Scooter's Corvette Garage

[Scooter70]

We bought a new house with an unfinshed garage last summer. I had a (slightly smaller) 2-car in the old house but it had heat, water, built-in cabinets/workbench, and a nice insulated door by the time we sold the house. The new garage is slightly bigger (23x22) but only the side along the house has any insulator or sheetrock. As a car guy in The Motor City, one electrical outlet and no insulation wasn't going to be sufficient.

This is what I started with:

One outlet (and half of it is powering the Invisible Fence for the dog)!!!

I'm an engineer/CAD guy by day so of course I needed to plan out my garage in full 3D. Here's my plan. On the back wall will be the NewAge 7pc set, my Craftsman Pro tool chest, fridge, sink in the left corner, and heater on the ceiling above that. On the right side is the rack for track wheels. I'm hoping to keep the left side as bare as possible but maybe it might get a tall cabinet or two if I need more storage space.

I planned out my lights (2-bulb T8 fixtures) to be on two switches. The main switch powers the four horizontal fixtures for when we only need "some" light. The rest will be on a separate switch for when I want full brightness.

For the floor, I want to do RaceDeck. The house is almost 40 years old so the concrete is terrible from all of the salt. No way I could do an epoxy without a ton of filling and leveling. I'm thinking a solid border all the way around the outside and on the right half and FreeFlow on the left where the wife parks during the winter. The floor will probably be the last thing to get done so I have plenty of time to think about it.

 

[Scooter70]

Current Status:

Wiring: 10 outlets wired in, including one in the ceiling next to the garage door for a future wall mounted garage door opener, one low next to the engine bay of Corvette for battery tender, a few at 4' off the ground for misc power needs, and a bunch on the back wall where the bench will go. I still want to add a few more.

Lights: Wired in the 4 fixtures to the main switch. Much nicer than the two 60W bulbs that were there when we bought the house. I ran wires for the other set of lights so I just need to wire in the switch. Once the ceiling is insulated and sheetrocked I'll install those fixtures.

Preparing to insulate: I put Propavent between the rafters to make sure air can flow from the soffit vents into the attic. Once wiring is finally done I can start insulating the ceiling and walls. Ceiling will be strapped at 24" OC and then drywalled.

If I gain anything from this thread so far, it's that looking at these photos has shown me that open shelving looks terrible. The heavy duty shelving will go in the basement and only storage with doors will be allowed in the garage. The cheap ones on the back wall are barely holding themselves up and will be scrapped.

 

[got2boostit2]

Nice, awaiting more.

 

[Jay Sco]

Well that ought to be sufficient lighting! Makes me rethink the 4 2-tube units I have. Looking forward to progress.

 

[55cadillacking]

I recently added some 2-bulb T8's to complement the four I already had in there. Going from 4 to 9 has really lit my space up. Good luck with the continued work ahead of you. I like your plan.

 

[regguy1]

I'd go with the 6500K tubes. I have 2 tube T8's and they are great.

You can see everything here (Corvettes to if you look far enough)
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=140674&highlight=26'+30'+Garage+photos+videos

 

[Scooter70]

got2boostit2 - hey D... What's up buddy? More tonight when I get back to a computer.

regguy1 - They are 6500k bulbs. I love the bright white light.

Sent from my MotoX using Tapatalk.

 

[MattVette89]

Looks like a nice setup. Any plans for a heater?

 

[Scooter70]

Looks like a nice setup. Any plans for a heater?

Definitely. That's the thing I miss most from the old house. I'm thinking something like a 50k BTU Modine/Mr Heater.

BTW, I'm Matt and I used to have a black C4 too. (And a black C3.) I'm not sure I have any photos of the C4 handy (it was a '91 Z07) but here's the '70.

 

[ShadowRuleZ]

Subscribed so I can steal some ideas when ours is done!

 

[kfainf]

Looking good. I like your plan. Wiring in more outlets is the next step in my own little two car garage. Great looking Corvettes also.

 

[Scooter70]

Wiring is "done". I had some time to work in the garage this weekend so I added a couple more outlets along the back wall for the fridge and moved the Invisible Fence control box over by the back door. I ran the wires for the second set of lights and put the switch for it at the workbench. Once the ceiling is insulated I'll figure out the exact positions of the fixtures and have them ready to pull through when I sheetrock.

