Married??? DO NOT TRY THIS!!!!!

Turning the Master Bedroom into a shop! This is my shop build thread.

I'm at a time where there's no one to bitch about anything I feel like doing to my house. Sooooo, since I like having lots of room to work and mess with car stuff I'm doing a little "remodeling". LOL The house is a ranch with the master bedroom next to the garage so I decided to create a shop out of the master bedroom that will open into the garage and move myself into one of the other bedrooms. For a car guy that enjoys having a nice well lit work area this is going to be awesome!

Not much money for this so, I've gotta be very creative. I've been planning this for a bit and been collecting things to work with. I've told everyone I know here, (new in town) that I'm building a shop and anything that's usefull they see getting thrown out or whatever to please let me know.

1st up is a heavy duty metal work table with a thick top and Formica surface, it was Free. Just had to pick it up and assemble it. Neighbors work place was tossing it last year.

I wanted a large work table I can spread things out on if I'm doing interiors or other projects that need a lot of work space. A friend had some random non-matching kitchen cabinets that came from a store display that he'd gotten for free. He also had several pieces of plywood with veneer on them from someone who'd been remodeling a big yacht at the marina where he kept his boat. He wanted it all out of the way. So FREE for me! SCORE!

I painted the cabinets with some deck paint so they'd all be the same color and coated the plywood with polyurethane after some fitting, sanding etc. Looks like maybe Mahogeny and Walnut or Oak? In any case it's much nicer plywood than I would have bought and will make a great work table! Accessories later on...

Fixed images

edit: nevermind, beat to it

I wrote the post on another forum and copied and pasted here because I thought folks might find it interesting but the image links got messed up. I've done it before, not sure why the links got tangled up.

Anyway on with the topic. I'll fix the pics if they don't come right up. I had some slatwall, hooks, displays etc. left from a bicycle store I used to own so it's going up in the new shop!

I keep putting a little time each day into the shop build. I put about a half dozen coats of polyurethane on the pieces for the big table. I've got a thing about vices soooo the shop will have several varying types and sizes. They will also be able to be moved to other positions on the bench/s because sometimes you just want a certain vice somewhere else.

I'll be using T-nuts to secure the vices on the bottom with bolts cut to length so that I can position the vices where I think they'll be most convienient without concern for where the bolts will be on the underside. This way even if the bolt would hit a cabinet or other support underneath it won't matter because they will be flush. Each vice will have a different color with the bolts and holes for each color coded to make it easy to move the vices wherever I want, quickly, or remove them all so I can do headliners or other big projects without any vices in the way.

I found a roll-a-way bed that was thrown out which became a donor for a piece of right angle steel that will be used to secure the bench/table to the wall so it can't move when twisting something with a lot of force in one of the vices.

Since there's no hot babe needing lots of closet space, the closet is now part of the shop and gets a tall bench. Like vices, I'm kinda picky and like to have varying height benches for different types of jobs. So far I have a 34", 36", and a 41" with the closet bench being the tall one. It'll be great for electrical work on small stuff.

Good on you. Keep posting updates so we can live vicariously through you.

Very nice.

Jay Leno talked about going to some older guys house who had all the rooms full of 1956 Buicks and the kitchen cabinets were all full of carb parts.

Jay Leno asked him.....Married? guy answers......no

LOL

pete240z wrote: Jay Leno talked about going to some older guys house who had all the rooms full of 1956 Buicks and the kitchen cabinets were all full of carb parts. Jay Leno asked him.....Married? guy answers......no LOL

My home was burglarized and destroyed. It's waaaaay upside down because the insurance wouldn't cover the damage so it isn't worth fixing. Not sure how long I'll be here. The "experts" all say "Walk Away!". So for now I resemble the Buick guy. I put a cheap tub toilet and sink in one bath so I could live in the house at least. READ YOUR POLICYS!!!!!

Kitchen

Bath, note shower controls.

As part of the larger plan, it's time for a quick garage makeover to go with the shop. I've got some projects to work on and it's just too crowded and disorganized to work on a car. I've got upgrades on the Firebird to do and an engine swap, suspension, and exhaust to get done on the Malibu.

Not sure if I'll still be in the house a year from now so I'm not getting carried away with trying to build the "dream" garage. This just needs to be clean and well lit so I can work. Here's a couple "before" pics.

Setting up a nuts, bolts, small parts, bin area in the garage. Only about 300 more screws to finish installing the brackets after this pic! Had the bins and mounts left from a store I used to own.

Time to re-zone your house to "Commercial!"! Dig the F-Bodies...

I love the title of this thread!

If I have one too many car books on the nightstand, I hear about it. I can imagine her reaction if she found an intake manifold lying on the coffee table. My wife doesn't give me a hard time about much, but she wants the house ship-shape.

Wow...

And... how many tool boxes do you have? I count 6 identical black ones plus the old red one...

I love the idea of mounting the bolt bins on plywood that is then mounted to the wall. WAY easier to move them that way.

Ian F wrote: Wow... And... how many tool boxes do you have? I count 6 identical black ones plus the old red one...

After the house was cleaned out, I saw a closeout sale on some inexpensive boxes at the Depot, $39.95 each. You know the type, kinda flimsy and not heavy duty enough to stay put when you open and close the drawers etc. but they're functional. I went home and measured the space where they are now and decided 6 would fit. Went right back to Depot and bought the 5 they had left. Had another Depot hold one for me and picked it up later.

Since garages are sloped slightly I put them all in place and turned the wheels so they'd want to roll sideways instead of away from the wall when opening drawers. Then bolted them all together making them much more solid and more difficult to steal. Then greased the sliders well so the drawers function pretty good.

Here's a better pic of them just after assembly while we were sorting and filling them up. Thats my bud Steve that helped me move my car crap after the partial reconstruction. Being a car guy and moving long distance is a pain. Trannys, rears, engines, cars, engines, etc are a lot of work to keep shuffling around loading unloading etc.

DILYSI Dave wrote: I love the idea of mounting the bolt bins on plywood that is then mounted to the wall. WAY easier to move them that way.

Yup, there's sheetrock screws holding the plywood to the studs and then 1/2" # 12's holding the brackets to the plywood. I do expect I'll be moving.

ArizonaGT wrote: Time to re-zone your house to "Commercial!"! Dig the F-Bodies...

Already have business license! LOL I've had a lot of F bodies over the years but I'm not a "brand" guy so I used a pic for the tool box post with a blue oval for ya!

Oh, you're the dude the won some contest if I remember.....I remember the car more than anything. Love that car. Cool project. I'm married, so I can only dream about it.

how, pray tell, did a burglar destroy your house to the extent that you have no bathroom? And also, how, did said idiot not make off with your SS?

Regardless, cool idea.

Teh E36 M3 wrote: how, pray tell, did a burglar destroy your house to the extent that you have no bathroom? And also, how, did said idiot not make off with your SS? Regardless, cool idea.

I was wondering the same, but figured that if he wanted to share, he would have. Seems like an odd situation.

I am also interested in the story on the burgle. I also wonder what's implied by read your policies?

Um, looks like you won't be marrying anytime soon I'm doing something similar.

put hooks in ceiling to use with roped devices that can support up to 300 lbs and boom its still a bedroom

Thanks for the slatwall idea. I'm adding insulation to the north end of our attached garage (north side of the house), and was wondering what to cover it with.

Have you priced marine-grade plywood? SCORE The only thing I've ever been offered for free, was an ass kicking.