The Lazy "D" Garage make over

[hell_fish_65]

Well, tomorrow I start to work on my shop. Its a unfinished 1500sqft shop. The PO didn't finish it before we bought it. I didn't have the spare money or time to finish the inside of the shop when we moved in. Thats going to all change now. I took 3 days off this week, plus the weekend to gut at least half of the shop(weather permitting) pour a ramp, replace the garage door tracks for taller ones, run more wiring, insulate the walls and hang sheet rock. My uncle is getting me some supply cabinets from a old school teardown. These will replace the gorrila racks I have now. Since spending so much time on this site, I want everything to have doors for a clean finished look. Im trying to find some cheap counters on craigslist, but haven't been lucky enough yet. I will try to get daily pics. I hope I can dig out enough parts for the Lonestar Roundup swapmeet. As much **** as I have, I don't think it will be a problem.

Future plans involve building a storage rood for parts with a old garage face. Even found a nice glass door for that project. Also boxing in my compressor.

 

[Lou's Garage]

Sounds great! Don't forget to take some pictures.

Lou

 

[hell_fish_65]

Here is what I started with this morning, minus the riding lawnmowers that I just put together

 

[hell_fish_65]

We got some new rails installed on the garage door. It raises it about 1ft which is a ton. Now I have about 8 ft of height with the door open. Im having issues with the springs though. I may have to get a stronger pair.
About a 1/5 of my stuff is in the yard currently. I hope that the rain (very slight chance) skips us in the morning.

 

[Bob/Colfax]

Looks like a good project and will turn out to be a great shop with lots of space. Like your truck. Did you build it yourself?

Bob

 

[hell_fish_65]

My dad build it many years ago

 

[Bib Overalls]

Looks like the basic building is well constructed. With a little forethought and careful execution you should have an outstanding shop when you are done. Keep us up to date with pictures in the gallary.

 

[Kevin54]

Wow...you got a lot on your plate!!! I see where the garage door is dropping on one side in the later pic, If you do not get springs on for awhile, make sure there is a safety cable running thru the center of the spring. If you have the type that is along the rails which I am assuming you have. I have seen them snap and take out a rafter. Instead of putting heavier dprigs on, look into a torsion bar setup. Much safer and cleaner. There should be a thread or two on here about workbenches. Pretty much a straightforward build. Just keep the pics coming. LOL!!!

 

[hell_fish_65]

safty cable are installed already. Thanks

 

[hell_fish_65]

NO pics today. Just got up a little insulation and ran some wiring. I may have scored a torsion set-up. Will see tonight when I go pick up some sheetrock and more insulation.

 

[hell_fish_65]

My brother-in-law has a torsion spring set-up for a garage door to upgrade my springs. Does anyone have a diagram of how it goes together?

The sheetrock I picked up is 12ft sheets. I had no clue it came in sheets that long. Also, is R-11 insolation no longer made? I went to a Home Depot and an Ace and nither had it. Only R-13. I have no idea what the difference is, but I do know that the smaller 32ft rolls are cheaper than the big rolls. .23 per foot for the small rolls and .32 per foot for the big. Seems kind of backwards.

 

[hell_fish_65]

Here are a few from today. Its pretty slow by myself, but Im making progress. I got a few sheets of rock up until I ran out of insulation. I couldn't unload the rock by myself, so I worked on other things. The last pic is plywood that is recycled from shipping pallets from work. They are weak, but good for walls. I also put ledge shelves on the windows. I had some exterior trim that I wasn't going to use for anything else, so I figured why not. Better that letting it rot outside.

 

[hell_fish_65]

With sheetrock all the way up(10ft) it make the area look huge.

 

[hell_fish_65]

The 5 day make over is over. 2 of the 4 walls are covered. One in sheetrock, one in chip board. It looks completely different. I still need to either add doors to the gorilla racks or find kitchen cabinets to replace them with. My neighbors had some over head cabinet that they wanted gone and my uncle provided supply cabinets for a school demolition. They will get repainted in the future. The space we did get finished is the part I spend the most time. I have a lot of stuff to get rid of. This will be the hardest part. I am a packrat and it will be hard to break the cycle. Tomorrow someone from the electic company will be out to quote me service. There job will not be easy since I don’t want a second service, I want options.
All in all, it was fun, and I am very pleased at the first leg. I didn’t get my ramps poured, but I got a ton done.

 

[hell_fish_65]

Had to go back to my day job today, but got a little done. I replaced the lenses in my traffic light with piece that came in from ebay. I also added a high tech peg board. After seeing some of the fancy setup on this board, I got to thinking. I have a door from a Dell server rack. Its steel, powder coated, and nice, so I hung it sideways. Its perfect. I grabbed it for a future custom grill, but this is a better use. It was too dark for a picture, but hopefully I can snap one by Wednesday.

 

[hell_fish_65]

Here are a few of the promised pictures.

 

[hell_fish_65]

I scored about 10 ft of cabinets from an apartment remodel. They said they will give us a call in April when they do phase 2.

 

[hell_fish_65]

The last few days i picked up a few more cabinets. A local apartment complex is upgrading all its units in stages. I got 12 ft of lower cabinets for free. Just need one more load. I also got a pair of cool 50's metal wall cabinets from Craigslist on Tuesday. I wish they had 3, but since all I have spent was gas and time, Im happy.

 

[russlaferrera]

Your project is coming along at a fast pace. It's hard for one guy to do at times. I think the key to any makeover is to get as much stuff off the floor as possible and onto shelves, racks and cabinets.

As for being a pack rat. Throw it all away. As long as you have it you will never use it. Once it is gone then you will have use for it.

 

[6768rogues]

Watch the local auction listings for restaurant or food service auctions, where stuff usually goes for pennies on the dollar. Maybe you can get lucky and grab a stainless counter or big food prep table.

 

[hell_fish_65]

I have a stainless butcher table. It got moved outside since it can withstand some weather. I thinking about ripping down some 2x4's and building my own heavy duty counter top. Thanks for the tip on the auctions though. I may still do just that.

 

[hell_fish_65]

I think I now have all the cabinets I need. I just picked up a 6' long industrial fridge. Its has 3 door and space for a lot of beer, cokes and water. Its all stainless too. I will have to find a new home for my minifridge now.

 

[hell_fish_65]

here is a pic from a couple of weeks ago. Thats the new fridge and all the cabinets in place. The countertop is just left over shelves for now.

 

[hell_fish_65]

Sometimes its hard to believe that it takes so long to get everything in place. I took down all my large racks and changed the configuration. Also throwing lots of junk away. I filled 5 boxes with trash yesterday and have only gotten through a few boxes. I do feel Im finally making some headway.

Attached is the sign my wife had made for my birthday. I got it hung yesterday.

 

[hell_fish_65]

I know I have not updated this in a very long time. Over the past few years I have poured the last ramp and got some old sears metal cabinets and a few tools. Over the past few months I hand dug a 200' trench and laid the conduit and cable for power. This past weekend I got the power hooked up and now have lights and working outlets for the first time ever. It took a while but its "done". Now I can stop sweating the small stuff and get to work in the shop on all the projects that are in there waiting fo me.

 

[larry_g]

Good things one doesn't just rush into. You give me hope that I can get going again.

lg
no neat sig line