The Garagenous Zone

[BoostAddiction]

I'm a newbie to this site, but I enjoy it and though I'd share my garage.

My garage is a 3+ car unit integral with my house. When building the house about 5 years ago, I knew I wanted a special garage. So I enlarged it from the original idea, made it be 12' tall to clear the lift, poured special footers twice the normal floor thickness for the lift columns and added a dedicated storage room that also holds the air compressor. The first bay is also longer and wider than normal, so designed to get room for a lift, cabinets and other stuff needed to work on cars.

First, the overall view of the work bay, showing the assymetrical two-post Rotary lift. Note the layout of the Lista cabinets at the front and side. The side cabinets have stainless tops and the front cabinets have Corian tops (in Dove Gray) with matching Corian back and side splashes. There is another work surface on top of the welding center (hard to see on the left) that is just unfinished mild steel. That's where you do the heavy stuff.

Normally a Touareg V10 TDI is in this spot, but I took the pics while prepping the racer to be shipped to CA for the World Road Race Finals at Infineon.

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Another view to the front, showing the new stairs/storage area for shoes, etc. Next to the stairs (and encroaching on the parking spot for the Wife's Boxster S) is a small sheet metal brake, shear and roll. It is on a custom frame I welded up for it and had powdercoated.

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As I age (ahem...) I find I need more and more light. I took the opportunity to replace the existing "cool white" lamps in the overhead fixtures with newer technology lamps. The new lamps make the old ones look positively yellow by comparison. They are rated at 5900 K, have a CRI of 93, 2500 lumens and are rated for 33,000 hours.

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Part of making a mess is cleaning up. So I bought an NSF-rated stainless sink with two sinks and a drainboard. Originally designed to be a standalone sink, it took some work to integrate it into the cabinet below, the Corian countertops and back and side splashes. There are two sinks so one can be converted to be a parts washer, using an aqueous solution that is EPA-rated to just be flushed down the drain. No solvents, no headaches, and no permanent partswasher to use up space. Yes, the outlet is on a GFI!

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More...

 

[BoostAddiction]

Part of cleanup is access to a ready supply of towels. I had a nice pull-down dispenser but didn't like any obvious mounting solutions- it always seemed in the way. So my crew chief and I had the idea of just installing the pull-though part of the dispenser right IN the overhead cabinet. Works fine, looks trick. The Mustang magnet with a line through it is from my days when I had a GMC Typhoon.
Apologies in advance for the blurry pic....

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No self-respecting race team would be complete without the team logo installed in the shop floor (what if you forgot and thought you were working at Ferarri or something?). Floor is a 5-step epoxy floor from Precision Epoxy. I chose this color because it is very reflective of light and so makes working on the undersides of cars much more pleasurable. I didn't want the cleanup messes of plastic tiles, didn't want to spend the money on real Italian tile and wanted something that was super tough and would look good for a long time. I also didn't want grouting because of staining and cleanup problems. I mixed in glass microspheres to reduce slipping when wet and it is an improvement, but you do have to be careful if it is wet and you have rubber soles. It's been several months since the floor has been down with nary a defect yet. If you look carefully, you can see a layer of clear epoxy over the logo. Still working on making that look slightly better.

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Apologies in advance for the blurry shot, but here is a shot of a drawer using tooling foam to locate some pliers. When a tool is removed, a section of RED foam below shows the outline of the missing tool-- so you know to look for it before you button up the job. This technique is used extensively in the military where they won't let a plane out of the hangar if there is a tool missing to eliminate the possibility of FOD.

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I used to be a welder in my youth, and bought a Lincoln TIGMate 185 welder, mostly for hobby purposes. Of course, the first thing anyone makes when they buy a welder is a welding table. Mine was designed to allow the welder to be stored under it, with ready access if I wanted to move it. The tubes on a slight angle hold welding rod of different kinds (aluminum, stainless, mild steel, etc) so they will be readily accessible yet not in the way. The table was powder coated to match the garage theme. On the table are two engine oil pans from a Legends car that I am repairing.

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Just adjacent to the welding center is a recycled helmet stand from the race trailer. It now holds some welding helmets, some parts and my welding jacket. Next to that is a scale cabinet which is used to corner-weight the race car. The oil drain is also shown, along with the water and air reels. There is a separate room with additional storage and an 5-HP air compressor. The compressor is there to reduce noise, to improve aesthetics and to not encroach on other car space. The air lines are all in-wall and there are two twin outlets, one at the front of the bay, and the other one just around the corner in this picture.

