Show Us Your Shop, aka We Want to Give You Free Stuff

Our sister magazine, Classic Motorsports, just started a new contest. And yes, it's open to everybody–even you.

The rules for the Show Us Your Shop contest are simple: send us three photos of your shop plus a 300-word description. On December 31, 2014, our editors will pick their favorites in our three classes: small, large and commercial.

The winning shop owners in each class will receive thousands of dollars’ worth of prizes thanks to our partners:

Battery Tender: batterytender.com
Chubb Collector Car Insurance: chubbcollectorcar.com
CRC Industries: crcindustries.com/auto/
Eastwood: eastwood.com

The winning workspaces will also be featured in an upcoming issue of Classic Motorsports.

To enter, simply mail the three photos plus your 300-word description in a single e-mail to shop@classicmotorsports.net. Please remember to include your phone number and mailing address in the email to make the shipping of prizes quicker.

More information is here: ClassicMotorsports.net/shop

Good luck, everybody. Let me know if you have any questions.

Sweet.

Is the contest open until Dec 31?

Maybe that will give those of us in this thread some more motivation.

Yes, it is.

Is the idea to show who has done the best with the least, or who needs help the most?

The idea is to show the coolest. We're not looking for hardship or prosperity, we're looking for character–pure and simple. A shop that people walk into and say "Wow, this is a cool place to spend time with cars."

In reply to Tom Suddard:

That'll never be my Garage!!

In reply to Tom Suddard:

I'm out then.

I won't be far enough along with the finish work to make it worth taking pictures of. Someday though, someday.

Tom Suddard wrote: The idea is to show the coolest. We're not looking for hardship or prosperity, we're looking for character–pure and simple. A shop that people walk into and say "Wow, this is a cool place to spend time with cars."

AKA people who have put money into their shops rather than their cars lol

If that's what it takes you, sure.

I filled my shop mostly with stuff I found in the trash, bought at yard sales, or had lying around.

I know I have the coolest workbench–it's a carpenter's table that my great, great-grandfather made himself. And it's been in constant use since the day it was built. I've got tickets from races I've been to stuck all over the walls. A BMW flag flies proudly behind my inflatable blimp, because I'm a BMW fanboi at heart. In the corner is a big breadboard that's usually blinking, as I play with microcontrollers over there. My laundry machine is next to the door into my garage, but it's covered in "SECURITY" magnets that I may or may not have used for impersonation purposes a long time ago. My neighbors must think I'm terrified of laundry theft.

Stuff like this doesn't make your car faster–it's true. But it's a neat part of the hobby that we rarely discuss. We want to reward those who have the extra time, money, or just attention to detail required to do this, and the motivation to actually go through with it. I know my garage isn't the best or prettiest, but it's my space and I try to make it my own. We want to see what you've accomplished in this area, because it's interesting, and partly because we need ideas of our own.

gah I need to get all the crap off the floor and take some pictures.

Tom Suddard wrote: If that's what it takes you, sure.

Just bustin' your balls If I'm in the garage, I am wrenching. Rarely do I have time nowadays to do anything nice to it except it gets cleaned once a year in the fall/crap thrown out before winter comes and makes everything hell!

i think the guys with the worst garages need the equipment, not the guys with the laid out places with checkerboard floors and lifts

on the record i'm in neither category.

What about a smattering of decent but well used tools, all coated in between 1/32" and 1/4" of cuytoff wheel dust?

Tom Suddard wrote: The idea is to show the coolest. We're not looking for hardship or prosperity, we're looking for character–pure and simple. A shop that people walk into and say "Wow, this is a cool place to spend time with cars."

Well.. That leaves me out... My garage /shop is really cluttered right now...

DILYSI Dave wrote: What about a smattering of decent but well used tools, all coated in between 1/32" and 1/4" of cuytoff wheel dust?

I love it.

By the way, if you'd like to see what you're up against, look at the album of current submissions:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152288038572541.1073741833.65201617540&type=3&uploaded=3

At this point, I'd say it's anybody's game.

Mine was already in CM several years back....but it has changed a lot, and for the better. So I submitted some new pics :)

Yeah, it sounds like "shop" means "man cave", not what I call a shop. Mine will never be that clean partially because I don't put stuff away, partly because I'm not made of money, and partly because I work in my garage.
Now, there'll be people saying that they weld 4" thick metal in their surgically clean garage or that they have a garage-majal and only make $500.00 a year.
Either way, what makes a cool 'shop' to me is one that has tools that are used, and a guy who can make anything with those tools. Street signs on a wall and such don't do it for me. Not knocking, just kinda envious I suppose. And I'm in a funk today.

honestly, if i open my door and take a pic, the V8 WRX next to the 49 plymouth gasser project would break the contest.

Entered......

as to DrBoost... I'm hoping GRM sticks to GRM... and realizes that a garage that is clean enough for a baby to crawl on isn't a GRM garage... no matter how many berkleying exotics are in it....

one can only hope

edit - just saw its CMS.... different audience over there...

I'm out, my garage is seriously nothing special and I don't even have it set up for my needs. It's full of lawn furniture and other miscellaneous stuff.

DrBoost wrote: Yeah, it sounds like "shop" means "man cave", not what I call a shop. Mine will never be that clean partially because I don't put stuff away, partly because I'm not made of money, and partly because I work in my garage. Now, there'll be people saying that they weld 4" thick metal in their surgically clean garage or that they have a garage-majal and only make $500.00 a year. Either way, what makes a cool 'shop' to me is one that has tools that are used, and a guy who can make anything with those tools. Street signs on a wall and such don't do it for me. Not knocking, just kinda envious I suppose. And I'm in a funk today.

don't sweat it too much....mine was in CM years ago in probably the first iteration of this feature (except there were no prizes!), and mine is definitely a "shop" not a man-cave. The photo here is yesterday when I just spent all day cleaning. It looked a lot sloppier years ago when it was in CM.

I do have one street sign though - stolen from a closed Italian highway 25 years ago using two rusty tools

And dammit, I forgot to stack my tires straight.

oldeskewltoy wrote: Entered...... as to DrBoost... I'm hoping GRM sticks to GRM... and realizes that a garage that is clean enough for a baby to crawl on isn't a GRM garage... no matter how many berkleying exotics are in it.... one can only hope edit - just saw its CMS.... different audience over there...

Yeah, a different crowd totally. I tried to get into the group when I had my mini, but we're different folks. I don't mind looking though, it's nice to dream.