Bo11ox gets a garage

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yo, long time no report from here at Castle_Bo11ox

 

Why's that? Well 12 months ago I bought a house. It came with a free garage which was an excitiing prospect, although its not a very expensive house and options for a 10-car workshop complex were limited at my 'price point'. So its a pretty humble affair. Anyway the house needed loads of work which was a higher priority than the garage, but eventually I got through much of that and was able to get round to the man cave bit.

 

Its a 1.5x width single detached garage with a flat roof, it had an electricity supply but the wires were made out of spaghetti and crisp packets so all that needed sorting out. PLus the roof was rotten and leaking, and it was full of shite.

 

So, I have chopped out loads of rotten timber and fitted a new roof:

 

 

 

rewired the whole lot including a new mini consumer unit

 

 

Also painted it all, and cleared out all the non-car tools into the little store room, and tried to get a bit organised.

 

Anyway this week it finally seemed ready to use:

 

 

 

EDIT: Soz this is only half the post, I'm having a right palaver here with imgur etc, I will try and sort it

 

 

 

I bought the vice off someone at work for a tenner and made the workbench out of some still-healthy bits of wood taken from the rotten roof. ALso painted all the walls and made a set of shelves on the back of the little store-room bit:

 

 

Theres a big car port out the front which is quite handy but its a bit miserable-looking at the moment, all the corrugated placca panels are full of moss and many are damaged, plus the frame needs some repairs and a coat of paint. Still it means you can work with the door open and not get loads of rain coming in.

 

Anyway I 'christened' the garage by doing an oil change on the Rover 623:

 

 

Great car this. I've done 12,000 miles in it without spending a flippin bean. I've never even changed the oil (till now). MOT is due in a months time and the handbrake needs looking at, otherwise I think it should be fairly painless. the back of the engine looks like its got a bad oil leak but it can't be that bad as I can't remember ever needing to top it up!!! I have a feeling the cam cover gasket is weeping, so I bought a new on off the bay for £8 but I haven't fitted it yet.

 

Turns out the the garage is a tight squeeze really, its debatable whether you could get this 600 in and shut the door, you might be able to but thered be no room to work. So for this oil change I left it with its arse sticking out. being 1.5 x standard width there is a bit of room for farting about at the workbench end but I will have to be quite space-efficient!!

 

Nevertheless, for the first time in my life I actually have a garage at my home address, flippin fantastic.

[Guest Hooli]

Is that 22mm flooring you used as a roof?

 

We appear to have the same saw too.

[bezzabsa]

Go you....I have a drive.....erm.. thats it!!!

 

Cant even withdraw to the shed, as I am also lacking in that area too

[Christine]

I have the same tape measure     

[Heidel_Kakao]

Nice one What's going to get the honour of living in the garage? The Maserati?

[doubleyeller]

zzzzzzzzz

 

Bollox this is sodding boring! Let us know when you've got some cars in it and stop posting DIY projects in the cars section please? Ta muchly!

[SiC]

Having a proper garage that is kitted out that is right next to your house is a game changer. Mine is too small to fit my tools and cars in, however it's still massively great thing to have. A car port is also incredibly useful for keeping crap and the worst of the weather off stuff - if I was staying here, I'd put one up. Even if it's to just protect my MG.

 

1.5 car width garage sounds perfect. As mine is 1 car width, even if I could fit a car in, I can't fit my tools or even have room to work around it. I'm currently looking to sell my current pad and a big demand is having a bigger garage.

 

Another thing that is incredibly useful that my FiL has in their garage is an inspection pit. Quite easy to do but it does mean you can get under for inspections, fluid changes and the like without having to faff around with getting jacks and stands out.

 

Now you have the basics set out and Xmas is near, you need start kitting up. As a starter, some of the Lidl/Aldi bench tools are very useful. I've used my pillar drill and bench grinder+sander (which it was a wire wheel in hindsight) have had plenty of use. Pro grade and top precision it is not. However for the odd job it's far better than hand drill based.

[SiC]

zzzzzzzzz

 

Bollox this is sodding boring! Let us know when you've got some cars in it and stop posting DIY projects in the cars section please? Ta muchly!

^^ Bollocks to that. I think this thread is excellent and interesting personally. Plus it's very much car related, so why not be in this section? Anyway does it matter either way.

[stuboy]

id just want to be able to have electrikery outside

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Is that 22mm flooring you used as a roof?

 

We appear to have the same saw too.

