Fast 383

iTrader: (2)

I began thinking of how good (or bad) some of you have it while I was bumping into the walls of my tiny 1 car garage yesterday. There's nothing like sliding all the way underneath your car with the 13mm,14mm and 15mm socket and realizing you needed the 16mm

Or lifting up your right arm to realize that it has been sitting in fluid up to your shoulder.

so anyway, here's how gangster my stuff is. Garage is 1 car wide and deep.
I have a decent craftsmen tool box and almost a full set of tools, lol. I don't have 1 set of sockets that isn't missing at least 1 socket. I randomly by sockets on Ebay to complete my sets. I never used a power tool on my car in my life.
I have one light in the whole garage which is a 60W bulb and a drop light that is plugged into it. I also have 1 of those BS anodised Big RED jacks from Pep boys that leaked all the hyfro fluid out of it in the first month. It jacks about an 1/8 at a time, lol.

The only thing I have thats any good is 5 ton industrial jack stands because I stole them from my brother and saftey is always first!

How about you guys? anyone worse off than me? Working out of the driveway would be the next step down.

Base91

iTrader: (1)

You have a garage!?!?!? A driveway?!?!? Well lah de freakin' dah!!

Base91

iTrader: (1)

I do have a two car garage but haven't been able to sqeeze a car in for 15 years so it's outside in the Summer only. I'm trying real hard to get my car in this Winter to do some work before autocross next year. I'd still only have one narrow bay though. But a long time ago I had to park with two wheels on the curb so I had room to crawl underneath. I swapped a 455HO and TH400 into a fist gen Firebird like that.

88IROC350TPI

backyard built... notice the car is only half-way on concrete as well... I've moved since but still no garage.

Fast 383

iTrader: (2)

Thats how you guys in Jersey do it, lol! J/K.
I'm assuming that is either an old picture or a ghost of your last car?

AlkyIROC

Technically a 2-1/2 car heated garage. There's enough room to put the race car in it and move around the car. I have had 2 vehicles in it plus my Harley but that leaves no room to move around or work. I have cabinets and shelving on the 3 walls plus lots of parts scattered everywhere else. There's at least 4 engines in different stages of tear down and a couple of trannys, Way too many parts taking up valuable room. There's also very little table space.

spade

iTrader: (3)

big bux over here....

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

My 89 lives in my 2 car garage, all alone, with the the Yamaha ATV.

I think i have a better pic, but there is more than enough room for me to work on her.

gtanut

i used to live on gravel ever tried to put a bbc in a car on gravel not easy i now have a 4 car garage that is not heated and full of every kind of car crap you can think of oh yea the garage is bigger than the house

blue85305

my dirt driveway.....

A.Delaney

I have a 26x28 garage. Insulated and heated. Its nice but I miss the days back in high school with my old crappy garage. It was in rough shape and the roof leaked bad. We had alot of fun in there though.

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

gravel driveway, and a carport


used to do all my work in the parking lot behind my apartment!

stealthroc89

Rock driveway, the car is the toolbox lol. The upside is, I can take it to work and have a crane, a never ending supply of air and access to welding machines. When they let me do it........ lol

Shagwell

Currently either my 2-1/2 car garage or my parent's(my dad and I do a lot together). We break ground Thursday on the lot beside my house for a 60x40 shop though, I can't wait!

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

that'll be awesome for you ****! that's what i'd love to do someday when i buy a chunk of land, probably going to be a modular home and then a good sized shop LOL

92 CaMaRo Rs

I have a big shop my gandfather had built before he passed. Got a air conitioned heated room and bathroom. Love the shop plenty of space.

Steel Armadillo

In "the barn"
Never mind the van, it's not mine. But that is the back of my Grand Prix.

Shagwell

Yeah, it's something I've wanted since long before even being of the age to own a house, lol. We've always worked out of the garage at home and always been limited accordingly. - I live out in the sticks, so picking up more land is not an issue. A good conrete block building to meet our wind codes isn't cheap though.

AlkyIROC

If I had an acreage, I'd have a garage/barn/workshop/etc bigger than my house

dirtrides2009

My car lives in my parents 2.5? car garage with their car and my streetbike until Im done highschool. (Then probably no garage for a while) But we also live on a farm so we have a barn thats a bit bigger than our house, half of its heated and concrete floored. All the air tools, welder, ect live there, but thats where the tractors live so not really any extra room.

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

i hear you there! i'm lucky enough that my actual race car is in my parents 2 car garage, but its been in paint jail for almost 3 years now lol. and you can imagine what kind of a snowball that project has been, starts as a paint deal, and then it turns into a full on chassis/motor/drivetrain/body build lol. and you know how hard that can be with no room lol

ChristianZ28

i have a 30something x 40 garage with a/c, radiant floor heat(the only way to go), hot/cold water and DIRECT TV. i am hopeing to get a lift next year. oh ya... floor drains that the water can actuly get in!!! and a frig that never runs out of beer!

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

i want a fridge like that one lol

stealthroc89

I have a garage with an attached house

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

here's the best i can find.







it stays a mess as i've always got atleast one car (if not two) apart in it at all times.

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

i do all my wrenching in a state of the art fabrication warehouse.


or in a tiny tiny 2 car garage filled with enough stuff to fill a pole barn in it.

jharrison5

Currently my IROC is in a one car garage filled full of a ton of other crap. Myself and three of my buddies are in the process of getting a shop. Once everything is said and done i will have access to a heated post lift paradise. February can't get here soon enough.

84olmpcboy

Well last winter I had to do my tranny swap in 20* weather in my driveway pushing snow around before I could even start. My dad did the same when the tranny went out in his truck. But come spring we got a house with a 2car garage on the house and a 40x60 Shop that came with it.

burns_2k

All my work's done on a gravel drive . At least my engine build is happening in a corner of my parents garage.

Shagwell

Matt = banner theif........

Stephen - I've probably asked before, but what kind of Harley do you ride? I've got and '06 "denim black" street bob.



And where does one aquire this "endless beer supply" fridge? I was cursing my regular fridge just last night.......

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

JP, that was given to me by the guys at Procharger, i didn't steal anything, lol! just clearing that up i also have an AFR, autometer, and moroso banners. my folks go to PRI every year and are friends with these guys, so they pick them up for me

honestly guys, i'm so committed to this sport at this point, that if we didn't have a shop with the house, then we would have built one...i've done tranny/converter swaps in the rain outside before (cause i had to have it back together, cause i was working the next day, etc) and it's for the birds...

Shagwell

lols - I was jfwy. I need to score some for myself though once the new shop is done.

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

been there done that too matt!


build a motor and put it in a friend's car because he had to drive almost 2 hours to school, same with when we did the trans, i've had to go through a 700r4 so i could make it to work the day after etc.

it really sucks lol

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

the 305 (that's still together in my dad's car btw) was put together in two and a half days. i had to:
-break down the 360 that was in the car
-have the 305 block rehoned as it had surface rust from sitting between usage
-have all the 305 pistons hung on the rods that came out of the 360
-i put it all back together using the eagle 350 crank (since the 305 crank had too much surface rust and no time to have polished), the bearings that came out of the 360, and a fresh set of rings. reused the cam and cylinder heads. only thing i bought was a set of head gaskets and intake gaskets. i reused everything else.

i tore into everything on a friday morning. i set timing and drove it sunday after church, then two weeks later i raced it and went 12.50 @ 107mph the motor has a bazillion miles on it now, and two bazillion blasts down the 1/4mile. we started it up last week. had 50psi oil pressure at idle, doesn't knock or overheat, and doesn't leak a drop of oil. the motor smokes a little on start up, and when you blip the throttle hard, but i can't complain consider all that motor has been through.

i have other stories of similar craziness from when i used to DD this car. i won't change having a secondary car and a real shop for anything now, lol!

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

ah the fun of having a toy as your daily driver! lol. sounds like it might be time for valve seals on it though.

Fast 383

iTrader: (2)

A guy here a the shop has a picture of him and his buddys sitting around a mid 70's Camaro drinking beer. 1 guy is sitting up in a tree opperating a makeshift hoist with a 355 hanging from a large branche. The picture is set in the early/mid 80's and there all sport'n mull-et haircuts and such. Good stuff!

Fast 383

iTrader: (2)

Thinking back to the old days and how good we had it....


My buddy Mike's father owned a 12 car body shop that he left him full rain of after 6PM and weekends. We used it from the time we were 16 to about 22 years old. This shop had 40 years worth of snap on tools in 3 packed boxes. Boxes of hardware and OEM components as far as the shelves would go. It had a fully functional paint booth that was usually empty. The shop had all the usualls, heat/air/welders/torches, etc...It was 2 doors down from the speed shop that filled the NOS bottles after hours. The owner had a pager and met us there.
We were Philly street racing junkies! We would work on our cars every night and race Fri/Sat/Sunday night all year around. Most of the time we would race till about 1 or 2AM and bring people back to the shop and have partys till 5AM.
Our cars wern't the fast around but for a bunch of degenerate 18 year old racers they were something. We had a shop full of T-types and GN's (my buddy and father were collectors), a low 11 seconed NOS Monte SS, An 87 aniversary Z28 Convertible with a 10 seconed GN drivetrain and my brother had a show car GN that ran high tens. We collected our share of money. That shop was the foundation for all of us growing up. Can't imagine not having it in those days.

Anyway, back to my 12X9 slab!

