I started this project quite a few months ago and has pretty much consumed most of my free/detailing time. But, it had to be done in the overall best interest for detailing and just flat out organizing my garage better. When we moved into our current house almost 2 years ago, the garage had a couple of simple shelves up front, a couple of wall hooks on the side, and about 1/4 of it wasn't drywalled with the rest just having a flash coat of mud on it. On the wall and above garage opening that was not finished, I installed insulation between the studs, hung drywall, and then proceeded to mud and tape the new drywall with 3 coats of mud and the flash coated areas with 2 additional coats. After sanding, I primed and then applied 2 coats of exterior paint from top to bottom. Once this was complete, I installed the Gladiator GarageWorks system. The stuff's not the cheapest around, but I've been extremely impressed by it so far. I put gear channels just about everywhere I could and hung up 2 large cabinets and 3 smaller cabinets along with a host of hooks, shelves and baskets throughout. I tried digging up some before pics the best I could. Here you can see the back wall and side wall that I hung drywall in the background: You can see the left side here: Just like doing details, should've taken more before pics.... Anyway, here's some of the finished product. The 2 big on-wall cabinets are dedicated for detailing products: And the most important stuff: The 2 detailing cabinets are still shaking out as I start to use stuff and organize it as needed. Couple of other notes. I have some big plastic bin holders on order for underneath the 1 smaller on-wall cabinet next to the halogens. These will hold my MF dirty and clean large plastic bing holders. The left of the brushes and Schmitts on the back wall will be going a 40" LCD hooked up to a sat receiver and sooner or later 5.1 surround sound sytems consisting of a Yamaha receiver and Atlantic Technology in-walls. Also, above where the garage opens, I'll be putting some hy-loft storage units for bigger storage items that are used less frequently. Also, will be installing some T8 flourescent lights . That's why you see the power cords for the current ones hanging down. Still need to add insulation to the back of the garage door and above the ceiling as well. Oh, and still need to do something with the floor. Any recommendations would be appreciated! A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into this one. At one point while mudding, I had an old rickety wood later collapse on me. I tried catching myself between the wall and garage door track, but that proceeded to leave some serious cuts (probably should've gotten stitches) and removed some skin from my right arm. Hurt like hell! I'll continue to tweak it as time goes on. As mentioned, I'm very impressed with the Gladiator system. I think it was a good investment overall for the house too. Thanks for checking out my post.
Looks awesome, I'm looking forward to visiting and basking in its glory. For the garage floor, I say you take a page out of ketil's book.
Oooh very nice :druling: I really like those two tall cabinets, they look great. The entire garage looks sweet :worship2: I'll be taking a week off work with the intension to finish off the garage as I would like to have it all done up, but something tells me a week just wont be enough...but with a bit of help I may pull it off :shrug: I'll definitely be referring back to this post though :thumb: Thank you for sharing.
I think that fluorescents as a general rule are really good, but if you are looking for some really bright and 'full' spectrum light. I would look at two (or maybe you might get away with one just in the detailing bay) metal halide lights in the garage. Something in the 400W range would be plenty of light, you would see EVERY single swirl with it on and you might only want it on during correction. It would save you from needing/having a sun gun or other option IMO. And if you really needed the garage lit up, these things are the best. Two in one garage at 400 W would easily do the whole thing. And if you are worried about being 'green' you should know that these lights don't run at the full 400w current/draw all the time. I think I ran mine for growing vegetable seedlings this spring 14 hrs a day, for 60 days straight, cost was 40$ spread out over two months. 400 WATT WAREHOUSE SHOP GARAGE LIGHT METAL HALIDE - eBay (item 190134716772 end time Jul-17-08 16:18:20 PDT) I bought one just like it in High Pressure Sodium (comparable light fixture) for growing, and I intend to get a MH one for the garage for lighting (more light spectrum than HPS light). Just giving some more options that I haven't read much about on the boards. Nice garage btw, I am :applause2: for you! IB
Looks fantastic!! As someone that will be redoing a garage (thank you, thank you, thank you!) soon I've looked into various things to put in it and am curious what is the brand of cabinets and tack you're using?
Thanks everybody. As for the Jag, the funny thing is I really hadn't put anything on it yet. I had just picked it up from my dad to do a light polish and LSP on it. Of course, he probably just waxed it himself the previous week. It actually might be Menz FMJ on it, but don't hold me to that. Also, I would give the paint job on that Jag most of the credit more than the LSP. It has an unreal midnight blue color. And, Ian, thanks for the suggestion on the light. I'll talk to my electrician buddy up the street about these lights. He was going to help me with the T8s. It would be nice not to have to move the halogens all around the car!
The garage is looking great Jon. As for lighting you may want to look at getting some normal fluorescents and then getting some paint booth bulbs. I have had a lot of luck with the epoxy floor systems (with the nifty flakes) you can pick up from lowes. They are pretty pricey but they are BOMBPROOF, as in even where the garage door goes down it never chipped it in 3 years.
just make sure that the foor has no oil residue on it, my landlord put it down and the guy didn't get all the oil off the floor it bubbled
I'm thinking about taking the easy way out on the floor and getting some of those heavey duty roll-out coverings for it. I've read some good reviews and it takes about an hour to do it instead of days with epoxy. Trade-off might be worth it in terms of time.