I think it would be great. Here are a couple of pictures of the Schlumpf collection. Instead of hotrods and bac-to-the-fifties, it's Bugattis and Art Nouveau. Not a bad collection. Go for it! --Matt
Hello, you want crazy, this term I've lived with most of my life and now as the project got completed ,they say my wife and I are lucky, and the laughter turned to jealousy,, don't ask anyones advice especialy on something like this,, just forge ahead ,we got 70 yrs. on the big blue ball and the last 15 of them the tank is kinda dry,thats if we truely are lucky.. I'm addicted to junk cars , and puttering, look at chimps in a cage with some object or toy, it must be in our evolution,big noises kept big animals away that wanted to eat you,, today the roar of engines ,but we don't know exactly why we like them, I think its part of our primitive origins, So you want crazy go to dupontcastles.com look under New York state, and check out Wing's Castle or google Wing's Castle, this is what my wife and I built over the last 38 years and we still have a little more to go. In the garage is a 47 MG TC 1907 Caddy 76 Citicar 1950 harley 45, and today it should arrive , a 67 Velorex, which I'm now trying to figure out how to pay for, you must know the drill. The Castle is now a major tourist draw for the area and we get people from China ,Russia and places from around the world I never even knew existed. So we went from crazy to TV shows movies, rock videos, major magazine adds etc. etc. When your working on a project, take time to remove your hands from your work , remove one glove and stick up one finger, then go back to work.. Life is short
I some how got a reply in the wrong place it was submitted today and is in todays messages .. oh well , it starts off you want crazy..
Looks like they are some HAMB folks with some neat places to visit. I'll keep this in mind when I'm in your areas.
I recently attended a blanket run in the Indy area. One of the tours was Bruce Littons shop in Raceway Park. This sounds just like your idea except the town faces the inside of the building and is complete with a Mobil station, hardware store, sherrif's office,movie theater, icecream shop and an auto dealer. The second floor housed appartment rooms. Inside the shop is his car collection and adjoining this is his shop for his fuel dragster. What a dream garage. Even the large heat duct was decorated like a US rocket. Maybe someone took pictures. deChrome
Fidget, go out to see the Davis Collection the second sat in May. It's only open to the public one day a year. they have over 140 cars in a small corner (30,000 sf) of a large warehouse (2 city blocks) all the walls are painted murals 30-40 feet high. Doc. I just wrote up 14 pages on my dream shop. the front of the building with saloon, speed shop. barber shop, hardware store, 5 and dime and on the end a working drive inn resturant and a detached Gas Station and an old Car Lot for guest parking old cars with all the flags and banners. Dream Big, you'll never be bigger than your dreams!!
Noodles you're my hero, just added you to my must go and see list awesum spread1 you are a true visionary........Jim
Not really. No matter where you live, you will need to get a building permit to put this up. The building code is going to require you to put whats called an "area separation wall" between the garage/shop and the living area. That's the same thing as a 1-hour fire rated wall at least and maybe a 2-hour wall. That's to protect the living area from the higher potential for fire in the garage. You'll need to protect the bank's investment (read loan) with insurance and there isn't an insurance company in the world who will insure a building that's not built to the building code and without a permit. Come back down to reality, talk to a licensed architect so he can advise you as to what is "possible" to do under the local building code. The bank also may not loan you the money without an approved set of plans. You have a lot of interesting ideas for a really unique house; just do it within the limits of the building code. You wouldn't want to endanger your family with an unsafe house.
Not at all, this is exactly what I'm getting my ducks in a row to build. Have you ever seen Bob Walkers/Hot Heads deal ? Looks like an old western town with a common sidewalk but differing fascade's. Steel buildings with living quarters descretely inside (even w/whole shingled & sided houses inside) are growing in popularity everywhere. Mainly to beat property taxes. My father in law built one 4 years ago and it's taxed agricultural, he's paying $400.00 a year prop. taxes instead of $3000.00. He didn't tell them it's for living in, and the assesors aren't allowed to come in. He just built it as a steel building, after the building inspector assumed he was done he built the living quarters inside. They have no idea. I went and looked at one a few miles away, you roll up the semi size doors and there's a damn 2 story mansion inside with stained hardwood siding, Pella beveled glass arched windows, etc. Looks like it belongs in a 500K neighborhood, shut the doors and it's just a generic looking steel building. You only go round once, do what you want. Can't wait to see it. .
Doc, If you have the backing - I say take the initiative and just do it ! Wish you all the luck in pulling this one off. A wharehouse would seem the best place to start with. Wasn't there a story on the HAMB or maybe Speed Channel about a family that took an old dealership and put their collection in it ? 41 Dave
it was on tv one night......bitchin place......lots of cool stuff in it......i think it was a copy of oneida tn ? or something.....if you have the means to build a dream like that......do it......you'll only regret it if you don't.....hopefully i will get to build a small scale version in a couple years.....brandon
My dream is to save up enough for new wood for the coupe project. But like I always say: "You get one shot at life, don't miss!"
I always wanted to buy the old fire staition in the West bottoms, but it would too small for what this guy is thinking of. an alternate that would be cool would be one whole floor in teh old FireStone building (now Abdiana) they are turning it into lofts but the fullsize car lift that goes all the way to the topp still exists. Though probably not functional. I suppose it's not safe to drive in your house but damn it would be cool.
I look at real estate a lot (wishful thinking) and I see grade schools and old factories that have ton of character for cheap for large large large sums of square footage. I'm sure the building needs much rehab but I'm all for this. If you ever change your mind, it's not like all the stuff couldn't be sold off individually for more than you paid for it as antiques and then you are back to just a building. Real estate is never a bad investment. If you left it like a giant Neverland and tried to sell it, then yeah, it would be a different story. You'd like it, you can do it, and when you are dead, somebody else can do with it what they want, but it would even be a good chargable tourist stop. I'm all for it.
I think its a really good Idea I have allways wanted a warehouse so I could park right next to my bed have a firemans pole maybe a indoor shooting range. I wouldnt put in a carousel cuz I would be afraid a candy apple eating psycho clown would jump out and kill me in my sleep.
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