Mc1337sauce's 2 Car Renovation

[Mc1337sauce]

Introduction
Hey everyone. Long time lurker and first time poster here, but since I have started renovating my garage, I figured I would create a thread to catalog the process and progress.

The Plan
When I purchased this house, the garage was a mess. The shelves, workbench, pegboard, etc. are all poorly constructed and falling apart. My plan is to tear all of the **** out of here, refinish the walls, epoxy the floor, clean up the electrics (broken outlets, wiring run without conduit, lighting), and then move most of my automotive tools and equipment as well as a couple cars and bikes in once it's all done. I can't wait to have another nice, clean place to work on my cars and bikes...being German, my OCD and perfectionism get the best of me, and the garage in its current state absolutely does not jive.

That all being said, here's an outline of what's going on, what's done, and what the future holds - this section will be updated as progress is made and new tasks come up.

-Replace side door (FINISHED)
-Removal of dilapidated shelving, workbench, pegboard, etc. (IN PROGRESS)
-Repaint walls (FINISHED)
-Build new shelving, install proper tool storage accoutrements (FINISHED)
-Miscellaneous Electrical (FINISHED)
-Epoxy floor (FINISHED)
-Move in auto tools and equipment (FINISHED)
-Lighting (FINISHED)

Videos
While working on projects (cars, house, etc) in my spare time, I most often film how-to, overview, or review videos and post them on my YouTube channel. While my channel isn't huge, I do have a few popular videos and enjoy helping people out through making them. I have started a new series on this garage renovation, and will link each part below. Feel free to check out the other videos or subscribe for more while you're on the channel, and hopefully you enjoy the content I produce!

Part 1 -

Part 2 -

Pics (or it didn't happen)

Wide-angle of the house right before I purchased it - has since been repainted and restored on the outside and inside - last thing to finish is the garage.


Putting in some work on the roof right after purchasing the house.


Shot of the driveway from the roof.


Love the view.


Style of shelves I'm building. They very closely match the style of the toolbox and workbench butcherblock tops I have already. This set of shelves is not quite finished in the picture, but now contain the hardware/supply chests.


The Vehicles

Just a short section in case you happen to be interested in any of my cars/trucks. I don't have build threads on all of them since not everything can be a project vehicle, but here are the ones that have some mods:

1997 Toyota 4Runner (Converted to Japan-spec Hilux Surf, aspiration conversion to turbocharged, and lots of other little bits)
Click Here for Build Thread

2011 Nissan Xterra (Stillen Supercharged, and though I had to do a lot of mods to make their kit not ****, very satisfying and fun to drive)
Click Here for Build Thread

Thank you all for taking the time to look at this thread. Hopefully you enjoy, and stay tuned for updates!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Got a bit more done in the garage the past couple days. I'm shooting for getting enough work done each week to release a video update every Sunday, so we will see how that goes.

This week's video (part 2) is here:

First off, something I forgot to show initially but that was included in the first video, the shelf above the water heater. Just something to store jack stands, ramps, etc. on, and also somewhere to mount a paper towel holder (this stainless steel one is 100x better than the plastic variety, by the way). Also shown is a key storage box I resprayed black/silver along with my thread checker (a must have IMO).


I mounted these can holders a week or so ago so you may have seen them in the first video or pictures, but I never covered them specifically. Made by Durham, so they match my hardware storage cabinets, and very nice for holding often-used aerosol lubricants and paints.


This week I also built a shelf to hold one of my small tool chests, configured to fit my power washer underneath, and got more wall space cleared and painted.

Two of the three shelf supports mounted.


Wall repainted (slowly ridding the garage of the ugly gold walls).


Shelf top roughed in.


Cutting the third support using my ever-useful Kupper Perfekt Mitre Saw.


Finished for the week, tool chest and power washer in their new homes. Also note the Rubbermaid FastTrack I mounted (I really like this product, more coming in the future). No, the FastTrack is not crooked, the house has a flat roof which is sloped slightly for water dispersion.


Hopefully you enjoyed this update, stay tuned for more!

 

[55cadillacking]

Love it. Such a difference from where I live.

