My 3 Scottish garages

[nicklouse10]

Can't believe I've only just discovered this forum! I've been glued to it for the last few days and have picked up so many good ideas from other builds. So cool.

well here goes, here are my garages:

Garage number one:
It was in a rented house in Dundee, and was a little wider than a standard UK size double garage. It had already been carpeted when I moved in which was cool. Working on the car in a carpeted garage was sooo comfortable.

I'd never had a garage of my own before so it was pretty exciting for me

First I built a little work bench and slid the beer fridge underneath it. Then I slowly started adding little bits to the work area.

At the time I had this 67 fastback mustang, and an old Porsche 944 track day car




every time we had a party people would always end up in the garage. This is a work colleague one Halloween



The red cabinet on the wall is just an old school locker I found in a junk shop. it had been used as a gun cabinet and has 3 locks on it. I painted it red a stuck it on the wall



Painting some wheels for the track car







Was quite content to sit on my stool in the evenings with a cold beer in front of a movie and refurb various bits of the cars





A bunch of the fellas at work started to offer various quantities of beer in exchange for jobs on their cars. This guy paid one fridge-full for fitting some bigger bumpers and wheel arches on his Jeep





I helped this guy upgrade the brakes on his mid engined Renault





I invited over a bunch of my work mates one day. They're mostly young guys and we work in the Videogames industry

We found a new use for my primer gun. It's full of vodka at this point. seemed like a good idea at the time

That's not really a Snap-on cabinet, it's a cheap one from Machine-Mart with a £4 Snap-on badge I found on eBay stuck to the front of it



Me painting another set of wheels for the 944. I decided to give it a spruce up with a matt-black paint job with some orange trim





This is what it looked like when I bought it:



painted it in the garage. got LOADS of overspray on the carpet and had to replace it when I moved out hahaha, that was always going to happen!



And after:



Shortly after this, The company I was working for went into administration and I decided to take the plunge and start my own company, which meant moving house and therefore garages, and also it meant selling the mustang and the track car because I needed the money to start the business

After a couple of years of running the business things were going OK and I'd saved up enough to get myself a fixer-upper mustang and rent another garage

 

[nicklouse10]

Garage number two:

This was just next door to the house I was renting in Edinburgh which was nice and convenient. it came up for rent at £270 per month which felt like a lot of money but small lock-up garages in the same area with no power and light, and strict rules forbidding the tenant to work on cars were going for £160 so I guess it was about market value for the centre of Edinburgh.

This garage was part of an old stable and was an L-shape. At the front there was a nice big space which was plenty big enough for the mustang, with room all around it to work on the car with both doors open. at the back on the right these was a smaller area which I turned into the work area. It had a tap, and lighting and power.



First job was to build a work bench



And the new mustang! a 67 Coupe this time






Fitted a smaller beer fridge in this one because this garage wasn’t actually attached to my house and I guessed I'd be having fewer visitors



I bought a 50m Cat-5 network cable and strung it along the guttering from the house so I could have the internet in the garage. It’s the most valuable tool I have in there!



These were some moulds I was making for the speaker pods in the foot-wells of the mustang



I found a firm on eBay selling stainless sheeting for a really good price, so I bought a sheet and had them cut it to fit the worktops before they sent it to me. I think it was around £75 including shippping







Some Polish builders were driving past one day and a wardrobe they had on the back of their truck came off and smashed itself to bits on the cobbles. I salvaged some of the less battered bits and knocked up a small work surface at the back of the garage. It went though a few different uses.

First was a bench to layout the internals of the 302 smallblock I rebuilt for the mustang



Then when I painted the car, it served as a paint mixing area



Then I switched it to an electrical station when I rewired the car



here's one I had to learn the hard way!
I thought it would be convenient to have my spanners mounted on the wall, and indeed it was.