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One last pic, showing the laptop in the desk area in the back of the pic. The computer has diagnostic software and parts list data for all the cars. it also has a Pre-N wireless card and an Audigy sound card that enables me to listen to XM radio streaming over the web using the Altec Lansing speakers and sub.

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I really enjoy working in the "garagenous zone", and working on the family fleet.

-Will

 

[BoostAddiction]

Because I live in an area with cold winters and hot summers, I wanted a way to control temps.

The garage is heavily insulated (even the Wayne-Dalton doors have foam insulation and anti-leak contruction); I calculated that a 2-ton unit would cool the garage adequately. I chose the most efficient mini split unit I could find. From Daikin, it installed very nicely, and is extremely quiet.

I also wanted to be able to move tools to the car when needed, so the center (of five) Lista cabinets on the window side is on locking casters. It moves around very easily and is a pleasure to work on.

There is much more, but three pages should get the point across!

-Will

 

[ssleepingbeauty]

Very Nice!

 

[bmwpower]

Looks great! I love your sink idea. I love commercial sinks, but I never really thought there was ever a way to fit into a Lista sink cabinet... I guess you answered my question.

Did you get your stainless tops from Lista? Any idea what you paid per ft^2? I'm getting ready to get mine, but I'm torn between going with Lista tops (really nice but pricey) vs. going with locally made custom ones (not as nice, but should be less pricey).

 

[REFLEXX]

Dang it!

looks like what I'm after. Very nice. But there is such thing as TOO NICE! Nah, not really.

 

[BoostAddiction]

Looks great! I love your sink idea. I love commercial sinks, but I never really thought there was ever a way to fit into a Lista sink cabinet... I guess you answered my question.

Did you get your stainless tops from Lista? Any idea what you paid per ft^2? I'm getting ready to get mine, but I'm torn between going with Lista tops (really nice but pricey) vs. going with locally made custom ones (not as nice, but should be less pricey).[/QUOTE

I had to cut the cabinet to make the sink fit. The problem is that it needs to have the sink backsplash against the rear wall. Because I glued the Corian top to the cabinet, I thought that the loss of the rear upper bar would be unimportant. So far it has been perfect. The top itself has a fair amount of strength as well.

The SS tops were around $1000 from Lista. This was actually less than I was able to source locally. No one locally wanted anything to do with them for some reason, and non-local places were worried about shipping them. I was pleased (and surprised, actually) that the ones from Lista were made so well. They both came with small scratches from improper handling during fabrication or shipping, though; but overall fab (aside from the scratches) was excellent and they made them to my specs ( I needed about 5 inches overhang in the rear).


-Will

 

[Runum]

Very clean and well laid out. Great planning. Makes me look bad.

 

[bmwpower]

Ok, cool. The price is on par with what I was quoted. About $0.24 per sq inch.

I heard the same thing about their tops. The only reason I've even thought about trying to do it locally is that my friend does fab work and *might* be able to make some up, but it doesn't look easy plus I need some long tops...

 

[pescadito]

Very nice. How do you reach that drop light above the lift?

 

[motorheadjohn]

WOW nice garage......super **** and clean....very nice

 

[OHEKK]

Great Ideas!

What a fantastic set up!

I really like the foam tool cutouts in the drawers.

QUESTION: How do you get the cutouts to be so perfect?

If I did that it would look like I used a chainsaw!

 

[BoostAddiction]

OHekk, I cut the tool foam out very carefully with an Exacto knife, tracing the actual tools, one at a time. Some people transfer the image using a silver or white pen, but I thought that would be too inaccurate.

I reach the light by hooking it with a broom handle. It's easier to keep it way up high out of the way like it is.

-Will

 

[ChucksCrib]

Nice Spead. Is the "Mad Cow" considered what we call up here in Southern New England a "Ledgends" car with the 1200 cc motors

 

[sca037]

Welcome!

Will, thanks for sharing your well though out and superbly executed garage!
Those Legends cars are a hoot, and it's good to see that you're among the bunch that actually road races them
OK, I'll bite........minus any evidence in the posts, what feeds your 'BoostAddiction' these days?

Boost-is-good-Brian

 

[Luckydevil]

Wow, good stuff!

 

[shopking68]

Wow, that is super clean shop, the way its suppose to be.
I want a lift so bad..

 

[comp]

love the tool foam idea

 

[SoCalGarage]

jeeez awesome garage- might I ask what you do for a living to be able to afford ALL the toys!!??

if I had half that stuff

( do you find you use the TIG moreso then a MIG(do you do alot of aluminum work?)

