Shakie's 2-Car Chop Shop

[Austin_Jim]

All - sorry for the double post, but I put this in the flooring section and asked the moderators to move it. Hopefully is the moderators are watching, they can delete the other post. So here it is in the correct section. Again, sorry.

Been on the forum for a little while doing a LOT of research. Posted a couple questions about lighting and flooring while the house was being built. The house has (2) two car garages. One I will use for our cars and the other for a shop for project cars. I had the builder rough in 9 spots for additional lighting (on a separate switch) and outlets every 4 feet or so. Had them wire 220v, fully insulate as well (it's hot in TX) and plumb for a sink. Also asked the builder to put a drain in the shop. So far so good. Unfrotunately, I couldn't get them to raise the ceiling, so I have 10' ceilings. So much for a full lift. I found a MaxJax on Craigslist and just ordered epoxy anchors for it. I also ordered epoxy for the floor from epoxy-coat.com. I need to do a little clean-up around the drain as it's kinda rough. Then it's on to HD for a floor buffer rent with diamond grind prep tool. I have the wall painting done so far and have hung 4 of the florescent with 5500k temp bulbs. I will continue to update once I get the floor done and lift installed. I also wired in wall for speakers. I have installed a pair of polk in wall RC85i, with another pair to go. As far as entertainment, there's a spot in one corner for a TV with cable and power as well as where I terminated the speaker wires.

Moving day (filled it with **** so we could still park the cars in the other):

Light rough ins:

Lights going up:

Tire Storage and Ceiling storage:

Painting first stripe:

I put in some garage door insulation (1/2" foam board). Works GREAT:

Jr helping with the lower section paint:

Lower Section paint done:

My daily driver. A buddy told me the car was so happy about it's new home, it wet the driveway. LOL:

More to come...

-Jim

 

[smokey0810]

Looks awesome! Love the house and the car too!!!

 

[Crazy Backyard Builder]

Congrats, on the new house. Nice start on the new garage, looking forward to update's.

 

[dubber]

Very nice. Do you have pics inside the project shop?

 

[Sunbimmer]

Nice, very nice. I'm officially jealous

 

[Kevin54]

Beautiful place for sure. I can see why your car marked it's territory!!!!

 

[Austin_Jim]

Very nice. Do you have pics inside the project shop?

All of those are in the project shop. Nothing of the whole thing other than the first picture. I still have a bunch of stuff moved to the middle so I could do the painting on the walls. Once the epoxy arrives, I'll move everything to the 'car' garage and do the epoxy and post pictures of the 'finished' product

 

[MacTexas]

looks like you have some good help. Enjoy the help while you can they grow up quickly.

 

[dubber]

All of those are in the project shop. Nothing of the whole thing other than the first picture. I still have a bunch of stuff moved to the middle so I could do the painting on the walls. Once the epoxy arrives, I'll move everything to the 'car' garage and do the epoxy and post pictures of the 'finished' product

Ahh, my bad. Well that looks great so far. Are you going to be doing a similar treatment to the car garage as well?

 

[Idle Serge]

Beautiful!


Garage is nice too

 

[Canadian Charlie]

wow!!!!!!

 

[s2kattracks]

Nice house, garage and love the car!

 

[ADSR]

very cool! Nice work!

 

[jbmatth]

I like the car the most, but the house and two garages are nice to compliment it! I've told my wife before that if I ever got rid of my cobra it would be for a cts-v wagon, there is just something about a 556 hp station wagon that gets me excited.

 

[Austin_Jim]

It's absolutely a beast. All I have is CAI and Tony Mamo ported throttle body. Pulleys, headers, cam and tune come next. For exterior, just plasti-dipped grills, tinted (painted with black tinted clear) taillights, lowering springs and the wheels.

 

[Austin_Jim]

Ahh, my bad. Well that looks great so far. Are you going to be doing a similar treatment to the car garage as well?

Not doing quite as much in the car garage. Just planning on Epoxying the floor. Most likely do something like the metallic look epoxy from Metallix. I think that just looks totally cool. I can't do that in the shop as I won't be able to anything (bolts, washers, etc) if I drop it.

-Jim

 

[Austin_Jim]

Not too much of an update. Received the epoxy, but it will be a couple weeks befor I get it done. Started the title on the back wall today. You might be wondering about the "Shakie" thing. The males in my direct blood line suffer from "Essential or Familial Tremors" It's nervous system thing that is a cousin to Parkinson's. Not a big deal, other than our hands shake during use, especially on tedious things or when we've had too much coffee, not enough sleep, etc. It bugged the heck out of my grandpa, but it doesn't really bother me. I didn't have plans of being a brain surgeon anyway.

 

[Austin_Jim]

Once I finish the blue, I'll outline in black and the "Chop Shop" will be in black as well. I might airbrush some accents. All depends on how much time I want to put in.

 

[Austin_Jim]

Finished up the lettering. Happy with it. If you get close you can see flaws. But considering I...well...shake, I'm pleased.

