My "Grassroots" Garage

EDIT: Long-overdue updates (December 2018) posted down the page...

Was sitting around last night reading an old GRM issue where Tim writes about setting up his garage using inexpensive furniture, leftover lumber, and non-standard stuff ("on the cheap"). Anyhow, thought I'd share some of the ideas I've come up with to pack maximum "car-working-area" into my garage (which is much smaller and not as nice as meister Suddard's, I might add). I think I posted up some pics a while back on the old forum, but have added alot since then.....Anyhow, here are some photos and I'll try to point out any ideas that might be useful to anyone reading. And of course, I'm certainly open to suggestions on how to do things better or arrange things better (aside, of course, from kicking my wife's 4Runner out of "her side" of the garage, which she says will most definitely not happen!) Anyhow, here is what I have to work with. Keep in mind I have to leave space for my still-unfinished GT6 restoration too. Thankfully, it's a small car and doesn't take up too much space Going front to back - this is my little area for all my car cleaning/detailing/maintenance stuff. I like it near the door since it's oviously used mostly out in the driveway. Old closet shelves work well for this stuff, since it's not all that heavy. The cabinets on the wall are from a buddy's kitchen. The blue/white shelves are from when I was a kid 25 years ago, from my bedroom. Overview of "my" bay. On the right is a shelf holding our recycling bins, some house paint, and other stuff. Used to be a laundry room shelving unit.

This is a recent addition - an old closet shelf flipped to hang stuff on. Not ideal, but just playing with ideas here. Need to get some pegs for the peg wall to hang stuff on

another angle of the side shelving, showing where my clamps and stuff are hung so they don't take up drawer space, etc.

This is my "loft" made mostly of leftover 2x4's and plywood and painted black. It gets the stuff I don't use often out of the way, incluidng our travel box for the 4Runner. Eventually I will get rid of the legs and hang it from the ceiling.

for the time being, the legs work well for hanging coats, extension cords, brooms, etc

The shelf wraps around to the sides too, to hold other gear and as a loft above my tool box and bench. I specifically built this to fit tires perfectly on top and my bench/box below

wrapping around to the bench. The bench is actually an old soundboard table from a music production studio. It weighs about 200 lbs and is impossible to bend or break. I had the heavy iron longblock from the GT6 sitting on it for a while.

underneath I keep random stuff. Want to put some cabinets there once I find some secondhand ones

hanging from the loft above the bench is a cheap audio receiver with iPod hookup. It is wired to four old boombox speakers in the corners of the garage. Sound isn't great, but it's usually being drowned out by tool noises anyhow. Hung using old pantry shelfs and some steel cable.

some cheap wal-mart lights under the hutch for bench lighting

gear is stuck wherever it will fit!

another angle

facing out. Lights, hanging lights, and other stuff (old swaybars) hanging from the "loft" using various hooks and eyebolts I had lying around

Sadly, the other side of the garage has little room to work with and is clogged up with non-garage stuff like strollers and shoes

Here was the garage when we moved in about 18 months ago. Sadly, the car did not come with the house

And about 12 months ago when the GT6 restoration started...pretty bare!

Luckily, I do have a "third bay" in the backyard that holds all the house spares (screens, doors, ladders, etc) as well as large car-related stuff (engine hoist, bins of heavy parts, extra panels and glass, etc). Would like to finish this "shed" up better this summer and make it more usable.

this is an old pic when it had the GT6 tub in it..

I spend all my free time i can in my garage. I love garages.

One thing i do is try to keep all boxes and parts off the floor. This makes it easy to wash the floor and mentally helps with the local field mice we get.

I try to funnel all my woodworking stuff to the basement as i now have two shops.

I also rotate rarely used stuff to my basement which is larger. Wheelbarrow and lawnmower in the winter. Small Toro snowblower is stored in the crawlspace all summer.

Summer rakes and winter snow shovels rotate into the attic.

Pete, eventually I'd like to turn about half of the "shed" into a woodworking area. but as of right now it doesn't have power, insulation, and has a plywood floor....projects, projects, projects!

Well done. Excellent use of limited space.

As a broke apartment dweller with two very young children and nothing interesting to drive, I am very, very jealous.

Well done, sir.

Thanks for the ideas. I'm working on the new garage now. You've given me some ideas.....

^ I hear you..I spent over 10 years living in a townhouse (no garage) with parallel parking out front. Lugging all my gear up from the basement to work on the car out front was tons of gun

I am so insanely jealous of clean people with good organizational skills. Here's my filthy unorganized slut of a basement as she sits:

irish44j - you have a nice setup. it is kind of mandatory that old stereo receivers end up in the garage.

my wife will come out to see what i am doing out in the garage ............."nothing, just organizing and puttering around".....

some guys can kill 1/2 a day on the golf course, i can kill 1/2 a day puttering around the garage doing "stuff"

it's only organized after I clean it periodically (like thsi morning). half the time you can't even put anything on the workbenches, they're so piles with random tools and parts.. My garage has looked like yours at points in time, lol.

love the framed photos hung on the open insulation though

poopshovel wrote: I am so insanely jealous of clean people with good organizational skills.

