I'm trying to make this yuppie home fit. How do you fellas do it? I kinda like to feel like I'm back in the day when I work on my car. Maybe that's taking it to far. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
move from the suburbs, to the center of town. where the old buildings are. If there aren't any up there, try some place that's been around for a while. I drove by some old places on the way to camping in the Chiricahuas last week..
I'm working on the signs. All I have are license plates at the moment. And not very old ones. I thought about taking the drywall down to the studs. Doesn't work here. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Just scatter a bunch of tools on the floor, toss a few empties around, stack up a bunch of stuff...oh, I thought you asked what my garage looks like when I work on cars....
I had a house built in the 1920's the garage sucked! A nice clean garage with all the tools you really need, a flat smooth floor, and good lights and power far outweigh the loss in vibe from the old shops.
I'm sure this will get closed due to it being more so Garage Journal material, so I'll chip in my 2 cents, before the axe. Leave the drywall, but the first thing I would do is paint the walls a darkish color. It will "eat" a lot of your light reflection, making the space a lot darker, but it will knock that fresh clean drywall look out of there. Depending on your lighting situation, you may even have to add more, to retain the same amount of light. Then work on some signs. Even if you can't afford good (expensive) original ones, the repops will have the same effect.
If you want to feel like back in the day, roll it out along the curb, and work on it out in the street. And have 3 or 4 of your friends help as well.
When I started my garage, I installed 3 things that I consider musts. I bought an old Pepsi machine off Ebay for $10.50 (yes it works and keeps 'em cold). Secondly I bought 2 barber chairs, a 1948 Koken and a 1958 Koken. After that I covered every usable square inch with license plates, old Bonneville posters, shelves, parts, and absolutely every important car thing that has no real value. But now when a friend comes over, we relax in the barber chairs, drink Dr. Peppers, swap lies, solve all the world's problems, and discuss the latest idea to not do to my roadster because it requires me to get up from the comfortable chair, put my DP down and actually get my hands dirty. After 58 years of turning wrenches, I figure I have earned a little relaxation in an area that my wife swears is full of junkyard rejects and inhabited by a grey bearded crazy man. (I think she cheated and peeked in whilst I assembled my cave)
take the valve covers off and start the car beside the shiny walls....very authentic. What ever you do don't use cool old speed parts as decorations put 'em back into circulation
Love the roadster, we need to see more pics. Who cares what the garage looks like with that beauty on the inside
Who needs a 50's garage when you have that roadster? Tom, I hate to say it but do a search on Google.
AZ gets pretty hot, taking off drywall will mean either no or exposed insulation. Leave the drywall, enjoy the car, the garage will evolve to suit your needs, or you will move to get an old building as Jim suggested. Maybe can build a new/old garage and leave that one for the better half?
Nice lair... nice ride.... do what you like ... buddy with a '34 pick up built a "show garage"... a man cave... big roll away toolbox, but he never took his tools out of the plastic bags they came in, one of the guys needed a 1/2" wrench to tighten a battery cable... he had to tear open the plastic bag to get it done... he has never lived that down...
I like my radiant floor heat, my heavily insulated walls, my LCD TV, digital tunes, and my newer technology welders, tools, etc. That said, I do have plenty of older stuff, some that is probably older than "traditional". Your garage door has been mentioned as not traditional. In my opinion that's taking it a bit far. Your garage door opener and the refrigerator are not traditional either. Where do you draw the line, a coal-fired furnace?
Get rid of the sheetrock, break up some of that concrete, get rid of a few lights, paint everything a darker color, then you can start scattering tools and dirt, and leaves, pans of oil, misc. things to trip over. Oh, and try to make it about half the size it is, maybe a little smaller than that even. Wait, this sounds like my garage now.......
Damn, me I just go work on my stuff. My walls are white, my roof is white, my walls full of insulation and ive got lights mounted everywhere I can. traditional or not, I want to be warm and I want to see what im doing. If im under a lowered car trying to swap a tansmission and have ATF running down my arm and dirt falling into my eyes id rather have the rest of the amenities to try to be comfortable
Here is the putting it together thread for more info and pics https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/my-dream-car-is-finally-mine.588952/