Redoing my 3 stall (Central OH)

[wvudafox]

I have been lurking around this site for years, and I must say it is one of my favorite places to visit. The hard work and creativity that goes into some of these garages is amazing.

I have decided finish my garage out, and document the progress as best I can. Here is the starting point:

As you can see, I've made some attempts at being an amateur woodworker, car restorer, and gardener while sharing the space with the wife and kids.

My plans are to finish out the wiring, lighting, insulation, and drywall and adding as much vertical storage as humanly possible.

 

[wvudafox]

I am going a little out of sequence as far as finishing the space goes. The reason is that I added a 50A feeder and sub-panel for lighting and additional receptacles. I let the job drag on too long, and I had to drag everything back inside for winter before getting inspector approval to close up the walls. I submitted the paperwork to the county yesterday, so hopefully I can get back to that soon.

In the meantime, the first item I'll be working on is some more logical arrangement for the various cabinets on the I have acquired over the years and can be mounted on the existing drywall.

First, I cleaned off the wall:

I am going the Gladiator Garageworks boxes for this wall as I have some already. I am not that impressed with the fit/finish of these cabinets, but they are serviceable.

I didn't want to spend the money on wall tracks just to hang cabinets that I know I am not going to move in the future, so I made the frame below. The carriage bolts in the upper rail allow cabinet hanging to be a one-man job, and I don't have to worry about drilling the cabinets and hitting studs.

I think the finished product looks a little cleaner without gladiator rail sticking out everywhere.

 

[Vernmotor]

Looks like a great start !

 

[NUTTSGT]

You have a great start and glad to see you start posting instead of lurking.

 

[wvudafox]

Well, I got a call from the county, and they are approving my permit for the electrical upgrade without any requested modifications to the plan. I am relieved as I have the electrical pretty much done already and just wanted it signed off before closing off the walls.

If you're interested, here is what I have installed.

I figure this will have me covered for pretty much any job I want to tackle in the garage. In the future, I am going to migrate the door-opener circuit from the main panel to this sub-panel so that I can shut off anything in this section of the house without going all the way to the basement.

 

[ddl2004]

So far, so good! Are you located in/around Columbus?

 

[wvudafox]

So far, so good! Are you located in/around Columbus?

Yeah, I'm in Powell on the north side. Judging from the other posters I've seen here, OH is pretty well represented.

 

[Ray Kelly]

Great place!! The cabinets look great!!

 

[2fat2fly]

Judging from the other posters I've seen here, OH is pretty well represented.

Yes it is.

I like your garage. It's coming along nicely and I'm guessing the end result will be awesome.

 

[c615586]

Subbed. Great thread so far.

I've got six 30 inch Gladiator cabinets to hang and I don't want to use the Gladiator rack system. Did you size your framing to match the length and width of the five cabinets you used?

 

[kyle@hcb]

Good start!

 

[ROBSTOY]

Yeah, I'm in Powell on the north side. Judging from the other posters I've seen here, OH is pretty well represented.

Powell here too my friend!

 

[wvudafox]

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted an update. I was looking at my old posts, and I realized that I haven't gotten anything done since the Longest Winter Ever hit here in Ohio. I was off last week and didn't have family obligations for the first time in about a year, so I got back on it...

First, some old business had to be finished out. I got around to getting my wiring inspected before the 1 year expiration of my open permit. The inspector liked everything except for the fact that I didn't have tamper-proof outlets where I added new circuits. Unbelievable for a garage, but whatever, 10 bucks and a month later, I'm finally all signed off.

Here is the completed sub-panel:

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I didn't get a pic before I covered it up, but I have 2 runs of plastic conduit running into the garage attic from the panel so that I can expand as I see fit. My main breaker box for the house is maxed out, so I am planning on eventually migrating some of the house circuits that service the garage door openers and some exterior lighting to this panel to make room.

I got light and power wherever I need it. I have no idea how I got anything done before with a trouble light and extension cord.

 

[wvudafox]

While I had time off, I decided to tackle the biggest item on the list, which is the insulation and drywall. This past winter was so miserable with the uninsulated garage that I decided to just man up and do it (I've been planning this for about five years while lurking on this board).

I put up 3 bundles of R13 and 20 sheets of 1/2" and 5/8" drywall:

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The far wall mates to the house and is all 5/8". Needless to say I saved it for last.

