The Great GRM Garage Challenge (A.K.A. The Biggest Slob).

1 step forward 1 step back.

Good:
Finished putting my workbench together
Cleared out some junk cardboard

Bad:
Acquired more parts for DD
purchased a bunch of lumber for redoing deck stairs which is now taking up space

No pictures, since I didn't take any when this began, it doesn't matter, but my garage has actually gotten worse in the last week or so. Too many bargains around me right now. It'll probably get better in early July.

Right now, I'm really hoping that the friend who needs to borrow my welder will come by soon, so I get a little bit more space that way...

ProDarwin wrote: 1 step forward 1 step back. Good: * Finished putting my workbench together * Cleared out some junk cardboard Bad: * Acquired more parts for DD * purchased a bunch of lumber for redoing deck stairs which is now taking up space

2 weeks later:

• organized workbench a bit more
• put a nice piece of plywood on the wall behind it to hang stuff from
• mounted a set of HF organization bins
• took ~1200lbs of junk carpet and wood scraps to landfill
• sold set of miata wheels I was never going to use
• finished carpentry on my deck, thus clearing the garage lumber

to do this week:

• finish cutting thresholds for wood flooring
• when above is done, return tablesaw and chop-saw to person I borrowed them from
• install flourescent lighting (must find correct 4" extension ring, or deal with bending the EMT) :(
• yard tool hooks/organization system

SVreX wrote: Looks like I'm gonna wipe up the floor with you guys. I've got the pictures, but haven't been able to get them hosted yet (Grrrr..M) I appreciate the kick in the tail, DrBoost, but would rather drag someone else along with me.

Challenge accepted!

I have divided my stuff into 9 "sites" that require different handling. Here is a before and after of the easiest one.

This was a day to clean out, 3 days to make 4 riding mowers into 1 and a healthy scrap run. The door you see is my "Capone vault" as I actually have no idea what it contains and have lost the key. That back space is 2 rooms with the other door facing into the breezeway. Below is a picture after I had cleaned out the tools.

All of these boxes were full of stuff but only 2 of them were salvagable.

Work on site 3 has been postponed due to my discovery of a nest of buzzards in that building. Should have pics tomorrow. Site 4 promises to be a real nightmare, site 5 should be easy. Just put a new roof on site 6 and cleaning it out involved shoveling 4 inches of mud out of the back. Literally dug this up inside the building!

20 minutes to get it apart and soaking, overnight to soak, lubed and now I have an ugly SK 42470 1/2" ratchet that works great.

Site 7 and 8 are going to require heavy machinery and a great deal of work to just get TO them.

Bruce

P.S. I don't even want to think about site 9!

egnorant wrote: Challenge accepted! I have divided my stuff into 9 "sites" that require different handling. Here is a before and after of the easiest one.

RESULT!!! Wow, I didn't even know that was a paved floor in that first picture. That's great! And thanks for resurrecting this thread. I was going to get out and do some work on the 948 this evening, but instead I think I'll work on cleaning and organizing.

I have to take pictures next time I am there.. but I have not been in my garage in over a year (it's 5 miles away from where I live) and my poor saab is under about an inch of dust

I might have been able to win this contest if I took before and after pics.

However, enough time has gone by that the before and after pics look the same.

Stupid race car and kitchen remodel!

I've been chipping away at mine. Will post some pics soon.

something I learned years ago. If you haven't needed it in the past six months, get rid of it. Sometimes it's hard to let go, you know you'll replace it with more of the same stuff later. I going to clean my garage tonight, who knows what I'll find.

beanco wrote: something I learned years ago. If you haven't needed it in the past six months, get rid of it. Sometimes it's hard to let go, you know you'll replace it with more of the same stuff later. I going to clean my garage tonight, who knows what I'll find.

Six months? Hell, I'm throwing away stuff I haven't touched since we moved into this house 15 years ago.

egnorant wrote: The door you see is my "Capone vault" as I actually have no idea what it contains and have lost the key.

Just use the rotary key.

Some of you are making awesome progress. Let's keep it going!

Initial submission (May 31):

Pic from today:

I've only done 2 of the 8 fixtures so far and the difference in light output is incredible.

I got into the cleanup mode this Spring, unfortunately I didn't take photos, but so far 3 cars are scrapped, 2 are returned to their actual owners, 3 loads of steel have been scrapped. I have disposed of or gifted 5 transmissions, two rear ends and a 72 302 engine. I have moved so much stuff, built a huge tire rack(which is already full), built 2 engine stands, The Supra is on the trailer to go next, the front end is out, the front end of the Corona MkII is ready to go as well.

That said, the guidelines of the thread don't work for me as my shop has 4 buildings with 8 sections.

My goal is to get rid of or store inside all the non running cars, and to have all the parts and junk also inside and off the floor.

I have already found room for a bench which has been dedicated to transmission and 3rd member builds.

A couple of outside pics

We also added another driveway

I'll jump in on this once my car runs again. Got a deadline to hit first and cleaning the garage would make sure I don't have a running car in time.

I share it with someone else so I can't get the whole thing done, unfortunately.

Well, it's official. I have a shop again.

I've done some big changes, but the bottom line is that I now have 4 projects in the shop at once, with room to work around all of them.

I spent yesterday working on the turbo Miata, with clean space around, clear workbench space, and all my tools where they belong. Man, it felt good.

I never made it to the back corner, nor the materials storage room. Still room for improvement.

I've taken the pics- will try to upload soon.

It does feel great to finally get a working space! In my shop I employed the "bulldozer method" where everything came out first. I was in there power washing floors and walls and ceiling before select items went back in. (Don't power wash inside a tin building in the summer in Texas. Hot I can handle, but the humidity was a real hurdle.

Hardest part is to avoid refilling these new beautiful spaces with crap from the other areas. About 3 trailer loads of scrap metal ready to go, one of just aluminum stuff, trash guys HATE me and the burn pile is once again flat! I had a curb alert couple drop by one day and pick up a free sewing machine and they stayed about 5 hours helping haul stuff around once they learned that I was a pretty easy mark for giving stuff away! Got site 6 plans today!

Bruce

I installed 2 more lights. Miata moved under its own power for the first time in 6 months. Tonight/tomorrow I'll put in lights on that side of the garage. After that, only a few small organizational things to take care of, and some E36 M3 to sell.

May 31:

July 1:

Today (July 8):

I can't believe I ever worked with so little light before.

Lights make a huge difference! A great deal of my shop cleanup was done with a single work light on an extension cord from the house. I was working at night because of our over 100 degree days. Once I got electricity, I powered through the hot and got 8 2 tube fixtures and 2 4 tubes up. I heard Angels singing when I turned the lights on for the first time.

Bruce

Ok, Finally have something to show. Having terminally ill people in the family, well its not good or productive.

Moved a bunch of stuff out of the garage. I bought a few shelves to sort some things and got started. I have been sort of excited about these:

Retractable shelves.

I ordered these for tire storage. As I kept looking at options it seemed like most of the wall mounts would take up room 2x4's or cost at least as much as these. So I sprung for this option.

The first one took a bit to get right, and if you look close, yes, I didn't put the lines on correct. We fixed it :).

We ordered two so I put up the second one also.

The weight on them is right at the capacity so we may do some braces

Biggest thing is I can see floor! I mean like, a lot of it! So it is progress. I have 16' more of shelving to put up over the garage door. That should hold some junk.

Also started some storage for rod and reels, and other cleanup. Its a good start, still further to go. Also, have been working on lighting for the garage. Picked 6 of these lights and are setting them up in this manner to hang up. I have a couple of shoplights to put up also.

I've been super lazy when it comes to my garage. Weather's supposed to be nice this week though, sounds like a prime time to get back at it.

I'm embarrassed to say I haven't had a chance to touch mine and it has backslid some. I've been too busy getting the truck and boat ready for a 10 hour drive to Tennessee.

I've backslid a bit, got lazy. One thing I did when I first put this place together was to add shelving across the back wall and on one side of the main support beam for the upstairs floor. I got some of that wire shelving from Home Depot, mounted it to the wall in the usual way, then made tension straps from plumbers tape, 1/4" lag bolts and 10-24 screws and nuts and hung the front side at 32 inch intervals (every other floor joist). That way I don't have those triangular underbraces in the way. So far it's holding everything I have thrown at it.

Well, you can park one car in it now: