Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Tom's Neighborhood Workshop

[wreckdiver1321]

Good morning GJ,

New member here from Montana. I may be getting a bit overzealous here, but as you'll find over the course of this thread, that's pretty much the norm for me. This thread will be a general log of projects, shop updates, home repair, car work, and plenty of BS.

My name is Tom, I'm 29, I've got two toddler-age boys, and an extremely understanding and supportive wife of five years. I'm an avid outdoorsman, tinkerer, and 4x4 enthusiast. My current project is a 2003 Toyota Land Cruiser that I rescued from a life of slightly rusty domesticity. I'm about six months into the process of cleaning it up and modifying it for long-distance off-grid travel. More on that later, I'm sure.

My other project is my daily driver, a 1998 Subaru Outback hippie wagon that has enough miles to have been to the moon, a leaky head gasket, and not a single straight panel. More on that later, I'm sure.

Anyway, to the crux of it all! My wife and I are closing on a new home on September 3rd. It's a nice upgrade for us, as our 765 sqft shed, I mean house, has become a little cramped with two adults, two toddlers, and a dog. A size increase to nearly 2,400 sqft plus some workspace is exciting, plus more yard for the kids, plus a great location in a nice neighborhood with a cute house. Our house hunt lasted entirely too long, thanks to shopping in the hottest real estate market in the country, and after eight (!) denied offers, we struck gold with this place. Built in 1961, the house has plenty of old school charm, with hardwood floors, some built-in storage, and lovely upstairs and downstairs living spaces. We've now got four bedrooms as well, so plenty of room for us, our kids, and guests. It needs some cosmetic attention, of course, but that's unsurprising in a house of this age. Mostly, it's some kitchen updates, paint throughout, and some new light fixtures. Crucially, our home inspection revealed no major issues and a surprisingly well cared-for home. The sellers agreed to all our closing stipulations and the bank waived the need for an appraisal, so all that's left is to move our **** in and start doing it up.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

But that's not the reason we're here. Okay, well, that's part of it, but the majority is the workspace!

The house itself boasts an attached, heated (but not insulated?), oversized 1-car garage. It's got some extra space for shelving and kid's bikes, and plenty of room for my wife's Subaru Crosstrek. More importantly, I have my own garage out back. I don't have the exact measurements on hand, but suffice it to say that it's an oversized two car with electric heat, insulation, and 240v already wired up. While I would have been content with a large single garage, this is just icing on the cake. Thanks to a garden shed, nothing but workshop things need to go in this space, so it's mine to do with as I please. I'm working on figuring out how things should look and be laid out. My goal for this space is not only a workshop, but a place to hang out and relax during/after projects, as well as a space to teach my kids things. I'd like it to not just be a basic garage with white walls, a simple slab concrete floor, and workbenches with tools strewn all over, but I want some style to it. I want it to be modern and neat while still being a useful place to get things done. I'm big on the "industrial" aesthetic, so much of that will spill over into this. Here's my thinking:

• Paint the walls and finish around the doors, floor, and windows with trim.
• Acid stain and seal or epoxy coat the floors.
• One or two walls should be made as accent walls. I'm thinking stained and sealed pallet wood or weathered corrugated metal.
• One corner of the shop will be a dedicated "relaxing" space. I'm thinking area rug and wall mounted TV. I plan on obtaining some car seats (front buckets and rear bench) from a junk yard and building some rectangular-tube framing to turn them into chairs. I'm also planning on a simple coffee table. An overhead pendant light would complete this nicely.
• Decor. I've got a few flags, a few posters, and a few old Toyota Land Cruiser advertisements that need a home.
• Wall and shelf-mounted horizontal lighting.
• Large workbench space. I have three Whalen industrial shelving racks from Costco, which are just about the beefiest shelving units money can buy. At 77x24x72, they're quite sizeable and able to hold 2,000lbs per shelf. I've long thought that repurposing one of these to accommodate a thick plywood worktop would allow for plenty of space, plus overhead storage and a place to mount overhead lighting. Attached to that will be the third shelving unit, actually being used for shelving. I think what I will do is cut up one of them as well to obtain a workspace with nothing overhead. This would be a good place to mount a bench vise. Two benches, arranged in an "L" shape, with my Craftsman triple-stack tool chest at a 45* angle between them, would allow for a large amount of flat worktop. Underneath, I can break down my two double-stack Waterloo tool chests and have tool storage below the benches. I'd lose the top lid space, but I can deal with that. I'd also have some shelving beneath the benches.
• Behind my Craftsman box can reside my air compressor. This way, I can use up some "dead space" and not have the compressor sitting out somewhere. With a bit of plumbing, I can either have and overhead hose reel or store it below one of the benches.
• A bench-top drill press (not yet purchased) will grace the covered workbench (or perhaps a wall-mounted station?), and a hydraulic press (not yet purchased) will be in one corner near the garage door.
• A spot for my bench grinder. I'm debating mounting it to a bench or having a wall-mounted station.
• Power tool storage/battery charging station.
• Wall-mounted jack stand holders.
• I'm also planning on picking up a welder, so a slot for a welding cart would be pretty nice.
• A hanging rack for my Yakima roof box.
• A shop clothes locker. I routinely change into grubby stuff for shop work, so having a space to hang it all out in the garage would be really nice.

I'm open to ideas or ways to make the space nicer, more productive, or better looking. I'm open to tool suggestions (especially drill press or welder) and I'm open to ideas on renovations. This will be a long-term journey to creating our own "perfect" place. I'm happy to have everyone here along for the ride!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Pictures are forthcoming! I'm at my work computer, and for some reason GJ doesn't like to upload them from here. I'll get that sorted and have them for you.

Because this thread is basically worthless without photographic evidence.

