Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT 1950s Craftsman Garage retro remodel

Red Leader · May 21, 2011

Hi, and welcome to the

May, 2026 Update:

I'm reclaiming the garage! It's been 15 years since I started this project, and just when I was nearing the finality of the vision, life happened and I disappeared for several years. In that time, the garage has seen countless house, car, woodworking, HVAC and metalworking projects. In that time, its seen wear and tear, and I suppose you could say that the garage is in it's 'mid life crisis'. It's a little messy, overweight, and still dreams of what it could be. Soooo...let's make it happen. We got off track for a few, but its time to get back in shape, cut the fat, and remember why this project was started in the first place!

Here are the most recent photos of the garage:

Here is what it looked like about 14 years ago, back when the paint was still pretty fresh!

Red Leader · May 21, 2011

Red Leader · May 21, 2011

Jack Olsen · May 21, 2011

Cool!

KraftwerkMk1Jetta · May 21, 2011

Awesome project! That Atlas drill press is so sweet!

ZTFab · May 21, 2011

Awesome project.

Can't wait to see it finished!

Stuart in MN · May 21, 2011

Nice collection of woodworking machinery, especially the Unisaw! I have the same jointer, although mine doesn't have the cool stand.

sscustom · May 21, 2011

awsome tools you got there

Red Leader · May 21, 2011

Thanks everyone for the comments!

I bit the bullet and just went out today and picked up a 5 gallon bucket of drywall primer and went to town.

Even after 2+ coats, I'm still noticing the indentation/lines where I have mud in-between the joints. It was completely flat and sanded before this went on.

Do I sand the drywall primer? Keep adding coats? A little of both?

Red Leader · May 21, 2011

KraftwerkMk1Jetta said:
Awesome project! That Atlas drill press is so sweet!

The Atlas and the Craftsman radial saw were my first major woodworking purchases (last year).

Unfortunately the finish on the Atlas is chipping so I'll probably have to redo it at some point, but being that it was my first semi-restore, I'm okay with that...live and learn...and follow drying times to a T next time.

willy3486 · May 21, 2011

If you don't get 100% craftsman you will have a nice shop there anyway. I have a mix of all kinds,walker turner,powermatic,delta,craftsman and I like older as well. That planer is probably nicer than others you can find. It is agreat size for a shop, the one I have is way to large for a small shop. Its a 18 inch powermatic and the motor off to the side. It makes it wide, I like how your motor is under the planer. Keep up the good work and keep the pictures going.

Thruxton · May 22, 2011

Great project, and I really look forward to following this and seeing how it turns out, should be a real treat!

OccupantRJ · May 22, 2011

Red Leader said:
Thanks everyone for the comments!

I bit the bullet and just went out today and picked up a 5 gallon bucket of drywall primer and went to town.

Even after 2+ coats, I'm still noticing the indentation/lines where I have mud in-between the joints. It was completely flat and sanded before this went on.

Do I sand the drywall primer? Keep adding coats? A little of both?

Dap makes a pink product in a squeeze tube that is used for filling small indentations. Squeeze some on the tip of a putty knife, smear over the blemish. It will turn white when it is ready to sand. Hit it with a sanding block, then primer. Are you aware of the OWWM site?

hardly · May 22, 2011

Nice to see older machinery that has, obviously, received a lot of TLC down through the
years. Also says something about the quality of American brands back then. Gotta love
that Atlas drill-press. Haven't seen one of those in years!

toolchanger777 · May 22, 2011

Wow, i love these. You are making me think about when i get a house, i will have to go vintage with those tools as well. I hope you got them at a good deal

Dennis Cavallino · May 22, 2011

Great tools you've got there. Good luck and enjoy!

Red Leader · May 22, 2011

Thruxton said:
Great project, and I really look forward to following this and seeing how it turns out, should be a real treat!

Thruxton,

Do you ride? Is that your bike in your avatar?

Here is what I ride - 2001 Kawasaki W650. It will also have a home in the 50s garage :bounce:

By daveamy at 2011-05-22

flatwins · May 22, 2011

Yes, that is very cool stuff! Hopefully you can find some old signage to put in the garage along with the great old tools from yesteryear. Wondering how that "parking the cars in the garage" thing is going to work out...

Stuart in MN · May 22, 2011

Red Leader said:
Here is what I ride - 2001 Kawasaki W650.

Hey, that looks familiar...

Here's mine.

flatwins · May 22, 2011

Those Triumph-inspired Kawasakis are cool. I don't have one but vintage motorcycles are a true passion of mine.

Here's one from the stable-

Stuart in MN · May 22, 2011

Strictly speaking, the Kawasaki was inspired by a bike they built back in the 1960s - the W2. It was a 650cc vertical twin, based on a bike that had been built earlier by Meguro which was bought out by Kawasaki. It in turn was kind of inspired by the late 1950s BMW A10 (the engine looked very similar to the BSA but they shared no internal parts.)

