Hot Rods How do they keep it so clean?

Mine looks like a tornado has gone through it. Which causes me to wonder...if a tornado happens to actually go through would it organize my shop?

 

If the shop is spotless then the owner ain't doing anything,as hard as I try to keep my shop neat and organized it is a lesson in futility.

There is no doubt about it, you will never see any pictures of my shop in Better Homes & Gardens. HRP

 

show me a guy who has the cleanest shop, the most organized yard, and EVERYTHING, and I will show you a guy who is NOT getting a lot of fuc .........LOVING. !!!

 

Paint prep and painting, metal fab work, and the occasional woodworking project are the worst for trying to keep a clean shop. Neat and clean are 2 different things. I try to keep a neat shop. Doesn't always work. 46 feet of work bench and can't find a place to set anything down right now, and I wouldn't eat off the floor.

 

It's not a actual shop on TV, it's a stage. I doubt anything over a minutes worth of work goes on in one of them, and that is only for the camera. The actual shop is next door or down the street, and looks like the Soviet Army celebrated their last payday in it!

 

When I turned wrenches for living I always started a job with a clean bay, after the job was done the time it took to clean the bay up, dump all the scraps, mop the floor, etc. was all charged to the job, the customer paid for that (unless the boss cut them a deal, his prerogative). Each nigh before heading home all tools were cleaned and put away, and usually on Friday afternoons you'd clock off the customer job and spend some time doing general cleanup. Once in awhile the boss man would walk through the shop and if he thought it was a disaster everyone would stop whatever they were working on and clean the shop. In the old days we always had a younger kid who helped anyone who needed an extra pair of hands, they would sweep the floors or chase parts, or shovel off the steam rack floor when they weren't assigned to a job. This was the entry level position, and everyone started there and worked their way up. When things got tight in the 90's that position went away, and it never came back. I don't know how kids get started in the trade today. There is a huge lack of qualified techs out there, partly because we eliminated that entry position when the economy took a dive in the 90's.

 

When I'm dreaming, it looks sorta like this.



When I flick the lights on I get a the reality.
4 big jobs in here, currently torn apart pretty far.
2 long term projects, 6000 sq feet and every inch of it is churning a mess and production.

 

^^^we can see your floor. That makes you Clean, Neat and Tidy

 

I'm not anal about my shop, but I clean it and put all my tools away every time I work in it, no exceptions. Floor gets swept, if I don't do that, it gets to be a major job finding shit, laying in the dirt isn't my thing when the concrete floor is seconds from being clean.
I see pics here of guys shops.....and I wonder how the hell they get anything done, or, find anything, crap is piled everywhere, stuff that shouldn't be stored in a working garage stuffed in every available corner......oil and grease on the floors.....
I can't do that.

 

It would have to spin in the opposite direction.

 

I try to keep mine clean but I have 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound sack. I always put all my tools away so I can find them and keep it as neat as possible but have a corner that is piled full of a little bit of everything. Built a bigger garage and then added on to it but still too small.

 

Too much stuff and not enough space. Clean-up is easy though, because everything has its own place. I let my teenagers work on their own projects here (like that Kentucky rifle), so I have to get after them to clean up after themselves.

I think the only time a real shop is clean is between tasks.

 

I worked in an International Harvestor Truck and Farm Equipment shop and one of the tractor mechanics was cleaning up his tools after finishing a job. The customer asked him if he was on the clock and he said "would you rather pay me for cleaning my tools or trying to find them"

 

I "used" to keep everything I owned really clean; undercarriage of cars, exteriors and interiors, living space, clothing, where I worked, etc, etc, etc. But, as I've gotten older, it's just not as important as it once was. Saw a bumper sticker once that said, "a clean car is a sign of a sick mind". I don't know if that's completely true, but it's not completely wrong. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I have found if you don't watch stupid reality car shows you don't have goofy questions about them after.

 

cool. someday i'll be between projects and can do a little cleaning . the only thing i cared about when i bought my house was a detached garage in the back with a good size yard. now 1/2 the yard is gravel and it's a great place to grind and weld

 

Shop habits as far as how clean and organized it are developed over time or not developed and some times it is monkey see monkey doo as guys going to work in a shop usually end up following long with the way things are being done in the shop. If Sweeping the floor and putting things away are done every day at quitting time or every time you pull a car out of the stall the new guys usually follow suit, if Things are a bit sloppy in the shop the new guy gets a bit sloppy no matter how he did in the last place.

When we get older in our home shops I think the dread Round tu it, takes hole and we keep thinking that some time we will get around to it, That usually comes when I can't find what I need and the place gets cleaned up so I can find parts or tools but I have been guilty of running to town and buying a tool rather than spend the time hunting one.
My problem right now is that in the past four years I have accumulated too many pieces of shop equipment and too many parts to be used in the shop I haven't built yet. Most of that is jammed in a one car garage with a trail down the middle.

 

I have often wondered how the TV guys can tear down an engine and rebuild it and come out with clean hands, clean white shop floor, clean cloths etc. Every time you see them turn a bolt the bolt is shinny and so are they. Always some one in the back round making sparks with a grinder but you never see what they are doing. A bunch of actors I think, LOL.

 

that's why i liked the show Wheeler Dealers. when that guy worked on something he showed you haw messed up is was

 

It all began when my Mother-in-law had a quilt show in her backyard next door. I thought I should clean up my yard of tires and wheels so our yard wasn't an eyesore for my Mother-in-law's quilter friends. I shoved it all into the garage. THEN, I had to sell my O.T. 1967 Dodge A100 pickup to pay our house off. I now had no truck to remove debris and other non-wantables. Next thing you know, my M-i-l wanted a bar-b-q grille. Got a nice, big, new one for her. All of a sudden, she wants US to keep it in OUR yard. Eventually, the lean-to we had it under had to be demolished so I had to shove the bar-b-q into my garage, too. Now THAT is in the way! CRAP! Too much CRAP! So....a few days ago, a couple of old car guys dropped by and as I was showing him my '31 Dodge coupe stuffed way in the back, I realized what I had to do. I MUST clean out the garage in the next couple of weeks if I EVER want to dig out my '31 and work on it again. I ended up with a free O.T. 2002 Ford Ranger pickup, so NOW I can empty the garage out of all of the unnecessary crap. YIPPEE!

 

This is it. Paid at work, not paid at home.


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I Grew Up Working In Gravel Driveways/Mud/Dirt So When I Got A Good Job And Built A Shop I Appreciated Being "Indoors" And Keep The Shop That I Paid For Clean And Organized So I Don't Spend All Day Looking For A 9/16 Wrench....Simple... ...

 

I made a rule years ago that the last 1/2 hr. in the shop was cleanup time. Nothing starts the day off bad like unlocking the door and seeing a big mess from yesterday . Besides ,if we are welding it gives us a chance to catch some sparks from turning into a fire. It also helps not to have a lot of tools,if your using all your tools its easy to put them away.

 

Gotta love those 40 Fords! '

 

My tools all have a place but if I have a dozen of them under a car I'm working on, and can't get part I need for a day or so...the tools don't get put away just so I can get them all back out again later.

 

My shop stays pretty neat...I keep enough shit spread around there isn’t enough room for a mess

 

Nice spread!!!....

 

I keep my garage reasonably clean. Usually after doing a project I try and put things/tools away and sweep the floor where I can get to it. Yes there are oil stains on the concrete and paint overspray here and there but it is a garage. Keeping it somewhat orderly makes life a bit easier for next job. The stuff on TV is all BS!

 

It's the camera! Pictures lie. Whenever I take a picture in my garage, it always looks better than in real life.