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[wvudafox]

Today, I started filling and taping all the new drywall. It's pretty tedious since it's the first time I've done it, but it is definitely better than hanging it since you can work with one hand and have a beer with the other. I have been getting on this board for inspiration so that I can finally pull through and get this done. I made some good progress, but I decided to save the ladder work for another day:

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The attic of this garage is not yet insulated, but I can tell a difference with the walls sealed up, so I am excited to see what finishing the attic will do. I'm going to wait until fall to get up there and finish it out as I pulled all the wiring up there 3 summers ago, and it almost killed me with the heat.

 

[Terranova]

We are in the same boat/phase. Keep it up.
After I got the dry wall and lights up, there are times I just open the door and turn on the lights. I hear you about the idiot light.
Is that a bronco and a transmission I spy?

Hilliard by the way.

T

 

[dubber]

Nice work! Not glamorous at all but it will pay dividends for sure.

 

[wvudafox]

Well, as you can see from the gap in posts, I have been busy this year...just not as much with the garage as I'd like. I took a day off work last week so I'd have a few hours without the kids around to start knocking out some work. I am learning drywall as I go, and it's slow going as most of the work is up on a ladder.

Here is the current progress: as I work around the perimeter with the final skim coat and paint:





My son isn't so impressed...

I have been concentrating on getting the "loft" corner done so that I can start hanging things back up and getting them out of the way. I envy you guys that start a new building from scratch as I have been playing musical chairs with all the stuff in this garage. The only good part is that I toss a little more each time as my collection of junk gets a little leaner and more purposeful.

I am going to try and get the walls done so I can hang things back up and get some room to work. Then, I'll finish painting the ceiling, and get onto insulating the attic. I think I missed my window for the flooring until next spring, so the goal is to get things buttoned up.

 

[wvudafox]

Is that a bronco and a transmission I spy?

Hilliard by the way.

T

Good eye. For those that may be interested:



'78 Ramcharger. I had a '79 Power Wagon when I was 16, and I always wanted a nice early Ramcharger. I imported this one from the west coast so I'd have a decent starting point. It currently isn't running, so I plan to rebuild the powertrain and get it on the road. As this is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby, I plan to get the garage in shape before tearing into the truck (hence this whole project). I did the original truck on a gravel driveway. I'm going to fix this one indoors next to a fridge

 

[dubber]

Great progress. And cool to see the motivator behind this project.

 

[Terranova]

Again, we're in the same boat. My garage motivator is a '36 ford sedan. I plan on making the garage what I want it and need it to be before I even bring the 36 up from storage.

It'll be nice to have a well lit controlled area to get dirty in! Look,forward to seeing the progress on both projects.

 

[ratdoggy]

Yeah, I'm in Powell on the north side. Judging from the other posters I've seen here, OH is pretty well represented.

Probably the best represented state in relation to it's size

 

[wvudafox]

Some more progress to report. I have worked my way around to the last wall and the center of the ceiling:



I have some issues with finishing out the ceiling before I finish painting it. The door tracks seem pretty jacked up, so I want to reinstall the hangers and square up the doors.

Another side-project:



I don't have a good before pic, but the last upright block was so crooked that the door frame was notched around it instead of just fixing the brick (original on the right). I couldn't live with the thought of painting and trimming out the builder's lazy mistake, so I busted out the block to redo the corner. I'm waiting on the new block, but I was able to get the door frame back together.

I've got another gladiator tall cabinet and a Garage Gator on order. I'm getting anxious to start putting the garage back together and be done with the drywall.

 

[taumac]

Glad to see you went from lurking to posting.

Your place is really shaping up there. Keep up the great work there and look follow the updates.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Great progress so far! I will subscribe to this thread so I do not miss any updates!!

 

[thetastelingers]

I see your drywall work and I think I am putting my drywall off because I really dislike doing drywall. LOL

In the middle of writing that sentence, I saw Sean's 1970 skylark turbo and excuse me, I have to go check that out.

 

[wvudafox]

A little more progress to report. I'm taking a little break from the drywall and painting as i have been getting burnt out on the hours-long sessions on the ladder. I wish I'd just made some scaffolding to wheel around as I have spent so much time up on the ladder. I needed some progress so I could bring the cars back in before it starts frosting at night.

First small job was my block repair. I see this spot every time I get out of the car, so I wanted it right.

