Motorman55's Garage...The Beginning

[Motorman55]

Re-hung the Motorcraft boxes in the garage (again.) Had to, it was kind of becoming a dumping ground for things that don't belong there.

Anyway, I lowered the bottom box back down so that there's still just enough space to slide the two HF mechanics seats under it. After that I added a 3/4" smooth plywood top and a 1/4" backboard and painted them black.

Can always use more shelf/work space in this small garage.

 

[jon72vega]

Re-hung the Motorcraft boxes in the garage (again.) Had to, it was kind of becoming a dumping ground for things that don't belong there.

Anyway, I lowered the bottom box back down so that there's still just enough space to slide the two HF mechanics seats under it. After that I added a 3/4" smooth plywood top and a 1/4" backboard and painted them black.

Can always use more shelf/work space in this small garage.

Motorman55,
What you did with the Motorcraft boxes looks nice.

 

[Motorman55]

Well it looks like the bottom Motorcraft cabinet is now the repository for my Vintage Snap-On Tester (for now), along with some other Tune-Up type tools and supplies.

Not sure if it'll remain there as I'm still playing around with the idea of mounting the Tester to my old Craftsman tool stand that I just put 4" castor wheels on last week.

Meanwhile, its a good fit and its out of the way. So now its back to work....

 

[Motorman55]

Motorman55,
What you did with the Motorcraft boxes looks nice.

Thanks, see above post....

 

[Motorman55]

New addition to the shop office is this copy of a vintage original NJ motorcycle racing flyer.

Been working on the shop office whenever I get a chance. I mounted it in a new black frame and mat. Now all have to do is find a place to hang it up.

Problem is, most all of the four walls are pretty much filled up already.

 

[Motorman55]

While working in the garage the other day, I took a few minutes to cut and install a plywood backboard behind the double drawer cabinets of the hardware bench. I painted it black to match the bench top. Its more for cosmetics looks then anything else.

After stepping back and looking at it for a few minutes, I realized it made for a good place to hang up the original 1930/40's era NJ Plumbers Union porcelain sign I picked up last year.

Been trying to find a good place to hang that little sign it up for awhile.

 

[Motorman55]

Hopefully everything I want to accomplish in rearranging and setting the garage up will be done by the end of May. Might even be able to get the walls painted with a little luck, though I'm not betting on that just yet.

With the warm weather season fast approaching there's plenty things to do around the outside of the house and yard that will take up a lot of my time.

Then there's the much needed repairs and rust abatement on the 94 Chevy P.U. to get done if I have any chance of saving it from the recycler.

And finally, the most important of all is getting in some good riding time on the Harley. Good for the soul.

 

[Motorman55]

Well once again I repurposed the side cabinet that I turned into a detail cart last year. This time as a quasi desk/extra work surface/workshop manual cabinet.

It worked out ok for awhile but I realized pretty quickly that I don't really need a detail cart. So all the cleaners and polishes will now be stored in the gray shelf over the hardware/supply bench I made on the right side of the garage.

So after removing the small wheels and after a little dickering around, I decided to hang it off the large tool box. Not on the side but off the front of it. This area is basically a dead spot. Great...only one problem, being stationary, it interfered with the garage lofts drop down ladder.

I liked its new location, but I needed to make it mobile (again). Took a couple measurements and I found that a small HF dollie I had lying around fit perfect under the side cabinet and with its larger diameter wheels it raised it to the same height as the large tool box.

To make it easy to push back into place and keep it from moving if I leaned on it, I placed a HF magnetic tool holder vertically on the front of big box to serve as a stop/guide for the cabinet. Lastly I started filling it up with some of my workshop manuals and various pens/pencils etc.

 

[Motorman55]

Yes, I actually do get work done in the garage in between all this fun rearranging stuff.

 

[Kevkx125]

Motorman55
Your project there looks like it turned out nice, Good work!!

 

[Motorman55]

Motorman55
Your project there looks like it turned out nice, Good work!!

Thanks, its just a matter of trying different things and make the best use out of what I have in this small garage.

 

[Motorman55]

Started working on the wife's vintage buggy seat project today. The plan was to paint the top back board and bottom legs and rail section a Satin Black while leaving the rest of the wood areas as found including the metal rails. These parts would be cleaned and treated with a little wood polish.