I have a '68 W2SS as well. It was my first bike, I bought it back in about 1976. One of these days I'll get around to restoring it.

Here's a stock photo of one:

Red Leader · May 22, 2011

Stuart in MN said:
Hey, that looks familiar... Here's mine.

Stuart thats AWESOME! Nice to meet a fellow 'W' rider!!

They are fairly uncommon around here (Colorado). I know a guy close to my work that has one, but never really talked to him much. I just happened to see one on my way to work one time. Then one other time, a guy pulled up in a mini van next to me and told me he was getting his W in a couple of days and looked pretty pumped.

Super fun bikes! Do you have any pictures of your old W2?

Red Leader · May 22, 2011

flatwins said:
Those Triumph-inspired Kawasakis are cool. I don't have one but vintage motorcycles are a true passion of mine.

Here's one from the stable-

Flatwins,

gorgeous BMW! Grew up in the so cal area riding old dirt bikes. I grew up on a 70' Honda CT70 and then picked up a '76 Husky 250cr. LOVE old motorcycles.

Red Leader · May 22, 2011

OccupantRJ said:
Dap makes a pink product in a squeeze tube that is used for filling small indentations. Squeeze some on the tip of a putty knife, smear over the blemish. It will turn white when it is ready to sand. Hit it with a sanding block, then primer. Are you aware of the OWWM site?

I am also a member over at OWWM. As they say, it is a 'slippery slope'. :lol_hitti

Someone asked about prices on some of these tools. Honestly, there are fantastic deals out there. Probably the avg price paid on most of these was around $50. When you consider inflation, a lot of these old tools would cost a man about $500-$1500 in today's money. With new belts and bearings, many times, they are as good as new, built much better than many of today's tools, and look real classy.

My favorite brands are Craftsman (of course), but most of the Craftsman-badged tools really weren't 'made' by Craftsman, they were made by Parks, Walker-Turner, Atlas, King-Seeley, etc. Most of those are all great tool companies, and also have their dedicated followings.

Red Leader · May 22, 2011

OccupantRJ said:
Dap makes a pink product in a squeeze tube that is used for filling small indentations. Squeeze some on the tip of a putty knife, smear over the blemish. It will turn white when it is ready to sand. Hit it with a sanding block, then primer. Are you aware of the OWWM site?

Thanks for your thoughts on this - I'm going to lightly sand and try a few more coats today on the problem areas and see if they clear up a bit. If not, the putty stuff it is!

Stuart in MN · May 22, 2011

Sorry, no photos of my W2SS...it's been in a thousand pieces for about 25 years now. However, it should end up identical to the one in the photo above - the tins are all painted, all the chrome parts are redone or replaced with new, all the chassis parts have been powder coated. The main thing left is to rebuild the engine and put it back together, but it sort of got shuffled to the end of the list of stuff to get done.

John Dillinger · May 22, 2011

I have one of those Craftsman Magnetic Jig Saws. The last time I plugged it in the breaker tripped. Have not had the heart to throw it out. It belonged to the old made next door . She is dead now she used to cut out Christmas ornaments in the 50's and 60's
JD

Red Leader · May 23, 2011

Well guys,

Here is the update for tonight - I'm 95% done with the wall primer. See pics -

By daveamy at 2011-05-22

By daveamy at 2011-05-22

I was actually surprised at how little you could see the indentation I was talking about where the mud on the drywall was. However, when I went over it again, it CLEARLY became visible, and is like this now:

By daveamy at 2011-05-22

I'm a little peeved because it definitely wasn't like this when I finish sanded the wall - perfectly smooth. Now it looks like ****. Any ideas why? Did I do something to jack it up? In any case, this stuff is hard to sand, but sanding may be my only option. I don't know if I could mud that out again (if I can, please let me know and I will!).

I just don't get how it could have sunk in like that.

???

Oh well - we'll see what it looks like tomorrow then tackle it then.

One more thing - I have this footer going around the garage perimeter:

By daveamy at 2011-05-22

Any ideas on what to do with it? I'd kinda like to paint it the same color as the wall, but I don't know if using the wall paint on the concrete there is a no-no. Maybe the primer first? Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for all your interest and input! You're all helping to making this garage possible!

Red Leader · May 23, 2011

John Dillinger said:
I have one of those Craftsman Magnetic Jig Saws. The last time I plugged it in the breaker tripped. Have not had the heart to throw it out. It belonged to the old made next door . She is dead now she used to cut out Christmas ornaments in the 50's and 60's
JD

John, I would encourage you to post a classified over at the OWWM forum - someone would probably love to get it back to working shape again. Besides, they are a little uncommon (mine and another are the only two in the photo index there).