EDIT: Pictures added in posts 1 & 2

 

[wreckdiver1321]

In case anyone is curious, here is my project. I call her Sandy. She's a 2003 Toyota Land Cruiser with about 156k on the odo. I bought this back in December to replace my previous 4x4, a 2005 Nissan Frontier that had been on a multitude of trips in some amazing places. The Land Cruiser made a lot of sense as a starting platform, with plenty of payload for my family, great off-road chops, and unimpeachable reliability.

This one has some issues with rust, which we've been diligently taking care of. The entirety of the suspension has been replaced, we've fixed some corrosion on the frame and repainted everything underneath, now we're working on finishing the body work to prepare it for the paint shop. With the work that has been done, I'm betting I won't have any further issues with rust, as Montana is a dry state with no road salt. Here's some before, during, and after photos.

 

[pickles]

I love the Land Cruiser.

 

[captain14]

I’m in for the ride. We are all in for projects, cars,
Trucks, shop work etc.

There are some GJ that will willingly help spend your money. Especially things you never knew you needed or existed.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

I love the Land Cruiser.

Thanks, it's been a long and occasionally terrible road, but it's a cool rig that drives like new now. Just needs to be finished.

I’m in for the ride. We are all in for projects, cars,
Trucks, shop work etc.

There are some GJ that will willingly help spend your money. Especially things you never knew you needed or existed.

Awesome, glad to have you on board.

Ha! I don't have any problem spending money on shop junk, I mean equipment.

 

[ZRX61]

What paint did you use under it?

 

[wreckdiver1321]

What paint did you use under it?

It got three coats of Rust-Oleum Rust Reformer, then something like 5 or 6 coats of Ace Stops Rust paint. I'll likely add a layer of POR15 as well, if only to the rear of the frame. That's the most susceptible to corrosion and what's been hit the hardest. I think I'm going to plate the frame in the rear for reinforcement first though.

The frame also got four cans of Eastwood Internal Frame Coating on the inside to keep any latent inside out corrosion out of the picture.

 

[53PontiacSD]

Welcome to Garage Journal.

 

[qwerty18]

Awesome transformation on the 100. It boggles my mind how poorly Toyota (the worlds biggest automaker?) prepares their cars for harsh environments, especially the world traveling Land Cruiser and pickups (Tacomas)
What state did it come from?
And yes, keep all the pics coming.

 

[trojandj]

Subscribing, I like where this is going!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Welcome to Garage Journal.

Thank you!

Awesome transformation on the 100. It boggles my mind how poorly Toyota (the worlds biggest automaker?) prepares their cars for harsh environments, especially the world traveling Land Cruiser and pickups (Tacomas)
What state did it come from?
And yes, keep all the pics coming.

Thanks man, it's been a rough road. But I think the end result will be worth the trouble. I got it for a steal, especially considering the crazy market for these things right now. I've thought about selling it because I can definitely get my money back and then some, but then I'd have to try to find another one!

I agree, it seems after the 80 series that they dropped the ball. I've even looked at some 200 series trucks that have rust issues already. I don't know if it's their painting process or metallurgy or what, but for some reason they can't make a frame that holds together. It's sad considering their essentially unkillable drivetrains, especially on the Land Cruiser.

I bought this truck from a guy in Montana, about 15 miles away. He bought it used from the dealer here in Billings, so I have no idea why it's as corroded as it is. My assumption is that it lived in a salty state for a few years before he bought it. I'm taking some solace in the fact that the drivetrain is low mileage for a 100 series and is absolutely flawless. Once I finish the final bits of rust prevention on the frame, I have every confidence it will survive indefinitely here.

Subscribing, I like where this is going!

Glad to have you onboard! Can't wait to get rocking on the shop.

 

[BlakeTheCarGuy]

Awesome. Looks like fun. I’m subscribed.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Since people seem interested, a little more on the process of restoring Sandy the Land Cruiser.

Currently, the Cruiser is at my brother-in-law's shop for the repair work. He has a lift and a large contingent of tools and equipment to make this restoration happen. I'm very grateful to him, he's been great about allowing the lift space and the mess we made (and have since cleaned) of his shop.

We spent probably five or six 12-hour days just grinding with wire wheels and flap discs. Almost every inch of the frame was smacked with a hammer to knock the crummy old coating and rust scale off, as well as check for spots that were worn through. Two patch panels were necessary, and we did do some reinforcement on two other spots that didn't necessarily need it, but I wanted to be sure.



This was a fairly simple patch job.



This small frame hole necessitated some cutting and a new plate welded in. There wasn't any other frame damage where it was rusted through. There was a body mount that needed some reinforcement, but it hadn't caused a hole yet. We also reinforced the front sway bar bracket on the passenger side, as Toyota (in their infinite wisdom) opted to have the A/C drain drip directly on the frame rail.



Since the truck was on the lift, I took the opportunity to do a ton of preventative maintenance and replace anything that was suspect. Every fluid was drained, the front suspension was broken down and pulled apart, the front differential was removed and refurbished, and the rear suspension was pulled apart to install new trailing arms, springs, and shocks.







The front end received the royal treatment. I put in a set of lower control arms, brand new ball joints, new OEM Toyota CV shafts, Old Man Emu shocks, Old Man Emu torsion bars, a set of Ironman LCA reinforcement brackets, differential drop, new brakes, new ABS cables, new sway bar end links and bushings, and a wheel bearing repack. All the while, everything got scrubbed and painted to keep it fresh.