Stupidly, I then stored a rear screen underneath them....
one day I was offering up a bolt to the spanners to determine what size it was, when it slipped from my fingers. it dropped less than two feet, but landed right on the edge of the glass and BOOSH! one shattered screen







Here's my uncle taking a break. he brought his Merc up one day to sort out the rusty wheel arches. You can see my sand blaster in the background



Next job on the Mustang was to paint it...



In sealer:



and in primer:



Just after I got it in the final colour, I managed to acquire a good sized bit of carpet to go in the garage. I was missing my old carpeted garage and didn't like lying on the cold concrete when working under the car



I didn't do the best job of sealing my "spray-booth" so the paint finish wasn't great, but looked fine after a long weekend with the machine polisher









I then bought another mustang. This time a 66 Coupe. It was a total wreck and needed a full restoration.
I did a little better job of building a spray booth this time

 

[nicklouse10]

Garage number three:

At this point, my Fiancée and I bought a house in Edinburgh and I had to give up my garage again, which was really tough, But then a pal of mine who runs a Bespoke classic mustang build company said I could rent a bit of space in his workshop.

I had a new garage to play with!

I went to have a look at my little corner and it was full of stored parts, products and general junk:







The workshop is about a 15 minute walk from my house, which isn't too bad, but if it's chucking it down with rain it can be a bit of a pain, and living in Scotland, this happens a lot!

It has a massive roller shutter door and another, regular door that opens into the area I'm renting. My area isn't segregated from the rest of the workshop at all.

First job was to clear out all the stuff that was in my space and figure out where I was going to put a bench and some shelving
This is a 65 fastback my father bought. He asked me to stick a new interior in it and tart it up a little.







This is the wall I decided to build my workbench on





Although my 66 Coupe is not quite 100% finished, I couldn't help myself and I bought a 68 fastback from an old lady in Florida. I'll sell the Coupe as soon as it's finished and crack on with the 68. Here's the new 68

I put up the shelves on the right hand side and tied them into the wall. They might not look all that pretty, but I can climb up the front on them and they don't move a millimetre



Built a bench and also bought another roll-cab to go underneath it





Built a smaller bench on the other side of the door to house my compressor and sand blaster and bench grinder .

invited a couple of guys from work over to christen the place with a few beers



Basically, my area is a rectangle. the right hand side extends in the same line as my shelving and the box ends a couple of feet behind my car. its plenty of space for me to work on the car. there's no parking outside though



Work area finished off with my trusty old locker and managed to reuse the stainless from the last garage to cover the worktops





The shelving is really messy. I'd like to rethink this whole area and re-do it



I was pleased with the work area, but it needed a little something, so I decided to plasti-Dip all the cabinets (I made up a custom blue colour (15% black, 85% standard blue)

 

[Jay Sco]

Nice. Had a long post written and was going to ask a question, but forgot. Too many drinks. Hook it up, nice 'stangs.

 

[Jay Sco]

The table!! First pic, garage #3! Info, pics, must have!!

 

[jsherid1]

Wow, I am continually humbled by the skills a lot of the folks on here have and your work on both the cars and the garages are an example of why. Keep the updates coming--I am really interested in seeing more of that 68 Fastback (a personal favorite car).

 

[Craptain]

Aw jeez! another thread I have to subscribe to. Nice job(s) nicklouse

 

[THE APPRENTICE]

Welcome mate from another scotish garage nut lol I love the mustang .

 

[GrandmaSideways]

Looking good! I think maybe I should rent a corner of a working garage like you have - probably make me more motivated to do things with others working diligently around me!

 

[Sunbimmer]

Awesome man, love all three and the work you're doing in them.

Fantastic contribution to this forum

Welcome to GJ

 

[RSOllie]

You have some very good skills going on there!
Love the spray job on the silver stang!
And on the cabnits!

 

[nicklouse10]

Really appreciate the positive comments! I cant believe I've only just discovered this forum.

The table!! First pic, garage #3! Info, pics, must have!!

there's a carpenter who also rents a bit of space from the guy who owns the workshop an I think that was a project he was working on. The "legs" were a couple of old cast iron radiators. I think he dismantled it before it was finished though because he couldn't make it work

Keep the updates coming--I am really interested in seeing more of that 68 Fastback (a personal favorite car).