 

[Soslow]

That's gonna be nice when you're done. I love Arizona.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Love it. Such a difference from where I live.

Definitely a huge difference both in climate and architecture, and I must admit I would prefer Canada's weather come summer. When it's 115F out, we feel like this ->

That's gonna be nice when you're done. I love Arizona.

Thanks for the complement, I definitely hope it comes out how I envision. It's getting there (very) slowly but surely.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Got a little bit accomplished. Progress is slow since I have a ton of other things going on outside working on the garage, so bear with the smaller updates for a while...I'm chipping away at it as I can.

Here's the link to this week's video:

I finished the right side wall of the garage entirely - tore out the old shelves, patched all the holes, repainted the wall, painted the columns the same color as the exterior of the house, and installed more of the Rubbermaid FastTrack. I also added supports to the bottom of the shelf I made for my toolbox...the cheap wood they sell at your typical hardware store started delaminating, so I had to make up some plywood supports to keep that stiff and held together. Here's some pics of all of that.

Wall, columns, and more FastTrack:


Shelf supports...hopefully the last design iteration of this particular piece:


On the other side of the garage, I tore out the shelves as well, though I haven't finished patching or painting anything over there. I also started getting rid of the pegboard, and replaced the small section on the left wall with a Craftsman wall cabinet to hold my oil and oil filters for my various vehicles.

Craftsman cabinet:


Shelves torn out...progress finally being made on this side:


I'm currently researching lighting solutions for the garage. What I've come up with thus far is installing T8 fixtures across the width of the garage in two lines, one where the current T12 fixture is, and the other where there is currently just a small lamp next to the garage door opener (need to go with low-profile fixtures to clear the opener). I was also looking into LED fixtures, but I'm not sure about the longevity, and I don't want to have to replace an entire unit if it dies on me. Other suggestions are more than welcome, as I'm always open to considering alternatives.

Hopefully you enjoyed this week's post; stay tuned for more!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Got quite a bit more done this past week. I don't know when the next update will be for sure since I am waiting on supplies (and need to make time) to get back to work.

Here's this week's video:

So, first off I got the other set of shelves ripped out, wall patched, painted (including contrasting columns), and got some more FastTrack installed.


Then got my tire pressure gauge holder built (mostly, waiting on a third bracket) and framed a placard from a car show I recently featured one of my vehicles in.


Also finally got the pegboard torn down fully. The way it was installed was disgusting...no cuts were straight, backing wood was not cut to any kind of consistent length, and there were literally around 100 nails used to put it all up...looks like I used the wall for target practice.

Taking tools down:


Bye Bye pegboard:


Bullet holes? Just kidding, but cmon, this isn't necessary...


Progress for the week:


The next stage will start with removing the dilapidated workbench, then patching that wall up and painting. Going to put one of my 8 foot Craftsman workbenches in its place, along with two of the taller Craftsman cabinets (I will be moving the paint can holders to make room for those later). I think I will install some of the Craftsman steel LocBoard on that wall once done, but not 100% sure on that. Stay tuned for more!

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Looking good, keep up the great work!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Looking good, keep up the great work!

Thanks for the complement, I keep chugging along each week. Not sure if I finished enough this past week to warrant an update, but I'll see about filming one and shooting pics...if it doesn't happen, next Sunday I should have something. Stay tuned!

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Thanks for the complement, I keep chugging along each week. Not sure if I finished enough this past week to warrant an update, but I'll see about filming one and shooting pics...if it doesn't happen, next Sunday I should have something. Stay tuned!

No problem, all the positive comments on my build thread keep me motivated, so I try to do the same for others whenever I can!

Love the 4Runner by the way. Am going to read through your build thread when I have some free time.

 

[HSpencer]

I really like your place! The parts cabinets are great and the blue miter saw caught my eye. I tried to find one on line. I have one like it but it is an older craftsman brand.
Your place is looking great, and I will be following progress!!

Best Regards
Herb

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Got a decent bit done the past few weeks, but I completely forgot to take pics last time I was over at this house so I don't have any for this update...video only this time.

