Garages, you say?

[Flynlow]

So after a monumental push back in Ohio, I'm 100% out of the old house, and hopefully going to closing in less than a month. 

Once that's done, I'll be looking for a proper garage.  I rented a small storage unit to put the Camaro and tires and stuff for now, but it's not really big enough to do any meaningful work.  Any of you that may have been in the same situation, do you have any recommendations on where to rent a workshop for reasonable money?  I've found some, but they're all commercial spaces, like for a business, and are priced appropriately ($1000+/month).  Ideally I'd like to be under $500/month, and would like space for 4 vehicles, but I'm flexible on the details. 

Any suggestions?  I will share space or invite everyone over to drink beer and stand around while I work on cars in payment for your wisdom  .

[blue06civic]

I don't have a solution, but where in/around Richmond are you staying, how close do you want the garage to be, and what locations have you been looking at so far?  I would imagine the farther you got from Richmond, the cheaper you could find space.

[Flynlow]

I'm on the east side of Richmond (Church Hill area).  I'd like the garage to be within 20-30 minutes, if possible.  So far I've been looking in Ashland, Chester, and Midlothian. 

I did look at one around an hour away, and that was huge and cheap, but I think with an hour drive each way I wouldn't be likely to get much done on weekdays after work.

[pipefitter]

The Mechanicsville area would be fairly close to you. It's on Rt 360, east of Richmond. Are you working, or living, in Church Hill? I'll keep my eyes open......

[Flynlow]

I live in Church Hill, work over near VCU...so both are pretty central downtown area.

I'll add Mechanicsville to the list, thanks for keeping a lookout! 

A friend at work suggested just buying a couple acres 20-30 minutes out and building a garage or finding a place with a barn already on it.  Sounded crazy, until I realized say 3-4 years of garage rental @ $500/month winds up being $18000-24000, which would just about cover a place like that!  So I may look into that as well.

[Flynlow]

SUCCESS!!!!!!!! 

2 Weeks ago (basically dropped my stuff off and closed the door):

1 Week ago (started the cleaning and organization):



Last weekend (Sunday after the autox):

Very important workstation:



The new(?) Celicas:



Cleaned up my tools/jacks/stand/ramps from under the layer of barn dust they'd acquired:



New parts racks (plus the current bikes):



New workbench!!!:



Everything tucked away except the Z06:





Needs another day or two of cleaning and organizing to get the floorspace back and make everything nice, then I plan to crank up full bore on the projects and start hammering them out. 

Next to come is a beer fridge and some seats to make a nice chill out area. 

[Conemasher]

Wow....that is a nice space. You have room for a few more. :p

[wahoo5]

Very nice, Cliff.

[Flynlow]

UPDATE:

I have unfortunately missed the last several auto-x's.....mostly because the MR2 started overheating.  So here she sits:



I ran a compression check, and the numbers came in at:

Cyl 1       2      3      4
    180   140   140   120

Which caused me about 3 seconds panic about HG issues before I realized the battery was dying.  I've got it on the charger over night, and will re-test tomorrow.  I'm hoping it's something simple like an old dried coolant hose, or a bleeding issue (bleeding the cooling system is a pain in the neck on these cars).  But now that I'm not traveling as much on weekends, I'm hoping to do a full overhaul.

Partial list of jobs planned during the off season:

-Strut mount replacements
-Steering rack bushings
-Oil cooler hoses and gaskets
-Full tune up (plugs, wires, cap/rotor, etc.)
-Clean body grounds
-AC system rebuild (never worked since I've owned it)
-Cooling system check, leak repair, and full flush back to OEM Toyota Red from the mixed soup that's in there
-Brake pads/rotors/fluid/lines
-Exhaust (flexpipe and cat)
-Distributor rebuild (if seals are leaking)
-Replace trunk lock cable
-Rebuild shifter
-PO sticker removal

I'm hoping to have her up to daily-driver capable status come springtime!

[whiteryder]

Yah, it's too bad you don't have any other cars to autocross with.   LOL

I'm still dripping with envy at the lack of rust on your MR2 though.