No problem! I've got £10K's worth of new parts sitting on the shelves waiting to go on the car. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into this one in my new garage. I'll be spraying the 68 in my new space so I recently put together a semi-permanent dismantleable spray booth in it. I'll post some photos in the next few days

Looking good! I think maybe I should rent a corner of a working garage like you have - probably make me more motivated to do things with others working diligently around me!

As much as I'd love to own enough land so I could build my own garage, its often nice to have other folks in the garage when you're working. We help each other out with jobs, advice, diagnosing problems, etc.

Welcome mate from another scotish garage nut lol I love the mustang .

cheers dude, next time you're in Edinburgh stop by for a beer. I'd love to chat to you about your garage build and the planning permission and stuff. Now I've bought a house, I'm on the look out for either some land or an old industrial unit I can buy so I can build my ultimate garage!

and because I know that any post without photos is poor form! here's a couple I took today of my 6ft/8ft blackboard. I'm a big fan of blackboards and chalk. I've always been a list-maker and prefer these things

 

[Bib Overalls]

I really liked the red cabinets. But that is just me. I hope you find that bit of land so we can watch as you build and fit out your dream garage.

 

[jsherid1]

I hear you on making lists--I'm putting a white board in my new garage. There is something satisfying about lining out or erasing a completed job off your list. Now all I have to do is wait for the builders to finish the house...

 

[ZRX61]

Got a laugh out of *bespoke* & *Mustang* in the same sentence

 

[67carl]

You had me at "We found a new use for my primer gun. It's full of vodka at this point. seemed like a good idea at the time". That should be in The Thread of Awesome! Gave me flashbacks to the times I was in Tijuana. Although it wasn't so much spray guns as it was funnels. And tequila instead of vodka. Come to think of it it wasn't mustangs either, maybe donkeys. So, maybe not so similar but it was a "seemed like a good idea at the time" thing.

Anyway, nice work on the mustangs! Love the fastbacks.

 

[RSOllie]

∆∆∆∆∆ agree best quote I've read for a while!∆∆∆∆∆

 

[THE APPRENTICE]

Same to yourself if your ever out this way drop in and see how im getting on with the build .Am i right in assuming it costs a bomb in edinburgh for a house with a plot big enough for a nice sized garage ? If i were you i would try and build rather than go for an industrial unit they seem to be other peoples problems that cost a fortune to do up or are riddled with asbestos etc lol
I have to admit i also love to list things and have a whiteboard as i hate the feeling of chalk it makes my skin crawl lol After some digging 2moro i hope to get some stuff on the whiteboard.WHAT I have spent so far and some final quotes for material etc.

 

[0150carmac]

looks like you have a good size off space there mate

 

[Kevin54]

Nicklouse....welcome to Garage Journal. Great first postings, and great looking cars. I now know why there aren't any Mustangs left over here.

And it's great that you can rent out your garage to your buddies for free beer

Hope you stick around for the duration

 

[brownb2]

Man love the Stangs and man that spray booth gotta try that in my space.Cheers

 

[firecracker]

Fantastic matey Great use of your time,could'nt do a better job myself. Nice choice of car.

 

[nicklouse10]

thanks for the warm welcome and the kind comments!

here's some more photos....

the new spray booth, if you could call it that, is made from the same stuff that farmers use for poly-tunnels. I bought a 200mX4M roll for about £60
I also bought some PVC plumbers pipe upon which to roll up the sides of the booth. Its very flexible and I'm not able to roll up the long side by myself without getting a large bow in the middle but that's ok

The roof is steel reinforced poured concrete, so it would have been very difficult to drill new fixings into it, so I strung some nylon rope around some existing fixtures to create a kind of frame from which to hang the polythene

