Joel's Tiny 2 Car Garage

[Jo3l]

Great Thread and Great looking Garage!

Love the story!
Doing pretty much the same to my 2 car garage right now.

Loved your Fox body Cobra and those that posted theirs.
I graduated in 1985, so several of my buddies got the last iteration of the Mustang GT with the carb. I "slummed" it in my 74 Road Runner which was never as fast as those 5 speed 5.0s !!

Your bike reminds me of my Mongoose I got for Christmas 1980 when I was in 8th grade. Blue with yellow 5 spoke "Tuff" wheels. Man, I wish I still had that bike...

Again, great job on the garage, keep it up!!

Thank you! I'll look forward to seeing yours if you start a thread. Take lots of good "before pictures", I always forget.

I'm always looking for an excuse to post more Cobra pictures:

The day it arrived under a leaky fake Raptor

After lots of night and weekends

Engine before Sorry no carb here

Engine after

And of course, one more of my favorite vehicle:

 

[Unruh]

That before and after of the engine is pretty striking. Great work!

 

[Jo3l]

That before and after of the engine is pretty striking. Great work!

Thanks! 10 cans of engine de-greaser can do wonders

 

[vectorw8015]

Nice thread, love your attention to detail. The Mustang turned out really nice.

 

[Jo3l]

Nice thread, love your attention to detail. The Mustang turned out really nice.

Thank you, just don't look too closely at the base boards in my garage. I should have spent a little more time taping...

 

[Jo3l]

In my original dream plan I had the compressor and 2 wall cabinets in the rear corners of the garage.

However I still haven't found a ladder storage solution that I'm happy with, so it currently is taking up the right corner. But I was able to finish out the left corner with the compressor, wall cabinet and added some dirty rag/towel bins.

This hose reel has a major design flaw that I'm sure anyone who owns one knows. Apparently you need to make the housing big enough to actually hold the entire length of hose. I wonder if I could take it apart and cut a few feet out?

I got these old style trash cans from Ikea. I'm sure there are some places where you can't just leave wet wadded up towels in a bin, but its no problem here.

They already had handles so I mounted them to the wall with bathroom towel hooks.

A while back my father built an electric car with a very short range, so he installed a 220 outlet to charge his car whenever he was visiting. I had no objections

As you can see when both garage and cabinet doors are open there is some interference. I've already closed on it twice and bent the door a little, and I'm sure it won't be the last. I need to come up with some type of door stop that holds it out from the track.

 

[BYBYV8]

Great thread and great build! Love the creativity on the clock and especially like the old school BMX bike. I'm a BMX junkie myself and have rebuilt all of my childhood bikes except one (and that's next!).

 

[Jo3l]

Great thread and great build! Love the creativity on the clock and especially like the old school BMX bike. I'm a BMX junkie myself and have rebuilt all of my childhood bikes except one (and that's next!).

Thanks! I like the clock because it only took 1 night. My bike took a little longer... and it's never done. I'm sure you can relate. Look forward to seeing yours. Stay Rad as the kids say.

My last build maxed out by work table space

 

[Unruh]

I got frustrated keeping my ladder in my garage and ended up hanging it on the side wall of my shed.

Not gonna lie, pretty jeolous, 220 is pretty high on my wish list.

 

[Jo3l]

I got frustrated keeping my ladder in my garage and ended up hanging it on the side wall of my shed.

Not gonna lie, pretty jeolous, 220 is pretty high on my wish list.

I know, I hate the ladder but it's such a necessary evil. It gets used ALL the time. Maybe that's why so many trucks have them tired to their bed racks. They have no where else to store them?

And yes the 220 is nice (especially for the price of free), but I feel like only expensive things plug into it $$$

 

[Jo3l]

NEW SHOP STOOL!!!!

Prepare for some chair related nerdery.
When I first did my rendering I included a modern stool similar to the Plycraft Cherner Chair originally designed by Martin Cherner. I did this because I have a slight obsession with these chairs, as witnessed by every open corner of my house.

However, as much as I love these chairs they have a deep, dark secret. They are not comfortable to sit in. At all.
One that IS surprisingly comfortable is this Toledo draftsman stool that I came across a while back.

I considered moving it to the garage and having it become my shop stool, but there were a few problems. First off it has become the home base for my wife's purse (and daughters Crocs) Second, I've kind of fallen in love with having a backless stool at the workbench since using the bar stool I currently have there. Luckily, Toledeo made a backless version of the drafting stool as well. They can be a little pricey, but I was able to find a reasonable one on Ebay with the 15% off coupon.