[rothaus]

UPDATE:

I have unfortunately missed the last several auto-x's.....mostly because the MR2 started overheating.  So here she sits:



I ran a compression check, and the numbers came in at:

Cyl 1       2      3      4
    180   140   140   120

You may want to do a leakdown test, that would tell you if you any leaks in the head gasket.

Cheers

[Flynlow]

So, a bit of bad news, I topped off the cooling system before I left last week, in addition to putting the battery on a charger.  When I came back to re-run the compression check, cylinder 4 was wet.  Turns out that's where the coolant was disappearing to.  Ah well. 

Starting pulling pieces off in preparation of removing the drivetrain.  Will use this as an opportunity to not only refresh the motor, but replace lots of coolant and vacuum hoses that are otherwise hard to get to, as well as detail the engine bay and check for anything else that might be broken/missing/out of place on a 27 year old car that's had multiple owners. 

Might turn into the classic, "While I'm in there, I might as well....", but dammit if it's going to be done, it's going to be done right!

[blue06civic]

Ah, fun times.  Gotta love scope creep.  Can you pull the motor out of the top or do you drop it out the bottom?

[Flynlow]

It'll come out either way, I find it MUCH easier and faster to drop the engine/trans as a unit out the bottom of the car. 

[brandiniman]

If you need a hand, I have a friend with an 88 SC that has dropped the trans himself so he's pretty familiar with at least half the job. Plus he recently did a head gasket and valve re-shimming so he knows all the ins/outs/do's/don'ts of it.

here's his email: skylinejeeteeare <aht> gmail

[Flynlow]

Long time no speak!  I've missed you guys, just been busy with work, shop, and trying to find somewhere to live.  I got the drivetrain out of the MR2 and am doing a quick refresh (gaskets, seals, timing belt, etc.) while its out.  Fun times:







Also decided to pull the hubs and rebuild wheel bearings, brakes, suspension, etc.  Project creep galore, but I hope to have a very reliable season next year!




And.....i kinda/sorta found an awesome Lotus 7 rolling chassis for cheap and couldn't say no:



I hope to bring it out in 2014 with CBR1000RR power! .


Lastly, the shop will be going away eventually, probably this summer.  Shop v2.0 went under contract yesterday afternoon, and I'm VERY excited:



Once I'm in and settled, look for an invite for a VMSC cookout and movie night! 

[Flynlow]

If you need a hand, I have a friend with an 88 SC that has dropped the trans himself so he's pretty familiar with at least half the job. Plus he recently did a head gasket and valve re-shimming so he knows all the ins/outs/do's/don'ts of it.

here's his email: skylinejeeteeare <aht> gmail

Thanks very much for the offer!  I think I'm in OK shape, but if I run into trouble, I'll definitely give him a shout!

[whiteryder]

Long time no speak!  I've missed you guys, just been busy with work, shop, and trying to find somewhere to live.  I got the drivetrain out of the MR2 and am doing a quick refresh (gaskets, seals, timing belt, etc.) while its out. 

LOL   there goes my Toyota trophy....  it was nice while it lasted.   

If you're willing to help the competition by offering advice about poor compression on one cylinder,
let me know.

[blue06civic]

Locost FTW!  I'm trying to get going on a Locost build this year, once I sort out all my existing heaps.

[ccann26]

I' m liking the garage version 2.0 looks like 2 garages ftw.

[Flynlow]

Long time no speak!  I've missed you guys, just been busy with work, shop, and trying to find somewhere to live.  I got the drivetrain out of the MR2 and am doing a quick refresh (gaskets, seals, timing belt, etc.) while its out. 

LOL   there goes my Toyota trophy....  it was nice while it lasted.   

If you're willing to help the competition by offering advice about poor compression on one cylinder,
let me know.

Congrats on the trophy!  I look forward to a mostly clean, lighthearted sabotage-only, competition next year . 

And I'm always willing to help, bring it buy once I'm into the new house and we'll have a beer and check compression.