The Derelict Garage rides again!!!

[fergus]

Thanks for the kind words and for reading my little story. You're right...not listening to those naysayers back then was one of the best things I've done in a while. Its been one of the best learning experiences too.

 

[peghead]

Thanks for the kind words and for reading my little story. You're right...not listening to those naysayers back then was one of the best things I've done in a while. Its been one of the best learning experiences too.

A garage is a garage. I think a lot of us are going through hard times. I have had to cut back on spending myself. Only thing I hate about older garages, is rotten wood and places where nasty stingers can get in, like wasps and hornets. I happen to be plagued with Hornets. So, now I seal every hole I can find. I guess a garage is a good place to get out of the weather, but what ever happened to wide open spaces like planet earth.

 

[hobbitss]

The next morning I got onto my next project. Remember this little guy?

Gave it thorough wash down then rolled it in.

There was so much room left in the garage I just laughed and laughed. You could fit at least three of them in there.

And then...

And thennnnnn...

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

To big to be a Honda 500 and to small to be a mid seventies CVCC...
I had a 76 CVCC way back, swapped out the 4 speed for a 5 speed and the instrument cluster from an upscale car... All of it easy bolt up swaps... To bad they didn't last very long.. I went through 2 motors and a transmission in 18 months... And then there was a national recall on them because the front fenders would literally rot off the car... I can't remember the last time I saw one...

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Fergus, You are a man after my own heart. You like old little Hondas as do I - I think I mentioned I'd like to find and do a rotisserie restore on a '78 CVCC 5 Speed someday to duplicate a really nice one I had back in the day when I now-31 year old son was an infant (even though it makes no financial sense) AND now I see you're wearing the cap of my beloved Dodgers! Glad to "know" you.

EDIT: Ha ha, I just realized I already commented on both these in post #293 back a couple pages. Oh well, memory is the 2nd thing to go!!

 

[Thruxton]

Good going Fergus, this is fun to watch! I was a Honda MC dealer in the early 70's, HMC approached us about becoming one of the first of their car dealers- should have done it.

 

[fergus]

Peghead, Dan, Hobbitss, Thruxton...

Thanks!

I would love to own a MC dealership...of course I'd have to test ride everything before I ever sold any of the units.

I'm busy working on another project at the moment...I'll post up when I'm done...

 

[64 lane]

Fergus, what is new in the shop. I will be getting my motor for my Fairlane soon. Anything new on your end.

 

[WarrenJ]

I have just sat down and read 17 pages on this build. Simply amazing. Now I need to look back at Parts 1 and 2. As to the bowl lights, instead of taping the tops to the wire; how about leaving free. That way you could slid the lights along the wire into position as needed.

 

[fergus]

Hey that's a pretty good idea Warren. I'm working on some ideas for better task lighting...but that is a pretty simple one. The bench is lit fairly evenly though...


At the behest of my wife, I made a little magazine rack out of some salvaged pallet wood:




Haven't had time for much else lately. Been working two jobs more or less. Now I'm down to one... so I'll have some time to get back to projects...so many ideas so little time.

 

[Kevin54]

To big to be a Honda 500 and to small to be a mid seventies CVCC...
I had a 76 CVCC way back, swapped out the 4 speed for a 5 speed and the instrument cluster from an upscale car... All of it easy bolt up swaps... To bad they didn't last very long.. I went through 2 motors and a transmission in 18 months... And then there was a national recall on them because the front fenders would literally rot off the car... I can't remember the last time I saw one...

I....well not I personally, but my ex had a Honda about like that, but a little newer. I had to fix it since I T-Boned it on purpose. In repairing it, I bought a trashed one for parts. In getting off what I needed, my dad and I flipped it on it's side in the driveway so I could cut the exhaust off It didn't take anything to roll it on to it's side. My mom came out of the house and saw it and totally exploded. I was working up to my dads garage where we did all of the painting, but this was also in a residential neighborhood. Nothing like cars driving by and seeing a car on it's side in the driveway

 

[Cat88]

Hi, I read through this hole thread last night and I gotta say, I loved every minute of it! You've done a great job and every update is a new idea and something I wana steal haha!

The amount of bargains, free finds, salvages and recycling of materials is fantastic and i especially like the long worktop on the grey/blue metal cabinets.

Best thread on GJ in my opinion and i'm looking forward to a lot more

Cheers,
Ash

 

[fergus]

Thanks Cat. I've got lots more planned if I can ever get around to it.

Here's an old locker I picked up a while back. It was in the garage for a while, then got painted an ugly yellow color when my brother in law moved in with us. I stripped it to bare metal.



I had just wiped it down with mineral spirits, then I shot it with some satin lacquer.



Note to self...don't use mineral spirits if you're gonna shoot lacquer. It left those mean streaks on there. So out came the wire brush cup (again). I tried wiping with acetone, but that left streaks too. I tried just using soapy water, but then I would have to dry immediately to avoid more streaks. In the future, I'll just wipe it with a clean paper towel - that gave the best results.

Here's the final product:



Not too shabby. Total cost was about $10 in lacquer plus $20 for stripper.

 

[Twoodie]

Looks good. I have a couple of lockers too and can wait to do something like this to them. What kind of stripper did you use and did you strip the insides?
Thanks
Tom

 

[fergus]

No way did I strip the insides! The outside was a boatload of work by itself. I'll just paint in there.

I used Green's Liquid paint stripper. It worked okay...I'd use the gel version if I had it to do over.