 

[joecaver]

Wow the level you have achieved with your garage is something most of the rest of us only dream about. Excellent

 

[Darren M.]

I'll add to the list of alcolades. Wow indeed. Question concerning the welding location. How is the coating holding up around that area? Any splatter spots or other deformation.

Again, kudos.

 

[nvmygtz]

That is a clean garage.... once again Lista is well represented, very nicely done.
Have you done all your drawers with foam?

I just got done cutting foam for around 600 items, it takes time & new sharp blades. I like to use the long narrow dispoasble snap blade kind.
Some types for foam you can use a sodering iron to clean up the edges others can be put in an ovem to soften them up & then you set the tools on top and you can sink them in....I have yet to try this just others have done that.

 

[snorvet]

super garage! I think I'll try that tool foam idea.

 

[Craig Balzer]

Will

Very impressive. I am jealous as hell.

If you haven't already done so, you may want to consider sending the photos to the Lista site. They maintain an area on their site dedicated to every-day folk who use their product. Its called "Personal Space" -- several sub-categories: Home Garages -- Home Offices -- Small Businesses -- Hobby Shops.

Yours would definitely qualify IMHO

Craig

 

[Darren M.]

Its called "Personal Space"

Not to steal Craig's thunder but since I was looking through the site trying to find it I figured I'd give someone else the link...... Hope you don't mind Craig.
http://www.listaintl.com/perspace/pshome.htm

 

[cork]

Beautiful garage ! I had 2 legends cars for about 5 years. I also have precision Epoxy on my old garage. Did you put it down yourself or did they do the installation?

 

[BoostAddiction]

Thanks for the accoldades! I really enjoyed planning and building the garage as a working garage (as opposed to just a kind of showroom).

Yes, the race car is a Legends car. This was my first year for road racing the car and we had a great time. You can read more about Legends cars at the 600 Racing site here. and you can follow the race team (we have two Legends cars on the team) at the team's web site.

I satisfy the need for boost with an Audi B5 S4, modded to about 320 HP from a 2.7L V6 with twin turbos and intercoolers. I also have a SUV with an all-alloy 4.9L V10 with twin turbos and intercoolers that produces 553 ft-lbs of torque (take that Viper!). It's a diesel, as you probably guessed- and a VW, at that! Here is a pic of the VW towing the race trailer:

I got the Lista cabinets from Charles Marsala at ListaToolboxes.com . He was helpful and was reasonable on price.

There is no spatter problem using TIG which is one reason why I like it. The epoxy is subject to damage from spatter, which is why you should use welding blankets or a better process like TIG.

I installed the epoxy floor myself as the Precision Epoxy people couldn't work me into their schedule. I'll never do one again as the amount of work is quite high-- next time I'll farm it out. I do think that this is a far better floor than the kind of "epoxy" you can get at Home Depot or Lowes, for example.

 

[Hot Rod]

 

[JMURiz]

Great looking space!
Where in NoVA are you, I'm in Arlington and currently looking at builders...who did your garage?

Nathan

 

[BoostAddiction]

Who did the garage?

Great looking space!
Where in NoVA are you, I'm in Arlington and currently looking at builders...who did your garage?

Nathan

Hi Nathan,

I did it!

I'd be glad to show you the whole thing, just email for directions and a time.

I used to live in Arlington and now am in Fairfax country.

-Will

 

[s_ontario]

I've been in operating rooms that weren't as clean as your shop

 

[JMURiz]

Hi Nathan,

I did it!

I'd be glad to show you the whole thing, just email for directions and a time.

I used to live in Arlington and now am in Fairfax country.

-Will

I sent you a PM, as it doesn't look like I can link to your e-mail. I'd love to see it sometime!
Nathan

 

[bmwpower]

Will,
Where did you get your sink? How much did you pay?

I might have to steal your idea if you don't mind. The only problem will be that I'll need to cut off the backsplash since I'd like it to mount it off of the back wall, more centered in the cabinet.

 

[stioc]

Wow, this is easily my favorite garage yet. Yeah, I know I've said it before but you guys keep upping the game!

Very impressive and the road racing involvement makes it that much cooler.

 

[BoostAddiction]

Will,
Where did you get your sink? How much did you pay?

I might have to steal your idea if you don't mind. The only problem will be that I'll need to cut off the backsplash since I'd like it to mount it off of the back wall, more centered in the cabinet.