Next phase was the engine bay maintenance. New heater hoses and tees, new fuel filter, new serpentine belt, new radiator hoses, coolant with Water Wetter, and an oil change. I also filled the diffs and transfer case with Amsoil gear oil. The driveshafts also got cleaned and painted, and since the u-joints were almost new, they got new grease and were reinstalled.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

During this, I also started work on my first ever welding project, which was a replacement transmission crossmember that includes a set of skidplates for the transmission and transfer case. Luckily, a friend of mine works in a machine shop part time, so he was able to scavenge some 1/4" plate and machine the mounting point for me. Other than that, I have done all of the cutting, welding, and grinding on this project.






I need to finish up the "speed holes" in the plates and crossmember, but it's close to finished. I'm hoping once I get my shop set up, I can bring this home and go to town with a drill press to make it happen.

I got lucky and was able to source some fender sections from a guy over on the Toyota forums, so that helped get the front fender repairs taken care of. I still need to do a little sanding on the passenger side, then clean up the inside sections, but then I can probably pull the fenders and take them to a paint shop separately. That should save me some time and money while we keep working on the rest of the body repairs.




The rear end got similar treatment to the front. Adjustable upper trailing arms, heavy duty lower trailing arms, new sway bar hardware, shock, and springs. This was the biggest pain to clean and paint. I think next winter I may pull the rear end and do a complete refurb on it while it is out of the truck. Good time to throw in a traction aid too.



The most recent work involved another rust battle. Using a drain snake chucked in a drill with a length of chain attached to the end, I was able to "roto-rooter" the frame and break up a large amount of dirt and rust. Then some compressed air blew the dust out. That took a few hours. I then hosed the inside of the frame and crossmembers with Eastwood's Internal Frame Coating, which I found to be really impressive. I'll probably make one more pass with it, but I think I've fixed any inside-out rot issues.







Much better!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

I took a break from dealing with the corrosion to do something fun, so I finished installing the roof bars and got the awning mounted up. 270* of shade, baby!



Then it was back on the lift to sort out more corrosion, this time on the passenger's side pinch weld. I know the correct way to do this would be to peel away the outer skin from the rest of it and patch any damage, then weld it back together. Frankly, I don't think that's necessary here. Montana is quite dry, and we don't salt our roads. Further, this isn't going to be a daily driver and will be beat up a bit, so my thoughts are to just fix any holes with fill-welding, then rust encapsulate the whole of the pinch weld before moving on to primer and paint.

I am going to be using the Eastwood Internal Frame Coating inside the rocker panels, which aren't really corroded anyway, and I'll be pulling up the carpets inside to add some sound deadening, so I can address anything in the floor area if necessary, but it doesn't appear to have any corrosion other than what you see here and some around the rear wheels, which we are working to fix as well. As that is the case, I am going to fix the worst of the damage, rust encapsulate, prime, paint, and call it a day.

There's three spots like this on the passenger side, and a small one on the driver's side. I cleaned these pretty thoroughly, fill-welded, and then ground back. The stage I'm at currently does look better than this, but it's a process. Hopefully I can have this part taken care of before we need to get really working on the rear wheel arches. The great news is these rust spots are limited to the pinch weld only, they don't go past the 90* angle up into the rocker panel, so no worries about that rotting out in the future.





This particular spot is a lot closer to finished, but I need to go a little further with fill-welding before I can be happy with it. So far I've got two holes filled on the passenger side, just need to keep at it and get the rest taken care of. I believe I will reinforce the back side of this as well, as I have a plan for some rocker protection for this area.

Another fun project on this truck has been the auxiliary electrical system I built. This truck will have some auxiliary lighting, namely on the front and rear bumpers. The front lights will be slaved to the high beams with a master kill switch in the cab, so I can shut them down completely if I want. The rear lights will be slaved to the reverse lights permanently. I will also have a small inverter to charge my computer and camera batteries, as well as provisions for a 12v fridge in the back. Finally, I will have a 12v air compressor installed under the hood as well. To handle all of this, I built an auxiliary electrical system to be mounted inside the driver's side fender.

I used a piece of thin steel plate to make the mount, then arranged all of the components. The battery will feed a 100A circuit breaker, which supplies power to the Bussman fuse block. The fuse block has positive and negative internal buses, which feed power to a fuse bank and supply ground to the mini relays. I also have a Blue Sea ground bus bar to ground all of my accessories to.



I built jumper wires from the fuses, which feed power to the relays, as well as power and ground wires to feed into the cab. These wires will provide a convenient positive and negative to run my switches off of.



I ran a group of switch wires to run into the cab as well, and tied them into the same wire loom as the + and - wires for the cab. Now, I have the cab wires bundled in one loom with a single Metri-Pack connector. To feed the accessories, I built a number of labelled pigtails with two-pin Metri-Pack connectors. This supplies power and ground in one connection, so all I have to do to get the accessories working now is run two wires.





The end result is this, which I am pleased with. The separate relay is for the front bumper lights, which will require some "creative" relay wiring thanks to Toyota's negative high beam switching system. The mounting plate got painted with primer and satin black before I reassembled everything. Now I just wait to install it once the painting is complete.



I do also have the front and rear bumpers ready to install once the body and paint work are finished, as well as a few other bits. The fuel tank, which looks kinda scary, will be replaced with a 40-gallon version in the near future, so no concerns with that looking the way it does. Otherwise, there's not a lot to do from a mechanical standpoint.

So there we are. Now everyone at GJ is up to date with Sandy the Land Cruiser, which will be making repeated appearances in this thread. I hope the crazy amount of work going into this thing is enjoyable, as I've had a lot of satisfaction turning it around into a great adventure and exploration platform. If anybody has any suggestions on how to handle any of the issues that crop up, feel free to lend ideas. I'm new to rusty vehicles, so this is a new challenge for me, but I think I've got a decent handle on it thus far. We shall see.

