The bluish low budget workshop..and maybe:) later the garage ..

344chief · Sep 17, 2009

Hello world!

I've been restoring/collecting vintage motorcycles for some years. Actually since I was like 21yr old or so, now 36.
I've had several "workshops" or garages over these years.. ranging from the bedroom at a student's home to an icecold barn..

The first years I managed to restore a bike each year, but I sold all of them to buy the dreambike(s). Due to high cost and constant maintenance needs, I've only managed to restore two Indians over the last 10 years.

Now I'm more into a nice, warm(!!) and tidy workshop/ garage.. and have a longer timeframe on my motorcycle/ car project.
For now, I will keep some of my stuff at the old garage(family), whilst "building" a new workshop and garage at my girlfriends house. Hopefully it will also be my house within a week or two, we are talking with the bank..

I like the idea of having the workshop near the house.. as a room just for me. Where I can fix my stuff, and listen to music. And I would also like to enjoy an icecold beer when working, so driving is out of the question (superstrict drink&drive rules over here).

This is the old (but still accessable, unless my dad kick me out

) workshop/ garage in the town.

Now the floor is painted..but there so much stuff in there now... tents, a WW2 willys jeep, a Polaris 6X6, a snowmobile.. a sidecar etc etc...

344chief · Sep 17, 2009

So...enough about the old garage...over to the new workshop.

I want to start with a low budget, and collect ideas as I go along.

The workshop room is not very big, so no bikes will be brought in there.
It's about 10 square metres..

The room was full of stuff, and quite dark, so I don't have any pictures from before. But it was basically a hobby room with a workbench, woodworking tools and shelves full of paint/ fishing gear/ screws and some furniture..

I just found out that this room was actually the watertank for the house before! There are some old waterpipes at very strange locations..and then some weird looking channels which is now used for ventilation..
When the house was built in the early '50s there were only farmland around, so the few houses either had wells or rainwater collection.
The wells usually ran out of water, so this house had this tank for storing the rainwater from the roof. There was a coal/sand water filter in the nearby room..

The roof height is somewhat limited, but just enough for me.
So I went ahead and bought some boxes of the Kiwi plastic tiles, since the Norwegian importer actually had an office in my hometown... very lucky, picked up the tiles myself.

Painted the walls with a standard white wall paint, and the work area walls with a light grey oil based paint for easier cleaning.
Painted the old wooden workbench with a light blue oil based to match the the blue perforated toolpanels (some $30 each, not bad for EXPENSIVE Norway) . Then I put together some steel shelves (at ~$40-$50) for storing some of the smaller motorcycle parts. And I also will store ongoing projects on these shelves. I can't put all the stuff in this room anyway.. spare wheels, frames or whatever I bring home needs to be stored in another room..
I also bought a plastic cabinet that looks ok.. but I rather have one in steel instead (but they cost $300+ and are often too tall for the room, so maybe later.)
The plan is to install my Myford ml7 lathe on the old workbench, unless I find an original stand for it. I may need to rise the lathe a bit up from the bench as I often get some neck pains. I need to be able to work the lathe without looking downwards. The plan is to cut down a big alu plate I have, and cover the worktable top with it.
After putting in some of the stuff I had from before and some of the tools already there, it looked like this:

This was 1 week ago.. more to come...

jj3 · Sep 17, 2009

Kjempe bra, chief! You have some expensive toys there, especially for Norway!

Good luck getting into the new pad and digging the blue!

BTW, which part of Norway do you live in?
JJ

TheAnser · Sep 17, 2009

Neat history behind your new shop.

Great to see it reborn into something that will be useful to you and you made it look great to boot!

344chief · Sep 18, 2009

Hei!

I live in the southern part of Norway, in Vestfold "county".
Just 2 hours drive south of Oslo, the capitol of Norway.

Not all the stuff in the garage are mine

We are a motorized family

I sold the Ducati this summer, looking for something more comfortable to ride.
So I only have to make room for the indians and the 911 in the "new" garage..

More pictures to come..

Btw.. this is one of the first projects to fix when the workshop is up&running.

