Uk Garage De-conversion

[DanP.]

Hi,

I've been lurking on the forum for just over a year now admiring people's amazing garages and builds and getting inspiration for my own, since my garage is 'complete' (for now) I thought I would post some pics.

Some background: We moved into the house in sept 2012, and like many homes in the Uk the double garage had been converted and used as an office and gym by the previous owners - ours was a little different as it had actually never functioned as a garage since being built in 2007 and subsequently used the sales office for the development and then kept as an office - which on the downside meant no garage doors were ever fitted but at least it had decent electrics, insulation and stud walling.

When we moved in:
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Deconstruction:
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New roller doors going in:
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Windows removed, plasterboards up and shuttering reinstalled:
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Replastering and painting:
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Moving in with my kit car and softtail trike build:
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The first thing that i did was make some benches in the Steevo style - but didn't get any photos of building them, some lower down though.

Torchmate 2x2 frame and water table build:
View media item 46758View media item 46759Painted, wired, drag chains and slats added:
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Rapidair kit installed:
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Cheap cabinet from eBay to house the compressor and Myford Super7 Lathe added:
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Wall cabinets added:
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Over Christmas this year I got it to the point it is now, I'm calling it complete, but I already have ideas for some proper material storage and possibly a milling machine, etc.

Old TV added using mount made on plasma, Cabinet painted to match benches, SS splash backs added, and Myford replaced with a CNC Wabeco Lathe that was going cheap on eBay:
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[wasfast]

Very nice transformation! My wife and I see quite a few of those garage conversions over here. We refer to them as "was garages", no reference to my screen name.

 

[Crown]

Whow! nice house, garden, garage, car, trike and tools!

 

[Jagmandave]

I wondered at first why you would remove the windows, once it was done I could see there'd be no room for them!

Are the roll up doors powered? I didn't see any handles on the outside to grab them to lift by hand...

So, what do you make with the plasma cutter and lathe and mill? Just for general parts for the "kits" and such, or something more specific?

 

[minimowog]

nice conversion back

i like the air compressor fittings in the trunking, where can you get them from?

 

[DanP.]

Thanks for the comments, the plasma and lathe are mostly used for bits for the trike at the moment and the odd project and gift, would like to run a small business in future. Haven't mastered the CNC lathe software yet.

 

[audifirst]

I really like what you have done, I do like the rolling garage doors, do you have their website I would like to see specs on them, I was looking to get it done at my garage and I had company coming over and tell me that I need more height inside my garage to mount the mechanism , looking at your place look like 12 in of clearance at the top ...

 

[GBsnoopy]

Now im liking what you have done with it. An ideal little workshop.
Looks like 32A sockets too.
I can hear sarah beeny and all the other diy house show presenters screeming NO... lol.
Seems quite large for a modern development build garage too.

 

[DanP.]

Hi, it's the rapidair kit, I bought it from the U.S. Amazon site and had it shipped to a colleague over there. The trunking is made by univolt.

The doors are powered, they are made by a British company called SWS.

 

[Denwood]

Great de-conversion I'm intrigued by the plasma table. Do you have pics of any parts done on it? 3500 for a CNC plasma seems pretty reasonable..

 

[DanP.]

Hi, my doors are seceuroglide excels, but I think they do doors with an even tighter roll to reduce clearance, web link is http://www.sws.co.uk

 

[DanP.]

Hi will post a few pics of parts when I get home but been pleased with the cuts, I think the hypertherm makes for a very good combo as the quality of the cut is excellent, only thing I want to do is add the auto height control as otherwise it's quite easy to set the tip too high and get a beveled cut or too low and crash it.

 

[vegar]

Nice conversion. I love the cnc lathe and plasma

 

[1/2 Cup]

Fantastic transformation, well done.

Regards

 

[DanP.]

Thanks for the comments folks, it means a lot coming from such dedicated people!

Regarding the torchmate - I'm pleased with it, well made, easy to assemble and use and the nice thing is that it is expandable - i can extend to 4x2 or 4x4, add routing attachments, plate markers etc and it all just goes together - yes it costs more than a Mach3 setup but it does just work with no faff and probably not that much more either.

