Anybody work without a garage?

1971bb427, does that plywood floor keep the condensation build up on the interior roof down mines like a tropical rain forest when it get colder but a few shakes stops the drips

 

Most of my young life I never had a garage to work in, built and fixed a lot of cars in my backyard. That was in Pennsylvania and the Spring and Summer wasn't all that bad but Winter was a whole nuther animal ! I can still feel melting snow running dripping down the back of my neck as I laid under the car. I also remember how much fun it was trying to find lost tools in the gravel or on the grass.

When you are young all this stuff seems tolerable and perfectly fine, but the older you get the less fun it becomes. Now, if we walk into the shop in the winter here in Florida and it is in the 40's we go home.

Don

 

In this economy, I bet it'd be pretty easy finding a garage to rent real cheap.

 

I have neither a garage nor a parking spot for a second vehicle right now, but I used to work out in the driveway all the time up north. I'd put my car in a guy's barn for winter storage.

 

I'm a carpenter, a wood working man since I have memory, and the place for my cars is inside my factory, two materials in combination (wood and metal), The metal working is probably the bad thing, because the risk of fire, But don't worry only I have a grinder ha ha ha and the backyard is the place for the dirty job...

 

Use to because the two-car at my old house was full of garbage, not anymore. 30x50 w/ 10'10" ceiling height, all block. I put a bathroom in and 240v service with two roll-ups. I am hoping for a closed in ceiling and better heat before winter. The old wood stove can't seem to take the chill off the block when it gets below 30*. I work outside a lot for my job (right on the lakefront) and after freezing all day it is hard to want to go back outside when I get home. Friday they deliver my new 4-post lift!
One thing I miss about being outside is the lighting. You just cannot replace the sun no matter how many lights you hang up!

 

i have had access to a couple of shops for several years and still most of the work i do is outside. to much junk for a whole car inside.lol!
i spend more time pulling parts than i do installing them. so outside has and will probably be a lifelong working environment for me.
i guess thats what happens when your parts department is a couple of wrecking yards and the cars behind the building.

 

OP: Is your shop a rental? Do you live where they enforce laws/codes strictly? If so, you're stuck. If not:
1. Buy a carport or metal-framed tent and butt it up to the shop door.
2. Go to a garage door company and see if they have a pile of old steel double doors. Use about six of them to build yourself a steel shed. Get a woodstove on Craigslist.
3. Buy an old house trailer and convert the back wall into a garage door. Make sure the furnace/heater works.

 

One year I kept my Chevy in the parking lot of my old apartment complex. Letting her sit out in the snow that winter killed me, so I put her in my mom's garage until she cluttered it up to where you couldn't open the doors when it was inside, so now she's at my in-law's in a pole barn. I'd like my own garage, but that probably isn't going to happen until we get another house. Or until I find a cheap shed big enough. Right now it's not too bad. And 15 miles from home is better than the 70 I previously had.

 

I have a slab where my shop used to be, pressboard managed to survive 20years in the Florida humidity and rain, then caved in during the hurricanes in 04. I pulled and installed many engines with a come along hangin from a tree branch. Come along and a tree makes a good frame machine also! Cool thread! Heading out to my slab right now to change out the 4speed I broke in my 60 Falcon. I waited until late in the afternoon the sun and humidity beats ya down in Florida.
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When I was younger . I used a tripod and comealongs to pull my 383 out of my 69 Satelite . Things youll do when you are younger . Laying on gravel ignoring the gouges in you back because it is more important to put that starter up in place . Gouges are a badge of honor . Built a big block vega in my yard . Again no garage . Did have a buddy who took pitty on me later though . If you havent experianced this then you should give it a try . Its fun . LOL!

 

I do pretty much all my work outside and believe me it gets cold. It made me take notice of all those lucky folks out there that have 2 or even 4 car garages and fill them with crap, what a waste!!

 

Most of you guys have the cold to deal with. I was trying to mock up some power brakes with hanging pedals in my 50 Deluxe Sunday. I wound up downing 5 32 oz bottles of gatorade while tinkering in the 103 degree heat that had an index of 108. all I had for shade was the umbrella from a patio furniture set. This weekend should be better it will only be in the upper 90s.

 

We have a one car garage barely big enough for dads 56' Bel air and that hog's the space 24/7. No exceptions but sunny days and the like.
All my work on the car has to be in the driveway or next to it.
It's been that way since I first turned a wrench. Im pretty used to it.
Just wish next to the garage wasn't a 40+ year old brick pathway, because a cherry-picker with a full cadillac engine and trans wont manuver too well, and just might tip and slam you against the side of said garage.

 

I grew up in Richmond B.C.it is located on a flat island surrounded by a dyke, it also rains a lot so it fills up with water,when I was 18 I v8ed my 48 chev coupe in the drive way one winter and I was often laying on my back in one of these puddles underneath my car, I got the job done but that was over 35 years ago, glad I have a warm dry shop now.