First thing I did was to remove the one side leg that was installed wrong in the past. (The top of the legs are cut at an angle so that when you screw the bench top to them the legs slant slightly outward).

This required the removal of the lower side locking peg by tapping it upward to separate it from the lower cross support board and removing the two old slotted flathead screws holding the top frame to the leg itself.

After turning the leg 180 degrees I reused the same vintage slotted flathead screws to reattach it to the top frame followed up by inserting the lower cross support and peg. Once back together I gave both of the side pegs a few taps of the rawhide mallet to bring the sides in tight to the cross board.

After sanding and prepping the various parts to be painted, I taped off the various areas as needed and applied one nice smooth even coat of the Satin Black paint with one of my better brushes.

As any fat person will tell you, black is 'slimming' to the eye. The Satin Black paint in this case makes the thick wood base appear thinner, which is what I was trying to achieve without replacing the base itself. This base is not the original but something somebody in the past adapted the top of the original carriage seat to. What's known as a 'marriage'.

Once the paint dried I removed all the masking tape and I gave the rest of the wood parts and metal rails a couple coats of wood polish.

Last thing still to be done is the ordering of some 1" padding. Once I get that I'll cut the pad to size and shape. The wife has some material she wants to cover it with. I leave all the sewing to her.

The pictures don't do justice to the overall contrast of the old polished wood and the one coat of satin black paint, which actually looks more like a stain. Too much glare from the overhead lighting makes everything look dull and blotchy.

 

[Motorman55]

The recently repurposed side cabinet into a quasi desk/extra work surface has proved its worth today as I worked on the wife's vintage buggy seat project.

Nice thing is I didn't have to move anything else to work on it. I was still able to move around the shop to do other things.

 

[Motorman55]

Left the paint to dry on the buggy seat overnight in the garage and this morning I moved it into the dining room. This buggy seat will serve as the end chair for a vintage dining room table.

The wife still has to make a seat pad for it. She's decided on 1" thick foam and a neutral tone cloth pattern to cover it. I'll take another pic when its all finished.

Meanwhile the hunt continues for a vintage Trestle style table and a set of vintage Hancock style chairs.

The vintage corner plant stand table partially seen in the first pic is next on the To-Do list for cleaning, polishing and a little Satin Black accent paint treatment.

 

[Motorman55]

While rearranging continues in the garage/workshop, I stored these guys under the motor bench as they await their turn for restoration. Don't know if i can get to them anytime soon, but at least their out of the way.

 

[Motorman55]

Meet Polly, Motorman's newest garage mascot. This old salty sailor has seen lots of action out in the weather.

He's rough around the edges, but I'm not about to clean him up cause he's earned his patina the hard way. Still I think he might be ready for retirement.

Of course us retired types still need to spin our wheels now and then, or in the case of Polly, to spin his wings. So maybe we can find a place in the garage where he can catch a breeze.

 

[Motorman55]

Continuing with rearranging the small shop...

Today I remove all the yard tools hanging on the inside wall near the overhead garage door. This opened up a nice 3 foot wide wall space. A wide enough space that I was able to place the Skat-Blast cabinet there. Of course I will still have to pull out the Skat-Blast cabinet away from the wall to be able to open the side door and use it, but that's no biggie what with it being on wheels now I can roll it outside if I wanted to.

So after that I then placed the 'Frankenstein' air compressor against the outside wall near the overhead door directly opposite the Skat-Blast Cabinet.

Next I installed a small shelf over the 'Frankenstein' air compressor and hung up all my HF Portland electric yard tools. All these in-expensive HF Portland tools have worked well and paid for themselves already, so no complaints here.

After that I hung up all the HF tire changer parts on the wall under the window. I can easily reassemble and bolt it to the floor should I need to change out a tire. Meanwhile its stored out of the way.

With the outer garage wall's side window now free to use (having previously moved the Skat-Blast cabinet to the inside wall) I rolled the Hein-Werner 12-Ton Press in front of the side window and HF tire changer parts. There's even enough room to slide my stainless tool tray into/under the 12-Ton press, also getting that out of the way.