 

[EarlyBroncoGuy]

Nice. I saw the wheels up on the tire rack and thought they sure looked like CTS-V/G8 GXP wheels.

 

[Austin_Jim]

Nice. I saw the wheels up on the tire rack and thought they sure looked like CTS-V/G8 GXP wheels.

Yessir. Stock wheels off my CTS-V. I put a set of Niche Targa's on it.

 

[188slo50]

I like the color theme and the lettering. Where did you get those stencils in that size, I only find the smaller ones?

 

[Austin_Jim]

I like the color theme and the lettering. Where did you get those stencils in that size, I only find the smaller ones?

I'll tell you, but it will ruin my secret. What I do is set a projector on a ladder and create the picture I want in power point and simply project it. Then I trace it in pencil. I paint the main colors (just the blue in this case) and outline with a huge sharpie. That way, I get the shape pretty much with the paint brush, then can do detail work with the Sharpie to make it look good. Not great at 6" - 1 ft away. But more that 2 ft away, it looks great. And really, if you didn't know to look, you wouldn't see the flaws. Here's an Iron Man mural I did on my son's wall a couple years ago. My first attempt.

 

[Austin_Jim]

So I am hoping that weekend after next, I get to put down the epoxy. In order to do so, I needed to clean out all the 'stuff' that was in there. Moved it all (except a couple items) to the daily driver garage. Since that took up my parking space, I decided to put the Beast in it's new home for a couple weeks.

You can see the wires for the speakers in the upper right. Still need to put a plate on the hole and mount the TV, Apple TV and receiver:

From outside:

I used to have this old Natural beer poster in my house growing up as a kid (Johnson is the last name). My mom found one and had it framed for me as a house-warming. Goes right above where the sink will be:

 

[Majordisorder]

Well done. What kind of projector works for that.

 

[Austin_Jim]

Well done. What kind of projector works for that.

I'll have to check, but pretty much any projector you would use for a power point presentation. I project it, then trace in pencil and paint...

 

[madoc1]

looks nice! are you out in western travis?

 

[Austin_Jim]

looks nice! are you out in western travis?

Leander

 

[Austin_Jim]

OK. Been a little bit since an update as I had to find some time so I could do the Epoxy. Got a full kit from Epoxy-Coat.com. Light gray with clear coat and white, blue and whisper gray flake mix.

Grinding:
I wanted to grind instead of etch as it seems to be the preferred method. Ordered a grinder and wheel from HF / Amazon for the edges. Unfortunately, the dust shield I got was too big (I probably ordered the wrong grinder). It turns out that wasn't too bad as it allowed me to see what I was doing a little better, but HOLY SH!T what a lot of dust. Luckily I had a respirator. I highly recommend ear protection and eye protection and gloves. When I was a younger man, I probably would've said forget it, but as I age, I need my body to last. Also got knee pads which were kind of uncomfortable, but saved my knees. The following day I went to HD and got a floor polisher and diamond grinding wheel. I used the water method as I didn't want to deal with the dust. That worked well, but made a nasty sludge. After the first rinse, I noticed a couple sections that needed to be re-done...no big deal. I triple rinsed, then let it mostly dry and went over it with a stiff bristle brush. Then vacuumed and mopped with denatured alcohol. Finally, vacuumed again this morning before starting the epoxy. And it took about 24 hours to dry completely. Is that normal? THe Epoxy-Coat.com DVD says it needs to dry 6 hours. Not sure if that is only if you etch, but mine was WAY longer in 90 degree heat (but with fairly high humidity). As far as the actually grinding, I have to say I'm a little proud. When I returned the grinder, the guy at Home Depot said it was just under 3 hours. With the 15 minute drive each way, that means I grinded it in about 2.5 hours. Note to anyone, lower the handle if you can to just a hair under waist high. I had it too vertical at first and it was nearly impossible to manage.

Mixing Epoxy:
I took the advice and taped down a tarp as a mixing area:

I had ordered a few extra buckets and also went and got a few extra squeegees and rollers, along with an extendable pole-handle. I am glad I did. The kit from epoxy-coat.com came with a single bucket for mixing the base and one for the clear. Since I was doing sections, I'm glad I had the extra mixing buckets. So I mixed the smaller batches to do the floor in four sections.

Putting it down:
A buddy was supposed to come and help, but he's kinda flaky, so I'm glad I didn't wait until dark. I was a little nervous, but decided to go for it. Once I started mixing part a and part b, there was no turning back. I roughly marked out quarter sections of the garage. Once the first batch was mixed, I poured it kind of close to the edge and started the cut in. Another note on the kit - it only comes with one cut-in brush for base and one for clear. NOT enough as it starts to harden after the first batch. I am glad I got a few extra. So once I figured out how to cut-in (as this stuff is pretty thick and I've never used it before), I got it edges and on the vertical base below the baseboard and moved on to squeegeeing. I made myself MAJORLY nervous. I didn't know the proper pressure for the squeegee, so getting it pulled across was tough. Not tough like physically hard, but tough to figure out how much to squeegee out. Turns out, it wasn't as big of a deal. Once I started the backroll, it put me a little more at ease. Backrolling from the edge where I poured it out pulled the epoxy across and it started to get a little even. I backrolled each section like 6 times. Did a couple more sections and got a LITTLE nervous on the last batch. I was a little short and didn't cover QUITE as much as a I wanted, but I think it's OK for my first job. And I still have a clear to put on.

