, I noted that my 6" offset (per the Owens Corning package directions) doesn't match the other houses or our house. Looks like most use maybe a 5" offset. Haven't decided if I care yet. This is the alley side anyway.

 

[royalton10]

Falcon - Are you putting the Dayton G73 heater in the new garage as well? You provided pictures and help when I was installing mine 2 years ago.

The new build looks great!!

Thanks!!

 

[Falcon67]

Falcon - Are you putting the Dayton G73 heater in the new garage as well? You provided pictures and help when I was installing mine 2 years ago.

The new build looks great!!

Thanks!!

Yes, it'll be in there. Glad to have been some assistance to you. I'll put it in the 4' doorway between the "clean room" and the car shop so I can swivel it around to blow heat where I need it. Still jacking with the overall layout but here's the current idea:

 

[royalton10]

I would strongly suggest you have 2 9' doors instead of the 16' door. At our current location it was a 16' door. It seemed like it was always a struggle to get cars in without banging my own car doors into another car in same garage. We turned the garage into a family room and built a new 2 car garage with the 2 9' doors.

I have had both. I would not want to go back to a single large door for 2 cars.

I would also suggest the walk in door on the side swing towards the car entry doors or front and not into the cars themselves.

Hope you don't mind the suggestions.

Just a suggestion.

 

[eborcim]

I didn't see in your posts...how did you fasten the stud walls to the slab?

 

[NUTTSGT]

Having got a good start, I noted that my 6" offset (per the Owens Corning package directions) doesn't match the other houses or our house. Looks like most use maybe a 5" offset. Haven't decided if I care yet. This is the alley side anyway.

When I have used three tab shingles ( I prefer dimensionals myself), I started the next course right at the top of the groove between the tabs. Would this what you're talking about ?


Chris, do you drive the Falcon on the street ? If it's a track only car, I'd suggest getting rid of that power valve. Put in the plug that Holley makes and go up 4 sizes (not numbers but actual sizes)on the jets. I'd assume it has a metering block in the back and not a metering plate. If it has a metering plate, buy the conversion and put a metering block in the back.

 

[Falcon67]

All good questions and comments - thanks!

royal - I started with dual 9' doors but when the building shrunk 8' (original target was 48') I compromised with the 16'. I need the off-door floorspace. There's 28' there and dual 9s would have chewed up 23' of that. I've had both cars in the house garage with a 16' door and it wasn't too much of a problem. Dual 9's would be better. Too late now anyway - 16' door kit is already here and waiting to be installed. It's still better - the old shop had a 8' door. Try backing off a trailer and hitting that bitty hole.

eborcim - There are 24 hot dipped 8" x 1/2" L bolts securing the wall plates

Eric - You're talking exposure, which is 5" - the amount of shingle tab exposed to the sky. One nice thing about my Porter-Cable coil nailer is that it has a bracket on the **** of the tool that can be set to your exposure and help line up each shingle. Offset is the stagger of the tab slots across the roof so they don't line up on top of each other.

It's a 600DP. I would have tried dumping the PV and going up 8 jets but I hate that because it has more tendency to load up in the pits. We don't do so much idling at the home track, but at Crandall it's over a mile from the turnout to where our team was parking. However, the car was cracking off runs like normal on Thursday night, then just went to hell all of a sudden. I don't ever lose carbs like that. Unless something happened to the base plate, which I haven't seen. I went completely through it in the pits and it didn't change things so I suspect something else. Car is usually track only, but I like to keep PVs in the front of my race carbs too. When the car had the 351C in it and had mufflers, it also had antique plates. I've been known to run to the gas station or the Sonic and back in the winter, slicks and all.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Eric - You're talking exposure, which is 5" - the amount of shingle tab exposed to the sky. One nice thing about my Porter-Cable coil nailer is that it has a bracket on the **** of the tool that can be set to your exposure and help line up each shingle. Offset is the stagger of the tab slots across the roof so they don't line up on top of each other.

It's a 600DP. I would have tried dumping the PV and going up 8 jets but I hate that because it has more tendency to load up in the pits. We don't do so much idling at the home track, but at Crandall it's over a mile from the turnout to where our team was parking. However, the car was cracking off runs like normal on Thursday night, then just went to hell all of a sudden. I don't ever lose carbs like that. Unless something happened to the base plate, which I haven't seen. I went completely through it in the pits and it didn't change things so I suspect something else. Car is usually track only, but I like to keep PVs in the front of my race carbs too. When the car had the 351C in it and had mufflers, it also had antique plates. I've been known to run to the gas station or the Sonic and back in the winter, slicks and all.

Ok, gotcha, I thought that's what you were talking about for the off set but I thought it was 6 1/2, and multiples of, 13, 19 1/2, 26, full shingle again. I know I did have a partial bundle in the garage, I'd have to look at it to be sure. You talking about going to a 5" from 6 through me off a bit.

Did it lose the gasket between the main body and base plate ? I know mine liked it better without the PV and for me it was one less thing to worry about on my 650 DP. It does (did) get driven on the street too including a 30 mile drive in True Street trim.