The accuracy has been good once you get the lead in/outs set-up and get the federates correct, because of the small bevelling you get when cutting thicker material from being conservative (due to no THC yet) on the plate to torch gap then i find bolt holes and anything that needs to fit together you need to take account of this and size up/down or file afterwards. But in general everything i have made has need minimal rework after cutting - generally only need to clip the slag off and use.

Some parts I have made below:

A birthday present key hook for my brother of his Ford Capri's number plate (1mm mirror stainless):


Brackets for drag chains on the torchmate (2mm steel sheet):


Seat rails for trike (5mm and 8mm steel plate - cut was excellent!)


Cheers,
Dan

 

[roger440]

Very very nice. Like the conversion (opposite to what everyone else does in the UK) and what you have done inside.

 

[Grizz1963]

Welcome.

Looking good.

 

[truxdelux]

Glad you saved it for what it was meant to be. Damned GYM! PAH!!
Charlie.

 

[dhubbard422]

Nicely done!

I really like the benches and cabinets. The blue looks great. The CNC tools look like they'll be fun & useful, although I just missed out on a nice little MyFord Super 7 last week that looked very much like your old one... MyFords are fairly unusual over here.

But, tell us about your 7 clone! It's hard for me to tell which kit you used based on the one at night pic of your garage... I have a Superformance S1 with a 2.0 Zetec; it's quite a bit of fun.

 

[Bighead38]

Looks great. Would love to see more pics of everything especially the car.

I see so many people on here with lathes, cnc machines, water jets, etc and want to "play" with them so bad. I've never had a chance to use any of them but have such a burning desire to make my own stuff on them.

 

[lmb]

Lovely garage there Dan. Great work on turning it back into the use that was always intended for it, but I can tell from all the great kit you have in there that you probably wouldn't have considered a property with no garage or capabilty to add one. The property programmes rarely make mention of it but garage space was my number one priority when we moved - although in the end we picked somewhere with zero garages and I had to create what I wanted like you have done. Is the house in Essex by the way? There is a development a friend lives in where the house styles look similar.

 

[DanP.]

The kit car is a 'V8 Viento' made by a British company called Luego, it's basically a widened and stretched seven, designed to take V8s, there are a few with LSx motors around and one with a viper V10 being built. I bought my kit in 2005 and had it on the road in 2009, mine has a 3.5L rover V8 fitted (aka the Ali Buick 215 from the Skylark).

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Home made headers (learnt to Tig weld on these using a DC scratch start - a lot of grinding required!!)
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Next to my old '67 Mustang:
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Imb - the garage was a massive factor, it was how my wife convinced me to move, would love a house in the country in future with space to build or a barn to convert (love yours btw!) currently live in a place called Lee on Solent near Portsmouth.

 

[Bighead38]

Nice little car. I would love to have an open wheel car like that or an ariel atom.

 

[Sunbimmer]

Wow very impressive work, love the kit car more pics if you have them would not hurt anybody if you showed them

 

[dhubbard422]

That's a very nice 7! I was not familiar with the V8 Viento, but, a quick search on the internet infers that it is a nice bit of kit. Yours looks very nice. Did you do a build thread on it?

Someday, I hope to have the time, money and energy to build my own, but currently I'm having trouble even deciding which car I'd build! So, congrats on finishing yours and getting it on the road, I've read that getting a kit on the road in the UK is a bit involved.

The Stang' is also pretty sweet.

Nice garage, cars and machinery! Hopefully, you will keep us updated with nice bits you make in your garage. Thanks for sharing!

 

[firecracker]

Well!!!!! your a man after our own hearts, you have and are doing what all on GJ
are passionate about keep up the great work on your vehicles
and garage.

 

[MG David]

I like the garage. There is a house near me where they converted the original double garage into a room and built a further double next to it. Every time I look at it I think "that's a 4 car garage ready for someone who would appreciate it."

Unusual to see a modern house clad like this in the UK.

I used to sail at Lee on Solent when I had a Fireball. Can you see the stranded ship from the beach there?

 

[MajorLeeGassole]

Beautiful [insert everything about house and garage here]! Really nice conversion back to the way it SHOULD be.

 

[Lippyp]

Nice job and nice cars. I spent a lot of time down your way as a kid as we had a caravan on Hayling Island (or Reading on Sea as most people seemed like us to come from there!) Thius was during the 80's and 70's, I remember there being houseboats built on WWII landing craft and also a row of rusting submarines over towards pompey.

 

[DanP.]

A few photos of the build as requested:

The donor - an 86 Ford Sierra XR4X4
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Donor engine rebuilt:
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Early build
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Exhaust mockup and fab
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Finished (next to my old '81 C3)
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[DanP.]

Dhubbard442 - yours looks a nice car, I could never build a kit car now unless it was a complete nut and bolt kit like the factory five or dax kits, it was only before I had a busy job, wife or kids that I had the spare time to do so much trimming, fettling and fab myself (and there wasn't even that much!)

 

[DanP.]

Lee on solent is a great place to live - but yes the view is blighted a bit by the run-aground car carrier at present!

 

[Sunbimmer]

Great stuff, very nice car

 

[Pluribus]

De-conversion...very appropriate! You've freed the garage from the grasp of the cult. Great projects and equipment too. Keep posting the fun stuff!

 

[155'Ringman]

One of my neighbour's brought us round to show us the garage that he has turned into a gym / rec room a couple of years back and I gave him dogs abuse for being a shame to the male population etc.. It was a bit of tongue in cheek banter on my part but I haven't been invited back recently..

Although I live in Northern Ireland, I work mostly in England these days and there are a huge amount of these converted garages / gyms etc over here. Yuk. Good man for bucking the trend!

Nice area also. I used to work in East Cowes on the Isle of Wight for a while too.

 

[dhubbard422]

Dan,

Thanks for sharing pics from your build. I love your car, I expect that if has very nice performance characteristics! Way more torque than the 4 cylinder in my Superformance S1... FWIW, A friends dad has hot rodded that Buick motor for decades and it appears to be a very nice package.

Yeah, my kit car dreams are limited to a Factory Five or Stalker build as both are basically bolt together solutions. But... I fantasize about several FF models: the FIA version of the Cobra, the Coupe version of the Cobra (Type '65) or for something different, the 33 Hot Rod. I love what Ride Tech did to the '33... autocross weapon, cruisin' machine and all around cool toy... Yeah, if I could pull the trigger today it'd probably be for the '33... But, on the other hand, the Stalker has more performance than I can imagine and maybe more than I can handle... i.e. it'd be a riot.

Keep sharing pics, please, I really hope to acquire some machinery to do some fab for some (mostly) unnecessary parts... but, I'm probably more comfortable with manual lathe/mill equipment to construct some vintage trials bike and/or hot rod parts.

Looking forward to following your build!
Don

 

[ZRX61]

So was that pic taken at Daedalus?

Next to my old '67 Mustang:
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Imb - the garage was a massive factor, it was how my wife convinced me to move, would love a house in the country in future with space to build or a barn to convert (love yours btw!) currently live in a place called Lee on Solent near Portsmouth.

 

[bazzateer]

Hi there from gloomy Watford. Great transformation there! I'm often in your area having been born and bred up the road in Fareham, family all still there.

If my Dad saw this he'd moan about how "it's actually Lee on THE Solent!". But that's my Dad!

 

[gtr cook]

Great work on the transformation.

Loving the kit car, i hope to build a MK Indy once my garage is complete.

Did you fabricate the exhaust yourself? Great job if you did!

 

[Cris B]

Brilliant reworking of the space, makes it all seem to have happened very quickly but I suspect that there were months of work involved from start to finish.

Were there any planning permission/ building control implications for this? I had been led to understand that on most of these developments the rules can be quite strict about what you can and can't do. As such I had always been put off even considering something like this.