When I need to use the booth, I un-clip the bungee cords holding it up and it drops to the floor. Setting it up takes about 5 minutes and probably about 10 minutes to back it away again. I'm not sure how long it will last, but it wasn't expensive and I don't use it very often









To make sure is was easy to get in and out of the door without any obstrction I cut the work-surfaces at a 45 degree angle





door can open nice and wide now



here's a few shots of the main work area







there's a small PC tucked away in this little space. Its not very powerful but it does the job



4 foot by 8 foot blackboard. Great for planing bank heists using elaborate tunnelling plans.
I use this board every day, I'd be lost without it



small shelves under the bench are all cut to fit around the big white pipe that runs up to the roof. had to cut each shelf individually which took some time. must get round to painting them soon



tool-box shot:

 

[dubber]

Great job on those projects in your space. Love that you have 'Gone in 60 Seconds' playing in the back ground in the first pics.

 

[captain14]

So how many Mustangs are in your stable now?

 

[Shelbyz4u2nv]

Great space man! Welcome and enjoy the amazing ideas that come from this forum

 

[nicklouse10]

its been a busy few weeks for me. I finally got started on the restoration of my 68 fastback mustang.

stripped out the engine and drivetrain and got on with rebuilding the motor. Its pretty standard but I did slot in a slightly hotter camshaft









I yanked out the rear end and shot it with some high gloss 2K black







I refitted it then started on the tub. I find sanding down the body seriously tedious, so I tried breaking it up into wee chunks to see if that made it more manageable. It kinda worked. there were 120 "squares" on the car and they each took about 10-15 minutes to take down to bare metal.





finally it was done....





I laid down some laminate floor protector to save me having to scrape all the overspray off the tiles later. Should have bought 2X rolls of this stuff. it works really well but I didn't have enough to do the whole area





night before last I shot 3 coats of etch primer





then yesterday morning I keyed that up with some red scotch-bright pads and then shot 3 coats of 2K highbuild filler-primer





got back in there last night and block sanded the whole tub. its in better shape than I'd hoped for. Now I have a couple of weeks of filling, sanding and primering ahead of me before I can shoot the basecoat and clear



and in other news... the reason I'm now steaming into the restoration of the mustang is because I've just bought my dream car, a 1967 Corvette Sting ray! it's still in Nebraska at the moment, but should arrive in Scotland in a couple of months. I cannot wait!!! I've wanted one of these things since I was a kid

My new toy......

 

[Outlander]

Beautiful work on the cars, and I really like the sideways locker. Great idea!

 

[madoc1]

nice build and great talent on restos.

 

[nicklouse10]

Beautiful work on the cars, and I really like the sideways locker. Great idea!

thanks, I found it in a junk shop. it works really well

nice build and great talent on restos.

Thanks! I've still not finished painting the mustang but it wont be long now.

This arrived this morning. Very excited about starting this project.
it has a 383 (I think... haven't checked the engine number yet), 4 speed manual and discs all round. It will be a restomod project, wide and low





I recently fitted new carpets in my office and thought that instead of binning the old carpet tiles I'd throw them down in the garage

 

[FireTurtle]

Very cool. Excellent work on those cars.

 

[ScottsRX]

Love the 'stangs. It goes to show that you can achieve anything in any space really. Excellent use of the area you've got to work with.

 

[nicklouse10]

gentlemen... a new time is upon me!

My very good pal Alan, from whom I've been renting my small corner of a garage, has announced that he's off to pastures new, and had decided to flee the country (moving from Scotland to England) to fly helicopters with Prince William in the air ambulance service. Commendable stuff... and fortuitous for me, because it means that finally! I get my grubby paws on the lease for the whole ****** workshop! lock stock and barrel. its MINE!!!

I signed a new contract agreement with the landlord yesterday and my official tenure-ship starts on the 1st of November 2015

To say that I'm over the moon would be a vast understatement. As much as I've enjoyed renting a corner of my buddy's workshop, I've always fantasised about what I'd do with it if it was all mine. he actually moved away a couple of months ago and its been a lot less fun working on my cars without my pal there to share the up's and down's

Financially, I cant afford to take the whole place on by myself: the rent is steep, because I'm in central Edinburgh it is £8000 per year (plus bills - electricity, internet, water rates, insurance etc) so I'll be looking for 2X new friends to come in with me, which I'm hoping wont be too difficult to find

I've got big plans for the place and will post my progress in this thread.

I want to turn it onto a 3X car garage and have been mocking-up my plans using a piece of software I found called "sketchup" its free and I got the hang of it after only 2 days of swearing, muttered oaths and general keyboard bashing.

here's some photos of what it looks like now and what I hope it will look like after I've taken ownership of it.

The mustang is mine (it's a car I'm building for my Pops and when it's finished in hopefully a couple of weeks time, my 67 stingray will take its place) , and I'll be keeping that spot as my own, but hope to rent out the two other spots, and the "chill-out" room is currently rented by a carpenter but he's told me that he's leaving soon anyway, so I'm planning to turn that space into what you see below

I need a name for the garage... suggestions will be MOST welcome





from a different angle:





and another...





I am going to have to become a landlord and rent out to 2X other (hopefully like-mined) garagistas. And I'm going to have to ask them both for quite a lot of rent money, but I'm planing to make it "worth it" by kitting out the chill-out room with some cool stuff, and also offering, amongst other things....
CCTV that they can view live on a smartphone
A fully stocked "honesty" style beer fridge
Toilet, shower and sofa-bed (The latter, if it's ever needed)
A small office with a projector and a good stock of movies
1980's arcade machine racing game
Fibre broadband + WiFi
Twice monthly cleaning lady to freshen up the bog and mop the brake fluid off the floors
Plumbed in 3-Phase (400 Volt) air compressor with lots of outlets
+ whatever suggestions you boys come up with that doesn't cost too much

 

[TIMI]

Cool, who is engaged. Mustangs, and someone Moskvich. Is there anyone that baleet Mercedes.

 

[nicklouse10]

Hi Tim. I'm not sure I follow. what does baleet mean?

 

[North Run Grader]

Congratulations! It looks like you have tall enough ceilings for a car lift, so if I was looking for prospective renters, I'd have 1 bay with a lift and the other as a blank slate. With the plethora of rolling tool boxes, the 3 bays can share the lift as needed. It would be a lure to prospective renters.

Having shared a garage with former coworkers in the past... I would have a one month probationary lease.
Some guys are slobs and you'd hate to be tied to sharing with them long term.
Some guys won't respect a closed tool box or storage container, I hated having to lock everything up when I wasn't present.
When sharing a large space, everyone has to be somewhat professional. Clean up any spills immediately, no parts spread out laying haphazard on the floor. Airlines and electrical cords are a trip hazard. Unless the bays are physically separated, everyone has to be responsible. Your lease will have to address any shared responsibilities.

If you do install a car lift, it likely will have to be professionally installed and maintained. The manufacturer should have a training course available, that everyone in the shop that has access too, will need to take that course and must sign off on having received the training.

I'd research your insurance costs beforehand and factor that into your lease. Having been a landlord before, I've experienced almost all the bad side of what can go wrong. Insurance, and a solicitor to write up your lease are 2 factors that come immediately to mind. I don't mean to be negative, I've just seen firsthand what can go wrong.

 

[Bib Overalls]

Some four leg car lifts can accept temporary casters. You fit the casters, lower the lift deck and, like magic, the lift legs move up a couple of inches. With this setup, usually sold as an accessory, the lift can be moved from bay to bay as needed.

A lift also gives you a place to store a second vehicle if necessary.

You should also require castors on any furnishing that is not fixed to a wall. This way, if you ever have to evict a renter it is a simple matter of rolling his stuff out on the sidewalk. It will also allow you to rearrange your work area to fit the job at hand.

You might consider having a set of hydraulic car dollies. With the dollies you can push a car into a corner or along a wall. Again, giving you and your "guests" the ability to rearrange the shop as needed. And, again, certainly useful when evicting.