 

Yeah it is!!! Its that 'waterproof' floorboard shiz, plus I glued a big rubber membrane over the top of it to waterproof it all.

[Guest Hooli]

Sounds a plan to me. I had a pile of it in the old house for the bathroom I never got to finish, hence spotting it.

[UltraWomble]

Ive got 2 sheds and half an asbestos garage 14 miles away from home.

Tomorrow if it holds off pising it down Im building shed number 3.

[Bren]

The 600 was a brilliant car.

[scaryoldcortina]

Nice. No garage at my new house but I do have a class 4/5/7 MoT station just round the corner.

[Wack]

The 600 was a brilliant car.

 

 

Agreed, the financial director at work had one from new, I drove it a few times, really liked it, his equal in the company had to have one with more numbers to satisfy his superiority complex but the budget was the same so he got a shit spec 2.0 Rover 800 which was really horrible to drive

[vulgalour]

Is that the same 600 you bought from the... eccentric... person?

[Spottedlaurel]

Nice work there. I'm sure you will but please keep the timber doors, they look suitably period - easy to imagine an Austin A35 or the like being parked-up in there.

 

You've done a lot of work to it, does it still smell like an old garage?

[paulplom]

As Michael Palin says in The Life Of Brian, 'You lucky, lucky bastard'.

[drum]

Lovely.

The challenge now is to avoid filling it with junk and keep space for a car to fit in.

[mk2_craig]

Lovely.

The challenge now is to avoid filling it with junk and keep space for a car to fit in.

Aye this. There's nothing worse than having to spend half an hour moving a load of old crap out the way just to get at the workbench.

 

Having the garage "on site" is about 82℅ better than trekking round to one in a row of lockups though, esp. as there's proper electricity. Running water too?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

No running water but there is a built-in chimney to plug a woodburner into!!!! Don't know whether I shall bother though. One thing I do want is a radio with Bluetooth so I can listen to podcasts or Spanish radio through my phone while pottering!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Is that the same 600 you bought from the... eccentric... person?

Certainly is!!! The guy was a fruitcake but I have to hand it to the 623, it's surpassed my expectations! Actually I did have to spend £12 on some new HT leads a while back, as one started letting the sparks escape too early.

[SiC]

No running water but there is a built-in chimney to plug a woodburner into!!!! Don't know whether I shall bother though. One thing I do want is a radio with Bluetooth so I can listen to podcasts or Spanish radio through my phone while pottering!

Black Friday is on Friday the 24th Nov. Should hopefully be a few deals around, especially on stuff like Bluetooth speakers. It's exactly the thing I'm looking for on that day.

[cort16]

This is also my dream. My garage is about a mile and a half away but getting the motivation to go down there can be hard v nipping out for half an hour at night for some tinkering while the wife watches house werewolves or madison county or what ever other dirge she watches.

[cort16]

You can get blue tooth speakers built into lightbulbs . Quit handy for limited space and power points although it might just end up

Being a shit speaker and a shit light bulb.

[garethj]

Good work, Bo11!  There's no such thing as a garage that's big enough so being space efficient is always something to work on.  Unless you live in rural France or something, then you can just mow a bit more of the enormous field out the back and discover another massive barn, big enough to put 5 more cars in.

[Mr A Lawrence]

I'm lucky enough to have a driveway big enough for 2 cars, a garage big enough for a car and a bench with electric and a large shed with electric and carpets for my toolbox and working in comfortably.

 

Currently have 2 cars on the drive and one in the garage but when the Motability car goes back next year according to the transport logistical accounts manageress we will NOT be getting another car and will be limited to two only.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I'm lucky on the driveway- there's 5 cars on it! I do feel bad when I look out the kitchen side window though as it looks a bit 'Zack Dingle' out there with the Sherpa van etc. So, I look out the other window instead.

[Mr A Lawrence]

You can get blue tooth speakers built into lightbulbs . Quit handy for limited space and power points although it might just end up

Being a shit speaker and a shit light bulb.

We're thinking of looking at wifi bulbs today.

 

Are they expensive and any good?

[cort16]

Aldi are selling the Bluetooth speaker for 13 quid

 

https://www.aldi.co.uk/bluetooth-e27-led-speaker-light/p/080041174512700?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3If8iYa21wIVbCrTCh39igqLEAAYASAAEgKff_D_BwE

 

The WiFi controlled bulbs are different as all you can do is turn them on and off. If you want to use if this then that to add some logic to when your lights come on and off make sure to get a bulb who’s supported by them.

 

https://ifttt.com