Projects Garages that are too small???

My garage is 30'x20', and my wife's boss is renting about two-thirds of it from me to store stuff. I can barely even get to the Morris, and much of the stuff I've collected for the '31 is in the garage somewhere (not the Deuce shell - that's hanging on my study wall). On top of that the garage is 14 miles from where we live.

 

I have a 1.5 car garage, with a T and an A it becomes a 2 car. The work bench and tool box suck up a ton of space on the left side

 

LOL you are so right about that if I was dating a mosquito I would be huge.

It has been mentioned but just to drive it home, I am currently clearing out everything that does not pertain to my current project. I am kind of in a spot I have to keep my bike and the snow blower in there but they roll and can be moved in and out, quite easily. I have a large basement and everything is getting labeled so if I need something later that I did not think I needed today I can find it.

The absolute best thing you can do with a small work space is clear it out.

 

I have a small shop, a 2 car garage, I've built 2 cars there in the last 5 years, you need to be compulsive about order, clutter kills what little space you have.

 

Mines so full I have to go outside to change my mind...Thankful for what I have ,tho....

 

more parts like body parts ( hopefully for the car and not the neighbor ..)

 

I complain I do not have space , and what do I do ??? I traded a 12K winch for a 42" stacking craftsman tool box ( probably will sell the top box ) and a welding cart .. but I am getting rid of a small tool cart ( hf 4 drawer) and parts cart (24x36) and I have to get under the work bench as there is open space not organized under there .

 

My garage/shop in our old house was about 12x20. You can see it in my avatar. For reference, that's a tiny car in it, my old Sunbeam Tiger, so the garage was smaller than it looks (makes that 260 look huge though, doesn't it?). I'd love to have that workspace now!

 

13'-7"X24'
Roof, gravel floor, no walls.

I still call it "my garage".

 

At least most of you have walls. My 16 x 28 carport has two walls, and is open in front and to the side. Makes it easy to get around in, but works against you if rain is blowing in or the north wind is freezing you in the winter. I want to add a 20' addition to the side and enclose all of it with doors one of these days, but every time I get to thinking about it something else pops up to get my money. Maybe one of these days...

 

Just tell her, "Where do you take a car when its broke? That's right the garage, yours aint broke get it out of the garage." Then again I got rid of my wife and I have more junk and more room in the garage!

 

LOL I probably got some tarps you can borrow. But you have to promise to think about me this winter when someone needs a transmission changed and I am laying on the driveway in the snow.

 

Mine IS too small but I feel better after seeing some smaller ones. Although their contents differ.

To make space I have a storage condo and a shed for lawn stuff. Still, tools and hot rod stuff overpower my shop.

I'm a little less than 400 square feet (inside, not footprint).

 

I don't know about you guys, but mine's big enough....

No electric though, and the roof leaks, so it's not the taj mahal....

 

Thanks Beaner! I knew I had at least one friend here!

I have thought about doing just that, hang some tarps in the winter so I could work. I have one of those daisy head propane heaters that mount to a small 25 # bottle, it will throw out some heat. Most of the time though, if it is below 50*, my old joints hurt too bad anymore to do any wrenching unless it's a have to.

 

I use to work out of my 20x20 attached garage. There was not much room in there, I had half of my bigger tools in the basement.
I always wanted a big garage so we bought some land and built a new house and I built a 40x40 pole barn. It felt so huge at first, way more room than I'd ever need.
But three years later I wish I would have gone back another 10 feet.
They are never big enough!

 

I remember seeing pictures of guys in the 50's chopping tops and building full customs in tiny 1 car garages. I guess that makes being cramped and working with what you have traditional.

 

It's always too small, I am fortunate to have a lot of space now (2650 sq ft) and am still wanting/needing more. Can remember as a kid, working outside on my cars w/ NO garage and many many years making do w/ a 2 car garage and mine and wife's cars sat outside, here in Wi. That means, shoveling out, scraping windows, warming car up, etc. Ran a pretty successful race operation out of that garage for many years, AND not one time when we won, did they come over and take a picture of my garage. I guess my advice is be happy w/ what you have and enjoy the hobby, life is not how much $$$ you have, it's about your choices of how you spend/enjoy it.