Apdl · May 23, 2011

Loving the old school tools

Kevin54 · May 23, 2011

You can mud over what you have, but you may end up with pinholes due to the mud softening the primer. So you may have to mud it a couple of times (very thin coats)

On the second pic, I see where you ran your drywall horizontally and your tapered seam is at the bottom. If it were me, I would look at something like a 5" baseboard and sit it on top of your 2x that is showing, then add a small trim on top of that to go down to the concrete foundation that hides the 2x. If you have no problems with moisture and want to paint the concrete, prime it with a primer that is compatible with concrete, then paint with your paint of choice

Red Leader · May 23, 2011

Kevin54,

Thanks for your thoughts on this - I have just a little bit of mud left...I'll add some water and see if I can touch it up a little. I went out this morning and the indentations were about 50% reduced ( I guess from drying) so its a lot better than it was, but still slightly visible.

I'll try the mud method and get it the best I can. My secondary plan is to use that mud line to paint on the racing stripe that will be a part of the paint scheme, so it will help to hide it as well within the colors.

Regarding your thoughts on the concrete footer, that is just about exactly what I was thinking too. I was going to put some wood trim all along the bottom and hide the drywall seam. I wasn't sure if you could paint concrete, but sounds like you can with primer. Since it won't get a lot of foot traffic (nearly none) I'm not as concerned with durability. I checked the can of the Glidden drywall primer I used and it does say it can be used on concrete. My concrete is dry and clean, so I'm hoping I can just clean all the dust of and go at it.

I'll probably be working on the wall filler this evening and will report back my findings.

Thanks again!

Red Leader · May 23, 2011

Apdl said:
Loving the old school tools

Thanks! I'm loving them as well! :beer:

Jack Olsen · May 23, 2011

I'm sure there are special primers for masonry/concrete. My old trick was to soak the concrete with water, let it get just dry enough to hold paint (still darker than dry concrete), and then apply the first of two coats. At least with latex, this is supposed to stop the concrete from pulling the water out of the paint too fast, which would normally lead to the paint peeling and flaking.

I haven't painted enough concrete to know if this is actually a good method or whether I've just been lucky.

thomask · May 23, 2011

RED LEADER

A retro garage, with retro tools, how cool!

Keep up the good work and don't give up, that drywall can really test your patience.

Hey, we will stay tuned and be supporting you 100%.

Red Leader · May 23, 2011

thomask said:
RED LEADER

A retro garage, with retro tools, how cool!

Keep up the good work and don't give up, that drywall can really test your patience.

Hey, we will stay tuned and be supporting you 100%.

Thanks for your encouragement! Posting a thread about this garage was a good idea - it is keeping me accountable and motivated to do the work out there!

Red Leader · May 23, 2011

Jack Olsen said:
I'm sure there are special primers for masonry/concrete. My old trick was to soak the concrete with water, let it get just dry enough to hold paint (still darker than dry concrete), and then apply the first of two coats. At least with latex, this is supposed to stop the concrete from pulling the water out of the paint too fast, which would normally lead to the paint peeling and flaking.

I haven't painted enough concrete to know if this is actually a good method or whether I've just been lucky.

Jack, I've heard of that method used before. From what I can tell, it can be pretty successful. However, leave it to me to screw something like that up :lol_hitti

I may end up going with a basic concrete primer just to be on the safe side.

Plan for today: Go look at trim at the extra build store, then fix (patch) the walls and see how they turn out.

Red Leader · May 23, 2011

Went to Extra Build.

WOW trim is expensive!!!

Best deal I found was about 3 1/2" poplar casing, regular square profile (don't really want anything fancy) - $.75 per L/F

Does that sound like a pretty good deal?

Another question - I was thinking of also putting this trim around the edge of the ceiling as well after I install a corrugated metal roof. Is there a specific reason why folks use the tapered casing and slant it at a 45 degree angle, vs just putting up some regular trim? Design? Appearance?

Zeke · May 23, 2011

Jack Olsen said:
I'm sure there are special primers for masonry/concrete. My old trick was to soak the concrete with water, let it get just dry enough to hold paint (still darker than dry concrete), and then apply the first of two coats. At least with latex, this is supposed to stop the concrete from pulling the water out of the paint too fast, which would normally lead to the paint peeling and flaking.

I haven't painted enough concrete to know if this is actually a good method or whether I've just been lucky.

This is an excellent method for painting raw plaster and stucco. Those 2 are thin and the residual moisture is not a lot by volume. Not so much for thicker concrete. A concrete primer with highest resistance to an alkaline substrate is what you want. That is, you want to buy a "100% Acrylic" primer that's made specifically to be used over fresh concrete (or fresh lime based plaster).

But, you have so little concrete and it's fully cured, I'd just use what you have.

On to the "mud line." You thought it was smooth and the prime coat showed up the flaws. Before priming, go into your new wall area at night with a flashlight laid flat on the wall. You will see every flaw in the light beam.

You can go over your primer with more mud all you want. Just reprime the repaired areas.

jktruck150 · May 23, 2011

Good looking place so far!

Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT 1950s Craftsman Garage retro remodel

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