The base of the cylinder cracked(possible casting flaw, and high compression and a heavy sidecar..) and the piston got stuck on the way down.. and then the rod made a mess. But the cases and rod looks ok. Need to split the cases and flywheels to check.
This happened in northern England after touring England-Ireland-Northern ireland-scotland-england for 2,5 weeks..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10527710@N03/sets/72157621835738361/

egilp · Sep 18, 2009

skikkelig fin plass der... great place you have to work on...

348guy · Sep 18, 2009

Lets see pics of the Jeep :bowdown:

dreamingmuscle · Sep 19, 2009

Need pictures of the Jeep!!!!!! :lol_hitti

________
Honda Logo history

344chief · Sep 28, 2009

have tried to find some good pictures of the jeep.. but no luck yet.
I need to empty some more of the stored boxes from the last move, they are on a backup cd somewhere. The server (web) harddisk crashed one year ago..

The workshop/ cellar refurbish project have now expanded to all the rooms in the cellar.. it's better to get everything done at the same time.
At some point there has been a woodworm attack in parts of the cellar.. so we will make sure this doesn't happen again. We don't dry clothes there anymore, and have removed the vinyl flooring to make the concrete breath more. And will put in an airdryer. Should get rid of some of the big spiders. Well, I don't mind them and there are no poisenous spider here..but the other half hates them.

Anyway.. there will be some weeks (or months) before I start on the garage project. And there's a kitchen project about to start also..

There's still quite a bit of stuff left in the old garage, but I've moved quite a bit already.

The lathe in place, need to make/find a drip tray. Or find an original myford stand. The lathe is a 1953( I believe) Myford ML7 with gearbox.
It had been used on a whaling ship back in the days, and got it a couple of years ago. I have repainted it, and will be replacing worn parts this winter.
It's not a big lathe, but I can do most of the work for the indian on it. For larger items, I can borrow another lathe..

the nearby room have been cleaned and repainted as well.. keeping my indian sportscout racer there for now:

Added more stuff to the walls and some new shelves under the table...
Here's the computer corner. Now with LAN network, as the wireless occasionally fell out while streaming music (spotify/itunes etc)..

Not much news in the "other corner" apart from more room for spares and some boxes of spare parts..

...more later....

344chief · Sep 28, 2009

Some issues in the cellar rooms.. but it's pretty dry there now.

Will paint the walls and floors..

This is the westward view btw.. from last winter..

344chief · Oct 15, 2009

slow progress here...

Have managed to paint the nearby rooms and staircase.. fresh white paint really makes the rooms look more attractive and larger.

The staircase...was very dark before..:

The room under the stairs looks much better now, still need to attend the door

In the workshop area I've added more shelves for storing parts and bolts..Some of the parts may be stored elsewhere, I have still quite a bit of stuff left in the old garage.

In the garage we have temporary stored alot of the rubbish and stuff previously stored in the cellar (where the workshop and "motor" library) now reside..
Have to temporary store some of the stuff in the garage elsewhere, and are planning to tow the rubbish to the dumpster tomorrow..

When my neck (stress related) clears up, I'll first remove the gravel in the garage and then dig into the soil. I've digged a few holes in the garage to find how deep I can dig. I want to rise the ceiling height and still have room for the slab/cement floor. Also planning to make room for a scissor lift. There won't be enough ceiling height for a post lift anyway. But it should be enough to lift the porsche /bikes up some 70-100centimeters.

It's already starting to get cold in the garage.. really looking forward to have this redone as a garage for wrenching..

344chief · Oct 18, 2009

I've been digging in the garage this weekend..
Had to start digging a bit out from the rear wall of the garage, as we need to find a place to store the stuff that was there. And I may have to stabilize the sidewall as they have "cheated".. and built the wall on top of loose smaller rocks.

This will take some time.. only managed 1/5 this weekend..had the friday off work as well. But the neck/back problem doesn't speed up the progress.
If I have 205 cm as a target roof height, the cement floor will just cover the rock the house rest on. But I could probably make a narrow "step" towards the inner wall of the garage. And then make the rest of the floor 10 centimeters lower. But the angle of the driveway could be a problem. but time will show...

I hope I can make room for the scissor lift .. need some 11 centimeters to make the lift be flush with the floor, and a 10 cm layer of cement and iron under that..