Flake:
The amount of flake they send is WAAAAAAY too much for me. I wanted light flake. My guess is that they send enough for full broadcast. I tossed the flake as high as I could and am satisfied with the flake amount.

Pictures:
No pictures before or during as I was on a limited time table and was doing it myself.
Flake:

More Flake:

From the outside:

Semi Close Up:

Coverage and Flake:

On to clear tomorrow...

 

[taumac]

Wow, that looks great. Love the paint colors. Nicely done.

Have a good one, Gerard

Florida GJers ( FGJ)
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=117
The 5 Stitches Garage
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=211899

 

[Austin_Jim]

Thanks Gerard.

I posted this in the flooring section as well. Not sure what the rules are, but I wanted a complete thread for the gallery and just the flooring section in the appropriate place. Sorry if this is annoying.

Here goes the continued write up after the clear yesterday, as well as some mental notes:

Prep - None. As long as you put the clear on 10-24 hours after basecoat, no prep needed

Mixing - Same mixing station as basecoat, but needed to get more buckets as I was doing this in small batches again

Putting it down - With the clear coat, I had a more reliable buddy come by so he could help me. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate another set of shoe spikes, but figured it would be OK as the base was dry enough to walk on and he would be doing cut-in only. I strapped on the shoe spikes and we mixed the first batch. I poured it out and he came on to do the edging. The clear seemed to spread a little easier than the basecoat. My guess is because it was going on the base and not over raw concrete. Although it did lay out easier, it was WAY more difficult to see due to it being...well...clear. I squeegeed it out and started rolling. Since it was tough to see, I had to take several steps back and look at different angles to get it right. But all in all, a pretty easy process. After backrolling the first batch like 5 times, there was a section by the wall that looked a little odd. It had some darker spots. Then it dawned on me. Oh ****, dirt from my buddies shoes got tracked when he was edging as he didn't have spiked shoes. Oh well, it's under the clear now. Although it is a little bothersome, it was not too terrible and if you're not looking for it you might not notice. Hopefully it doesn't break up the adhesion. Don't think it will as it's pretty minimal. So on to the next batch. I guess no help in edging as I don't want brown footprints all over. No big deal as I did the base myself and this goes on easier. My buddy was relegated to doing the mixing and handing me to tools. The rest went on pretty smooth except that it flowed so well and was so hard to see that it ended up heavy in a few places before backrolling. All in all a good process and I am happy with the result.

Non-skid - Aluminum Oxide provided in kit. Needed to use it as there will be spills and don't want an ice skating rink. I sprinkled it on like I did with the flake. However, it is IMPOSSIBLE to see how much you put on, so the coverage is a little off. Some places have too much.

A couple notes and issues:
1st note to self - Make sure to remove the masking of the baseboards BEFORE the epoxy hardens as it will be nearly next to impossible to remove after. This is NOT like masking for paint.
2nd note to self - If you chose to ignore the first note, please know that you will be using a large razor knife to remove the masking.
3rd note to self - Whilst using said large knife, the epoxy will be hard and you will be applying a lot of pressure.
4th note to self - You are clumsy and forgetful. You will forget to put on gloves whilst using said large knife. Said knife will inevitably slip due to high amounts of pressure and slice your other hand cutting off the tip of your finger. (Yeah, that happened)
5th note to self - surprisingly, dark red blood looks kind of pretty on newly installed light gray epoxy.
6th and final note - There is a reason you didn't go into the NBA. When tossing the non-skid into the air, you will at least once throw it directly over your head and take an Aluminum Oxide shower

Pictures for your perusal. No pictures of cut finger as I am home alone this week and needed to bandage it as soon as I could before getting pictures. I'll see if I can get some once I take the first bandage off.
From outside (note I stopped as garage edge. Some clear flowed down):

Another (next time I build a garage, I will have them do a long drain at the end of the garage instead of in the middle. Due to regulations, they couldn't slope the garage to the drain, so it's pretty useless unless I have a 1/2" of water in there. oh well):

There was some outgassing in the base coat as I didn't use a primer (bummer). But it's ok as this will be a working garage and not a show piece. It appears a little containment got in the clear here as well. Not sure what it is unless I dripped sweat or lacquer thinner:

Close up:

 

[Bib Overalls]

Going to be very nice.

 

[Scottishross]

Stunning garage/house mate

 

[ILLuSioNz X]

Great build!

 

[Austin_Jim]

Thank you gentlemen.

 

[C. Smith]

Looks great!

 

[Austin_Jim]

Thank you Mr Smith.

Now for gore pictures. For those of you with weak stomachs, look away (actually, they aren't bad).

As you may have inferred from my post, I cut my finger pretty good. Here are the pics: