I have been focused on staying away from this site for too long now. I have been eyeballing it but couldn't bring myself to come over from the HAMB and join.
I have been stuck working on my cars in a sardine can of a 10x20 storage unit. It was the only choice available as my ritzy upscale 2nd floor apartment didn't accomodate anything but a slot for a daily driver.
It was an amazing place to live, with split slate floors, 1880's brick throughout and a HUGE walk-in slate and granite shower. The chicks loved it. A fellow I work with named my apt the "***** dropper."
Anyway, I'm trading it all in for a cramped living area and what I call an amazing shop. And with that comes the justification to sign on here and find some help and inspiration.
Not sure on the history of the building, but I'm on the end of an industrial row.
The new living quarters is all double brick or intrudes into the "shop" area and is stick and board with what seems to be good insulation. Above the living area is a room that used to be a dynamite storage room complete with swing out blow windows and a THICK concrete floor. It's all relatively clean and will suit me fine when I need a place to crash.
First, a shot of the old shop... As you can see, the walls were close enough that I could barely fit beside the car. I had to do most of the motor work from ON TOP of the motor.
A couple shots of the new apartment side of the shop. Heavy steel door painted with some high-gloss auto paint. Nice new **** carpet and old as sin brick work. Not as nice as the old joint, but I'm trading it in for the shop space. And of course, daddy-o working on the new apt cleaning ritual.
First, please excuse the mess... I'm still in the process of cleaning and such... A lot of **** was hiding in corners and in storage rooms, so it looks a mess. The main shop area is big. How big? I don't know. I don't care. It's bigger than I need. The door fits my 1-ton Dually work truck fenders with room to spare if that's any reference.
Of course, any real shop has a nasty shop ******* and a place to go-jo your hands.
After seeing this, I declare that every shop entrance needs a diamondplate entryway.
This beast looks like it was functional at one point to heat the shop area only, unless the previous tennant sucked the dirt from the shop into his living area. There are flex ducts throughout the crawl space above the shop and landlord says that gas is live if I want it... That's going to be another post in the heating section shortly.
Plenty of airflow, and the coolest fan control I have ever seen.
This is going to prove useful.
Someone has already laid out a bodywork area for me. It even has a second fan and vent at the ceiling height.
There is some 220 around and the wiring seeks OK besides a few scary exposed outlets to be remedied asap. I'm really a hand tool kind of guy, but it's going to be hard to not get at least a compressor.
Side room off the shop. Looks like a good place to lay out head and carb work.
And here's the dynamite room just for kicks...
Anyway, the basics are here for this to become my dream shop/apartment, and I hope to bring you along the transformation. Some of my main concerns are heating, both for the shop and apartment sides, and I'll address those shortly. Everything seems to be sealed up fairly nice, and I know of a few moves I'm going to make to help the insulation factor a tad.
Anyway, thanks Ryan... this place is almost as cool as I thought... If I didn't have a smilee face blinking at me.
I have been stuck working on my cars in a sardine can of a 10x20 storage unit. It was the only choice available as my ritzy upscale 2nd floor apartment didn't accomodate anything but a slot for a daily driver.
It was an amazing place to live, with split slate floors, 1880's brick throughout and a HUGE walk-in slate and granite shower. The chicks loved it. A fellow I work with named my apt the "***** dropper."
Anyway, I'm trading it all in for a cramped living area and what I call an amazing shop. And with that comes the justification to sign on here and find some help and inspiration.
Not sure on the history of the building, but I'm on the end of an industrial row.
The new living quarters is all double brick or intrudes into the "shop" area and is stick and board with what seems to be good insulation. Above the living area is a room that used to be a dynamite storage room complete with swing out blow windows and a THICK concrete floor. It's all relatively clean and will suit me fine when I need a place to crash.
First, a shot of the old shop... As you can see, the walls were close enough that I could barely fit beside the car. I had to do most of the motor work from ON TOP of the motor.
A couple shots of the new apartment side of the shop. Heavy steel door painted with some high-gloss auto paint. Nice new **** carpet and old as sin brick work. Not as nice as the old joint, but I'm trading it in for the shop space. And of course, daddy-o working on the new apt cleaning ritual.
First, please excuse the mess... I'm still in the process of cleaning and such... A lot of **** was hiding in corners and in storage rooms, so it looks a mess. The main shop area is big. How big? I don't know. I don't care. It's bigger than I need. The door fits my 1-ton Dually work truck fenders with room to spare if that's any reference.
Of course, any real shop has a nasty shop ******* and a place to go-jo your hands.
After seeing this, I declare that every shop entrance needs a diamondplate entryway.
This beast looks like it was functional at one point to heat the shop area only, unless the previous tennant sucked the dirt from the shop into his living area. There are flex ducts throughout the crawl space above the shop and landlord says that gas is live if I want it... That's going to be another post in the heating section shortly.
Plenty of airflow, and the coolest fan control I have ever seen.
This is going to prove useful.
Someone has already laid out a bodywork area for me. It even has a second fan and vent at the ceiling height.
There is some 220 around and the wiring seeks OK besides a few scary exposed outlets to be remedied asap. I'm really a hand tool kind of guy, but it's going to be hard to not get at least a compressor.
Side room off the shop. Looks like a good place to lay out head and carb work.
And here's the dynamite room just for kicks...
Anyway, the basics are here for this to become my dream shop/apartment, and I hope to bring you along the transformation. Some of my main concerns are heating, both for the shop and apartment sides, and I'll address those shortly. Everything seems to be sealed up fairly nice, and I know of a few moves I'm going to make to help the insulation factor a tad.
Anyway, thanks Ryan... this place is almost as cool as I thought... If I didn't have a smilee face blinking at me.