You and me both. My garage looks so bad right now, that I get chills every time I have to go into it for a tool or something. I can't wait until it warms up a bit so I can clean it out.

poopshovel wrote: I am so insanely jealous of clean people with good organizational skills. Here's my filthy unorganized slut of a basement as she sits:

I'm sorry for your plight, but glad I'm not the only one.

oh and this one, just because it looks cool

Irish44: I love your use of space.

Two things; What looks like a sway bar hanging from your elevated shelf, that just looks like something I would hit my head on repeatedly. But I can't really tell how high it is from the pictures. Also, about your c-clamps and the like. I have found that clamping them to rafters, wall studs or "legs" of something or the other in a odd spot gets them way out of the way until you need them.

I noticed a kitchen chair, do you have a stool?

I finally took some pictures of a "clean" bay, which is odd because I only seem to be motivated to clean before I start a project. Since I love garage pics no matter how messy, and I finally have some to share, here is my cleaned bay!

Here is my organized work bench. Seriously.! If you remove the few cardboard boxes in the middle in front of the drill press, that's as clean as it gets!

And now that I'm in the middle of a clutch job+waterpump+sending unit+ abs+ door adjustment "winter project" Its allot messier!

Thanks for sharing your pics!

P.S. I love gt6's, love yours and love how your floor jack dwarfs the car!

daytonaer wrote: Irish44: I love your use of space. Two things; What looks like a sway bar hanging from your elevated shelf, that just looks like something I would hit my head on repeatedly. But I can't really tell how high it is from the pictures. Also, about your c-clamps and the like. I have found that clamping them to rafters, wall studs or "legs" of something or the other in a odd spot gets them way out of the way until you need them.

thanks, yeah the swaybars are just hanging there temporarily to remind me that I need to sell them (the're the stockers from my 09 wrx, which are an upgrade for the 08 guys). And they're only in the way if the GT6 isn't in the garage (which is has been for most of the winter). That said, I have hit my head on them twice, as well as the hanging extension cord reel, when the GT6 is in the driveway.You're completely right in your observation!

I WISH I had open studs someplace, unfortunately my garage is under 2 bedrooms and has finished ceilings. If I put the clamps up high, there is a 100% chance I'll forget about where they are when I go to look for them, haha...

Also need to figure out where I'm going to put a drill press - something I plan to get soon and have been far too long without. Considering just getting a smaller tabletop one for the time being if I can't figure out a space for a full stand-up.

daytonaer wrote: I noticed a kitchen chair, do you have a stool?

heh yeah, I have a stool and a small stepladder, hanging from the ceiling over the 4Runner. The chair is my wife's desk chair which I "ruined" a few years ago using it as a sawhorse for painting. It's in the garage to remind me that I need to strip and refinish it for her

Great pics of yours. Totally reminds me of what my dad's garage looked like growing up. At any given time, he had the GT6 (he bought it in 1970), one of our many crappy volvo 240 wagons, and our 17' vintage sailboat in the garage all in various stages of being fixed or refurbished. He always had every shelf piled high and always knew exactly where everything was!

Only thing I currently hate is that my engine lift and other heavy things are back in the "shed" and that is a LONG way up a hill to drag that stuff when I need to use it in the driveway!

btw, I think your vette's tires are wider than my GT6

Cleaning and organizing the garage are on my list of things to do this weekend.

Maybe I'll take a couple pictures to add tomorrow evening when I'm done.

poopshovel wrote: I am so insanely jealous of clean people with good organizational skills. Here's my filthy unorganized slut of a basement as she sits:

At least yours is insulated. Mine is just block.

I've got 3 cars shoved into two cars worth of space. With lawnmowers and E36 M3 in the way too. I've really got to get organized.

i love garage threads. i'll take some pics of ours...

Not real recent, but...

Fab Area:

Car Area:

In the Jeep pic you can see that I can turn the racecar sideways on skates and make room for another car, or in this case half of a jeep and room to work.

16vCorey wrote:

poopshovel wrote: I am so insanely jealous of clean people with good organizational skills.

You and me both. My garage looks so bad right now, that I get chills every time I have to go into it for a tool or something. I can't wait until it warms up a bit so I can clean it out.

Yep. I really need to give my garage a thorough douching. It's pretty shameful right now.

I don't like the drab walls or stark white so i painted it like most everyone else does. I also bought cheap frames for the older posters, but they are falling apart just hanging on the wall.