I got a 4x4x16 solid block for $1.24. It was funny driving the truck around and having the guy load in the single block:



I test fitted the block. Naturally, it didn't fit, and I needed to shorten it by an inch:



I don't have the large diamond blade for my miter saw, but I did have one for my small saw, so I used the same trick that I did when I had to notch some 4X4's for my deck:



After that, I just cleaned it up with a chisel and mortared it in:



I'm pretty pleased with the result. It looks a million times better than what I started with, and was only about $5 in materials.

 

[sean Buick 76]

10 points for a job well done!

 

[wvudafox]

Some of my new toys came in this week, so I decided to just get them unpacked and installed right away. I know it's better to get all the drywall and paint done at once before moving to the next job, but I'm getting pretty tired of pushing stuff from one side to the other as I work my way around.

First new toy is the garage gator. All my bikes have been inside my unofficial storage pod (pickup truck) since July, so I figured I better get cracking on the permanent storage.

Here is the spot I chose (clear of the garage doors in the up position):


The hard part is hanging the motor bracket. I wasn't impressed with the stock hardware, so I upgraded everything with washers, and I added additional lags wherever there were open bolt holes:


The rest of the assembly is pretty straightforward:


I was fairly pleased with the result. The key seems to be to have at least 2 bikes to balance the load bar so that both spools take up evenly. Also, you can see how I am thinking of laying out the south wall of my garage. My new gladiator cabinet and the toolbox are flush with the door edge, so a car still fits right in, and I have the inside corner by the steps available for some future storage/workspace:


Here's the glamour shot for now. I'm not sure how to set my new camera with the bright interior garage lights on to get a sharp picture, but it works for now. I have to get the non-running Ramcharger back in the 3rd stall before winter, but I'm pretty fired up to get 3 trucks back into a space that could barely fit 2 at the beginning of summer:

 

[Stretch-22]

Looks great so far!!

I lived in Powell years ago. Still get back there a few times a year, crazy to see how much new stuff is built and changed each time.

 

[dubber]

Solid progress. Great job on that block repair.

 

[wvudafox]

Well, winter seems to be coming early here in Ohio, so I have been busy putting the garage in hibernation for the winter. Sorry for the lack of interim updates, but I've been busy. The wife is patient with my projects as long as I don't have to make her scrape the windows when it starts to frost.

I have most of the drywall work done, and I was able to get the walls primed and painted before hanging everything back up. I went with exterior semigloss so that I could brighten up the place a little:




I also hung the rest of my cabinets and gladiator rails to try and get everything off the floor.

Detailing supplies:


Garden supplies:


Garden equipment:


Also, in the case you need to get a non-running car into the garage, you can see if my idea works for you. I mounted a u-bolt plate into the base-plate of the rear wall with anchor bolts. This allowed me to pull the truck back in with a simple cable hoist:


I had thought about pushing the Ramcharger back in with my other truck, but it just seemed to have 'bad idea' written all over it, and I had to do the job with no help. You'd be amazed how much grief a $50 hoist can save you.

I expect the pace to slow down with the cold weather, but I hope to keep it steady now that the hard work is done. My future plans include an upgraded workbench for the corner by the steps, a finished ceiling, a door for the loft above the third stall, and floor paint. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Great update, it looks really good!

Consider adding a pulley to the anchor you have and then using a long cable. I did this setup in my garage for under $45

 

[Joe Cool]

Looks like we have similar interests.
This is my 1980 Ramcharger SE resto mod with stroker 440 Six Pack and leather interior from a 2003 Durango.

I recently moved into a new place with my new Bride and had to make room for some of my toys in the attached 3 car garage while keep our daily drivers protected from window scrapping the winter. I just got city approval to build an 1800 sqft shop on the property so I hope to have a proper home for next winter.

The '68 Charger belongs to my brother, but I have 2 vintage Dodge Power Wagons that need to come home also.

I like how you cleaned up your garage. I have to do that same. Mine is a mess.

Keep us posted with your projects.

 

[wvudafox]

Looks like we have similar interests.
This is my 1980 Ramcharger SE resto mod with stroker 440 Six Pack and leather interior from a 2003 Durango.

I can't see the pics you posted, but I think I have seen your build on RCC. Is yours the 2-tone tan/brown 6-pack truck? I figure it has to be. That truck is awesome, I hope to have one as clean as yours one day. I'm definitely planning some interior upgrades on mine, but I don't think I'll go quite as far as you did. As far as my build goes, Step 1 was digging the truck out of the garage, Step 2 is $$$$, Step 3, done.