 

No garage for me. Opted for an $800 mortgage but had to forgo a work space. Some stuff sits a half hour away in storage, and I have some pals with garages.Basement is the Hobby shop. Lucky two guys can lift a VW motor, but when it's time to look inside the Hudson 6, I'll have to come up with something else. Big scramble right now to get the winter drivers up to snuff before 5 months of snow sets in.

 

I have always spent my money on tool and equipment I will get a garage someday. But until then.

 

Funny you should ask. I just posted in the "Heat" thread that I have always worked out doors. This is the Los Angeles 'burbs...

The best thing I had as a teenager was an apartment car port that resembled a garage without a door. It helped keep the wind out and I could lock up tools and parts in the locker over the hood. It had shade!

When I was 15 I moved to this house and the garage was converted into a workshop and office/storage room. The door was permanently closed. With NO SHADE I've spent many a 100-118 degree day in the driveway. Pouring water on my shirt and putting a box fan close by. In the winter, don't let anyone tell you any different, but the puddles do freeze over a week or two. It's only 3/4 of an inch, but it's still 32 degrees! Not to mention when the Marine Layer comes onshore, let alone blanket fog, even 72 degrees can cut through your jeans and drop a body temp rather fast! After freezing my fingers and nipples off as a teen, I found some insulated coveralls and insulated gloves in Utah when visiting my Uncle.

Now that Dad died and I own the home, I'm in the process of opening the garage up again and turn the side attached patio into a shop. I've done open-air surgery long enough! LOL

 

I have to work on my '51 F1 out in the parking lot of my apartment complex. The back of my wife's SUV is my work bench. Main work area is 75 feet away under a tarp that I have to put up and take down every weekend. Its a bit of a pain but at least I don't have to freeze my ass off or sweat to death like y'all do back on the mainland. Been there done that. Plus some of the local two legged "scenery" is pretty interesting at times.

 

Same here. We have nice property out in the country, but never built a garage in the 15 years we've lived here. The summers are great and sweaty, but I live up in the mountain a ways, and winters are Cold, Long and Harsh! And when it rains, it POURS. I recently bought a weather resistant car cover for my Cad, but I worry it won't protect against heavy Snow days. The flooding part is also problematic. I want to get it started to drive up higher ground where water is unlikely to collect. I'll just buy old thrifty blankets to throw under the hood to keep em' warm and cozy.

 

Owned a home with a 2.5 car garage for 15 years and a car has never been inside of it.Harleys, a wood working shop, big snap on toolbox, compressors, welders, stone wooking tools, parts, hardwood lumber ... / ...
Rebuild engines and trannys in the garage but all work is outside.
Going to be 50 soon most of the kids have left for college looking forward to buying a smaller house with a much bigger garage/workshop.
If I could talk the wife into running away with a rich guy (no alimony) I would buy an old industrial building with overhead doors and build an apartment inside it.

 

I have had to throw a camping canopy/tent over my car to keep the rain out of the motor while replacing the heads before!

 

There was a guy on here last year from Buffalo who flipped the axle in his F truck. In the pics, it looked like he had about 3' of snow on the ground.

As for me being from CenCal, I have never had a garage. I used to mech on D-6,7 and 8 dozers outside,year round. Rags to cover all your tools in the 115 degree summers, and smudge pots in the winter for heat. It was almost the same way at home. But as others have noted, when you are young...

Nowadays, I dont like sweating more than I have to in the summer time. I work on the flightline around jets all day, I just dont have the drive to do it in the heat at home too. Now that the weather is cooling off, I may have a month or so of good weather before it gets cold and damp. Most of my tools are stored in the trunk of the car, and the tailgate of my pickup doubles as a workbench when need be.

 

no garage here.gravel in the driveway bitchy wife and crying child.
At least I have shade.

 

I use to have a nice place to work out of but now I am stuck in a storage unit with no power... So I shouldn't complain because after reading how many have done work outside.

 

same here no garage. living in a camper. yay lifes great. not!!!!!!!!

 

know what im sayen?

 

i can relate to this.... i retired @ 54, sold the house in the city and moved to the country.. small house, two shops, one heated and one with the lift.. i seldom have to lay on my back to do anything, let alone do it outside.... whewwww, what a thought

 

I used to be real heavy into choppers, unfortunately ive rarely ever had a garage. So most my builds (welding, painting, etc) was done inside the home. Luckily ive a two bay garage now, just now ive no time to do any work! My poor 39 dodge and 39 plymouth are sititng out there without any work being done to them.

 

Until very recently, all of our work was done out back of my parents house. All the tools were in the basement and we had to drag everything up to the car and then back in at the end of the rainy or snowy day. Cause it is never nice when something breaks down. haha.