Tuner4life's Mixed Imports Garage

[tuner4life]

Call it a build thread if you want to. This will document everything I do with my home garage from now hopefully through completion.

Lets get started.

My garage is a 30' deep x 24' wide x10' tall attached. It has a 15x6 room attached to the back with a very narrow roll up door at one end. (think motorcycle storage)

There are also 2 sheds in the backyard which will also be documented in this remodel. 1 will probably be used as a woodshop of sorts since I wont have room for construction type tools (table saw, etc..) in the garage. And the other is car parts and other stuff storage. I will need to run power to both sheds and compressed air to 1. I do not currently have pictures of them because it is dark... at 5pm... Thank you Mitch Daniels.

Anyways, back to the garage. I have some posters, fenders and whatnot hanging on the walls from when we first moved in a couple years ago. I am finally getting a chance to start on the remodel. The end goal is to make it as usable as possible while still having space to move around. It doubles as a kind of hang out for several friends and the SWMBO, so that will be kept in mind as well. The couch and recliner you see will stay and hopefully I can make a small lounge in one corner... well see...

Progress will be slow, but I want to make sure that everything is done correctly. I plan on making all the benches and worksurfaces myself so there will definitely be a learning curve. I can get around cars pretty well, but construction/remodel work is a new thing for me. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stupid questions.

These are just initial pictures and will be updated as progress is made. Daylight pics will happen when I get a chance.

I apologize in advance for crappy photography.

Here is a rough sketch of the layout:

Outside from the driveway:

The first order of business will be to clean up the mess and see what I have to work with.

As you can see the drywall is completely crappy. I plan on taking it all out and using OSB. Not to start any fights. But I am totally ok with the look in order to not have the wall fall apart anytime you bump something into it. Plus I like being able to hang stuff wherever I want.

Looking in: The north wall

Down the middle:

South wall (house wall): The closest door (with window) goes to the house, and the other (solid) door goes into the back yard.

Standing in the house looking out into the garage:

And... Looking the other way at the SE corner: The grey box on the wall behind the Bugatti Veyron poster covers a powerful exhaust fan (The PO painted cars in there)

In the NE corner is the door to the 15x6 backroom of the garage: The old Sears furnace from the house is back there waiting to turn the garage into an oven in minutes (yes it's OMG hot), also my not-quite-big-enough air compressor. I'm thinking of maybe doing a hidden door here behind a bookshelf or something... We'll see...

Yes, I know, I need a bigger compressor...

In the backroom:

Looking out from the backroom:

The PO put up cheap particleboard for wall covering in the backroom. The first project here will be to get rid of all of that and use OSB. There was at one point a roof leak on the back wall (now fixed). The particleboard worked like a sponge and is now ruined.


I have a sketch of what I want when it's all said and done. I'll have it posted as soon as I can get access to the scanner... Until then, discuss, advise, give opinions, etc...

 

[Zedyakuza]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Looks like you have enough room for a lift. And your missing a fridge for the garage. What color you painting it?

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

I would love a Maxjack in there!! A minifridge is already in the works I will probably do 2 tone Grey with a red belt-line stripe. Most of the boxes and large tools are red, so I figure I'll make that the basic color scheme.

 

[Zedyakuza]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Your not allowed to do the two tone gray and red stripe. I already have the paint to do mine, and we can't color match our garages unless we never want to hear the end of it from our wives.. And just pick up a full size fridge off craigslist! Be cheaper in the long run

 

[JimVonBaden]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Looks like a great basis for a nice garage!

Jim

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Alright, the first order of business will be the backroom. The particleboard wall coverings were badly damaged from previous water leakage. There is a new roof and gutter on the backroom now so the leaks are fixed, nut the damage remains. I ripped all of the walls out.

I started pulling down the insulation and what do I see... Siding... Yup, there is NO osb between the studs and the siding. Upon further inspection the idiots that built it used the same particleboard/pressboard **** on the outer wall and it was just eaten away that bad by the water.

The water damage at the ceiling:

While I'm in there I'm going to get the 220 service set up as well as running lines for my air compressor inside the walls.