Week 5 and 6 video here:

I will be extremely busy with other things the next few weeks, so I don't know when the next update or video will be, but I will post as soon as there is notable progress. Stay tuned!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

I really like your place! The parts cabinets are great and the blue miter saw caught my eye. I tried to find one on line. I have one like it but it is an older craftsman brand.
Your place is looking great, and I will be following progress!!

Best Regards
Herb

Thanks for the complements Herb! The blue mitre saw is a Küpper Perfekt model, but I can't find them for sale over here in the US anywhere...it seems to be readily available on amazon.de, however. Stay tuned for more updates in a couple weeks!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Finally had time to work on the garage this past week. I forgot to take pics (again...grrrrrrr), but I promise I will have some for the next update, which will be rather large.

Here's my video covering the last few weeks of work:

I finished up all of the paint, including the ceiling, and got some metal pegboard that matches my Craftsman boxes and equipment mounted on the fresh wall. I also prepped the floor for epoxy, which will be the primary topic of next week's update, so stay tuned! I should have this project wrapped up very shortly!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Got the epoxy done, but not without headache. After researching for quite a while, I decided to go with Epoxy-Coat for my coating, and initially went with white. When I got around to painting the floor, I ended up short of part A even though I am absolutely sure that I mixed the resin and hardener at the proper ratio according to the included measuring stick (I had two other people check this for each batch I mixed, and yes, I used the correct side of the stick). I came to the conclusion that either the measuring stick was marked incorrectly or that I was short of part A (there was a lot of part B hardener leftover, so I believe it to be the former), but when I contacted Epoxy-Coat their rep said that neither of those scenarios could possibly have happened and that I mis-mixed the product - they were quite unhelpful and a bit rude at that.

So, the first picture at the end of this post shows what the garage looked like after coating with the white epoxy. Obviously, something needed to be done, so I ran down to Lowe's and picked up two of the taupe half-kits from the same brand (to ensure chemical compatibility), and painted those on. As you can see from the pics, the taupe came out great, and those two kits produced four full batches, as opposed to the white full kit that produced about 3.5.

Now the floor looks great, but I am worried that because the base white coat may have been mixed at improper ratios the integrity of the floor may have been compromised. Because of this, I have ordered RaceDeck to floor the portion of the garage on which my cars and motorcycles will be parked (the RaceDeck reps I worked with were absolutely fantastic BTW, great customer service there), and will leave the walking space toward the front bare epoxy. I'm hoping this setup will be both functional and durable - I should have everything as far as the floor is concerned installed and finished by next week. I also started to move in a couple bits of equipment this week, namely my workbench and a new Craftsman floor cabinet that I purchased. I will be moving toolboxes and other items in fairly soon once the floor is 100% done.

Hopefully you enjoyed this update - stay tuned for more next week!

Here's this week's video update:

And here's pics of the epoxy process:

White epoxy floor:


Close up of the white finish:


Re-coating in taupe:


Taupe finished:


Some of the equipment I'm starting to move in:

 

[55cadillacking]

Great update. Despite your trials and tribulations, you are heading for a fantastic finish!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Great update. Despite your trials and tribulations, you are heading for a fantastic finish!

Yep, despite the speedbumps I am overall happy with how the garage is turning out - definitely looks better than I ever imagined! Can't wait to get working on some cars once it's done.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

The floor looks great, it would almost be a shame to cover it up with the Racedeck!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Not exactly related to the garage renovation, but I was assembling another one of those Craftsman floor cabinets yesterday for use in another of my garages, and noticed the Craftsman logo label stuck on crooked - they've definitely gone downhill since back in the day. Figured it was a bit humorous; here's the picture.

The floor looks great, it would almost be a shame to cover it up with the Racedeck!

I would absolutely leave it bare if it weren't for the issues I had with the white epoxy that ended up being the basecoat...I am leaving the front part of the garage bare epoxy, though, so at least the effort is not entirely for naught. It should turn out fantastic once finished, and the RaceDeck scheme I picked out fits the garage absolutely perfectly IMO.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Finally got the garage project all wrapped up. I'm very happy with how it turned out, so much so that I will likely be doing some renovation to my other garages in the future - that'll probably a while down the road, though, as I have several auto-related projects that I need to finish first.

The final touches I put on the garage started with installing the RaceDeck flooring. Very easy process, only took a couple hours, and most of the install was done with only one person. After that, I insulated the garage door in order to keep out as much Arizona heat as possible in order to make it bearable to work on vehicles in there. Finally, I put down an anti-fatigue mat in front of my workbench to make working on things easier and to protect the floor.

Here's this week's video showcasing the final product, with views of everything I have done during the renovation:

And some pictures of the finished garage:

 

[Mc1337sauce]

It's been nearly 2 years and the garage has been swell for all of the jobs I've done in it, but lately I've been itching to do some upgrades as I've been tackling more and more projects. Since it is now summer here in AZ, the first thing on my list was air conditioning - you can't work outside very well when it is 120+ degrees ambient.

I couldn't get my HOA to approve a mini-split since the heat exchanger would be on the side of the house and the lines would be able to be viewed from the street (the garage side walls are exposed on both sides and are visible), so I decided my best option would be a couple portable AC units. The ones I chose are easily detachable and came with caps so that I can use to cap off the ducts during winter and move the units to my storage area.

In order to install these, I needed to source a 5 inch duct (much harder to find than 4 or 6, but Amazon to the rescue as usual) and I 3D printed some flanges to adapt the quick disconnect system to my wall. You can see the differences between rev 1 and 2 in the photos below (enlarged the flange and moved the holes out since I cut it a tad close to the main hole's perimeter for drywall anchors) but everything installed very smoothly on both sides. This weekend, I was working out in the garage quite a bit, and these guys easily held a steady 75 degrees when it was 115 ambient outside.

Side 1 installed (didn't take great pics during install)


Side 1


Outside view of duct (yes, the paint matches, it was just wet in the photo)


Side 2


Flange On (Rev 2, will be making some of these in tan to better match the color scheme)


Panoramic of the whole setup this past Saturday


And a couple extras...gotta keep the floors clean


First project tackled with the dual AC system - installing a stereo in my Xterra after making this glorious wiring harness


I have quite a few more updates in the works once I get some current projects wrapped up, so stay tuned!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Wrapped another project last weekend - got some tires mounted on near-NOS OEM GS400 wheels for my daily, and installed the wheels - in the glorious air conditioning.

End result:



I almost have this car dialed in; it just needs the tint to be redone along with a couple other minor things.



Today, I just did some light reorganization as well as the installation of my new revision of AC flange - altered the tolerances just a bit on my second revision to get the fitment perfect, and printed it tan to match the current wall theme. Looks awesome installed.



Also threw the Lexus up on ramps - I managed to whack the front lip this week (for the hundredth time) which bent the brackets down just a bit, so it'll be coming off for a quick repair tomorrow.



I've also been working on getting an inventory computer setup dialed in along with rounding up the necessary supplies to get my stock of car parts organized, so that is next up on the list to finish.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Got some progress outside but related to the garage done this weekend. I bought some Husky shelves on sale from Home Depot a month or two ago and set them up in my shop area attached to my house. I've been stocking them with all of my excess car parts since - things are still moving around and will still need to be inventoried and cataloged, but I'm lightening the load from other storage areas by transferring here at the moment.

Part of this reorganization has been going through my Craftsman cabinets and stocking the new shelves with all of my spare parts from those as well - once I get everything squared away, those cabinets will only be holding tools and equipment, mechanical/automotive in the garage and electrical/woodworking in the shop. I'm looking into bin systems for smaller, general use items like vacuum line, hardware, fittings, etc., which will end up in the shop as well. I'm thinking one decent size, mobile bin rack will do for my purposes. The shop area will also be getting some renovation once I get to it to make it much more functional.

I also had some major cleaning to do over the weekend, as I had been working on re-engineering and rebuilding an adjustable door threshold for my parents over the past week and all of the wood and metal work I had to do in the shop area combined with the random boxes, styrofoam, and other materials back there from the work I've been doing in the garage made it look like a bomb went off.

Anyway, here are some photos of the progress in the shop area. It's still a big mess at the moment but I wanted to snap some photos mid-clean just so we can see how far it's come later on. Apologies for the poor lighting - I kept the blinds shut because it was darn near 120 degrees outside and I didn't want to let any more heat in than necessary.









Also got a new CAD/inventory workstation setup, so I have a dedicated PC for those two purposes that won't get crapped up with anything else.





I should be getting some major organization done next weekend too, so stay tuned for that!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Added another tool box this weekend - US General Series 2 roll cart. It's the largest box that I could fit between the Craftsman cabinet and the hose bib in the garage, so it worked out perfectly (it's tight)! I've been wanting a KRL and almost pulled the trigger a couple times, but I can't get over the "logistics of moving a multi-thousand pound loaded box" hump...I'm in my early 20s and don't plan on being in this house forever, and moving a 2 or 3 bay box myself just isn't going to happen. I will say, this cart is leaps and bounds better than the newer Craftsman boxes I have...it's rigid, has thick-gauge sheet metal, nice slides, and a good locking mechanism.

I'm still working on getting tools loaded up and organized in the cart, but you can count on seeing that at some point soon - it's getting set up as my automotive box, with all of my most commonly-used tools for working on cars going into it. Should make my life a little easier, and I can already tell I'm going to love not bending over to grab sockets anymore.

I've also been on a tool buying spree, so a lot of that will be featured soon. Also just ordered a big item for the garage this afternoon which should be here in a couple weeks and will be an awesome addition!

In other news, I also picked up a bin rack from Northern Tool for my shop area this past week and set it up, but haven't had time to load it with all of my misc. hardware, clips, fasteners, fittings, and other assorted bits - I should have some glory shots of that process underway by next weekend. A lot of time has gone into cleaning and organizing that area the past few weeks.

Anyway, here is a shot of the new box; I got to use it a bit working on my mom's VW this morning, and so far so good. Ignore the mess of wires, I've had to move around some equipment (trickle chargers, fans, etc) so nothing is plugged in where it belongs.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Well, bin rack and finishing up my shop organization got put on hold this weekend...


...because my Quickjack lift arrived!


Setup went pretty smoothly...I split it up between Saturday and Sunday since I have some other projects going on at the moment and forgot to grab some ATF before the unit was delivered. The only damage I found from shipping was a broken blank off plug head - it was sheared off and in the bag with the pump unit, so I had a bit of hydraulic fluid mess to clean up, but I was able to use a 90 degree pick to bite into the inner wall and thread it out no problem.



Some initial testing shots after setup...Lexus going up!


Undercarriage - not going to sit up underneath the car by any means, but there is plenty of room to do most jobs no problem. I'll definitely need to pick myself up a low-pro creeper though!


And a couple pics of the final install setup - the way I'm using the Quickjack, it's going to be a semi-permanent lift, with me parking on top of it and leaving the lines connected. I put the pump unit on the bottom tray of my new tool cart; perfect location, fits the pump and all of the lift blocks and misc. accessories. I put a length of door edge guard on the front lip of the tray where the hoses go to avoid abrasion issues over time - definitely recommend the setup, as it's super accessible but out of the way when working.





Got a bit more organization done in the tool cart this weekend as well - I still have a little ways to go, and I'm waiting on a couple new items that are meant to go in this box, but I should have that finished up fairly soon.

Thanks for tuning in!

 

[55cadillacking]

Nice to see someone else enjoying the convenience of the QJ in their garage. Where/how are you storing them if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Nice to see someone else enjoying the convenience of the QJ in their garage. Where/how are you storing them if you don't mind me asking?

Yeah, they’re definitely awesome so far. For storage, I’m just parking on top of them (obviously not running them over with the wheels of the car), and when I want to use them I pull them out to the sides of the car before pulling in to keep the lines outside the wheels when lifting. Hopefully that makes sense. It keeps them out of the way, and I can keep everything connected with my setup too.

 

[Jo3l]

Hi from down the street!
Thanks for posting all the updates. How long does your garage take to cool down once you flip on the AC units? I've been struggling with the oppressive heat in mine lately.