Anyways, hopefully I can get the shop worked out reasonably quickly after we move in. I've got a vision in my head of what to do with it, just need to make it come to reality now.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Shop news:

I spent a good portion of yesterday researching floor options for my new garage, and I think I've settled on a path forward.

For the longest time, I had liked the idea of interlocking floor tiles in the garage. It seemed like an easy and fairly inexpensive way to go until I priced out enough to cover the new garage. Then I considered welding and grinding metal, and that sort of killed that idea. The other option I'd always liked was acid staining. My parents have a house in NW Montana, on an airfield. My dad is a private pilot and wanted to store his Beechcraft Bonanza at his house when he retired, so he build a hangar with a house attached. In the hangar/garage, he used a red/orange acid stain before sealing the floor. I liked this aesthetic more than the floor tiles, being more interested in that "industrial" look, and went digging a little further.

Eventually, I wandered into reading about Legacy Systems DeltaDye. I like that it's a water-based product that is less fussy than acid staining, and I like that you have a lot more control over the final outcome with it. It may not have the same depth and variation as acid stain, but I'm not really aiming for a wild color, so I like the overall ease coupled with the look of the results I've seen. Here's something similar to what I'd want:



Next up was deciding on a sealer, and for my use a single-part polyurea seems like the way to go. Both the Legacy Nohr-S and Garage Flooring LLC AWF are well-liked, and for the price and install ease, I think the AWF is my path forward, with some anti-skid texture added. For the size of the garage, that puts the cost of the floor at around $750, which I think is great.

I should be able to pick this up after closing and have the flooring finished before I need to move anything into it, so such the better. Next I have to decide if the walls need to be painted too. White is utilitarian, but perhaps a dash of neutral color would be better. Decisions, decisions...

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Okay, I think I know what to do on the walls now. I'm thinking of going with a light gray paint and stained wood trim. The trim should be fairly easy and relatively inexpensive now that lumber prices are returning to normal. This leads me to my next decision...

The walls surrounding the hangout area will be paneled somehow. Pallet wood or corrugated metal? The metal would make hanging stuff a pain in the ******. And more expensive by a long way. But the wood walls would be a lot more work.

Two more weeks!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Our final walkthrough is this week, and I have ordered AWF Polyurea sealer as well as the DeltaDye in two colors. Should be a pretty straightforward install, I'm excited to get things happening!

We're signing all the closing paperwork on Friday around lunchtime, so good to go there. I got lucky and was able to borrow a 24 foot enclosed car trailer and a 15 foot flatbed trailer for the move. We've also got a couple pickup beds and we're only moving 20 miles away, so I'm confident we'd be able to make it happen in one run. With any luck, we can have the trailers dragged over by the time I'm off work on Friday. Woohoo!

 

[Swanny1953]

Nice progression on Sandy! Subscribed for the garage ride.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Nice progression on Sandy! Subscribed for the garage ride.

Thanks Swanny, things should be moving along soon. Final walkthrough is in about an hour and we close in 25 hours. But who's counting?

 

[ZRX61]

On the Toyota paint/corrosion subject: I'd use bed liner on the sills & carry it forward along that lower body line on the fender. Sorted

 

[wreckdiver1321]

On the Toyota paint/corrosion subject: I'd use bed liner on the sills & carry it forward along that lower body line on the fender. Sorted

I've seen that plenty of times, I'm just not a fan of the look personally. I'm doing mud flaps, and Montana is a dry state, so I don't think it will be an issue once we fix it.

In other news, WE CLOSED! So the house is our problem now.

This evening will be all about getting the essentials moved to the new house. My hope is to be totally out of the old house by tomorrow. Then begins the fun process of sorting all our stuff and finding a home for everything. Good news is we'll be moving over Labor Day weekend, so we'll have some extra time.

Bad news - I just realized yesterday during the final walkthrough that the shop has OSB walls and ceilings. That kind of *****, but I've decided the two most visible walls will be paneled over with pallet wood/distressed wood. That leaves two walls of textured OSB. One will be mostly covered in shelving and other storage, and the other is where the garage door is. I'm thinking a few thick layers of primer followed by thick layers of paint (all oil-based) will smooth the walls out enough for me.

But, that brings me to another problem. There's no trim around the floor, and the sheets don't go all the way to said floor, so there is an edge of the OSB that is exposed. To prevent swelling, I want to keep water away from it. But to etch and stain the floors properly, I need to have a lot of water on the floor, and I am concerned about it splashing up onto the OSB. So, should I:

1. Install trim to protect the exposed edge of the OSB before the floor stain goes in
2. Do some tape work to the exposed edges to try to seal it
3. Paint the walls first and make sure to apply a heavy layer of primer along the exposed edges as a sealant
4. Some combination of 1, 2, and 3

 

[Augus7us]

If there is one thing we here on the garage journal all agree on, it is that we will generously donate our time to help you spend your money on things you did not know you needed for your shop.

On a side note, I think delta dye is what I tried. It was a legacy product. The stuff was trash. I ground the **** out of my concrete and put it down in a smaller area and I could wipe it all away with my fingers. It would wash away if you tried to top coat it. Garbage, and I made a post about it on here a while back.

I ended up using some concrete dye from a local place and top coated with with D5 I think? D something. Turned out nice and more durable than I thought. I'll see if I have some photos, short on time at the moment.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Alright folks, update time!

A few days before our closing, I did pick up a new project. A quick one, I'll admit, but something fun for me to do with my 3yo on something he loves.

My wife was driving by a garage sale and noticed this little red Radio Flyer. I had one of these growing up, and I'm pretty sure it's the law that you're required to have one if you're an American. So, $15 later and we have ourselves the requisite red wagon. It's old, I'm guessing 70's or maybe 80's based on the decals, but it's solid. I plan to take it apart this winter and refurbish it.



My kids already think it's just about the best thing ever.



The rest of the week involved a lot of packing. Luckily, my best friend's dad was able to lend us a 24 ft enclosed trailer for moving, so we were able to get most of our stuff packed in one unit.





However, it did fill faster than anticipated.



We also had a small flat bed trailer for hauling some other stuff, and a borrowed old F150, which incredibly handled the entire contents of my shop. Minus the shelving units.



Then, it was on to the new house! We unloaded mostly in the dark and then the following morning, so we never got too hot or anything. Just kept busy moving mountains of boxes and various bric-a-brac. The house wasn't as clean as we would have liked, but we did a little here and there as we went. Pizza and beer was provided to my volunteer movers, who were superstars.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

During one of my breaks, I took a long look at the shop. I discovered the actual dimensions, and now know I have a 23x23, or 529 sqft, so my guesstimate of 500 was pretty close. I started to envision a few things in place and some finishing work. As you can see, whoever painted this building wasn't great at painting. Easy fix, but another thing on the list.



I had some oil stains to deal with, and approximately a billion staples in the wall. I also had a few random screws to take out. You can see the back wall appears to be made of scrap pieces of OSB that were somewhat poorly fitted, so I'm even more confident this wall needs to be paneled with pallet wood. The other walls look okay though. I may be able to get a few thick layers of primer and paint to smooth out the OSB texture, though much of the north wall (on the left) will be covered by workshop misc. The great news is that the lighting is excellent, almost too bright.



I also discovered that a full-size truck will barely fit between the tree and the shop building. This is super convenient for unloading all kinds of things. I can see using this for lumber and whatnot all the time.



After looking at the shop, I peeked into the shed and could not believe what I found.





Yep, all of this is now mine. Three mowers (a Craftsman, a Husqvarna, and a Toro) will add to my Honda, and two gas-powered weed whackers round out my now-quadrupled lawn tool arsenal. There's also a tiller, a hedge trimmer, a leaf blower, two sawhorses, a couple of nice ladders, endless gas cans, oil, fertilizer, lawn seed, and a massive pile of hand garden tools. What a treasure trove!

Some liquidation will occur, I'll probably sell at least two of the mowers, one of the weed whackers, and who knows what else. I'm planning on waiting until spring and making sure everything works as it should. Nice little bonus there.

Back inside, the kids are already enjoying the basement.



They also discovered that the back door has a dog door, which they've decided is the best method of coming and going.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Later in the weekend, we made a few moves to get the new place livable and get the house updated a bit. I have a friend who works in a furniture store, and he was able to get us a great deal on some updated bedroom and living room furniture. So thanks to the snarled up supply chains, we should see those in four to sixteen weeks!

We then stopped by Lowe's and At Home, where we picked up some rugs and a few other things the house needed.



We were able to get the living room more laid out and give us a bigger space to relax. Thankfully, the sellers left their TV mount behind, so we were able to get ours up on the wall easily. This room needs some updating, and we have plans in the works to make the fireplace more of a feature. The whole house also needs paint, but we needed someplace livable for now. We're looking at painting the walls very soon.



I also took the time to get some outdoor living space set up. Some Harbor Freight string lights and a few outdoor rugs got us set up for the remainder of patio season.



We also were itching to make our mark, so the first victim was this awful light fixture. It's offset thanks to the chain hook, it's old, outdated, and the bulbs don't match. When we stopped at Lowe's, we found a killer deal on a much better fixture. A few minutes with a screwdriver and some wiring tools brought us more light and some modernity.





Much better. Except now the need to paint is even more glaring.

We also got a chance to meet our new neighbors. The people across the street have kids the same ages as ours, and they're super nice. I see playdates and co-op date nights in our future. To the north, we have a very polite neighbor who lives with his wife. He's a bit of a chatter, but plenty polite. To the south lives a retired couple who have already helped us with a few things. Our back yards share a chain link fence, so we've gotten to talk many times. Our dogs are friends. Great thing is he is a hobbyist woodworker, and I'm sure he has the entire DeWalt catalog in his garage. He's always out working on something. I'm very glad we ended up where we did, it seems like a great group of people that live around us.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

The project this week had been getting the workshop floor ready for stain and sealer.

Step one was sweeping the shop with a broom, doing my best to sweep everything as best I could. Then I moved on to compressed air, which allowed me to get stuff out from underneath the walls and get the expansion joints cleaned out. With that done, I hosed off the floor and used a squeegee to push all the extra water out. Luckily, none of the water pools near the walls.



Once the shop had dried out, I brought out some naptha to address the oil stains. Using a stiff brush, I was able to get most of the worst oil stains scrubbed and dulled. Then I hosed everything out again. When that dried, it was time to etch. I had two options: the Ghost Shield Eco-Etch I was waiting on from Garage Floors LLC, or use the Concrete Prep I got from Lowe's. I started with the Lowe's product, believing I could probably get the floor prepped with that and not need to use the Eco-Etch. I was incorrect, as it turns out.

The Concrete Prep instructed a 5 to 1 mix, then apply using a garden watering can. Unfortunately, this burned through product a lot faster than I anticipated, so I ended up running out with only 3/8 the floor covered. I had enough time to rinse the shop out before heading to bed that night. The good news is, that product worked really well. It roughed up the floor nicely and even took care of some of the lighter stains.

The following day, my Eco-Etch arrived, so I applied that to the remainder of the floor with a weed sprayer I picked up at Lowe's. That... didn't work. At all. Maybe it did something, but the effect wasn't near what I got from the Lowe's Concrete Prep. Luckily, I had another gallon of the Concrete Prep in reserve, so I applied that the following day and got the result I was looking for. Just look at the crazy color variation I got with nothing more than etching! Stain should bring this out really nicely. Also, you can probably see the line where I ran out of the original etch, about a foot before the expansion joint. I was annoyed, but now I think it will just be extra character.