I am going to be taking the siding off of the rear wall, fixing/replacing bad studs, putting up OSB, and redoing prettymuch everything in the process. I also need to have a peek underneath the siding in a few other parts of the garage to make sure they didn't use the same **** for wall covering anywhere else.

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

I finished pulling all the insulation down and the damaged pieces of splinter board on the inside of the wall. There is significant damage to the framing and the wood under the shingles as well. I will likely have to remove the roof in this section and replace it. It has a rubber roof on it now, and hopefully I will be able to reuse that.

Here you can see the damage to the roof and the severe rot on the framing:

and the damage to the studs: this one wasn't even attached at the top anymore.

 

[novaboy009]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

That looks pretty bad.... but anything can be saved with a little time and effort!

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Still working on the backroom.. Finally, now that winter is over.

P.S.: Rough sketch of floorplan added to first post.

 

[Riley]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Can you expand the back room any deeper? With what you've run into already, it wouldn't be much more work and it could greatly enhance your storage for house, garden and infrequently used garage stuff.

You might consider a double door, or a sliders to the garage to ease rolling bigger things like the hoist through.

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Can you expand the back room any deeper? With what you've run into already, it wouldn't be much more work and it could greatly enhance your storage for house, garden and infrequently used garage stuff.

You might consider a double door, or a sliders to the garage to ease rolling bigger things like the hoist through.

Hmmm, this is not a bad idea actually.. I hadn't thought about expanding the room.. I would have to pour concrete in order to expand, but it is potentially doable. I'll have to look into this. Thanks.

 

[nmtt92]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

tuner4life's (not yet named) garage -- "Saab Base" ?

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Alright, Back to work on the garage. This summer has been way to hectic to do much of anything.

There has been a change of plans for the layout. Since I don't have sufficient winter storage and I am trusting people less and less, I want to get as many vehicles inside as possible. The new plan is to get my Lexus SC300 in the back of the garage sideways almost up against the back wall (It will fit with enough room to work around it), and under a cover. I need to forget that I own that car until I finish a couple other projects.

This means that I needed to clean everything up and try to use space as effectively as possible. The first thing I did was replace one 8' long x4' high Gorilla Rack setup with one 4' wide x 12' tall setup bolted to the wall. I took one of the fluorescent lights from the ceiling that used to be right above this and put it in the rack above the workspace. Shown here:

The center section is actually going to be a workbench area and hold all my electrical work tools (Multimeter, soldiering stuff, etc...). More Pics of that project some other day. The trunk of the Lexus will fit snugly between that rack and the back wall. To give an idea of direction.

On the opposite wall towards the front of the garage (Roll up door end), I am going to be using 12' of this kind of setup:

As seen in this thread:
http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=160166&highlight=tuner4life

This will hold some of the basic garage necessities with long handles (snow shovel, floor magnet, brooms, a rake, etc..) I found the Setup at Menards and there are lots of different attachments to hold stuff. I'll be picking up a couple here and there over time as I need them so I will keep that updated as well.

Moving further back on that same wall there is my Craftsman tool box which is needing some repair from being overloaded for too long and not having bearing slides.. That will be a project all on it's own, but for now I am trying to empty if out some as well as make the tools more accessible. Next to the tool box is a 8' wide x 4' tall gorilla rack, I found a decent looking laminate counter top at a yard sale for $10 so that is bolted to the top of the gorilla racks and bolted to the wall. Above that is my "free to me" alternative to pegboard. It is an old metal wire display rack that a local store was throwing away. I snatched it up, cut it into panels, painted the wall behind it black, and am using it to hang tools from. I still need to buy some more hooks for sockets but it is working very well so far.

Here is the thread for that project:
http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=161939&highlight=tuner4life

Pics of bench and tool rack (I know, it's a mess right now):

In the future I will probably pick up a couple of shelves to put above that workbench or something.

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

I was running out of things I could do inside the garage before I finished up some storage space.

I have 2 sheds. 1 is for house stuff, and 1 is for car stuff. I organized the car shed last week. I didn't take any before pictures, but imagine this space stuffed to the brim with enough parts to probably make a vehicle. I scrapped a lot of stuff that I don't need and kept harder to find stuff for the cars I currently own. This took an entire day.