 

[Sahara54]

Just read through you whole thread...and awesome job. I have a stack of real oak pallets that I'm now having ideas of a new work bench coming; I might even toss a few of those neat bowl lights over it. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[fergus]

Thanks for reading. Glad for anybody to glean an idea from this thread. You can do a lot with pallet wood...whatever you can dream up.

 

[BuickFarmer]

A rainy day in Georgia so a little time to do some catching up on a few subscribeds here, yours being one of my favorite. Love how you just do things your way and they come out so cool. Love your doors.
Spent last week pulling tin and lumber from a chicken house, getting ready to start another build myself. As in your area, the habitat house here doesn't have near the goodies they did a few years ago. I guess everybody just lists everything on CL now instead of gibin it away.

 

[fergus]

Thanks for the kind words BuickFarmer...I've always liked your barn.

The Chateau de Yardbird has begun today...



Using pipe stalls just like the shed I built a while back. You were right Ompha....mama GETS what mama WANTS!

 

[JaysinSpaceman]

Wow, I just killed the afternoon reading The Derelict Garage Pt. I and II. I dig all your recycled material work and I am glad you stayed the course and got your garage all straightened out. My friend recently tore down a garage like yours (actually it was in better shape then yours started) and what got built in it's place isn't half as cool as it could have been it he took your route.

I've got a firewood shed made out of one of those old pipe horse stalls, I think they make much better sheds then they ever made animal stalls. I have been keeping my eye out for a couple more but they don't come up often in these parts.

Great job on the shop and keep up the great work.

Thanx,
Jaysin

 

[fergus]

Thanks Jaysin. Glad you like what you see... that means something coming from a talented craftsman such as yourself. Can't wait to get more done - especially more things made of metal. Made little progress on the chicken coop lately....



Been busy mostly with the garden...just yet another distraction:

 

[Coyote Red]

Love the title! And you got a little Herbie too.

 

[westpilton]

Any updates on this garage? One of my favourite builds on the site!

 

[fergus]

Its been a few months. I've been preoccupied with a few other things, but starting to work on things in the garage again.

Built a bookshelf/cabinet type thing for the kitchen at SWMBO's command:

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/fredzeppelin7/Garage/null_zpsdfb4106a.jpg

Need to finish painting it and hang it soon.


I have decided that I'm going to re-do the inside of the garage again. I'm not happy with the way things are situated. Too much junk just laying around. I actually have too much unused storage. I've got too much stuff crammed in a little space. Gonna try to fix that as much as possible.

First up is a floating workbench. I had some metal laying around:



Made the side braces:



When you don't have a welding table, you gotta improvise:



Hope to finish welding up tonight.

 

[tinbender 66]

Good to see ya back around Fergus. I hope to be "back around" soon myself. "Stuff" been keeping me preoccupied too! Hopefully good stuff.

 

[HOTFR8]

Have you been in hibernation Fergus ? Nice to see you adding to this topic again.

 

[fergus]

Hotfr8: Yeah I guess you could say that. Spent all my free time in July and August working on a car we bought (second hand car, less than full disclosure from the seller).

Beyond that, haven't been able to get motivated. Been in a slump and haven't felt like doing much. But, with the nice fall weather, I've been getting outside a lot more. Plus, I know the rain is coming and there's things I really want to get done sooner rather than later. Hopefully you'll see soon!

 

[HOTFR8]

Well good to see you back on the forum.

 

[fergus]

I'm definitely not the best when it comes to welding setups...sometimes things dont' end up the way you want. That's when you break out the instruments of persuasion.



Good enough for gov't work now. It's not like the walls are totally square anyway!

 

[westpilton]

Hooray, the derelict garage rides again...again! Good to see you back. Look forward to more posts.

 

[fergus]

Thanks for reading Westpilton...and everybody else!

Finished my bench the other night. What I didn't mention is that the bench is replacing all my bottom cabs. I realized they don't work very well for what I need...I paid nothing for them, so out they go.

Anyway, new bench, put a few things under it.



Then, my Shopsmith has a new home...

 

[fergus]

And the whole reason I started this in the first place...so I could get my Jeep in for the winter, keep the rest of my junk inside, and still have plenty of room to work on projects:

 

[vegar]

Sweet bench you made

 

[Mavawreck]

Thats an awesome old hobart coffee grinder. I've got one too that someone turned into a bench grinder. They are fairly valuable.

 

[fergus]

Thanks Vegar.

Mav,

It's actually made by Standard. It was just sitting on the floor in the garage at my wife's grandpa's ranch. Told me I could have it. Put a new cord on and it fired right up after sitting around for a few decades. Makes GREAT coffee!

 

[GirchyGirchy]

What's the red thing with the silver hopper on the workbench? Looks a lot like my KitchenAid coffee grinder.

 

[fergus]

What's the red thing with the silver hopper on the workbench? Looks a lot like my KitchenAid coffee grinder.

Its my coffee grinder...see above posts

 

[Mavawreck]

I wish I had all the parts for mine, that thing is sweet!

 

[fergus]

Tore everything off the back corner last night so I can start another phase of the garage...



Can you guess what I'm doing next? Here's a little hint:

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Fergus,
Nice work. Can I make a suggestion? Cover the old hinge recesses on your new bench.
An easy/cheap AND helpful solution is buy a bunch of 99 cent wood yard sticks and glue them along the edge!

 

[JASONFB123]

Yay! More bench space!