 

[TX4runner]

Nice progress. You'll love your Quickjack!! I wanted to leave mine in place as well, but I have too many low slung cars, so I have to store them on the side wall. Like your A/C setup.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Hi from down the street!
Thanks for posting all the updates. How long does your garage take to cool down once you flip on the AC units? I've been struggling with the oppressive heat in mine lately.

Hello neighbor! The AC units work very well for what they are - single hose portables are very inefficient, but for my purposes are fine and appease the HOA. With my garage (insulated including door, North facing) they’ve been able to maintain a 30 degree temperature delta all day. Last weekend it hit 116 outside my house, and I had the garage hovering around 85. I also open the door from garage to house when running them to bring in air from inside as well as to ensure the vacuum generated by these units pulls cool air instead of hot air through the cracks along the garage door edges. I will say, the vacuum does have one benefit: fumes get sucked out pretty darn quick.

Cool down times vary - if you start them up early in the morning it’ll take no time, but last weekend I started mine up around 10:30 AM and it took a couple hours to stabilize down to 85. Opening the door to the house helps a lot, as does having LED lights as opposed to fluorescent that throws off a ton of heat. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Nice progress. You'll love your Quickjack!! I wanted to leave mine in place as well, but I have too many low slung cars, so I have to store them on the side wall. Like your A/C setup.

Another 4Runner enthusiast (assuming by your name)! Thankfully my lowest car at the moment is my GS and it clears all around, but barely. I’m looking into purchasing something sportier and more exotic in a year or two, so if worst comes to worst I’ll park my 4Runner (20” floor to frame) over it - won’t have any clearance issues then.

The AC setup is awesome for what it is, but you better believe that whenever I move I’ll find a house and location that suits a mini-split - 85 inside is totally do-able for me, but I pine for a 70 degree shop space.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

This weekend was busy outside of the garage, but I managed to snag myself a little time this afternoon to finish up organizing the new tool cart (well...almost). As I said before, this box just contains my commonly used tools for working on cars...my other 3 boxes are going to get reorganized at some point to better suit my woodworking, machining, household, and other misc. needs.

Sockets


The Snap-On shrine (plus a little Craftsman thrown in)


3/8 impact sockets that I use on my Milwaukee M18 impact


Pliers plus a couple misc. screwdrivers


Wrenches and picks


Automotive tools (still needs some organizers, just threw some stuff in there for now)


I also started redoing my metal pegboard setup to make it a bit more user-friendly and much cleaner looking. Just got the screwdriver side done today, so I have quite a bit more to go.



And to finish things off for the week, I got a test label printed out for my bin rack. This solution should work nicely...3/4" tape printed on a Dymo Rhino 4200 I picked up for this, plus being able to do custom heat shrink and cable labels.



More coming soon as usual!

 

[RogueFab]

First time I've seen race deck over epoxy. Nice clean up for sure. And good photos too.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

First time I've seen race deck over epoxy. Nice clean up for sure. And good photos too.

Thank you sir! I definitely enjoy the flooring.

 

[Jo3l]

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Okay since you offered! What lead you to install 2 units? Was it the manufactures specs, trail and error, or did you just figure 2 units would do the job quicker?

Your garage is looking great! Thanks for all the posts.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Okay since you offered! What lead you to install 2 units? Was it the manufactures specs, trail and error, or did you just figure 2 units would do the job quicker?

Your garage is looking great! Thanks for all the posts.

The reason for 2 was because I initially installed one, tested that out, and said to myself, "it would be nice to have another." I knew going into it that the single unit wouldn't hold any kind of stable temperature in the summer here, but wanted to test to see how well it would work to cool the garage down when it wasn't super hot. It worked well, so I added another unit to cover myself during the summer here - yesterday it was 109 out by me and a reasonable 88 in the garage for the couple hours I was working in there. That might sound hot to some, but for those of us in Arizona that's pretty darn workable and reasonable.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

I only spent a couple hours in the garage yesterday, but I did manage to get some more organization done. All I have left at this point is my 3 Craftsman boxes in the garage under my bench and the one section of pegboard toward the door end of the garage.

