The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Workshops and Garages Show us your shop! Where you work on your Stovebolt!!

The first picture is where I'll do some fabricating when not on the clock. Usually on break time, before shift or after shift. Plenty of metal bending tools, milling tools and welders. Otherwise, a lot of work will get done in my little garage/home shop. Yeah, I currently have a Model A in there. For more space, I added a tent on the side of the house to get some painting done. Temporary for a few years. Finally got rid of those Craftsman boxes and replaced it with a single top and bottom. Now I can use the space that was wasted between them. Maybe, someday, I'll take a picture of that new box. Pales in comparison to the work box.

My almost-Stovebolt, '53 Bel Air on the 10k lb 2-post asymmetric lift. 4-bay garage, 2 bays used as my shop.

The '66 Penn Yan has moved on, but that photo shows the layout fairly well. High bay on the right two slots.

The Nissan Titan gets some time on the lift, and also has to provide motivation for parts hauling. That particular trailer load was a year ago - the complete engine and drivetrain from a '53 Bel Air with Powerglide, including the torque-tube rear-end assembly.

Doug

No pics necessary in my case. Just imagine a pathway through a 2 car garage passable only if you turn sideways,
My defense is that I run a busy shop...

I’ll clean up first and get some!

The BillyBob Shop in '16 and '19. I went from 1200 sf to 1900 sf when the new landlord forced me into to more space to stay.

[img]https://www.laroke.com/larryk4674/2016/bb081016am.JPG[/img]

[img]https://www.laroke.com/larryk4674/2019/bb022719am.jpg[/img]

[img]https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/download/Number/33513/filename/2020 Garage.jpg[/img]

Heres my little garage...

No link for your pics

26x36 with an open 24x20 shed end. Woodworking and truck mechanics are incompatible in the same room. Shed end will be closed in, insulated for compressor, bench, vise, rolling toolboxes and heating system. Timber frame addition to the shed end for truck restoration. Gable end 90 degrees to building facing driveway. (T shaped ). Will have open shed roof for tractor.

Attic trusses used for loft and clear floor span. 10'-5" ceiling height. 200 Amp service. Built on a budget. Started framing after work on a Friday. Had last wall standing by Sunday night. No help. Built 12 foot sections to lift by myself. Good for woodworking not for a gantry crane or lift.

Note - 4 speaker surround system. I dance alone.

A typical 18ft by 20ft 2 car garage attached to a 4 bedroom colonial on 1/2 acre with shared driveway backing to forest retention acreage of a 135 unit subdivision. Very tight use of space provided but fortunate wife agreed stovebolt vehicles too valuable to continue use of a harbor freight tent garage. Enjoy the pics! V/r, Nick

A little wider than a two car garage, and two car lengths long.

You guys make me jealous.
I just added a 10x10 Shed in a Box on the front of my garage. It gives me a little more space to put stuff so I can actually get some work done.
You should have seen it when the earthquake hit a few years ago. It took me two weeks to even get back to where I could work in it. It did force me to clean up a bit.

I am not going to post about my paradise garage.
I do not deserve it.
It came with the house that our daughter found for us in NC (we moved from upstate NY in 2015/2016 after retiring).
She wanted the outdoor swimming pool - she knew that the incredible garage would seal-the-deal for me.
The former owner worked on stock-cars/race-cars/muscle cars.

The housing market was dead at that time - we got a good deal (but, we could have done better if I had known about how government mortgage auctions worked).

You guys are just showing off! I work under a carport.

Oh, please do! We would love to see it!

Wayne I would just love to have a roof.

It always looks worse , before it gets better

You would think the owner/developer of a web site like this would have a nice garage (like Tim's) ...

I *used* to. Sigh ...

John, nothing like starting over again. You do have a roof and walls.

"You would think the owner/developer of a web site like this would have a nice garage (like Tim's) ...", John Milliman.

John & Others,

John set me off to post this long rant/recollection. Please delete/destroy/move this post as you see fit, John.

