Pete's Two-Car Makeover

[67pete300]

So I got hooked on the Garage Journal about the time I was shopping for a new house. Fastforward to now: because of you guys I have spent a ton of money on my two-car garage makeover. Which I am very happy with. I've been posting here and there, but decided it was time to get my own project thread.

Here's what I started with:

First up, a fresh coat of white semi-gloss and new (expensive) polyaspartic full broadcast floor. Contractor installed.

Not in chronological order, but I also dressed up the block walls:

 

[67pete300]

Next up: High-lift door conversion and new Liftmaster 3800 opener.

 

[67pete300]

Next: storage. Picked up the two floor cabinets, workbench, and middle two-drawer unit for 50% off clearance.

Still have a pile of stuff on the floor at this point:

 

[67pete300]

Got the two wall units half-off as well. Rearranged a bit and started with some "decorations."

Still have a load of bikes, etc. to deal with, but this is what it looks like today.

 

[67pete300]

Still to do:

I have two of those bike lift things to hang the two big bikes from the ceiling. Then, as much as I hate it, I need to put some of the yard **** up on the wall. Long range I have plans to build a shed and get that stuff out of the garage, but that won't be til next summer, best case. I still need more lights and outlets too. But time to shift focus a bit and get ready to actually work on the car. Picked up some air tools and torque wrenches (Craftsman, half-off, go figure) on Black Friday.

Not as big a production as many, but I'm very happy with it so far!

 

[Mayor]

Wow! What a very nice change. The reason for the high lift door? Are you getting a lift?

 

[goodfellow]

Very nice job Pete!!! That floor looks fantastic -- how will this solution hold up to jack stands and rolling equipment in general?

 

[67pete300]

Wow! What a very nice change. The reason for the high lift door? Are you getting a lift?

No immediate plans for a lift. But I was getting a new opener for sure, and with the help of this board, ended up with a Liftmaster and a high-lift. I like it alot better because I am tall and it gets the door and tracks away from my head. It gives better access to the walls and just makes the place seem alot bigger when the door is up. Not ruling out a lift in the future either...

 

[67pete300]

Very nice job Pete!!! That floor looks fantastic -- how will this solution hold up to jack stands and rolling equipment in general?

My only response to that is, it better! It has a 10 year warranty. But that doesn't cover me doing anything dumb. Rolling equip should be no problem, but I will be careful with jackstands at first anyway.

 

[Crzydmnd72]

Very nice. I had to study the before and after pics of the door and see the difference the high-lift door conversion made. Always a good idea to get the overhead outta the way.
Whats in the small boxes hanging by the man door going into the house? They look kinda like old typesetters boxes.

 

[67pete300]

Whats in the small boxes hanging by the man door going into the house? They look kinda like old typesetters boxes.

My Hot Wheels collection.

 

[Mayor]

My Hot Wheels collection.

Can you get us a better shot of this hot wheels rack? Did you make it? I have a ton of cars around in boxes. Would love to get them out like you did!

 

[67pete300]

I didn't make the rack. My wife found them both for me. The first was from Ebay a bunch of years ago. The second she found recently in a craft store like A.C. Moore (kind of like Michael's.) The second one is very cheaply made and I had to use electrician's tape to keep one column of cars in.

 

[6 Grrrs]

Nice makeover.

 

[BlackMZ3]

very nice!!

 

[Mayor]

I didn't make the rack. My wife found them both for me. The first was from Ebay a bunch of years ago. The second she found recently in a craft store like A.C. Moore (kind of like Michael's.) The second one is very cheaply made and I had to use electrician's tape to keep one column of cars in.

Thanks for the photos. I'm looking for something to store cars out of the package. Might have to build something.

 

[mengelke]

http://www.ultimatedisplaycase.com/

This is the company I use. I have several, he even made one for 1/43 scale cars as well.

Mike

 

[67pete300]

Been picking away at it. Here's a few more updates:

Got the big bikes up off the floor:

Christmas presents:

One thing that bothered me about the tall floor cabinets I got was that they were a bit short for my taste (I'm 6'4") and they couldn't be pushed up against the wall because of the low block wall:

So I built a simple shelf for them to sit on:

Now they are up higher (notice the tops relative to the hanging wall cabinets) and back up against the wall. With only 21x21, every inch of floorspace counts!

This came today, but I'll have to wait til the weekend (long one!) to get it installed.

 

[67pete300]

Finally stopped to play with the cars a bit during some nice weather.

Changed the oil on the Chevelle. Had to get a new battery (notice the cars in jumper-cable reach of each other.) Also got the spare 250 off of the storage dolly and on to the stand.