Menards had their 11% rebate sale last week so I bought 95% of the insulation that I need and started insulating the ceiling. (R25, 23" wide on top, R15, 15" wide in the walls) I can't wait to have a warm garage.

 

[bonecrrusher]

Nice looking Vettes!

Like the C6Z wheels on there.

Adding lighting was one of the best projects I did to my old shop.

 

[Aussie Mike]

Nice C3 there Matt,

I'm doing a restomod on a 72 C3 convertible.

Good lighting is really important. I'm running banks of dual fluro tubes with diffusers on them. Choice of wall colours really helps with the lighting too. Lighter colours will really brighten up the space.

We've just switched out the old Fluro tubes for LEDs at work and I'm very impressed. If I was doing my lights again I would have definitely considered them.

Cheers

Mike

 

[Scooter70]

Nice C3 there Matt,

I'm doing a restomod on a 72 C3 convertible.

Thanks Mike.
I owned the '70 for over 20 years and by the end it had lots of VBP suspension parts along with a cammed LS1 and T56. Restomod is the best way to do a C3. They're so much more fun to drive with a few modern touches.

Good lighting is really important. I'm running banks of dual fluro tubes with diffusers on them. Choice of wall colours really helps with the lighting too. Lighter colours will really brighten up the space.

We've just switched out the old Fluro tubes for LEDs at work and I'm very impressed. If I was doing my lights again I would have definitely considered them.

I am thinking about LED tubes for the second set of lights. There are options out there that aren't too expensive so I'll have to decide sooner or later.

The walls in my last garage were just plain white so I may do a light gray semi-gloss just to do something different.

 

[dubber]

I know i'm going to enjoy watching the evolution of this space. Congrats on the new garage and project!

 

[Woodward_Dreams]

Love the Vette!

Nice to see another two car garage project in the Detroit area.

Keep posting the progress pics!

 

[Scooter70]

I finally have some progress worth sharing. Life gets in the way of projects a lot of the time but my father came to visit for a few days so we knocked out the sheetrock. We put in a few hours a day for the last few days. It's 95% sheetrocked and probably 85% taped/first coat of mud.

It didn't really hit me how many lights and plugs I added until we had to cut the holes in the sheetrock for the wiring. I ended up with 13 4' T8 fixtures on two switches.

Strapping on the ceiling

Ceiling done, starting on walls

I didn't get a chance to take any pics yesterday of the taping done so I'll get some in the next few days. I have a track event this weekend so I need to swap rotors/pads/brake fluid/wheels on the Corvette to get it ready.

 

[Scooter70]

Wow, it's been a while since I've updated this thread. Between work, kids, and building a track car I neglected the garage for a while but I'm back at it now.

Here's one of the things that's been keeping me busy... 2005 Corvette - gutted and caged for the racetrack. It has a cammed LS2 and put down a little over 400hp to the wheels. This second photo (taken going over "the jump" at Grattan Raceway) was featured in Grassroots Motorsports magazine last month.

Once the season ended and I moved the car to a friend's barn for the winter I was finally able to get back to work on the garage itself. I bought a small LPG heater to keep the garage warm while I'm working inside. It definitely warms it up quickly and the insulation does a good job of keeping the heat in.

Taped, mudded, and sanded.

Painted the ceiling and hung the main lights. The lights are 4' T8s with 6500K bulbs. I love all of the bright white light. I wired in for more lights on the sides and down the center. I'm still not sure what to put on those. I probably don't need 9 more T8s.

For the walls and floor, I found this photo of XDMan's garage and loved the color combinations so I'm probably going to do the same. I called RaceDeck and got some color samples so that I can match the paint. They also sent me some FlowThrough tiles to check out. Being in Michigan and parking inside in the winter I think they'll work a lot better for my situation so the plan is to do solid around the outside and FlowThrough for the checkerboard pattern.

For cabinets, I've been keeping an eye on Costco's offerings and have decided that the NewAge 8-piece Bold 3.0 combo will fit perfectly. I don't like the empty space in the bottom so I will see if I can find another bottom cabinet with drawers to put in there.