I left a gigantic garage complex behind with my house in NY. It had five garage-bays and plenty of attic/second-floor storage over two of the garage bays. We lived in that house/garage from 1978-2015. I completely gutted/renovated the house/garages.

The original 1795 NY house (originally a big-old 16' x 16' shack/house) was added onto (in 3-4 stages). That first "house/shed" was/is a second-hand hand-hewn post-and-beam 1795 shed/cabin/shack (the oldest continuously inhabited structure in my very old Rensselaer County - near Ichabod Crane's famous ride).

I have stories/explanations about why the house/owner/dutch-family was settled here. I won't further bore you with those stories (unless you ask).

But, I will bore you with these stories:

The 1888 32'x32' 2-floor addition had two rooms and one inside "bath room" (there was no inside bath/water in the original house/shed). There were no closets. Water came from a well - the well had to be relocated every 20-40 years (another story).

My wife did not disown me during the 25+ years-long gut/renovation of the house (and, garages).

During 25 years of ownership/residency, I added-to and rebuilt the garages into a gigantic complex (with a lot of help from my neighbors). The garages "complex" had plenty of electricity and plenty of compressed air (all built/installed by me and my neighbors).

We moved from NY-to-NC in 2015-2016. All my NY Advance-Design/New Design junk/parts/vehicles/tools had to be stored in our new home in NC (seven garage bays of junk).

Luckily, my daughter found a beautiful house in Jarvisburg NC with a 60'x 24' 3-bay two-story garage - one bay was tall enough for my 1954/55 2-ton very-long-bed beautifully-restored-by-me-and-my-friends GMC COE truck (which I later gave away as a gift).

I bought that NC house/property (another story) that now has an insulated/cooled/heated gigantic 3-4 large-bay garage.
It was build by the original owner for working on "race/stock cars".

The one wide-bay has a full-height roof with a 30' peak. It is tall enough to put my Suburban on a new four-post lift (for an old man to never have to crawl under an old truck).

Ain' life grand?
I will die here.

My two grand children will have an inheritance that will allow both of them to build garages to store her/his 1954 truck (a 3106 Suburban or a Deluxe 3104 Hydra-Matic pickup).

I apologize for boring you with my life-story of accruing (1948-1955st) Stovebolt-engine Advance-Design/New-Design era GM trucks.

As I posted above: John set me off to post this rant recollection. Delete/destroy as you see fit, John.

Ain't life grand?

Tim

Here's my shop...

Mike B

Tim -- I'm not deleting that!! That's a wonderful story! Thanks for sharing.

Mike B ... well, what can I say ... Having been in your Garagemahal more than a few times ... I'm glad *somebody* has one like that!

What do they say? It's not the size of the dog in the fight.............

I am with Craig. I would just like a roof. Here is my shop. I do everything in my driveway. If you are determined, you don't need a professional shop to work on theses trucks. Just the will and sometimes a little creativity.

This is right after I cleaned it up. The main portion is thru the wide door. This is pretty much the paint booth part.

Nice!!

Are you trying to out-Carl Carl here?

Yep, but it has a roof...

The first picture shows the driveway where I did my 235 --> 261 swap. The garage was owned by Mrs. Wally's Buick in the winter.

The 2nd is where I did front end work. Got the garage in the warmer weather.

Third pic is a stitched panorama of my messy shop at our western Washington place. Over there, it's old Mercury outboards.

I got a cheap car tent set up at the end of the road, motivation to keep on the project and get it running, so I can move it off the city street and into a secure location!

Where did you get that? HF? I did some searching yesterday to see what kind of options there are. I found a lot of "Not in Stock"/"Not Available" options. It would be nice to have a cover while working out in the elements in the driveway. The only issue I can see here in my location, is the homeless population wanting take up residence in it, and walking off with parts while I am not working on my truck.