Haven't gotten started on that yet. But when I'm done, I'll have this piece of jewelry to top it off:

 

[67pete300]

Also finally got around to changing the plug wires on the Chevelle (broke the coil wire trying to unplug it from the cap.)

Do you think it's possible the car ran for over 40 years with the original plug wires? Or does that "67" mean something else?

 

[Uncle Buck]

Also finally got around to changing the plug wires on the Chevelle (broke the coil wire trying to unplug it from the cap.)

Do you think it's possible the car ran for over 40 years with the original plug wires? Or does that "67" mean something else?

If they were original wires, wouldn't they say AC Delco somewhere on them? Just a thought.

 

[Crzydmnd72]

IIRC Packard was OEM for Chevy back in the day

 

[82_454_shorty]

Sweet space man. Love that old 6 banger!

 

[Mayor]

Little here and there! Great job!

 

[e-tek]

Great space, great car. Now tell little Suzy to get her bike out of Daddy's shop!!!

 

[JMURiz]

Looking REALLY nice, for the yard-tools on the wall you may want to look at the rubbermaid fastrack system. I got it for my tiny shed and it looks good and can hold a lot of stuff close on the walls.

 

[67pete300]

Thanks for the comments.

I don't want to hang the yard tools on the wall because I want them out of the garage! That means I have to get serious about building a shed. Need to draw up some plans for the HOA...

 

[GDA]

67pete300

Your two car looks great! I got started on mine before the holidays and am in the process of finishing the insulation work and getting the walls up. I hope mine turns out as good and clean as your did.

 

[troy]

Those wire look to be original. I have a '66 Chevy II with 23K and it had the originals on it. Mine were dated 4-Q-66.

Love the car.

 

[348guy]

Any updates Pete?

 

[67pete300]

I haven't worked ON the garage in a while, but I've been working IN it. Mostly making a huge mess. Yesterday I was standing in the engine compartment grinding grease and rust and grime all over everything including the gorgeous floor. I have to keep telling myself it is a garage and it just has to get filthy dirty if need be. I'll have to have a deep spring cleaning.

My recent project has identified some needed garage upgrades.

1. I need more power. I am consistently tripping the breaker on the single circuit that provides the power to EVERYTHING in the garage. I've already had an electrician to the house and working up some quotes that include several new circuits pulled to the garage.

2. I need more light. See #1.

3. I need more insulation. The garage was drywalled when I bought the house (good.) Based on how cold it gets, I'm not sure there is much if any insulation in the walls (bad.) I know there isn't any on the ceiling (easy fix.)

I also know that I will be moving away next summer (just part of the military life.) So I get conflicted over spending money on house upgrades. But we will keep the house (with renters) and hope to move back in 2-5 years. So when we move back in maybe I'll launch a whole new round of upgrades like stripping off the drywall and wiring and insulating the thing properly. And creating more ceiling room for a lift...

Thanks for your interest!

 

[JMURiz]

Yeah, I'd hold off on the upgrades till you come back.

As far as the electrical, that should be an easy DIY, the hard part is fishing the line...but that's not too hard.

Being in Burke, I'm sure yours is like my parents' drywalled but rather cold, so I'm guessing no insulation. No quick/easy/cheap fixes for that one. Tear down and do batt insulation...the other alternative is cut holes and blow in compact cellulosic insulation, but that gets $$ for 'just a garage'.

 

[6 Grrrs]

1. I need more power. I am consistently tripping the breaker on the single circuit that provides the power to EVERYTHING in the garage. I've already had an electrician to the house and working up some quotes that include several new circuits pulled to the garage.

2. I need more light. See #1.

3. I need more insulation. The garage was drywalled when I bought the house (good.) Based on how cold it gets, I'm not sure there is much if any insulation in the walls (bad.) I know there isn't any on the ceiling (easy fix.)

I know your pain for #1. I even wired a new receptacle for my 110V compressor, separate from the rest of the garage. After about two months, it started popping the breaker that it is attached to. I think the breakers are weak (~30 year old home) and the compressor draws about 12 amps during startup. The 15amp breaker isn't strong enough to handle it. It is a real pain in the *** when I am using my blasting cabinet. I really need to upgrade my compressor to a 220V unit with more aireflow, but I gotta get some new breakers in place too.

I got plenty of light.

I also need to do #3 on your list. Too cold in there these days (less than 10 degrees for the last few days). Outside Temp. About 35-40 degrees in the garage unless I fire up my radiant propane heater.

 

[348guy]

Pete, did you get that Offy valve cover ready to go on?

Ya, probably don't want to spend a lot more on the place when you won't be able to enjoy it for a while. Maybe you can just use a portable heater this winter. But I'm sure you can blow in insulation when you get back. I think it's been a colder than normal winter here. I know it's been too cold for me to want to spend much time in my garage.