 

I make do with what I got and im happy I got it.

 

My 2 and a half car garage (attached) is full of my 2 large toolboxes, valve grinding machine, 3 lathes, and get this:
my 354 Chrysler Hemi;
455 Olds;
460 Ford;
410 Merc FE;
406 Ford FE;
454 Chev;
In total, 9 engines, most apart, machine work done/pending...
14 transmissions, all sticks, and many boxes of parts...

Young wife and I built a metal shop, 24' X 25'. Five (5) street roadsters and my '27 T tub are in there,
plus axles, running gear, and my Desoto hemi, 3 flatheads, and I'm starting 'up the wall'...
Maybe a small mezzanine.
My drill press, bead blast machine, line of grinders, and 12 ton press line up past my new workbench.
It's got my chopper frame jigged on it, and wheels/tires line the back wall.

But I have a nice 10' X 16' metal building alongside the shop!
Er, it's got my BMW weber fed 2 liter mill with 5 speed trans that goes in my '23 T track car...
(all under the hood, looks like a slanted Meyer-Drake)
I just found my 21 stud '38 Ford V8 out there! AND...my '35 box, all wrapped up. Thought I lost 'em..

 

Jeese, you got all kinds or room! you can still walk between the cars without turning sideways and shuffling! Whiner!

 

Everyone knows it's a proven law of Car Guy Physics - The amount of cars, tools, and "good stuff I might need one day" will expand to fill the entirety of any size garage or shop space. This is a 100% certainty, and it cannot be changed.

In my case I've spent a lifetime with no garage, a too small garage, or a too small rented storage unit. We've finally moved to a place where I have a two car garage for the daily drivers, and a 25'x30' shop. Except now I don't have any car project money, so for a while all progress has stopped.

Now I have learned the addendum to the law listed above - When not regularly working in said garage or shop, all the crap of life will creep into the shop, and a project car an actually disappear under the stuff. In my case I think (but am not totally sure) that the Corvette project is under that pile on the left. Or maybe that's the tractor project, and the Corvette is on the right .. . . . . . .

 

What if I get another 32?

 

You can park it at my house. Ill make room

 

My 20x20 is way TOO small. I park my 35 Chevy in the front house in the 2 car house garage with my daily driver. The 46 Olds body is currently off the chassis that is now on the rotisserie for work. All the panels are hanging on walls and overhead shelves. There are 2 x single bed frames in the apex with the hood and seats.
Add a bench with underneath storage, tools, compressor, welder, drill press, electical and air tools, yard tools (Mower, trimmers) etc. Add the engine hoist, dummy block and heads and I still haven't even got enough room to take a photo. The fresh tranny is on stand in the corner and the engine is over at a friend's shop.As you see I quickly ran out of space! A real PITA to work stepping around and over things.
I worked on a previous car in a separate single car garage and kept the tools in the garage with the house with my daily driver. Did the same thing with the next house and another separate garage so I decided to build a bigger garage this time around.
When I move again I will have a smaller house with a bigger garage with room for a hoist and more metal shaping and fabrication tools, this is only my hobby so imagine if it was a business!
Car has been sitting for 1 1/2yrs now ever since I injured my shoulder and neck at work. I can't wait to get back into it when I recover sufficiently.

 

I had your problems until my wife and I bought this property last year.

 

way too small

 

Mine is definitely too small. Key is to be organized which I am not but it still is better than no garage. Built a few in there and the driveway.

 

I agree you never seem to have a enough room although I am Thankful for what I have Hobo's Hot Rod Garage 22x20

 

Well, when I first got started in all this old car mess, I worked under my carport. Then I had to work in my driveway. Christmas of 2009, I dropped a fuel tank out of my '54 Chevy in 15 degree weather. Good times.

Fast forward to my Tupperware T. I started working on it in the basement of our apartment building in CT. Did what I could and had a good time doing it! Now I have a single car garage and this project has taken off.


The pallet is there for mock up as are a few other things.