Was the popping and banging coming through the carb or out the exhaust ?

 

[NUTTSGT]

BTW Chris, I think you oughta name that garage "The Falcon Lair"

 

[Falcon67]

Was the popping and banging coming through the carb or out the exhaust ?

Exhaust. I replaced the base plate gasket, but that doesn't mean it's right. I'm going to try and give it a look on the weekend.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Exhaust. I replaced the base plate gasket, but that doesn't mean it's right. I'm going to try and give it a look on the weekend.

Which firing order are you using ?

1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8

1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8

If you use the latter, make sure to watch the comp test between 5 and 6. You could be losing the head gasket.

 

[Falcon67]

Which firing order are you using ?

1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8

1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8

If you use the latter, make sure to watch the comp test between 5 and 6. You could be losing the head gasket.

15426378. In idle tests in the pits before I loaded it up, #4 pipe lasered cold compared to the others.

 

[Falcon67]

I've got about 16 hours into the shingling so far. Cold front with rain predicted For Thursday, so I gotta stay on it. Man, that is work. Getting a great tan for winter in sipte of the SPF 55. I just keep thinking how much $ I'm saving pounding this out. The Porter-Cable gun I bought has an adjustable stop on the bottom you can set to your shingle reveal, which helps speed things along.

North side done, south side almost half.

I speced it out at 14 square which is 42 bundles, 21 per side. Not counting caps to be cut, I pulled three full bundles unused off the north face. 6" offset doesn't excatly match the house but seems to be reducing waste.

I'd be farther along on the south side but I cut holes for the vents at 2' down from the peak. That turned out to be short sighted, because if I had lowered them about another 1 1/2" I would have eliminated having to trim the shingle row passing over the top. Oops. That added about an hour to the finish work at the top.

 

[rickairmedic]

Looks great Chris . I will have to admit that is one job I am more than willing to pay for ( although on a fresh new roof it might just be better than having to tear off and reshingle ) .


Rick

 

[Falcon67]

Counting nails, paper, flashing, starter strip and 25 year Owens Supreme fiberglass shingles, I'm out about $1140. That may come down if I get to return 5-6 bags. Not sure what the job would have quoted out. I'd guess in the $3000+ range around here. No dog people this time.*

*Last shop, I got laid up with a kidney stone just before starting the roof. Had the decking done, but nothing else. The people behind us were renters and had a bunch of dogs. Nice folks, but too many dogs. Turned out they were also a roofing crew. The guy asked about the roof and when my wife told him I was out of action for a bit, they offered to paper, flash and shingle for $100. They banged it out in an afternoon and we gave 'em $200. Nice.

Edit - I bought a box of 2500 nails, thinking "that should be more than enough". Ah - the OC web site says 80 shingles per square, 4 nails per - that's nearly 4000 nails to finish. Oy.
EDIT - the box holds 7500. So we're good to go.

 

[Falcon67]

3 1/2 more hours this afternoon. Moving right along!

Took off Tueday to finish. It'll be 80+ the next two days and then a front is due in Wednedsay night. I'd like for the shingles to have a chance to get a good stick before we get a shot of wind, cold and maybe rain. Should have the tech shield up on the gable ends by tomorrow also.

 

[rickairmedic]

Chris if your not carefull you may have to put the Christmas tree in the new shop . Looking good your cruising on that roof.


Rick

 

[Nighttrain]

Think this is the first build I have seen with the roof done and no siding on it yet. Kinda looks cool. Looking real good. Hope we do get some rain down here on Thursday.

 

[Falcon67]

Roof done in time for lunch. Wind 25+ MPH today and it peeled more than one shingle out of my grip and off the roof. But I got it over with and I can return 5 bundles. Very little waste. The only real big waste was the two shingles I cut wrong when going around the vents. Yea, yea, measure twice and cut once eh? Well - I cut one, well ****! Measured again, cut another - well ****!. Climb down, get into the Halloween candy, take a break, try again.

>Think this is the first build I have seen with the roof done and no siding on it yet.
I'm sorta working the problem from the top down. The siding goes right on the studs with no backer, so I wanted to get the roof dried in before starting to finish out the lower sections.

 

[70Chevy]

While I was building my garage, the neighbor was having a house built after a fire destroyed the original. The builders saw me laying the tar paper and cutting the ridge vent and offered to finish it for me for $200. It took him up on the offer - while they did the roof, I installed the overhead door myself and we finished at the same time. Suddenly, all I had left to do was siding related. Nice!

 

[Wingnut65]

Roof done in time for lunch.

Think this is the first build I have seen with the roof done and no siding on it yet.

Looks more like a pole barn without the poles.

Congrats on getting her, uhhh, dried in??

 

[hpw]

and I can return 5 bundles.

I'd seriously consider holding onto 1 or 2 of those bundles, in case you ever have to replace any shingles down the road.

 

[shopnut]

Sure is nice to have a (sealed) roof over your head, isn't it?

Great up-front planning and I like the idea of a separate room in there. It looks like you're making steady progress so keep up the good work!

 

[NUTTSGT]

Looking good my friend, do I spy black drip edge?