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Current day:
3-car garage, double door on the left two stalls. The '57 lives in the right (single door) stall. Whichever Camaro isn't being driven is in the middle stall. The wife's car gets the left stall unless whatever Camaro is in the middle stall has the drivetrain out and needs the space for working on. Have a bench, grinder (brush one side, stone on the other side), and vice. Under the bench are two 2-HP air compressors ganged together, and a Forney stick welder that is about as old as I am. In front of the Camaro is a tool chest. Between it and the bench is a 3-ton floor jack from Sam's Club (had it about 15 years). When needed, a cherry picker is brought home from the 10'x10' storage unit. Also have a couple of engine stands, several sets of jack stands, one set of ramps, tranny jack, various air tools, Sawsall.

Prior to this:
House in California had the garage converted to living space before we bought it. Had a good sized apron beside the house which would hold 3 cars. Painted the '57 by attaching a huge polytarp to the side of the house over and around the car. Also did the original 283/Powerglide swap to 350/TH350 outside the house, along with a '72 Luv cab/box swap & paint job, co-worker did a Mach I body change-out there, etc.

Before that:
Carport outside our duplex (college days). Did many jobs there in a little over 3 years. Had a 5'x5' tool shed attached in which I did a Buick V6 rebuild.

Before that:
Hobby shop on Fort Carson. Did several things there. Biggest hassle they gave me was when I was swapping the 302 SBC from the '57 I still own into another body I picked up. I had headers, no other exhaust, and they wouldn't let me bolt them up in the shop. I had to wire them up in the engine compartment, install the engine, then push the car outside to bolt up the headers. Insane!

Before that:
Stationed in Mainz, Germany. I was assigned to a maintenance unit that let us work on our cars in the shop after hours and on weekends. Did the V6 Vega swap there. Raced it at the Army air field in Hanau.

Before that:
Grew up on a farm in Nebraska. We built a "pole barn", ~30'x60', basically telephone poles along the perimeter, 2x6's between them, rafters, all covered with corrugated steel - at least it had a concrete floor. With zero insulation or ventilation, it was freezing cold in winter and blistering hot in summer. Had a nice long (20') work bench on one wall with a heating element in the concrete in front of it. Did the '57 (front clip, engine overhaul) in there during the dead of winter. The heating coil didn't extend far enough out to be completely under the car, so I kept all the tools I was using on the floor close to the bench so they would be warm when I needed them. Engine hoisting was via a chain hoist from a grain auger, suspended on a long railroad tie that was put across several rafters (never did a stress analysis on that arrangement, but the roof never caved in). The car would be rolled out from under the engine as it was hoisted out of the engine compartment.

3rdBird

iTrader: (1)

My place is a fully equipped 4500 sq ft shop that also doubles as a independent Goodyear tire dealer. Heres a pic of the shop with some "hot rods".

KWIK84

iTrader: (5)

24x24 attached to the house, cable, heat, fridge.... Already working on plans to make it a 24x48 within the next couple of years, so we can put our DD's under roof.

bracket rs

iTrader: (2)

mine

vette gator

I have the usual suburban 3/2 two-car garage. It's good for keeping two cars inside, but with two, there isn't much room to work around them. Every time I get garage envy, I think of my Dad who had to do everything in the driveway with really uneven pavement in the heat and cold of upstate New York. He would have thought my setup was heaven. The best part of my setup is the machine shop at work with a big bead blaster, presses, lathes, mills, a surface grinder, the works.

3rdBird

iTrader: (1)

Very nice. almost TV worthy.

jbenge

iTrader: (2)

Heres mine, it works well for what I do. It has enough space for 3 cars and a decent amount of room to work. When I was looking for a new house a couple years ago my main requirement was that it had to have atleast a 3 car garage. I've finally got a decently equipped garage: good tool selection, air compressor, sink, engine hoist, tv etc. If I ever move again I would like to have a detached garage with a lift.

My last house had a small 2 car garage. I would have to pull out the 2nd car to work on anything. And would have to back the car almost halfway out to have enough room to pull the engine.

Working outside in a driveway is no fun I used to have to do that back in college.

Kat

iTrader: (4)

In my driveway or on the side of Mike's garage at his house. lol

JesasaurusRex

iTrader: (3)

lil 2 car, fits on the open with the Datsun next to it and the door closes so i'm happy

HankL69

iTrader: (1)

Here is mine. I built the house 30 years ago with a slightly oversized two stall attached garage. About 8 years ago I added two more stalls to the back of the existing garage with a 16 ft. overhead door seperating them. My only regret is not putting in floor heat in. (and of course not making it bigger).



And just so you don't think it is just for show

Please excuse the first gen.... I don't have any pics of the IROC with work being done.

billybob6110

i got my racer stored/worked on in a 2 car garage, fireplace, cable television, and of course my summer toys are in there to plus our d.d.

Primetime91

iTrader: (15)

I hate some of you guys... Lol

Gotta do my work in the driveway. But I've got all the power tools, so can't complain too much I guess. Except for when &%$#@! winter rolls around

Kyle86

iTrader: (1)

If I have to do any serious work, I rent a 10x30 storage room from time to time. Feels like it's smaller than a 1 car garage. No power either, but my dad has a gas generator I can run lights off.