The stain, Legacy Delta Dye, goes down tonight. I'm hoping that my experience is different from @Augus7us, but we'll see. Hopefully all goes well tonight and I can get started on the polyurea tomorrow.

Also, I finally did some shop work at the new house! My friend who helped me move bought a bumper kit for his work truck, built it, and had it powdercoated, so it was time to install it. Turned out to be an easy job. The hardest part was wiring in the blinkers.





He's waiting on a replacement grille, which will finish off the truck. The front bumper "hid the ugly", as he says.

Meanwhile, I am attempting to decide on how the shop should be organized and arranged. I had a lot of inspiration recently from @Pbindesign and @Jack Olsen, so I'm planning on taking some elements from their builds. Namely, I love the cabinetry they have. It makes far more sense to me for my uses than open shelving, and looks a lot nicer. I just have to determine how I'm going to lay everything out. I think I'll be just copying Paul's color scheme to a certain extent (sorry Paul!), and some of his design choices, while I'll also be borrowing from Jack's build.

My goal is not only to have usable shop, but also a nice space to spend time in and use for relaxing. Not the easiest brief in 529 square feet, but I think it can be done!

Now, back to work...

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Okay, time for good news/bad news. Good news: I got the shop floor prepped and a bunch of small projects completed this weekend.

The PO of our house had removed a set of electric baseboard heaters in the basement, which were the only source of heat. As a condition of the loan closing, we required them to put in a heat register in that room, which shares a wall with the furnace, so who knows why it wasn't like that to begin with. Anyway, they left behind two small holes in the wall with wires sticking out. Awesome.

I capped all of the wires, pushed them back into the wall, and put switch blanking plates over the holes to clean it up. I also removed now-defunct thermostat and put a blanking plate over that as well. No more scary wires threatening my kids!

Next up was prepping the utility/storage room for becoming my gym. I wanted a space to be able to set up my weights and get a squat rack, and this otherwise ugly room kind of fits the bill perfectly. I cleaned it out completely first.



Side note: those cabinets you see are absolutely enormous. There's six of them in this room, and they measure 36W x 84T x 24D, so they provide a monumental amount of storage space.

So I removed a shelf and a few storage bins, then set about getting the gym space ready. For flooring, I dropped down two 4x6 horse stall mats I got from the local ranch supply. They're very thick and durable, and cost about half what gym mats would, so I'm happy. I then set out my meager amount of equipment and ordered a couple of lower-profile light fixtures to replace the aging ones in there. I'm debating painting and trimming out this room before I get the squat rack put in. I'm not aiming for beautiful, but I'd just like to make it a bit more modern and clean.



Moving along, I got the floor in the shop prepped and laid down the first layer of stain on Friday evening.



Now for the bad news: The stain did not go well. Obviously, there are a few oil stains left behind, but they absorbed water and the etch seemed to do it's job. I laid down the first color of DeltaDye, called Tobacco Road, and it was a bit more brown than I was expecting. I think I laid it on too thick, because I ended up running out before fully coating the floor. A little water wetted and diluted the mix enough to get it completely spread out, but it was still fairly obvious.



You can see several light spots in the middle of the floor, and those actually don't bother me much. Those are obviously old oil stains, but they added a bunch of contrast. They took stain, just not as much, and made for a really cool effect. Had I been able to coat the whole floor, I probably would have felt better about the whole thing.

But then came the second color, Gray. In hindsight, I would have just gone all gray and diluted the stain so as to get a darker concrete look with a lot of contrast, or if I wanted the color variation, I should have laid down the gray first. But here we are. The gray darkened the already-stained areas significantly, and in some spots the stain did not take at all, to the point where the natural concrete color was showing through. I was dismayed, to say the least.



As I said, the color variation you see here doesn't actually bother me. I kind of like it, if it weren't as pronounced. What I dislike is the darkness of some areas, the overall color effect I got, and the complete lack of dye in some spots.

This is on me. I should have done a test spot to check the effect of the dye and see how it would look. In my exuberance, I jumped the gun.

With this in mind, I have to decide on a way forward. What I really want is to strip the color and re-stain in a muted gray, then apply polyurea. But I understand that may not be a realistic option unfortunately, so I think plan B would be to roll out Legacy's HellFire coating to cover it up after grinding. The good news is it's not sealed at all, so if there's a possibility to remove the color, I don't have to strip the coating off.

@LegacyIndustrial do you have any good suggestions for what to do next? Is there a good way to remove the color, at least a little? I know that there's a good chance I won't be able to remove it completely, but I'm hoping that since DeltaDye is water-based, I might be in luck. If that's not the case, I can scrap the hopes of a re-dye job and just coat the floor.

Anybody have some good suggestions? Or even bad ones?

Onward!

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Great work! I'll be following along closely. Thank you, also, for your support in my own build thread.

My suggestion, in all honesty, is to rent a concrete grinder with a diamond wheel from your local Home Depot tool rental, wear a silica dust respirator, and grind those stains out to a fresh surface. That may be the only way to get them clean. I'm guessing that concrete prep you used is just dolled-up muriatic acid? If the acid etch didn't work, grinding may be your only option.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Great work! I'll be following along closely. Thank you, also, for your support in my own build thread.

My suggestion, in all honesty, is to rent a concrete grinder with a diamond wheel from your local Home Depot tool rental, wear a silica dust respirator, and grind those stains out to a fresh surface. That may be the only way to get them clean. I'm guessing that concrete prep you used is just dolled-up muriatic acid? If the acid etch didn't work, grinding may be your only option.

Thanks for stopping by QLC!