Cabinets have to wait for paint, so I need to get on that. If I keep coming to GarageJournal more often it should help keep the motivation up. Questions/comments?

 

[mach1mustangman]

That looks great! I love the flooring idea.

 

[Scooter70]

Costco had the NewAge Performance 2.0 10-piece set on sale in March so I pulled the trigger on it. They said it should take 1-3 weeks to deliver so I figured I'd have time to paint the walls before they arrived. Two days after I ordered they called me to schedule the delivery. So they've been sitting patiently waiting for everything to be ready.

In the mean time, I painted the walls a gray that matched the lighter Racedeck color. After I got the color on the wall, I realized that the 6500K lights make the gray color look like it has more of a blue tint than natural light.

Last step before cabinets can go up was to paint the concrete on the raised area at the back of the garage. Since I'm not going to be driving on it, I figured that a concrete paint should (hopefully) stay stuck and not peel up. I washed, scrubbed, primed, and then painted with two coats of a custom mixed Behr 1-part "epoxy" concrete paint. I tried to match the Racedeck Graphite color but it came out a few shades darker than the color sample. (It's lighter than the photo shows though.)

It's getting closer. Can't wait for everything to finally be in its place.

 

[WILDHEMI]

Your garage is turning out really nice! can't wait to see it done..... I just started on my two car garage reno and will be starting a tread soon.

 

[sweet victory]

We have a very similar sized garaged and interests! Only difference is the car. Subscribed

 

[nicholam77]

Nice space. Sub'd for more.

 

[Rorin67]

Looking good! Nice progress.

 

[cash68]

It cost me ~$900 to have my concrete slab from 1958 with tons of salt pits and cracks fixed. V'd out all cracks, epoxy fill, sandblast the spalling, and then ground with a floor grinder and hand grinders. So worth it. Epoxy is holding up perfect. Not a fan of racedeck; harder to see and all the grime and moisture stays there, but is hidden.

 

[pcmxci]

Glad you didn't go with the Bold. I got the Bold and the quality of the metal was complete garbage. Ended up returning the original and two replacement sets after they all came with multiple dings in the panels.

 

[Scooter70]

Cabinets are in! My dad was up for a few days so we spent a few hours getting everything level then bolted them together and to the wall. They came out great. The drawer bases have castors but I wanted them "fixed" so I had to level them with some washers and then bolted them to the other base and to the wall. Everything is tight and nothing moves around at all.

I still have to trim and paint the doors and windows but at least now everything is in its place and I can work on the car.

 

[Scooter70]

I spent Father's Day working on the Racedeck floor and am super excited that it's done. I still have a few little details to finish up in the garage but the floor was the last big thing that needed to be done.

Here are a few shots of the completed job.

 

[don long]

That looks like a very nice garage to come home to
I like the color combo you chose.

I'm also a corvette guy having a 62 and a 65.
My wife drove a 97 for about 5 years until the grand kids started hanging out with her.

 

[jshailor1871]

Looks solid! I will be doing something like this next summer in my 2 car garage and will be using your work as an example!


John

 

[QwikKotaTx]

Very nice. Love that C6.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[DynoDave]

That looks nice!

 

[got2boostit2]

When do I get an invite?

 

[Scooter70]

When do I get an invite?

You're welcome to come over anytime bud.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 

[RaceDeck1]

great garage transformation. thanks for choosing RaceDeck

 

[DynoDave]

When do I get an invite?

Feels like there should be some sort of GJ "New Floor" garage party or something, doesn't it?

 

[Scooter70]

I'm back to post a few updates. I've been working on the racecar a bit lately in preparation for our first event. I posted a few pics to Instagram and Racedeck picked them up and posted to their own account. Thanks for the props Jorgen and crew.

I also got tired of bikes leaning against the walls/garbage cans/each other so I put up a Rubbermaid FastTrack strip with a few bike hooks. I have 5 hooks and all 5 bikes fit but here's a pic with three of them hanging on it.

 

[Scooter70]

In case anyone's wondering, I had the Corvette retuned after putting longtubes on it last year. It picked up a little bit of power. (Unfortunately, the torque curves are faint and didn't get picked up very well in this scan.)

 

[Bighead38]

I bet that’s fun to drive and sounds good.