In the auction pictures it looked black, however upon arrival it's obviously green. And it's probably a little too crunchy for my taste, so I may do a minimal refresh on it just to get it to blend with my garage a little more. But I love it and most importantly, its comfortable!

 

[SuDZ]

Whats the plan for the grill?

 

[Unruh]

I really like that! Great now I gotta buy a new chair.

 

[Jo3l]

Whats the plan for the grill?

Still working on it! I like to have about 20 projects running simultaneously.

 

[Jo3l]

I really like that! Great now I gotta buy a new chair.

Thanks! Haha, yes this has become a dangerous place to come and find all the things I never knew I needed

 

[Jo3l]

It's been a while since I posted any updates but I finally finished my Weber Grill refurb.

Before

After

Now I suppose I'll have to roll it outside and let the Arizona sun do it's worst.

I also need to devote some serious time to cleaning up the garage. We had some tile work going on, and the the workers decided the garage was the perfect place to create mountains of tile dust

 

[55cadillacking]

Lots of great stuff going on! Enjoyed the updates. I'm also a huge fan of 80's era BMX bikes. Been following this Instagram page lately: bmxlover1980

 

[Unruh]

Thanks! Haha, yes this has become a dangerous place to come and find all the things I never knew I needed

This is very true! I actually started a thread called “I bought _______, because of Garage Journal.”

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=374494

My project and wish list is getting a little out of hand.



That grill turned out great! I have a similar model in black and really like it. Great work!

 

[Jo3l]

Lots of great stuff going on! Enjoyed the updates. I'm also a huge fan of 80's era BMX bikes. Been following this Instagram page lately: bmxlover1980

Thanks Rick! I've been following this Instagram page lately: rad.garage

This is very true! I actually started a thread called “I bought _______, because of Garage Journal.”

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=374494

My project and wish list is getting a little out of hand.



That grill turned out great! I have a similar model in black and really like it. Great work!

Haha, I think I could would have to just cut my whole garage thread and paste it into your “I bought _______, because of Garage Journal.” thread. and thank you! Grilling season has just started in Arizona.

 

[Jo3l]

Loosely based on my garage (in the sense of it's not at all), this past weekend we embarked on our annual tradition of taking the 56 F100 to the most Christmassy of retailers know as Home Depot to pick our Christmas Tree. I'd like to think my daughter loves the truck and family traditions, but I suspect she just enjoyed getting to sit in the front for a change.

 

[onemanarmy]

awesome truck. where does it stay most of the time?

Did you have to replace that large decal on the right of the grill?

About the 56" toolbox....the craftsman appears to be a bit cheaper? Doesn't look like they sell it anymore (on the sears site) but from older info, it seems to be slightly cheaper then the International?

 

[Jo3l]

awesome truck. where does it stay most of the time?

Thanks! It is at my Dad's shop most of the time, up on a lift because he doesn't really have room for it either

Did you have to replace that large decal on the right of the grill?

Yes, I actually went to the trouble of reproducing it, then found out you can still buy them from Weber for $5. Oh well

About the 56" toolbox....the craftsman appears to be a bit cheaper? Doesn't look like they sell it anymore (on the sears site) but from older info, it seems to be slightly cheaper then the International?

At the time of purchase it was significantly cheaper, but the prices on the Sears website have dropping a lot lately. I've been buying tools like crazy!

 

[onemanarmy]

Well now we need more info and pics of your dad's shop. Real or kit GT40?

Thanks for the grill decal info....I was actually talking about the large decal that faces up on the right hand 'arm'

 

[Jo3l]

Well now we need more info and pics of your dad's shop. Real or kit GT40?

Haha, he gets mad when I take pictures of his shop because he thinks it needs to be spotless. Maybe someday I can talk him into starting his own thread.

The GT40 is a replica. Pretty much every one you see is a replica. Unless it's beat up, then it's probably real.

I'm particularly proud of the horseshoes and Gulf logos since I was responsible for painting them

 

[onemanarmy]

looks great either way. thanks for sharing.

 

[wasfast]

Love the GT40 no matter what

 

[Jo3l]

looks great either way. thanks for sharing.