Garage names? How about "Claymore Garage" or "Scottish Muscle Garage."

 

[Nermal43]

Loving this thread! I love the 67 fastback as a 67 was my first car. Subscribed!

 

[nicklouse10]

Congratulations! It looks like you have tall enough ceilings for a car lift, so if I was looking for prospective renters, I'd have 1 bay with a lift and the other as a blank slate. With the plethora of rolling tool boxes, the 3 bays can share the lift as needed. It would be a lure to prospective renters.

I don't mean to be negative, I've just seen firsthand what can go wrong.

Not taken as negativity at all! It is welcome advice and I've taken it on board.
RE: the Lease, I leaning towards a one month rolling contract (with one month deposit) being a sensible way forward. As much as I'd like the (perceived) security of someone committing for a year: if someone's situation changes and they can no longer afford to pay the rent, I think I'm better off having a lease that allows a short notice period. I cant force someone to pay money they don't have!

Of the two spots available, I have signed up one old friend already at £300/ month and with him I have no worries about locking toolboxes etc, but I'm nervous about the last spot. I've spent my whole like building up £££ worth of tools and I'm very uneasy about giving someone I've never met a set of keys to it all. However, financially, the garage cant work without a third tenant so this is something I'm going to have to tackle.

I have "buildings insurance" for the place already (£320/year) but it only covers the bricks and mortar cost of rebuilding the place if it was destroyed by fire or something like that, not the contents of the garage. In the UK, the contents part is usually left up to the tenant to organise for themselves.

I would LOVE to install a lift and have been spending many hours contemplating the best way of making this work. It would definitely be a big selling point for the occupants, myself included! More about that below...

Some four leg car lifts can accept temporary casters. You fit the casters, lower the lift deck and, like magic, the lift legs move up a couple of inches. With this setup, usually sold as an accessory, the lift can be moved from bay to bay as needed.

You should also require castors on any furnishing that is not fixed to a wall. This way, if you ever have to evict a renter it is a simple matter of rolling his stuff out on the sidewalk. It will also allow you to rearrange your work area to fit the job at hand.

You might consider having a set of hydraulic car dollies. With the dollies you can push a car into a corner or along a wall. Again, giving you and your "guests" the ability to rearrange the shop as needed. And, again, certainly useful when evicting.

Bib, you're a step ahead of me mate! I'm unfamiliar with the movable 4-post lifts you're talking about but they sound awesome!
I've been looking into movable scissor lifts and similar things that I can store against a wall when not in use. I cant really install something in a permanent location because the landlord can then demand that I "return the building to original condition to his satisfaction" if I ever leave, which is a quirk of British leases called "dilapidation" and means that they can write their own ticket with regards to costs, so I don't want to contemplate bolting something into the floor for fear of falling foul of that clause.

I love the idea of having things on dollies. I've got two sets which I will be issuing to the tenants to keep their projects mobile.
RE: furnishings. I'd planned to let the "guests" tell me what they want to build, and then I'll front all the costs of building/installing benches etc, but letting them install their own on castors is a much better idea (even if I have to cover the additional costs of the actual castors themselves, for the very sensible reasons you mention) cracking idea! also, I've seen so many work bench/area projects on this forum that I wouldn't want to stop someone from building something to their own design. Putting it all on castors solves that. As you suggest, I can wheel it out if it ever came to it, with less risk of comeback

Garage names? How about "Claymore Garage" or "Scottish Muscle Garage."

Both are brilliant, but I think I prefer the first one. I can see it in lights!
The only one I've come up with myself is "the safety-beer garage" because when the chap from whom I originally rented by spot was here, we'd often have to have a few safety-beers before for courage before tackling a job that was a bit nerve-racking, like connecting the +ive battery terminal after a loom replacement, or the first time you select a gear after a ****** rebuild.

 

[nicklouse10]

that last post was REALLY text heavy so here's some new images of the design I've been working on: