Nolift911
Well-known member
So I stumbled onto this site while searching for a cost effective way to install a wash basin in my garage within a compact space. While searching I came across a thread named "The 12 Gauge Garage" and of course the rest is history....so there are other folks out there that suffer with my affliction as well. My wife told me I was the only one...I of course knew this not to be true and here is where all of the afflicted reside...the Garage Journal 
Anyway, I did not want to clutter up Jack's thread with my ramblings so I started my own thread to contribute what I can. Jack's thread has given me years of ideas(in that one thread) so whatever I can contribute - I certainly will. My garage is a level below modest given some of the projects here and I am sure I will take more than I give but in any event, this was a great find.
So, "The Suburban Working Garage" - why named? Well, I live in the sprawling "burbs" of Northern VA - DC and MD are each about 30 minutes away and folks around here call this the NOVA-hood.
In terms of a "working" garage (and compared to many on this board many might not think so given the expertise and talent here) but I seem to be the only one that considers the garage another room in the house - whereas most in my neighborhood consider it a place to keep trash cans and store the "excess" from the house, even to the point of not being able to actually walk in the garage or even keep a car in there – I look at it a little differently.
Space is a premium and I don't really have that much to work with - standard 2 car garage that is 18X18 Everything must be able to be moved around and shifted.
I seem to be the only one around that works on their own cars, has a garage for a hobby or tries to repair anything in general. Anyway here is a short tour of the "garage"
In a nutshell and messy at the moment working on the latest project(s):
A little more detail:
I know everyone already has "Vise Envy" -
Yeah I know - a sad little hunk of iron which I attached to my welding table(even that is pretty sad) but everything is compact for a reason. A wall full of Craftsmen cheapo tool chests - that need to roll. They all fit over here:
So those cabinets (or dodad bins) are hung in specific positions so they all fit neatly on the other side, so that whole wall is nothing but bins and tool chests. I park the 911 over there. I generally cannot use the whole garage as it is necessary at times to get 2 cars in there. We also have 3 little boys 2,5,6 - so those little guys come with alot of stuff.
Walls painted bright white, 6 4ft, 2 bulb, fluorescent fixtures - (neighbors call it the "operating room". At night you can see the glow on my street from about 3 blocks away.
Welder receptacle - (Honey, no dryer usage while I am using the welder please) Yes, it is tapped into the dryer circuit. Only way really given my setup and the fact my dryer is on the 3 level of the house. The plug is right next to the utility closet and there is a chase that runs right up to the attic so up it goes and down to the laundry room...so if you want to weld...
And that brings me to my latest project:
Adding an RSR roll bar to my car with B-pillar attachment points:
So a little on the car (for Jack's benefit of course
) 84 Carrera 39k original miles that currently serves track/street duty and yes there a just a couple of mods. If you know 911's there are probably more mods (subtle) than you can count.
So the conversion from concours queen to lightweight track day junkie has been slow - like 5 years slow(remember 2,5,6) In any event the car has been completely disassembled and put back together - everything was removed. This was, at one time a highly optioned luxury car with every do dad known to man in 84 (heated front windshield, mirrors, washer jets, headlamp washers, power everything...all gone...to the tune of over 500 lbs of weight loss. It is at 2550 – (wet) right now with me in it. That makes a significant difference in performance both in “go” and “handling”. Anyway I won't ramble about the car.
The other small project (which put my little Ryobi bench sander to good use) was filling in all the holes for the dash - few pics of the finished product:
What you are looking at are replacement panels from all of the stuff I removed, HVAC, stereo, fog lights, defrosters, cigar lighter etc. Not a fan of a bunch of holes in my dash. I want a race car - but one that looks complete and pays attention to detail.
So I guess this first post turned into some ramblings on various topics, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I hope to be able to contribute to the board - thanks for looking.
- Jeff
Anyway, I did not want to clutter up Jack's thread with my ramblings so I started my own thread to contribute what I can. Jack's thread has given me years of ideas(in that one thread) so whatever I can contribute - I certainly will. My garage is a level below modest given some of the projects here and I am sure I will take more than I give but in any event, this was a great find.
So, "The Suburban Working Garage" - why named? Well, I live in the sprawling "burbs" of Northern VA - DC and MD are each about 30 minutes away and folks around here call this the NOVA-hood.
In terms of a "working" garage (and compared to many on this board many might not think so given the expertise and talent here) but I seem to be the only one that considers the garage another room in the house - whereas most in my neighborhood consider it a place to keep trash cans and store the "excess" from the house, even to the point of not being able to actually walk in the garage or even keep a car in there – I look at it a little differently.
Space is a premium and I don't really have that much to work with - standard 2 car garage that is 18X18 Everything must be able to be moved around and shifted.
I seem to be the only one around that works on their own cars, has a garage for a hobby or tries to repair anything in general. Anyway here is a short tour of the "garage"
In a nutshell and messy at the moment working on the latest project(s):
A little more detail:
I know everyone already has "Vise Envy" -
Yeah I know - a sad little hunk of iron which I attached to my welding table(even that is pretty sad) but everything is compact for a reason. A wall full of Craftsmen cheapo tool chests - that need to roll. They all fit over here:
So those cabinets (or dodad bins) are hung in specific positions so they all fit neatly on the other side, so that whole wall is nothing but bins and tool chests. I park the 911 over there. I generally cannot use the whole garage as it is necessary at times to get 2 cars in there. We also have 3 little boys 2,5,6 - so those little guys come with alot of stuff.
Walls painted bright white, 6 4ft, 2 bulb, fluorescent fixtures - (neighbors call it the "operating room". At night you can see the glow on my street from about 3 blocks away.
Welder receptacle - (Honey, no dryer usage while I am using the welder please) Yes, it is tapped into the dryer circuit. Only way really given my setup and the fact my dryer is on the 3 level of the house. The plug is right next to the utility closet and there is a chase that runs right up to the attic so up it goes and down to the laundry room...so if you want to weld...
And that brings me to my latest project:
Adding an RSR roll bar to my car with B-pillar attachment points:
So a little on the car (for Jack's benefit of course
) 84 Carrera 39k original miles that currently serves track/street duty and yes there a just a couple of mods. If you know 911's there are probably more mods (subtle) than you can count.So the conversion from concours queen to lightweight track day junkie has been slow - like 5 years slow(remember 2,5,6) In any event the car has been completely disassembled and put back together - everything was removed. This was, at one time a highly optioned luxury car with every do dad known to man in 84 (heated front windshield, mirrors, washer jets, headlamp washers, power everything...all gone...to the tune of over 500 lbs of weight loss. It is at 2550 – (wet) right now with me in it. That makes a significant difference in performance both in “go” and “handling”. Anyway I won't ramble about the car.
The other small project (which put my little Ryobi bench sander to good use) was filling in all the holes for the dash - few pics of the finished product:
What you are looking at are replacement panels from all of the stuff I removed, HVAC, stereo, fog lights, defrosters, cigar lighter etc. Not a fan of a bunch of holes in my dash. I want a race car - but one that looks complete and pays attention to detail.
So I guess this first post turned into some ramblings on various topics, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I hope to be able to contribute to the board - thanks for looking.
- Jeff
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I have gleened much information from your posts as well over the years - so thank you.