Now I can install the A/C unit in the side window and be able to access the controls. The cool air will easily pass thru the 12-Ton press. Gets hot in this garage in the summer.

Still a few more things to do.

 

[Motorman55]

Hung Ole' Polly the Parrot from the ceiling. By the look of the smile on his face, I think he's pretty happy.

 

[Kevkx125]

Motorman55 Nice work on and in the garage! Nice use of the space now!! I figured out my Portland pole saw the chain was in the wrong direction, switched it now of course it cuts fine now, it will come in handy now

 

[Motorman55]

Got this large 4 drawer chrome metal cabinet for 'FREE'. It measures 31-1/2"W x 22-1/4" T x 21-1/4" D

Got it home and took it all apart and cleaned it up inside and out. It had 4 small wheels on the bottom, but two were broken, so I removed all of them.
The chrome handles were a bit rusty, but they cleaned up nicely. Except for a few light scratches on the top, there's no dents or scratches in it.

I plan to put in the shop office to store a lot of my vintage and antique motorcycle literature, drawings, ads, posters, pictures and various other early motorcycle related paper items.

 

[Motorman55]

I found the place in the shop office to place the chrome cabinet. But first I had to move the drafting table and a bunch of other stuff creating a complete mess.

But, I have a plan.....

 

[Motorman55]

I disassembled the drafting table and put it to the side for now. Then I removed the drawers from the chrome cabinet to make it lighter. Even so it was still pretty heavy.

With the help of the wife we managed to get into the shop office and set it on the floor without hitting any of the glass display cases. I reinstalled the drawers and gave it a little more polishing to remove fingerprints.

At this point I placed a piece of drawer liner on the top to give me an idea of how it would look/work. Thinking I'll go with a larger mat to completely cover the top.

To be continued....

 

[Motorman55]

The Plan....

Combine my 'New' gray metal and glass top drafting table with parts from my 'Old' oak wood drafting table and incorporate the 4 drawer chrome cabinet into the design.

 

[Motorman55]

The first thing I needed to do was to take all the measurements and write them down in a professional, clear and concise fashion. Once I had that I could begin the work to complete the project.

 

[Motorman55]

New Drafting Table:

All I need from this table is the metal top frame and glass panel. After detaching the glass panel from the metal frame I set them both aside.

Old Oak Wood Drafting Table:

Most of the oak table's lower section would be needed. Note: I don't have the original top for this table and its missing some of its original metal bolts, nuts and a couple knobs.

 

[Motorman55]

Getting started:

Old wood drafting table;

With my measurements and drawing board in hand, the first thing I needed to do was shorten the length of both lower horizontal support boards by 4".

The holes on either ends of the support boards are spaced and drilled exactly the same. After cutting off 4" from one end of the board, I used the cut off pieces to mark the first board for drilling, then used that board to mark the second one.

So far, so good....

 

[Motorman55]

With the lower horizontal support boards cut to size and holes drilled and counter sunk and aligning perfectly with the holes in the 'Y' shaped uprights, I attached them using the original round head slotted screws.

With the Old Oak base frame now assembled and the upper adjustable horizontal top supports installed on the 'Y' frames, I could lay the bare metal frame from the New Drafting table atop the Oak supports and measure how much I would need to trim them.

Looks like a total 4" would do it.

 

[Motorman55]

Now that I knew what length to trim the upper Oak top supports, I trimmed 2" off both ends of each support keeping it centered on the 'Y' uprights.

Next I slid the metal frame towards the front of the top supports and drilled and mounted the metal frame to the upper Oak supports utilizing the two tabs that were already welded to the metal frame. This made for nice and clean install.

I followed this up by cutting 2 pieces of 'smooth-both-sides' 3/4" oak plywood to size. The first one was mounted to finish off the top frame and would serve as a solid surface to mount a lamp and whatever I might need.

The second was a base board mounted to the lower horizontal support boards to place the 4 Drawer cabinet on.

 

[Motorman55]

With the base board for the 4 drawer cabinet installed and having already applied thin brown felt slider pads on the four bottom corners of the cabinet, a quick tilt and lift up and the 4 drawer cabinet took its designated place atop the base board.

The felt slider pads allow me to easily slide the cabinet back and forth several inches if I should need more leg clearance when sitting in front of the drafting table.

 

[Motorman55]

Before lowering and tilting the top panel down to a comfortable height and working position, I reinstalled the glass panel onto the metal top frame along with the small metal pen/pencil stop on the front of it.

I also clamped one of my adjustable lamps to the oak top panel. I have a large cutting mat that I can place on the top when I need a different surface to use or cutting something with a X-acto knife.

So far I've replaced several of the old bolts and nuts with new stainless ones. I still have more to replace.

I also need to find replacements for a couple of the large metal adjusting knobs. I have to check the bolt thread sizes so I know what will fit should I find them or similar knobs on the net or market place.

 

[Motorman55]

Now that I've accomplished the initial part of my 'Plan' of putting together the Drafting table. I will leave it as is for now as I have a lot of other things/projects to get to. Not to mention some riding time on the Harley.

However, there is still more to do to finish it off. Once I get more time, I will take the table apart for its final finishing work to include;

1. Sand and refinish all the old and new oak wood parts to match in a medium dark stain.
2. Clean and paint all the metal knobs and clamps with Black Wrinkle Finish paint.
3. Sand and paint the metal top frame Black Wrinkle Finish
4. Replace all the bolts/nuts with stainless ones.
5. Add some type of black rubber to the center portion of the chrome handles on the 4 drawer cabinet
6. Add a light source under the glass panel to allow for tracing designs making it a sort of light box when needed.
7. Add a multi-outlet electrical strip

Then maybe I can call it done...MAYBE

 

[Motorman55]

Had a piece of 8" x 36" x 3/4" oak plywood left over from the Drafting Table project and decided to mount it in the corner by the back door leading to the shop office.

So in between cleaning up the shop and working on other projects, I painted the board black and hung it up with a couple metal brackets.

Just a little more storage space.

 

[Motorman55]

Worked on my 6' trailer. I Need to temporarily extend the working length for a project.

I cut some angle iron and made removeable support struts to hold the drop down ramp up and level with the bed. Drilled and bolted them on. I'll give them a quick shot of black paint when done.

Also made a removeable set of tail/turn signal lights which will bolt to the end of the drop down ramp. I intend to mount them up off the ramp about 4 inches with some 3/8" all-thread rod and nuts. I'll drill the aluminum crossbar and mount the license plate to it.

 

[Motorman55]

So here's the reason I needed to extend the 6 ft. trailer. Had to bring my 1974 FLH home to South Jersey from Milford, Pa. About 130 miles. Worked out great.

The HF motorcycle chock I installed on the trailer gets a 'pass' from me. Worked perfectly as you can see in this photo its holding up the 800+ Harley no problem allowing me to strap it down.

 

[Motorman55]

So, I'll begin at the beginning....

Unloaded the 74 FLH into the garage. It'll get an initial cleaning before I can begin the maintenance and repairs I want to do to it.

 

[Motorman55]

The XLCH went up on the lift for a quick rear chain adjustment while the FLH awaits it turn.

 

[Motorman55]

While the FLH was on the floor I pulled the battery out and after charging and testing it became obvious that I would have to replace it.

 

[Motorman55]

I needed to clean the 74 FLH before I can put it up on the lift for maintenance, so I started by removing the seat, hard bags, luggage rack and some chrome covers to make it easier to clean. Its been sitting for awhile.

 

[Motorman55]

After cleaning the bike some, I cleaned the hard white bags inside and out along with their chrome mounts. Everything is in really nice shape, including the side marker lenses.

The only thing I need to do to the hard bags is replace the old rubber seals inside the lids. I'll scrape the old seals off once I get the new replacements for them. Meanwhile they'll get put up out of the way until then.

 

[Motorman55]

The FLH cleaned up pretty good with the 1st washing. It'll require some additional cleanings to get it where I want it. But for now this is good enough to work on it.

Took a few minutes and did a little hand polishing of the aluminum headlight nacelle just to get an idea of how it'll turn out. Not bad for 1 finger wrapped in a polishing cloth and a little Semi-Chrome polish. It'll look great once I lay into it with the buffer.