Humbly requesting your critique...

[darkbuddha]

My garage will be modest compared to the many I drool over here, but I'm just glad to have a garage again after 10 years of condo living and working on my cars in the condo parking lot (with the blue hairs giving me hell all the time). But to the point...

I'm on a budget, have some freebie kitchen cabinets I'm using, and some other stuff that I need to accommodate, so I'm just trying to come up with a working floorplan and wanted to get some feedback from all the experienced folks here. Take a look and see if you see any gaping errors of judgement... don't feel you have to be gentle either.

Floorplan (and key):



Actual pics of the space as is:






BTW, I haven't yet, but I plan to move the tall cabinet to the right side of the main bench space (on the back wall) and still keep the smaller red roll-away next to the compressor (since it holds my air tools).

Any thoughts or feedback much appreciated. TIA!

 

[Rockaholic555]

Good find on those cabinets. I'm looking to score something similar myself. Looks like you've got everything pretty well figured out. Just make sure you've got your electrical and air demands met in your project area without tripping over cords. Also, you might find you want more light.

 

[Scout Driver]

Nice plan overall. Do you have room for an eight foot wide (or slightly smaller) garage door in the place where the golf-cart door is? Not sure why you would need to, but something tells me that it might be nice to be able to scoot the project car outside sometime. Or...you may find the need to roll a cherry picker in from that side of the garage.

Just thinking out loud here..

Scott

 

[dan76]

As you're in FL, might want to consider an overhead fan to help with air movement.


X2 on running air drops. For me it's much more efficient to run short a shorter airline off multiple drops vs. dragging a 50' line across the floor.

 

[mdbeck1]

It looks like your cabinet uppers are just sitting on top of the bases. I'd probably raise them up and mount them so that you can use the full cabinet tops. You could put some lights under the cabinet uppers so you could see things on the bench easier.

I'd also think about putting air and electrical on the bench so that it is readily available when you are working there.

 

[DIC]

I know about the blue hairs......I'v got 3 retired school teachers on every side of me....

 

[darkbuddha]

Thanks for the input... just the kind of stuff I was looking for. It's definitely a baby steps process for me given my resources and budget.

I haven't hung the cabinets yet because I wanted to make sure that I got good feedback on the layout before I commit to it. I'm trying to anticipate how it will work out long term since I don't see having time or budget for another redo for a good long while.

The golf cart door is a nice bonus since it creates really nice crossflow of air when both doors are open and gives me quick access to the side yard for doing stuff like painting, sanding, etc. out there. Unfortunately, my side yard just isn't big enough to put a whole car in. But it will eventually provide quick access to a storage shed I plan to build out there.

You guys also hit on a lot of stuff I was thinking about, like ceiling fans, probably a grid of 6-8 four foot fluorescents, a few more electrical outlets eventually (I can live with the 7 in there for now), and air drops. And I'm looking forward to a place for a vise, grinder, drill press, and parts washer, but I can't help but think I'm missing some forethought about something.

Anyway, keep it coming.

 

[bbesedin]

Nice Xr. What is that front bumper from?

 

[darkbuddha]

Nice Xr. What is that front bumper from?

Thanks and... . j/k A friend and fellow XR owner and I came up with the idea of using a VW bumper in place of the original. It's become a pretty popular swap since he pioneered it a few years ago now.