Wow, almost a year has gone past since my last post! That might give the impression that I haven't done anything but the opposite is true...
I bought my own garage space! Yes I did :-)
It's a pretty big space, just not very wide but wide enough. The dimensions are 10 metres deep, 3 metres wide and 8 metres tall. And it's the latter that makes this space so attractive. All my neighbours have put in 1 or 2 floors, some even 3!
I plan to only put in 1 floor to keep enough space underneath to put in a car-lift at some point.
So here are all the photos to show what it takes to build a floor and create a nice little garage for your Mustang (or any other car for that matter).
The space after I got the key.
First job in the new garage.
This garage basically brings 2 places I was renting together: my rented garage (much smaller) and my rented storage (even more smaller!). So before moving in the car I had to move all my stuff in and cancel the old garage and storage space. No more wasting money!
The first real bit of construction to do was making the meter-box a bit thinner so that driving the car inside would be easier. Above is the "before"picture.
Meter box gone...
Thiner meter box done! I shaved off 11cm.
Next up was creating a "wet"area where I wanted a sink and tap.
Done! And as you can see the Mustang made its way there by this time as well :-)
Since I was still in the process of engineering the floor I used time to paint walls.
Both sides painted up to where the floor will come.
Getting a bit organized before starting big construction...
Finally the first materials for the floor arrived!
It's all 8 metal poles that the floor will sit on.
I never welded in my life so after some practice I started welding the plates at the ends of the poles.
Not bad for a beginner I think ;-)
Instead of welding them standing up I found that welding them lying down was easier!
Winter arrived suddenly and one day I was welding about 10cm fell while I was at my garage. It was freezing but I was on a schedule so I kept moving.
All 8 poles done!
First pole awaiting fixing.
Fixed! I'm going to bolt them down when the floor is up as well. Until then I have them fixed in place sitting on the bolts in the floor and kept upright by a small piece of aluminium screwed to the wall.
6 done.
Meanwhile I was given some cupboards from an old kitchen. They fit like a glove, nice!
Meanwhile all 8 poles were erected and my dad helped getting up the big beams of wood going along the sides. Just putting up those beams (2 short ones and 2 very long ones) took us a day. They are fixed onto the big metal H-beams on the side.
I continued putting in a few more beams so that I could construct the stairs.
That's where the stairs will lead to :-)
I found a fantastic design for stairs in an old carpernter's schoolbook my dad got me. Initially I wanted to build stairs that would make a quarter turn but this is soooo much cooler!
Putting in a the first step felt like a HUGE achivement :-)
And then 7 more.
The back of my garage was turned into a carpenters shop for a few weeks. Quite amazing in that little space...
Nearly there.
Almost...
Looking down for the first time.
Finito!
The first piece of my floor was done! Such a milestone after all these months of calculating, preparing, ordering parts, welding, cutting and building.
My dad came to help another time when putting in the rest of the wooden beams.
And voila, all the beams are in place!
Now it was time to put in all the floor boards.
Another milestone was when I was able to bring up the first item out of storage. This table was just in the was downstairs.
Funny, I now officially have a upstairs and downstairs :-)
In between I also started working on the electrical stuff.
And then the floor was finished.
Nice!.
Downstairs it was rather messy after all this wood-cutting. I'm glad my Mustang has a good cover.
I guess we need some lights soon...
This is how the wooden side beams are bolted on to the metal H-beams. The wood grips around the beam so the floor can't move back and forth.
Same one the other side but here the H-beam sticks out a bit less (just 1 cm).
Then it was time to start tidying up...
And bring stuff up.
That hole will get a metal floorpanel in it.
Starting to look like something now.
Only a few things left to go up.
Done!
After initial cleaning up.
Love the stairs!
Everything is now finding a place in my garage.
And then I put in some lights!
I bouth 4 led lights that are 1,5 metres long. I did not expect them to give this much light. It's nearly day light! Best of all they consume hardly any power!
And then finally I was able to build a small work-bench and put up the finishing tough; the arrow with lights ;-)
The Mustang sits nicely.
Its garage is now (95%) done :-) It's been quite a project that took about 6 months of completing.
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