Love the GT40 no matter what

I agree! I could stare at it all day

 

[Jo3l]

A few years back we were going to move, then decided not to and instead renovate our current house which is what led to me to starts fixing up my garage, since I wouldn't be seeing a 3 car any time soon. Another item on our wish list was a fireplace which our current house doesn't have. Originally I was planning on trying to add one next year but decided to try to squeeze it in before Christmas. Of course I had to start with a rendering.

The fun police outlawed wood burning fireplaces in Phoenix back on the 90's but gas ones are still legal. However getting a gas line to the location was becoming an expensive proposition. Then we started looking at electric fireplaces and decided that given all the circumstances ($$$) that would be just fine for us.

And so it began.

I was proud of this idea. I'm running a PVC pipe from behind the wall tot he AV shelf, so any cables I add in the future should be a snap.

Another tip I have is to know when to bring in professionals. I hired out the joints and texture, and it looks 100% better than if I had done it myself.

And along those same lines I "hired" my Dad to build the mantle.

 

[Jo3l]

Made some more progress, have to be ready for Santa to make his stop

Also made one of my clocks for my brother for Christmas, hopefully he doesn't read this

 

[Jo3l]

A little late to post the update but I did get the fireplace done in time for Christmas

Here in the swing down drawer front in operation

We decided to go with minimalist hardware, which actually looks really nice. I covered the opening in white speaker cloth which not only allows sound from the soundbar but also lets the signals from the remote pass through

And of course a little Christmas present for myself... or I guess my garage

And a present from the Grinch

 

[kwyjibo]

Great job! I really like your attention to detail and diy attitude. We have some overlapping projects.

Great BMX story. Not to highjack your thread, but I sometimes wonder what happened to my old Haro Freestyler. The shop I was working at was mostly road bikes, so I bought the frameset on a "layaway" plan from a competing shop across town. It took about another year to get all the other components, including Redline cranks and graphite Tuffs. I sold the bike and 1/4 pipes few years later to pay for my first car. I went through a lot of other bikes (Quadangle, PK Ripper, Mongoose, etc) but the only one that I missed was the Haro.

Sorry about the Mustang.

 

[Coloradical]

Awesome, awesome, and not so awesome. Did you find a crowd or someone hit you?

 

[testwerke]

That mantle and fireplace looks great! Nice job! That wood stained up nicely.

 

[Jo3l]

Great job! I really like your attention to detail and diy attitude. We have some overlapping projects.

Great BMX story. Not to highjack your thread, but I sometimes wonder what happened to my old Haro Freestyler. The shop I was working at was mostly road bikes, so I bought the frameset on a "layaway" plan from a competing shop across town. It took about another year to get all the other components, including Redline cranks and graphite Tuffs. I sold the bike and 1/4 pipes few years later to pay for my first car. I went through a lot of other bikes (Quadangle, PK Ripper, Mongoose, etc) but the only one that I missed was the Haro.

Sorry about the Mustang.

Thank you! I've been checking out your thread as well but you've got many projects for me to comb through

Who knows what happened to your original bike, but I guess you could always be on the lookout for another Freestyler. Probably have to set aside a few more $ that your first...

 

[Jo3l]

Awesome, awesome, and not so awesome. Did you find a crowd or someone hit you?

Yeah it happens, got rear ended on the freeway my a kid in a Nissan Versa. It was totaled, I guess that's what happens when a car going 30 hits a car going 0. But nobody was hurt and my daughter wasn't in the car, so lots to be thankful for.

 

[Jo3l]

That mantle and fireplace looks great! Nice job! That wood stained up nicely.

Thanks! All the praise on the mantle goes to my Dad, I'll take credit for the drawer front

 

[1/2 Cup]

Jo3l fantastic work on the mantle and fireplace

 

[iwantspeed]

the fireplace looks awesome

 

[Jo3l]

Jo3l fantastic work on the mantle and fireplace

the fireplace looks awesome

Thank you both! I'm really happy with how it turned out. Hopefully no one will ever know it was added & will just look like part of the house

 

[Jo3l]

A few more garage updates from the break.
Even though it's Arizona, I thought it would be a good idea to put some drainage holes in my Ikea rag buckets.

I remember seeing this at Disneyland as a kid and thinking it was hilarious

So I couldn't resist. Nobody gets it but me... and I'm fine with that

Also decided to embrace the permanence of my water heater and remove about 50 stickers

And add one of my own

And finally dropped off my car at the shop to get repaired. They said this rental was a "free upgrade" from my car