Projects It's time for a complete garage overhaul

Listed under projects because my garage needs an overhaul.
Over the weekend I realized I just can't work in there anymore. I can't walk from the front to the back without tripping on something, bumping into something else, or knocking something over. The roof in the back is leaking and ruining all my goodies on the shelves.
I looked around and realized I have zero organizational skills, 57 Chevy stuff mixed with early Ford stuff, shelves overflowing with electrical parts next to suspension parts- chaos!
Yesterday I patched the roof to get me through the winter (new roof trusses and shingles this spring)
Today I pulled out the roadster, took all the***** off the top of a Model A chassis, and threw away a truck full of***** (mostly house stuff). I got the chassis yanked out and cleaned more. File cabinet, 2 old kitchen cabinets, and 3 broken down shelving racks all going in the dumpster this week.
I feel like a million bucks already, been suffering for too long.

 

Plans:
New narrow shelving along side walls made with 2x4s and plywood. This will allow me to organize my parts.
More small drawers for bolt, fasteners, clips,etc.
Have my brother and nephews add outlets on side walls and back wall
Plumb in hose reel to compressor
And in the spring a new roof and back wall

 

Good for you! My garage is only 5 years old, same as the house, but already crammed with all of the detritus that I have an affinity to collect. A certain nephew will probably end up with the residue eventually.

 

Same footprint but more head room, rafter space, and a side man door. What do you think?

 

One of my friends had an overabundance of stuff. He had the best idea for a yard sale I've ever seen. His prices were low enough to attract people but then, he sweetened the deal. If you bought an item, you had to take something else with you as well. He didn't force junk on you, just good stuff that he was never going to use again. When the sale was over, there was very little that he had to throw away.

 

I need to drag everything outside and start over with mine.
Side note though. File cabinets especially the heavy 4 or 5 drawer make great "for the specific project" parts storage. Heavy stuff in the bottom and the more delicate pieces like gauges and ornaments up in a top drawer.

 

Like this

 

Standing in the open bay where this chassis was for a long time, tons left to clean and organize but made big progress today

 

What year was the garage built?

 

My wife wanted to take some stuff out of the house so we moved it into the garage which forced some of my stuff in the garage into the other garage where I do all my work. She is happy; me, not so much.

 

Unsure, garage was built from parts from a barn or another structure long ago. It's 20x21ft and pretty cool. House is 1873

 

We moved 2.5 years ago. We have a 32x38 triple garage with 12 ft ceilings. One bay for the wife, the rest for me (one of my bays has a four post lift). It's amazing how disorganized I can be. Now I know what doesn't work for me for organization in the garage, I need to come up with a better plan and fast.

Following along for ideas to see what you end up doing on yours.

 

Wishing you progress. Gave myself a kick in the hind end to finish the other part of my shop so I can put up shelves and get organized myself. Going to jettison stuff I don’t need. Pointless to hoard any longer

 

I've been working on my shop for nearly 2 years now, I'm now just ahead of the point of your current organization.
My garage started out at 24' x 24', then I added another 8' x 24' to the one side (there is still most of that wall standing between the original and the added space). I ran a welding shop out of that shop for 20 + years. Last winter was the 1st time in 20 years we could put 2 cars in that shop at the same time!

 

Good work dude, certainly a theraputic exercise doing this sorta thing.

The size of that tree in your driveway!!! can tell the house is old just by that haha.

Keep the update pics coming

J

 

Side door is a must. Doubles as fire escape and ventilation. You seem excited

 

Good deal. Gotta have room!
What's that Olds engine?

 

X2 on side door as 34 GAZ said also maybe check where yer electrical outlets and lights are - me ol eyes need bright lights to see - take yer time and plan well - good luck

 

You can get truss with a room built in, would your layout allow for that?

 

When my ‘58 went out for paint I took advantage of the time and gave the garage a complete overhaul. Everything went into a rented storage container in the driveway then I finished the sheet rock, painted, installed race deck flooring and replaced all the mismatched storage with cabinets from U-Line. When it came time to empty the container I purged a lot of junk, giving it away or hauling it to the scrap dumpster at work.