I bought a "Shed in a Box" made by Shelter Logic from the local hardware store. They had a sale on them. The 10' x 10' x 8' one I got was about $250. They make "Garage-in-a-box" sizes also. If you were just going to store a vehicle, mine would be wide enough, but a little short. And at 10' wide at the bottom, it's too narrow to be able to work on a vehicle sized object in it. I left the solid back panel out so I could still get into the garage.

Kevin, when I was pipelining in ND I noticed a neighbor in the RV park setting up stakes by his camper and then a load of lumber and plywood showed up. Being the curious (some say noisy) type I wandered over. He was trying to figure out how to square a wood floor for a Garage in a box he'd purchased at Mernads. Yep, I was roped in. Showed him the 3-4-5 trick and helped him set the 2x6 border boards with bracing just like you'd do if poring concrete. His plan was to set joist on the ground and cover with plywood and park his Dodge 3500 dually inside the garage N-A box. My suggestion was put a sheet of heavy visqueen down and fill the floor enclosure with sand and then cover with plywood and use screws on everything for the extra holding power.

Well, surprise of all surprises it worked. Reason for not going with concrete is the RV Park owners would not allow permanent additions, so no concrete. We screwed the sides and support structure to the floor and it made an amazingly tight structure.

After that project, anytime a somewhat complicated project or question came up guess who the go-to consultant was. I did get a Lot of free beer.

That heavy duty gray Mernads garage-in-a-box survived 3 brutal Watford City, ND winters before it was all taken apart after the neighbor passed.

RonR

Ron, I was wondering about how it would handle snow. I talked to a friend in Homer who has one on his property, and he said he takes the cover off for winter. I think I need to do that, as mine is right up against the house and snow sliding off piles up next to the siding. Also, mine is just sandbagged as far as securing to the ground. I don't want the frame to spread and get damaged. I squared it up before putting the cover on, but I'm sure it has moved around a bit. I don't think ND gets as much snow accumulation as we do (it probably blows away )

I had one at my previous house. I layed 2x6s flat on the ground on the sides and one end. Held the 2x6s down with 18-24" rebar hammered in at an angle. Held perfectly in the wind. My brother had about the same thing, retained with sandbag or something. The wind lifted it and smashed against his car. That was my incentive to avoid that.

Dennis

Well, heres an outside shot. I need to clean up inside to take a picture there!!!

That's right Alvin I'll post on for you.

Just so you don't feel bad...

I saw an ad on craigslist, a local company Aleko, they do mail order too. It is cheap and the documents said to not leave it set up in the sun. It's been outside for a year now and showing signs of age. The straps to keep the door open ripped off, a rope disintegrated, and I replace one zipper. It does it's job to deter curious eyes and keep the rain off, but it is not secure. I bought one from harbr freigt years ago, set it up, came home to find it upside down from the wind. I wanted a better quality one this time, but for $200 I won't complain.

Our shop is nothing but a large car port. But in Texas there are a lot more days when it is too hot to work than it is too cold to work. It consists of an 80 year old warehouse that my father had and we moved it to its present location to use for a parts room almost 50 years ago. We kept cobbling on more and created a bigger junk pile. We have rebuilt a lot of Cummins Diesel engines as well as GMC gas engines, transmissions and rears there. We do a lot of suspension work and I still have a lot of used rear cutoffs for parts. And I used to do body work on my old jalopies. I used to work out there on my jalopies at night and weekends to keep space to maintain the fleet that pays for my hobby. I don't get a whole lot done any more. I will be 78 in a couple of weeks.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SS1gu1a93PHC3xsc8

Whenever I find myself complaining about the lack of space in my shop I try to remind myself that for the first 5 or 6 years I owned a car my tool box contained 2 open end wrenches, a spark plug wrench, and 2 screwdrivers and it took 40 years to get here.
I used to keep the tractor in the basement but when I traded for a diesel the smell when starting it is too bad. I used to keep the truck in the basement but now I have a fuel leak that I hope to get to this winter.

Here is mine