Finished up the tool cart bottom drawer (still have stuff to add to the tray):


And finished the pegboard over the bench:


Hoping to get some work done this coming weekend!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Well, didn't get much of anything done in the garage this weekend because my kitchen lights decided to kick the bucket, and since redoing the lights has been on my project list for quite a while I decided to knock it out in one whack. I didn't take any before pics since the old T12 lamps were dead and it wouldn't really be representative of how it was, but I did take some during the process. I decided to go for a 6 pack of Barrina T5 LED fixtures (4 footers, available on Amazon for $40 or so). These things were super easy to install, and I must say they are a MAJOR upgrade over the T12 lamps. Some form of LED lighting will be finding its way into my garage as soon as humanly possible (once the weather cools down here).

First, I pulled down the T12 fixtures. No pics of that, but it was a hack job to say the least in terms of wiring. Also found out that these lights are on my garage breaker instead of my kitchen, so, uh, yeah...that's an example of how not to wire things (thanks to the original owner of the house for that one).

Anyway, once the T12s were out, up went the LED fixtures. Super easy to install with the included clips, and daisy-chaining them works perfectly and makes for clean and easy wiring and replacement. Here they are lit up for the first time:


And a shot of them up in the recess (don't worry, I tied down the wire in the picture properly later on):


Now, if you noticed in photo number 1, the plastic diffusion panels were yellow...very yellow. For obvious reasons, that had to go (and was the reason I originally put this project on my list before the lights out and died), so off I was to Lowe's to get some new panels. I had to custom cut them, but that was a piece of cake with the good ol' Dremel. Here we are mid-replacement - sides done, ends and flat bottoms left to go:


And the finished product:


Now I have a kitchen that is lit up like nobody's business and we should be back in action and to our regular programming next week!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Well, I ended up fixing a few of my family's vehicles and one of my own these past couple weeks, so up until this weekend no garage progress was made - but hey, at least I was able to get the automotive work done comfortably and efficiently. The lift definitely made a couple of the jobs I did a million times easier, and the AC was a blessing as usual (it's still been roughly 110 degrees every weekend until this past one).

Anywho, I had a bit of time this weekend to wrap up the work on my Nissan fixing a couple small coolant seeps and had some left over to organize the rest of the Craftsman boxes. Here's what we're working with now:

Extra wrenches


SAE sockets, oddball singles, and overflow


The rest of my automotive specialty tools that aren't in cases.


Hole-making devices


Breaker bars and torque wrenches (minus the 1/2" drive I use for wheels)


Crowfoot wrenches and pullers - never know when you need 'em


Metal working (mill stuff, taps, dies, snips, punches, reamers, hones, etc)


Woodworking (general stuff, specialty tools and jigs in the shop)


Measuring tools of all flavors


Electrical tools and picks (plus a set of overflow screwdrivers)


AC Tools


Plumbing (big drawer, small stuff)



That's all for this weekend. Might do some shop cleanup and further organization next weekend depending on workload - we shall see!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Got some shop cleanup done this weekend (Saturday...forgot pics, though) and took advantage of the dropping temperatures to detail my daily today.

Still have a couple wrap-up items to attend to next weekend (polish windows, interior detail, condition plastics, etc) but it's looking pretty good from this angle.



AC setup still going strong with the temps at around 100 outside, and makes for a great environment to detail in.

For now, since we are having some pretty heavy rain this week, the Lexus and 4Runner are on life support (battery tender) safe and sound in the garage for a while and I'm back in the Xterra to tackle the weather.

A couple family members also just had more things go awry on their cars this week (gotta love German autos), so we're playing the parts waiting game right now but should be installing some fun stuff using the lift next weekend!

 

[mrbc]

On the HF tool cart... the drawer with the pliers... DO they come like that now with those slots? That's kinda cool. I like my HF 5 drawer cart. I put a folding tray on it and the paper towel holder and glove box holder. I could use some more room so I might get one of their side drawer units.... anyway, nice looking garage.. too nice, needs to be dirtier.

Oh and BTW, I'm lusting over a set of quick jacks. That would make working on the my 4runner sooooo much easier.