Like I said, no "before pictures"


Mostly cleared out:

And organized!! (If anyone wants grey cloth middle row seat from a 2000 Nissan Quest contact me, lol)

Yes, I love gorilla racks! Lots of random stuff from the garage is out here now too including a complete 1991 Saab 9000 Turbo drivetrain hiding behind the hood.

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Now I pretty much have to complete the backroom project before I can do anything else because everything that goes back there is in the way inside the garage now. So last night I removed all the siding and ripped down all the particleboard "sheathing" This is how it currently sits:

I am going to be replacing a large portion of the header and bracing up the rest making it (3) 2x4s thick instead of (2). as well as replacing the 5 center studs. Then using real OSB and reinstalling the siding. After that's done I get to rip off the roof and replace the rotted out wood there and re-roof. Not sure about how I'll do it yet (rubber, shingle, metal?). Should be loads of fun... I'll keep this thread updated.

 

[snipes]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

I am digging the SPG, keep up the good work.

 

[Caleb T]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Looks awesome man! I like the wrench storage!

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Thanks guys!

My last nights progress, everything is framed and ready for the sheathing. I cut out the bad parts of the header and patched new lumber in place. I added a 3rd 2x4 in the center underneath the patch for added rigidity. And replaced the rotted studs.

Hopefully will have at least the sheathing back up tonight. Possibly siding too if I'm lucky.

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Slow progress as usual, but here's what I got done last night. Just need to put siding back up then the wall is done. It wen't pretty smoothly for being such a noob at working on house stuff.

After the wall is finished, I get to tear the roof off and put new wood there too. This is a nice small room project to cut my teeth on.

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Siding is back up. Currently working on finishing the inside walls.

I also made a quick easy shelf and created the "entertainment corner". It has: TV, DVD Player, Converter box, digital music hard drive, the old radio (temporary), an old school amp with several inputs, custom made cables and adapters to be able to run various things through the stereo, and last but not least, my laptop (holds music and car tuning software only).

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

A friend gave me this old box, it has just been sitting around for a while, but I finally found a good use for it. I made it into a welding cart.

Before:

2 cans of Rustoleum sunrise red:

And lastly mounted it to the roll around base that I had left over from the wire display rack that I cut up to hang tools from.

The welder fits really nice in the bottom and the drawers will hold all the welding supplies excellently.

Unintentional, but it fits right underneath the A/V bench. So I think It'll just park here when not in use.

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Over the weekend I finished the inside of the backroom. Overall I am pleased with how it turned out. I'm really excited about getting some of the larger items out of the garage and putting them back here instead.

My old Safety-Kleen parts washer:

It's pretty empty in the pics, but I will be moving a lot more into it in the next few days.

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Still not clean enough yet, but I cleaned it up enough that I could fit the Lexus in the back to store for the winter. It's going under a cover tonight, but thought I would get a picture first. I even still have room to work!!

 

[K2sno311]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Great progress so far, and it sounds like you are headed in a MUCH more organized direction with a smooth running shop!!

What are some of the plans for your cars? A buddy of mine had a (stock) 2000 Turbo 5spd when i was first learning to drive, and man that thing could move! I could only imagine what the capabilities are when tuned correctly...

Keep the updates coming, I'll be looking for more

 

[CodeRedZ]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

very nice progress.

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Thanks guys!

The plans for the Lexus are to put a cover over it and forget that I own it for a year or 2. There isn't anything really "wrong" with it, but there are several little things that bug me (bad coilovers, crappy piggyback ecu, automatic, etc). I could drive it, but once I start dumping $ into it it's going to be a long expensive road, and I need to finish a few other projects first.

My white 1992 Saab 9000 Needs a clutch and slave cylinder, a very tiny bit of body work, and some seals. That should be back on the road by spring.

The blue 1986 Saab 900 needs a couple holes in the floor fixed, and the engine gone through and resealed as well as some chassis work. Probably a project for next summer or something.

My (wife's) 1998 Volvo C70 needs some front chassis work, a stereo, exhaust, and tires. Should be done by spring.

That is all of the projects.. It's going to be an expensive winter.

