Here are 3 interesting pictures. The power pole feeding the shop was the old style which had foot pegs on it so you could just climb up it. I had asked the power company to replace it as it was leaning pretty bad and I was going to use underground feed etc so they agreed. Before they did that I thought it would be a good idea to take a few pictures of my new purchase from a birds eye view as it were, so I climbed up,camera in hand . The result is what you see here, about one month after I bought it. Now before I get some comments about how dangerous and foolish this was I stayed well clear of the power lines and must tell everyone, Don't do this at home!!
One of the first things I did was have the roof replaced since it was leaking everywhere! Those are the trucks parked in front. This was in December '05.
The shop is now in the shape of an "L". The original building was added on in the rear in 1958 which makes that part about 70' long now. With the lift being enclosed that gave it the "L" shape. Total square footage is about 2300'. With all the equipment and such there is room for about 4 cars comfortably with room to work. This is my "dirty" shop however where I do my mechanical work, no body or paint work, primarily on 1960's cars. I don't store cars here, just work on them for my own personal use. I'm also an addicted PureStockMuscleCarDragRace PSMCDR drag racer. We race stock, unmodified muscle cars from the '50's to early '70's.
Notice the tree in the center to the right of the red car. There is a chain wrapped around one limb and yes they used that to hook a hoist to and pulled engines right there in the front yard sometimes if the shop was full.
Here a just a few more to followup on the outside cleanup.
By the way, all the "stuff" on the left was under all the bushes that I cut away. I didn't move it yet, that's where it wound up many years ago and left. Once the bushes were cleared away.......
Remember those 278 tires I had to pay to have removed (over $1,000 all together!), here's a few more.
It's a wood bodied manure wagon. See the shop in the background to the left.
If somebody wants pictures of trees growing into "stuff" boy do I have them. I had to cut an awful lot of stuff out.
Here's a home made garden tractor. Study it and you'll a single cylinder engine, driving 2 three speed transmissions hooked together and chain drive for the final drive. Wire spooked wheel on one side and a solid steel wheel on the other. He just used whatever he had! This was a hard one to give up it was so unusual but I had enough unusual stuff I had to draw the line some where. It got scraped sad to say. Totally rusted up and I had no time. Didn't really know what to do with it frankly.
My next post will show more interior pictures, like this one.....
Remember he was a blacksmith. See all that steel in the background? This room, I call it the fab room ( for fabrication ) took weeks to clear out. You couldn't walk in there at all, well the whole shop actually, except for a 16" wide path. More pictures later. Thanks for all the interest and positive feedback. Don't want to be a bore!
Thomas
The coolest thread since Utah997 bunker garage build.