The wife is happier and I have a nice place to hang out and play with my old cars. It took a month start to finish…

 

My garage is best described as organized chaos. So bad that I have cars and parts stored offsite. Even though it is full, I keep an 8x8 dedicated work area to use. Keep the storage pics coming.

 

Went through a partial reorganization of mine a few weeks ago. Bought another 46” x 28” Husky box with the butcher wood top, finally got 95% of my tools organized and under lock and key.
Had a renter on some of our property decide to move out, he had bought a 12’ x 24” wooden storage building with a roll up steel door and a steel man door on the side, he decided he didn’t want to have it moved, so he sold it to me, cheap. Got it moved here to the house for $500, built a ramp up to the big door, started moving yard equipment into it. Opened up two bays in my 22’ x40’ add on carport, now I can get everything under a top again. Still got some stuff to move out of it, then I plan on getting the floor poured before winter.

 

I think we can all relate to this! I have more***** around the outer walls of my garage than I can stand, and like you, cannot move one thing or walk around my car without tripping over or banging into something and knocking it over. I already have shelving all around the upper wall area and racks to contain parts on, but somethings gotta go. I have parts I have tried to sell with no luck but I suspect I'll be giving***** away as the only way to clear it out. It's that or start scrapping stuff like flathead connecting rods, valve springs, dropped steering arms, and on and on. Nothing huge but it all accumulates taking up space.

 

Wheeldog57,

I'm in the same boat as you, cant walk from front o back in my garage without having to step over everything!! And it is 30 X 50!! It didn't help that I am doing an epoxy floor in the house (wife's) garage. My garden tractor with loader and leaf vac are also in there. And my 2 cars. Ugh, I cant stand it. And I'm not an organizer either....takes sooo much mental activity. Remember, no matter how big you make the space it will get filled up with something.

 

I'm on the same wavelength, threw away a pile of old stereo equipment that is worthless and would have never been used, a hoard of plastic bits from off topic cube body pickups, and anything else that was in the way. Now for the other half of my 2 car garage.... Yes!!!

 

Any chance you could expand sideways to increase footprint of gar? Keep the saltbox look, or even end-up looking like a reg roof w/both sides extended? Still time to pour before it freezes & could build walls n roof then dry-it-in during winter, if not too much snow or horrible cold. Can finish insides, then move current gar stuff in that area & finish-out the current space. Just an S-load of work & time... .

Hmmm, I can see floor there, better than mine was - & sorta still is. I refinished the outside of the garage, then wired, insulated, & 'rocked the inside. Redid the roof late last yr. Now working on organizing the re-fill-up, as there's still more stuff than usable floor. I've finally figured out that too much, is, actually, too much. Selling stuff, well, that never works out well for me... I've found out I can lose $$$ selling free stuff. ;( .
Marcus...

 

Thanks for the input and encouragement.
As far as adding onto footprint, I cannot widen the garage at all BUT I can (and have thought about it quite a bit) adding more to the back. 4-6ft. This'll obviously add floor space but it'll also keep the wood burner stove from being in the corner. All while raising the back wall to 8ft because at 6ft5in it currently is a pain in the neck, literally!
@chevy57dude the big Oldsmobile is going in the Chevy when I gather a few more pieces.
Need higher compression pistons, stick flywheel, and clutch disk. Plans are 455, tunnel ram, Muncie M20, 4.10 posi- yeehaa!

 

My suggestion is to extend the roof but keep it on about the same angle and cover it with metal roofing. A lean to with an 8' roof is great for most work and cheap to build compared to building a larger shop.


Here is what I did with about a 12 foot wide lean to.

The picture above is how it looks now. The picture below is how it looked earlier on.


This was how it looked before I changed a few things as shown in the first picture.


Looking toward the opposite end of the lean to. What you can't see in the picture is a 4' shear and some more cabinets and shelving on the wall opposite these cabinets. The point here is that you can get a lot of the things out of your way and organize them.......and still have some room to work if you do it right.





Here is a pallet rack/workbench

 

Make sure that the neighbors can't see the man door. Mine opens to the woods behind my house. Good for an emergency bio-break... especially if you were previously partaking in the libations.

 

Post this over on our sister site www.garagejournal.com . Lots of cool ideas there!