 

[Foxxtrot]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Just caught up with this. I like where you are going! Also, I had a '92 9000 turbo in white a few years ago. I loved that car! Set up like an Aero, although I don't know for sure that they offered that package in that year. If I could find a good deal on another just like it........
Good job on reworking that rot in the back room. I don't know if it is too late, but scabbing a longer piece of lumber on the rafter would have been a good idea. If it's too late, well, it isn't likely to go anywhere in the next 100 years. The official policy is usually half the length, for future reference.

 

[Drunken Yak inc]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

May I ask where you bought your sheds from? I'm tired of storing my OEM parts in the basement and I refuse to put my tractor in the garage with my car, so it stays in an enclosed trailer...

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Yeah, the 91-92 9000s are the best imo. The ones with the 16" 3 spoke wheels were basically an aero version. They seem meaner to drive than the newer Aeros, and I like the looks better myself. They are great cars when they work! Good luck finding a clean one anymore. I had to spontaneously drive 9 hours away one night to pick mine up when it went for sale. There just aren't many nice ones left.

The rafter patches are about 1/3 of the total length, so I guess they are a little short, but they definitely aren't going anywhere. It's a little too late anyways since it's all closed up. Thanks for the advice though.

As for my sheds, I have no idea where they came from. They were here when we bought the place. They seem to just be regular manufactured wood sheds like you would get at Lowes or somewhere like it. Nothing special. I keep thinking how much better it would be to get rid of both of them and put up one nicer building in it's place, but evidently there are regulations or something saying I can't... Who knew.

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Haven't done a whole lot lately, Got a white board put up (for to do lists), and the sweet sign that my wife got for me.

I also pushed the 9000 into the garage so I can start a clutch job/restoration on it. It's gonna be a busy winter

 

[Shoottx]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Great New Sign, I love it!

 

[wornoutoldman]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

I worked for a SAAB dealer 86-89 love your rides! I have some special tools you could use PM your address I'll ship em to you no charge.

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Got the rest of the hooks for the wire racks and went to town trying to organize my sockets. I need more hooks lol. But I did manage to get the metric side done. The nice thing about this setup is that (as most people that actually work on stuff will agree), you always end up with more than one of certain sizes. Unlike off the shelf socket holders (which only hold 1 of each size), you can fit several sockets on these 6" hooks, all right there to grab. I am satisfied with it so far.

The top row is 1/4" drive, the next row down is 3/8" drive, 3rd row down is 3/8 deep well, and the bottom is 1/2" sockets. I am working on a duplicate setup for the SAE side but ran out of hooks. I am really stoked to finally get the open tool storage set up!!

 

[tuner4life]

Re: tuner4life's (not yet named) garage/hang out - remodel

Not a whole bunch to report just yet, It's the small things that seem to take the most time. I got a label maker and started labeling all the small electronics parts drawers. Here's a little teaser of that...

 

[rmckee]

The organization is awesome.

 

[bobemmerich]

NICE! Keep up the good work! Now, can ya help me out on mine...LOL

 

[tuner4life]

Thanks!


Not quite in the garage yet, but it will probably be the next thing I have to fix. It won't crank, has plenty of electricity, but nothing from the starter. Dome lights don't even dim when trying to start. Yay. Anyways, Pics from late last night...

 

[tuner4life]

Crappy pic of the shelf that I got from Menards to go above the bench. I'm planning on putting a couple lights under there, and I bought tall enough wall brackets that I should be able to add another shelf above the one that's already there.

 

[Foxxtrot]

I'm not sure I was ever a fan of the hanging tools method of organization before, but you may have made me a believer! I like the way that looks! How is it in operation? I have a rolling cart, but then I currently do most of the work in the drive, since my garage is a disaster! Maybe once I get it cleaned up I can use a tip or trick from you!

 

[tuner4life]

The hanging method works very well the way it is set up. I used to just have a drawer in the tool box for metric sockets and a drawer for sae. It always took forever to find what I needed and several times I couldn't find one at all. Lately I have found myself working on several projects at once and it works very well being able to hang multiples of the same tool within easy access. I always know where they are at and are easy to get to. And when I'm done I know exactly where to put stuff and what I'm missing. Thank you!