You can get the same sink at this link . They are now selling it for around $680.

I ordered mine last summer when it was priced at $495, which was a really good price. The problem was that the store really didn't want to deliver it at that price, sent me the wrong sink first, took a really long time to finally get one that finally arrived and was priced higher. So I wasn't really happy with the experience. OTOH, their prices may still be among the lowest- you just have to decide if you want to manage them so intensively as I had to.

If you really want to mount it without a backsplash, I'd consider a different sink entirely. The backsplash is a part of the sink that provide stiffness and shouldn't be cut off. A related issue is that the stainless, which, while done to a pretty good standard, is not very thick. Unless you have some great fab skills welding and cutting thin stainless sheet, I'm sure you will be better off just getting a sink with no backsplash from the beginning. Actually, even if you do, it will still be better to get a different sink!

Your idea is a good one if the sink will be mounted high and the users are not pretty tall. In my case, a short person would have trouble getting easy access to the faucets. We are all tall in my family so it is no problem for us!

Good luck!

-Will

PS: just spent all day in the garage at a very comfy 74 degrees. It is such a luxury to finally have a heated (and cooled) garage. That has to one of the best features, IMO.

 

[bmwpower]

....

If you really want to mount it without a backsplash, I'd consider a different sink entirely. The backsplash is a part of the sink that provide stiffness and shouldn't be cut off. A related issue is that the stainless, which, while done to a pretty good standard, is not very thick. Unless you have some great fab skills welding and cutting thin stainless sheet, I'm sure you will be better off just getting a sink with no backsplash from the beginning. Actually, even if you do, it will still be better to get a different sink!

Your idea is a good one if the sink will be mounted high and the users are not pretty tall. In my case, a short person would have trouble getting easy access to the faucets. We are all tall in my family so it is no problem for us!

Good luck!

-Will

PS: just spent all day in the garage at a very comfy 74 degrees. It is such a luxury to finally have a heated (and cooled) garage. That has to one of the best features, IMO.

I've been looking for a commercial sink without backsplash, but I have been unable to find one. I found a bunch of regular kitchen type sinks, but they're not really what I'm looking for.

I wouldn't even consider cutting the back off, but a friend of mine has pretty decent fab skills, so I'm going to run it by him first to see if he can do it.

I'm also considering leaving the backsplash on, yet still mount the sink in the center of the cabinet. This would leave some deadspace behind the backsplash, but it might not look too bad. I could frame out the back with metal or wood to cover the open space. I have to measure some things first to see if it will look okay.

If you or anyone else knows of any backsplash-less commercial sinks, let me know... it would save me a lot of trouble.

Thanks,
Eric

 

[cudacharlie]

Wow! Fantastic! My favorite!

Could you do us droolers a huge favor and detail the contents of your drawers? (The Lista ones, that is.... )

While I'd love to see pics of each and every drawer's contents (to see how you laid things out in the foam), I realize that's insane, but it would be great to know basically what the labels are on each drawer, for instance, one 2" drawer of pliers, two 3" drawers of sockets, etc. Obviously your toolbox is well-proportioned, and the distribution of drawer space to various tools, and how you are organizing them is very interesting and educational!

Anyway, kudos, and thanks!

 

[BoostAddiction]

I've been looking for a commercial sink without backsplash, but I have been unable to find one. I found a bunch of regular kitchen type sinks, but they're not really what I'm looking for.

I wouldn't even consider cutting the back off, but a friend of mine has pretty decent fab skills, so I'm going to run it by him first to see if he can do it.

I'm also considering leaving the backsplash on, yet still mount the sink in the center of the cabinet. This would leave some deadspace behind the backsplash, but it might not look too bad. I could frame out the back with metal or wood to cover the open space. I have to measure some things first to see if it will look okay.

If you or anyone else knows of any backsplash-less commercial sinks, let me know... it would save me a lot of trouble.

Thanks,
Eric

Google is your friend:

http://www.foodservicedirect.com/in...Double_Bowl_Stainless_Steel_Drop-In_Sinks.htm

This was just the first one I found...

Hope this or something similar works for you!

Cuda Charlie: Thanks! I may post more drawers in another thread in a while when I get off my duff and take more pics!


-Will

 

[Wardrum]

Will -

I just received my Lista cabinets. I also ordered from Charles Marsala....if anyone else is looking for Lista products, Charles is the man to go to.

Great garage!!!!!!!

 

[B.C.]

Takes My Breath Away. Outstanding Grage.