Greatings from Huntington Beach. I've been lurking on the board for a while, learning a fair amount and enjoying Jack's efficiency with his small garage to the north of me. I've been in this house for a year and a half now, trying to finish up the frame off restoration of Mutt. Never move mid frame-off restoration - makes things a challenge.
Mutt is a pro-touring 1961 Corvette I've owned for nearly 20 years. She's got a 1993 C4 Corvette suspension under her courtesy of Paul Newman's Car Creations, and recently had the body painted by CW Restorations here in Huntington Beach. I've been turning all the wrenches and doing most of the rest, including replacing the 1993 LT1 with a 2005 5.3L L33 motor and 4L60, with a custom cam and custom tuning to ensure we're in the single digit weight to horsepower ratio. She's seen a lot of miles prior to this restoration, including a Corvette Caravan from San Francisco to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and a handful of high speed time / distance rally races, along with some drag racing and autocross.
Though my garage is a paltry 18 x 23, it does have 11 feet of vertical clearance on the left side, allowing full lift of the Superior 4 post lift I've had for the last dozen or so years, handy when you're in the middle of a frame off restoration.
Prior to moving to Orange County, my last house had a 24x24 detatched garage, and that wasn't big enough, so a friend and I put a 14x18 shop on the side of it. City zoning limited the annex being much bigger, but it was nice having a well insulated dedicated shop along side the garage. Though the new garage and house is smaller, my wife Susan and I like living beach close.
After I get the car done it will be time to gut the garage and insulate, add more power and sheetrock the full interior. A recent bath remodel gave me a permitted subpanel in the garage, so it will be no problem having adequate power for the tools. Along with finishing the interior, the old flip up 15' door will be replaced by a 8' rollup for the car side, and a 6' rollup for bicycle access. The split doors will allow a highlift track above the lift. The outer (right) garage wall is 8' high, the inner (left) wall is 16' high, affording 11' ceiling joist leve. The first month we were in here I installed 2x6 rafter ties 1/3 up the rafters, and cut out the old, low 2x4 rafter ties. Best $30 I spent on the garage.
The other long term project will be to close the atrium behind the garage. There's already a flat roof with a couple skylights in it, so I just need one 12' exterior wall, and another wall in the interior of the atrium and the open air shop space will become ~200 sq feet of closed shop space. I do have to eliminate a window to the family room as well - it would be bad form for something from the shop to crash through the window into the family room.
Joe
Mutt is a pro-touring 1961 Corvette I've owned for nearly 20 years. She's got a 1993 C4 Corvette suspension under her courtesy of Paul Newman's Car Creations, and recently had the body painted by CW Restorations here in Huntington Beach. I've been turning all the wrenches and doing most of the rest, including replacing the 1993 LT1 with a 2005 5.3L L33 motor and 4L60, with a custom cam and custom tuning to ensure we're in the single digit weight to horsepower ratio. She's seen a lot of miles prior to this restoration, including a Corvette Caravan from San Francisco to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and a handful of high speed time / distance rally races, along with some drag racing and autocross.
Though my garage is a paltry 18 x 23, it does have 11 feet of vertical clearance on the left side, allowing full lift of the Superior 4 post lift I've had for the last dozen or so years, handy when you're in the middle of a frame off restoration.
Prior to moving to Orange County, my last house had a 24x24 detatched garage, and that wasn't big enough, so a friend and I put a 14x18 shop on the side of it. City zoning limited the annex being much bigger, but it was nice having a well insulated dedicated shop along side the garage. Though the new garage and house is smaller, my wife Susan and I like living beach close.
After I get the car done it will be time to gut the garage and insulate, add more power and sheetrock the full interior. A recent bath remodel gave me a permitted subpanel in the garage, so it will be no problem having adequate power for the tools. Along with finishing the interior, the old flip up 15' door will be replaced by a 8' rollup for the car side, and a 6' rollup for bicycle access. The split doors will allow a highlift track above the lift. The outer (right) garage wall is 8' high, the inner (left) wall is 16' high, affording 11' ceiling joist leve. The first month we were in here I installed 2x6 rafter ties 1/3 up the rafters, and cut out the old, low 2x4 rafter ties. Best $30 I spent on the garage.
The other long term project will be to close the atrium behind the garage. There's already a flat roof with a couple skylights in it, so I just need one 12' exterior wall, and another wall in the interior of the atrium and the open air shop space will become ~200 sq feet of closed shop space. I do have to eliminate a window to the family room as well - it would be bad form for something from the shop to crash through the window into the family room.
Joe