Modern Performance Garage

[west_perf]

First post, longtime reader. Looking forward to some comments on my transition to the "modern performance garage".

Right now I have a typical suburban 2CG, 18x18 roughly, storage and thankfully I keep two modern muscle cars in it. It's come time to get it organized and renovated like I want, and I need some help choosing.

Desires - More organized. Two cars, able to walk around (as much as possible).

Here's what I'm working with now. The east side of the garage has a number of shelves, which are now full of "stuff". (The Mrs. thinks I should get rid of all of it - she might be right). Would like to put that "stuff" inside some metal cabinets. Main concern is that the cars fit. The garage door is a new insulated one and the opener is a belt drive Craftsman. I also want to replace the light with a fluorescent fixture.

Next steps: Decide on whether to tear out shelves and replace with cabinets. Repaint entire garage, from walls to ceiling. I have a bunch of car memorabilia that I will hang on the walls.

Questions:
1. Should I tear out the open shelving to replace with cabinets? (Assume cost is not a concern, and I'll be here 2-5 more years)
2. How can I better organize the hand tools (rakes, shovels) off the ground?

Also, I have a 70s style coke machine that the Mrs. wants moved into the garage "pronto".

 

[Jay Sco]

Welcome to the forum.
I'd trash the shelves and do cabinets. It will look cleaner and you can always take them with you.
I used scrap pieces of wood to hold some of my yard tools. WAY cheaper than store bought hooks and works just as well.

 

[rottdogsparky]

Plan twice buy once! On my third garage redo and can't tell you how BUDGET drives everything. So pick #1 item you must have then do a monthly project to keep things moving. Sounds like yours is organization the cabinets are awesome but expensive. I was able to use my old kitchen cabinets that can't go with but we're free. Long term might include a bump out or even attic storage as options.

 

[CYCLONE70]

I am in the same situation. I am starting this weekend and cleaning out the garage. Going to throw a fresh coat of paint on the walls and ceilings. Getting rid of all the cluttered shelves and getting some newage cabinets next weekend. Next will be lighting upgrade. My garage is 22x24 so I have a little more room . Just do it in stages


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[bczygan]

What I would do first, is sit down with a piece of paper and REALLY think about what I want to do in there.

Is it just a place to park the cars?

Do I want a regular suburban garage with 2 cars, 2 bikes and a bunch of yard tools?

Are you looking for a museum look, with epoxy floors and your car's logo on the wall?

Is it a workshop you want? For working on cars? For working on other things?

18x18 is real tight for 2 full sized cars.

There is two ways to think about all the things you put in a garage. One is to keep everything out and accessible, for ready use. The other is to put everything away, behind closed doors, for a clean look. This necessitates dragging all your needed tools out for a project, and then putting them away.

There is a lot of thinking and deciding to do.

Take a look at all the garages on Garage Journal. They run the gamut from one extreme to the other, and everything in between.

So what kind of garage do you envision? How do you want to use it? Will there be a mix of uses? Do you want it to be a "Look at me" showplace? Do you want a working garage? Do you want a combination, like Jack Olson's, where it can be a workshop, but then everything put away?

What say you?

 

[Chevy-SS]

Shelves, shelves and more shelves. The main object is to get everything off the floor. If it's something you rarely use, then put it in basement or attic.

Good luck. We've all been in same boat. Heck, even with 1,000 sf garage I am ALWAYS looking for ways to save a few feet of floor space.

 

[west_perf]

I wish I had a basement. The nice thing is the attic is above the garage, and has plenty of stuff in it already (Christmas decorations, extra car parts, etc).

Figured I'd spent some time today trying to cull down my garage things.

 

[s.gaspar]

Good luck, id like to see how this turns out.


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[west_perf]

Started making some progress. I ordered the New Age cabinets today. I went with the Performance series black, 11 piece set. It will be 13' in total, and with my 40" Husky box, it fits exactly where I am removing the existing built-in shelves. One issue, the shelves are 12" deep, but the new boxes are 18" deep. So I will lose a little space, but since I'm going to have the cabinets and the Husky box on the same side, I'll recapture the space from the other side of the garage.

So now becomes the fun part. I have to get everything out of the garage, and have a painter come in and paint and fix the drywall. I spoke with a guy today who has done some good work for me previously, but he's slow. He says he needs work, but they took almost 2 months prior to do a 3 week project. So I'm torn on what to do, or to hire out to another guy who I know who will get it done promptly, even if it costs a little more. I'd like to help a friend, but I want my garage done even more.

 

[CYCLONE70]

I just installed the black performance plus cabinets


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[west_perf]

I just installed the black performance plus cabinets


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Nice pick, any thoughts on them or installing them? My area isn't deep enough for them, so I had to go with the Performance line.

 

[CYCLONE70]

I ordered mine from overstock.com . Damage in shipping seems to be the norm but the other issue was they came from different production runs and some of the bolt holes didn't line up. But I still love them.

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[west_perf]

That looks great, the same setup and color I bought. how heavy are they to install? btw what car is that, a 71 Gm product I'm guessing?

 

[CYCLONE70]

I did it myself supported them with some buns while I bolted them together and to the wall.

And it's a 70 Mercury Cyclone GT. I have had it called a gto, cougar , and chevelle in the past buy " car guys" all the time


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[west_perf]

Nice Cyclone, never seen one of those.

Here's the update on my project. Ordered the black NewAge cabinets. I'm going to tear out the built in shelves and have everything hidden. Right now there is a lot of "junk" on them that I need to cull though and sort. I really want one of the large cabinets for camping and outdoor stuff, another for vehicle cleaning and repair, and then the smaller cabinets will hold tools, etc.

Also attached a picture of my soda machine. Picked this up off CL for $200 a few months back, works like a charm. It will stay unplugged as we don't drink much soda, it's more for looks.

The silver truck is my toy. Bought that new a few years back when GM was having a major sale. It has 2" level kit on the front and the back is stock. Added custom wheels and mud tires. Storing the original wheels and tires for the day I let it go.

Last but not least, I picked up this Dino sign (a reproduction) over the weekend for $75. It will go well in the garage.

 

[slodat]

west_perf- what's the white Chevy?

 

[CYCLONE70]

Those are some cool man cave things for sure


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[west_perf]

west_perf- what's the white Chevy?

2014 Chevy SS performance sedan.

 

[west_perf]

All - I've made some great progress.

First, I ordered the cabinets. I was able to get the black ones I wanted from Sears. They were delivered on 7/6 in perfect condition, the driver wheeled them into my garage on a pallet.

So the fun began. I tore out the old shelving. It was hard to see it go but I committed to trying a new way.

Then I washed the walls off to get the dirt and grime off it. I called a local painting company to come quote me on doing all the painting and prep work. Last year they quoted $600 for the entire job. So I expected to pay around that, and was OK with it. Instead, they decided to not show up and not call. I decided to paint myself. $80 worth of paint later and a $20 spray gun from HF and I was on the way.

Decided on a light grey color for the walls. It looks great. After paining all the walls and spraying the ceiling a flat white, I called it "good enough". It's not professional style but it will work, and in time I will go back and touch up the edges. Off to Costco we went, where we picked up two LED shop lights for $35 each. Home Depot had similar lights for $80 each. Win for Costco.

I moved and installed the New Age cabinets. The are the professional line, so not the thickest metal. If this was going to be my "forever" garage, I would have been displeased. I think the "Plus" cabinets would be much better, but this is fine for now. Assembly and mounting was easy and got everything leveled. The wall cabinets look to be sagging a bit, but they're drilled into the back wall of cement blocks along with the side bolts, and I put light items (car wash sponges etc) in them so I'm not too worried.

The worst part is I have given up quite a bit of shelving space from my earlier setup. I didn't realize how much stuff I have, and now I am stuck between having it visible (again) - which I was trying to minimize - or getting rid of some things. I put a load of stuff up in the attic that I don't use very much, that will help out. Some of the items are big and bulky, and frankly I'll just have to **** it up until I can get a bigger garage in a few years.

Next steps - get signs up and organized. What do you guys think?

 

[CYCLONE70]

Looking great!!! I too thinned out my collection of things but have more than enough space so far. Keep the pics and updates coming


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[69bigblok]

You are making great progress! I love those cabinets - great choice!

 

[west_perf]

Well, the first phase is done.

The other night one of my LED lights fell from the ceiling. They were mounted with two drywall screws. One of the screws pulled through the drywall and the light came down. Luckily, the car was not in the garage (I had left it outside) and nothing was dented. The light (LED bulb) still worked fine, so I took them both down until I can get some drywall anchors and exterior straps around them for redundancy.

I'm very pleased with the grey walls. Getting signs up, and in the one picture, you can see my window sticker collection. Got one more to add up there once I get another frame.

Ordering some peghooks from Amazon today to hang tools on the pegboard. unfortunately, as you can see, with the truck in the garage space is very tight. But I'm not parking my 30k truck outside so I can keep 2-3k in tools how I want it, so I'll just **** it up for the next couple of years in this house.

Also, have plenty of pics of fixing this foreclosure up if anyone is interested in seeing them.

 

[thunderbird61]

Phew, glad your car was not hit. Looks a little cramped with the truck in there, but it is better than no space at all, right

 

[west_perf]

It’s been a while and I’ve been wanting to post an update to my thread. Thanks to all those who have posted encouragements thus far.

Over the holidays, I bought a few new pictures “garage art” to hang up on the wall. I’m a sucker for GM memorabilia and definitely enjoy gas station prints, so I recently hung these up on the wall. Last summer the lady and I drove up to the National Corvette in Bowling Green, KY and I picked up the large metal Corvette sign there. If you like Corvettes, it’s well worth the pilgrimage.