I don't disagree honestly, that may be the direction this goes. I'll try a few other things first and see how it works, but I feel there's a good chance concrete grinding is in my future.

I'd be willing to bet you're right on the concrete prep, it was inexpensive and did work, though probably not as well as it could have. I probably should have done a second round of etching to make sure. I'm not 100% certain of what my direction will be once I have the stains sorted out. Maybe I'll do another stain, maybe it'll be HellFire. We'll see what happens.

In the meantime I can probably start working on making my cabinets.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

A small tidbit of shop news today.

Last night, my friend and I got the last remnants of my junk moved out of our old house and did the final clean. The last remnants consisted of a washer and dryer that need to be sold as the new house came with a newish set. We arrived on scene and I realized I completely forgot to bring a set of Channel Locks to get the water hoses off the spigots.

Damn, now I had to go to Ace Hardware. Shucks. I hate that, I really do. I swear.

I am now the proud owner of two sets of Milwaukee channel locks. Why two, you ask? Well, for $5 more I could get a set of two different sizes rather than one. I'm never saying no to that. I also managed to get an attachment to my Kreg jig stuck to me on the way out. I dunno how that happened. Like I said, I hate going to the hardware store. Really. I do.

Anyway, we got the washer and dryer pulled out of the house and into the garage. The buyer is my friend's dad, so he's cool with us storing them in the garage until they get sold.

With that out of the way, I had one more chore while I was still in possession of the hooptie old F150 we borrowed for moving. We needed to collect a large number of pallets to panel the back wall of the shop, as well as a few other projects I had in mind. The Walmart close to my old house has no problem with me grabbing a few, and they always have a ton of good ones. We stopped there first and got a few thrown in the truck. My friend's dad (the same one) said I could take any I wanted from his work yard, so we stopped by there too and basically overloaded the truck with probably 20. After copious ratchet-strapping, we drove home and unloaded next to the shop. After this load, I have probably 35 pallets I need to break down and prep for paneling.

Great thing is I barely paid for any of them. An Ace Hardware near my new house will let you take as many as you want for $2/pallet, so I did buy a few, but my total investment in this large amount of lumber thus far is... $6. Real wallet stretcher there.

My plan for the shop wall involves wall to wall paneling using the pallet wood. I do have the standard ones, as well as some red and blue ones. I'm going to whitewash a few and stain the rest, then seal everything. That way I'll have a weathered wood wall with a bit of an American flag theme tossed in for fun. I'm hoping I have enough material. If not, I can always collect more pallets or buy some lumber if necessary.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Update: I spoke with Scotty @LegacyIndustrial yesterday, and he advised me to just grind the damn floor to fix the stain problem, so I'm going to grind the damn floor. I still have the polyurea sealer, so I can re-stain at that point or I can consider other options and return the poly. Thoughts?

I also did a bit of measuring and mapped out my cabinet/bench situation. Fantastically, I can manage to get 208" of 24"x24" cabinets along the ceiling above my workbench, then a giant floor cabinet measuring 48"x72"x24". That's a lot of storage.

I may end up with some shelving or more cabinets on the opposite side of the shop, but I'm not sure how it will shake out. I may need a place to store my outdoor gear or the like.

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Update: I spoke with Scotty @LegacyIndustrial yesterday, and he advised me to just grind the damn floor to fix the stain problem, so I'm going to grind the damn floor. I still have the polyurea sealer, so I can re-stain at that point or I can consider other options and return the poly. Thoughts?

I also did a bit of measuring and mapped out my cabinet/bench situation. Fantastically, I can manage to get 208" of 24"x24" cabinets along the ceiling above my workbench, then a giant floor cabinet measuring 48"x72"x24". That's a lot of storage.

I may end up with some shelving or more cabinets on the opposite side of the shop, but I'm not sure how it will shake out. I may need a place to store my outdoor gear or the like.

Get grinding! I farmed out the epoxy work in my garage to a local, veteran-owned business because I couldn't beat the cost, speed and quality of their results. I was all in at around $1500 for the whole job. I don't know your finances, but that was reasonable for me at the time after I figured in the cost of the grinder rental, plus tools and materials to TRY and attempt it myself. The dust was a NIGHTMARE, even with all of their OSHA approved silica dust collection equipment, but you can see the results in my build thread. Worth every last penny and then some. I hope it all works out for you!

An easier and cheaper route might be to rent the grinder, grind it yourself, then apply a high quality concrete sealer like Eagle Gloss Coat. A 5 gallon pail is around $100 at Home Depot, and the results are really pretty beautiful when applied correctly. That was my "Plan B" if I couldn't make the epoxy happen. Look up a few Eagle Gloss Coat videos on youtube and see what you think!

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

Greetings, sound like your on the right course with the grinding. It will never be easier to do this concrete work once you fill up the shop. You would have to find a place for everything while you do this work. Its going to look great when your done.

 

[ddawg16]

Welcome to GJ.

Keep an eye out for someone getting rid of their old kitchen cabinets......they work great in the garage.

Personally, I'd just worry about the house first...get the outside stuff done before winter sets and and get a feel for what really needs to be done.

You have a nice layout....with the shop in the back, it means you can work on stuff and the kids around playing and no one can see you ****.

It's one of the reasons we bought our house with a detached garage in the back.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Get grinding! I farmed out the epoxy work in my garage to a local, veteran-owned business because I couldn't beat the cost, speed and quality of their results. I was all in at around $1500 for the whole job. I don't know your finances, but that was reasonable for me at the time after I figured in the cost of the grinder rental, plus tools and materials to TRY and attempt it myself. The dust was a NIGHTMARE, even with all of their OSHA approved silica dust collection equipment, but you can see the results in my build thread. Worth every last penny and then some. I hope it all works out for you!