The biggest news is that I sold the 5.0 a few months ago. I bought the car with the performance package and had a vision of building it into a very nice cruiser. Over the period of a few months, I realized that it would take a lot more work than I was willing to put into it. Specific complaints I had about the car: the drivetrain had the dreaded clunk, and an aluminum driveshaft would be another $800+. The Chinese-built MT-82 is notchy and loud, especially when cold. The clutch engagement was not smooth, although a lot of people do the spring removal to help with this. The stock exhaust sounded decent, but getting a full Ford Racing (borla) cat back is another $1500. The interior had an annoying squeak in the dash I could isolate, but never get it completely stopped without taking the dash apart. The sound quality of the Shaker radio is horrible. Suffice it to say, it’s a fun car with great potential but I was offered a fair price for it so I let the car go to its next owner. The Mrs. was quite happy to see it go down the street. I feel that the SS is a much better all-around car so I kept it instead.

Now that I’m down to one fun car, I’ve decided to enjoy it more. I plasti-dipped all the rims in gunmetal grey, originally I just wanted to see if I would like it before powder coating, but the dip has held up so well it’s going to stay on indefinitely. I’ve received a lot of compliments about the wheels and the color looks great with the white. The brake dust is starting to build and I haven’t yet found a good way to get it off, so need to address that soon. The SS is a 2014 MY (the first year), and didn’t come with the rear Brembo brakes that are included on the 15/16 cars. I’ve been wanting to do the mod, as it’s simple and fairly cheap, so I’ve finally ordered the parts and will put them on next week. Supposedly there’s no change in braking performance, but the looks alone made it desirable for me. Tonight I did a clay bar and quick detail, and it looks very nice now.

The other night I got my bikes out of storage for the first time in a while….too long of a while. The rear disc caliper was frozen and wouldn’t release, so I removed it and got one piston to move, but the other is frozen. A quick Bing search revealed this to be a common problem on these models so thankfully Amazon has the rebuild kit for $20, so that’s my next project this week. It’s funny to think about bleeding brake lines on a mountain bike. When I was younger the most common bike brakes were two feet on the ground.

For a quick story on why I avoid the local bike shop, last time I went there I parked in the furthest aisle from the store. A kid, maybe 10 y/o, was test riding a new bike, and I’m not sure he knew how to ride. He went out of control and was heading straight for the side of my truck at a quick pace. I thought about stopping him prior to hitting my truck but considered the legal issues that might arise. About 5 feet away he tried to swerve and ended up crashing and landed right beside my bumper. The employee looked horrified, the dad was laughing quite hard (maybe at the look on my face), and my pulse was pounding. Thankfully he only had a couple scratches and the truck was spared. I just gave the dad a dirty look, bought my stuff, and got the heck out of there.

Like many people on here, I wish I had more space in the garage but thankfully it’s big enough to hold everything I need to keep the car and the full size pickup sheltered every night. We’ve already discussed the need to either upgrade to a 3 or 4 car garage (4+>3) and plans are being worked for that. If we don’t find something else we like soon, I’ll look into renting a small shop, mainly to store a car (to be acquired) and some of my tools. Should have some information on that shortly….

 

[matt_i]

A RWD V8 sedan is a fun toy, I have the Pontiac predecessor, its hard to find enough open road most of the time to see what it can do. Recognizing there are other faster cars out there (the SS is a nice step up from the G) but you're definitely a 1%er on any given highway

 

[Nightwalkersrt]

Great advice here I went through similar situation with lots of stuff too.I did the floor and installed my new age cabinets,for the next couple weeks I promised my self to fill both my garbage cans to the top.Some stuff was worth money but I thought about it my space was worth more then the things I threw away.Im not done but I'm getting there.Dont rush to it right save you time and money.

 

[foxtrotlima556]

Love the SS! I work over at the Speedway and they had a few of these in the stadium for the Rolex and Daytona 500. They are such a sleeper. I see you got a few bikes too! I need to get back into riding. I just sold an older full suspension bike I had lying around. Needed to clear out room in the garage for cabinets

 

[west_perf]

Well it's been a while. We were all set to upgrade to a house with an awesome 3-car garage, only to have the sellers back out at the last second. So haven't been much in the mood to mess with the garage

In the meantime I traded my 2014 Chevy SS for a 2016 Chevy SS. This one has a manual and it's a different beast to drive. Took my furry friend out this morning to get some hunting supplies.

I'm pretty much out of room in the current house/garage so not sure what more I can do to the garage at this point.

As a teaser, I did pick up another truck to have some fun with - stay tuned for the build of it.

 

[west_perf]

Based on the battery charger thread, I picked up a couple battery chargers over the past two months. The wheeled one I used this week.





And, at the Daytona Speedway spring turkey rod run I picked up a couple vintage GM parts to add to my display collection. Used to use this exact oil/air filter on the first Chevy we had.



And finally, this is how the garage looks today. The fact that everything is out and ready to go should give a hint that something big is amiss.

Look out for the "New Modern Performance Garage" this weekend! It will be worth the wait.