An easier and cheaper route might be to rent the grinder, grind it yourself, then apply a high quality concrete sealer like Eagle Gloss Coat. A 5 gallon pail is around $100 at Home Depot, and the results are really pretty beautiful when applied correctly. That was my "Plan B" if I couldn't make the epoxy happen. Look up a few Eagle Gloss Coat videos on youtube and see what you think!

If I had the budget for it, I'd definitely go this way, at least to have the floor ground. $1500 for the whole shebang is honestly pretty great. I'd have somebody else do it, but it's not that big a space and the rentals are cheap. I can fix my mistake for minimal outlay at this point, so that's what I'll do.

My real desire is to have the look of a polished, medium-to-dark gray concrete floor. Think industrial spaces, or what you see in big-box stores. Home Depot, Costco, Wal-Mart, etc. I want a shiny floor that is obviously concrete, just dark concrete. To that end, I do have some AWF polyurea (thanks to @Shea for the reviews and recommendation) to use as a sealer once this whole debacle is finished. I did play with the idea of using Legacy HellFire for a while, but I want something less uniform in color.

Besides, the look I'm going for is more "industrial". For some reason the epoxy floors strike me as a little too "classy" for what I'm aiming at. That might be totally full of ****, but I am who I am.

Greetings, sound like your on the right course with the grinding. It will never be easier to do this concrete work once you fill up the shop. You would have to find a place for everything while you do this work. Its going to look great when your done.

Thanks Hop Yard! Yeah, I know if I don't do it now, it won't happen at all. My wife has been super supportive of this whole endeavor too, telling me to just start over and do it differently this time so I get exactly what I want. I've never had the luxury of making my own space from scratch like this before, so we're really focusing on getting me exactly the right aesthetic. This isn't just a workshop, it's also going to have a sitting/TV area too, so I want it to be a nice space.

Welcome to GJ.

Keep an eye out for someone getting rid of their old kitchen cabinets......they work great in the garage.

Personally, I'd just worry about the house first...get the outside stuff done before winter sets and and get a feel for what really needs to be done.

You have a nice layout....with the shop in the back, it means you can work on stuff and the kids around playing and no one can see you ****.

It's one of the reasons we bought our house with a detached garage in the back.

Thanks ddawg!

I've considered the kitchen cabinet idea, but I'm not sure it would achieve the look I'm aiming at. Besides, I like the idea of building them myself and adding to my skillset. That way I can make the cabinets exactly what I want and the space will look however I want it to.

Thanks man! We like the way everything is laid out. I'd be able to have the kids out playing and keep an eye on them, and I'd also be able to work in the shop into the evening without worrying about keeping anyone up.

* * *

I've been reading up more on floor coatings, trying to figure out just what the hell I want to do. As I said above, my end goal is something more industrial. I'd love something approaching this:



I think in order to reach this type of result, I'd be looking at a gray stain to darken the floor a bit, then the polyurea to seal and shine. I'm not certain yet though. I've not yet found a picture of a product that illustrates exactly what I'm looking for.

 

[ddawg16]

If I had the budget for it, I'd definitely go this way, at least to have the floor ground. $1500 for the whole shebang is honestly pretty great. I'd have somebody else do it, but it's not that big a space and the rentals are cheap. I can fix my mistake for minimal outlay at this point, so that's what I'll do.

My real desire is to have the look of a polished, medium-to-dark gray concrete floor. Think industrial spaces, or what you see in big-box stores. Home Depot, Costco, Wal-Mart, etc. I want a shiny floor that is obviously concrete, just dark concrete. To that end, I do have some AWF polyurea (thanks to @Shea for the reviews and recommendation) to use as a sealer once this whole debacle is finished. I did play with the idea of using Legacy HellFire for a while, but I want something less uniform in color.

Besides, the look I'm going for is more "industrial". For some reason the epoxy floors strike me as a little too "classy" for what I'm aiming at. That might be totally full of ****, but I am who I am.



Thanks Hop Yard! Yeah, I know if I don't do it now, it won't happen at all. My wife has been super supportive of this whole endeavor too, telling me to just start over and do it differently this time so I get exactly what I want. I've never had the luxury of making my own space from scratch like this before, so we're really focusing on getting me exactly the right aesthetic. This isn't just a workshop, it's also going to have a sitting/TV area too, so I want it to be a nice space.



Thanks ddawg!

I've considered the kitchen cabinet idea, but I'm not sure it would achieve the look I'm aiming at. Besides, I like the idea of building them myself and adding to my skillset. That way I can make the cabinets exactly what I want and the space will look however I want it to.

Thanks man! We like the way everything is laid out. I'd be able to have the kids out playing and keep an eye on them, and I'd also be able to work in the shop into the evening without worrying about keeping anyone up.

* * *

I've been reading up more on floor coatings, trying to figure out just what the hell I want to do. As I said above, my end goal is something more industrial. I'd love something approaching this:



I think in order to reach this type of result, I'd be looking at a gray stain to darken the floor a bit, then the polyurea to seal and shine. I'm not certain yet though. I've not yet found a picture of a product that illustrates exactly what I'm looking for.

The floor coating is what led me to GJ. After reading a **** ton of threads on it...I tossed down to coats of concrete sealer and called it a day for now.

I made my own cabinets....but used discarded cabinet doors.
This is my thread on the garage build......
Cabinets are towards the end.

DDawg16's Garage Build in One Post

I started my garage build back in October of 2008......I had many posts documenting it's progress....then I got asked today where my link was to my garage build (and jeep build...another story). Makes sense....so I've pooled all the picks and put them in chronalogical order.... First...a...

www.garagejournal.com

 

[Krfjkm]

I did the Delta Dye and it worked great. I’m real happy with it!