My back hurts..

Lot's of rocks...

after 10 hours of digging..

The rocks and soil will be moved here, to fill up a new parking space for a car/trailor.
If we can afford/are allowed to...there will be a second attached garage added later..with two full floors above..

344chief · Oct 29, 2009

dreamingmuscle said:
Need pictures of the Jeep!!!!!!

Need to pull the jeep out of the garage one day, but it's still too much stuff in front of it..

these are the only pics I found, and the blue indian is blocking the view:

honda-boy · Oct 29, 2009

Wow, those are some big rocks :wtf:

Weird that there is/was no concrete floor in the garage ?!

344chief · Oct 29, 2009

I guess it was a matter of cost, however I guess most would have used concrete in 1980 when the house was expanded.
It's probably easier to have a gravel/soil floor with regards to water drain.

I ran into some BIG rocks , so I need to cut and split the top off these..

But first we need to cut down some trees before the it gets too dark and cold... winter is near.

344chief · Aug 20, 2010

Long time since last update...

After digging out most of the garage last autumn, the project was put on hold until recently. I've been busy working, and rebuilding my indian chief engine and fully restoring a 1960s russian "dnepr" K-750 motorcycle/sidecar combo.

To keep warm during the quite cold winter I had to assemble the K-750 in the cellar. The space was tight, but I got most done. The engine and misc other things was fixed in the workshop.

During the winter we decided to do some changes to the house. And we finally got the plans ready and approved in July.
Fixing the old garage are now just one of several projects. The second floor of the house will be chopped off, and replace with a new construction with a lot more windows and space. Also a new detached 6.20 * 6.20 metres garage will be built outside the house for the cars. The plan is to install a 4 post lift for storing and working the cars.

So, we will be kept busy for a while..

But, things have been progressing very rapidly after we returned from vacation. I'm usually only able to work 4-5 hours on the house/projects each day, due to my job.

Motorcycle garage

2 weeks ago I started digging out the rest of the old garage, removing some quite big rocks. The floor was then 30-40 lower than before (when the floor was gravel. New draintubes was put in, and then the floor was insulated with 5cm insulation blocks and covered by plastic moisture protection.
We poured the new concrete floor one week ago (with a truck).
I have since then painted the roof and walls two times, it wasn't very nice before....

Have also installed som tool holders and things like air and power cables on the walls. My workshop is just 3 seconds away, so I just need the basic tools and service tools for the running bikes in this garage.

Two days ago I assembled the floor (Kiwi tiles, since there's an importer in my town) and it's starting to look like the garage I want.

Now I just need to find a solid work table and hook up the airlines to have an operational motorcycle garage.
We are later going to install a new door on the side of the garage, since the current garage door will be removed. A new bathroom will be built over the current garage entrance. There will be room underneath the new bathroom where I can keep the sidecar bike and parts.

The current garage entrance, and parts of the foundation for the house extensions

The CAR garage
We had to dig into the ground to look for solid ground, but we had to build up a foundation sole for most of the outer walls of the garage.
The soil part of the middle of the garage will be leveled (mostly fine "gravel" in the ground) and then the cement truck will be back to pour the floor.
I will also insulate this floor.
Need to decide on the floor covering also. Not sure how the epoxy will stand up to a heavy Landrover with studded winter tires..
The epoxy should be good for keeping the road salt from entering the concrete though. I wonder if there are any mats or similar that could be put on the floor in the wintertime, to protect the floor from the studded tires.
Not sure if plastic tiles would work either..

the yard needs some leveling also...

The new door for the old garage will be installed somewhere between the windows on the wall in the back..

344chief · Aug 20, 2010

by the way.. "low budget" is probably not correct anymore...
But we are trying to keep the cost down as much as possible, and I/we do most of the work ourselves..

From the start of this thread, this is how the old garage looked last autumn:

quite a difference, right?

993James993 · Aug 20, 2010

Very nice! Please post photos of your 964. I love the slate grey/stone grey color. Is it a coupe or targa? Were brake air scoops and chrome D-90's stock in Norway? Have you done any modifications to it?

RUMBLON · Aug 20, 2010

WHAT YEAR ARE THE INDIANS? VERY COOL BIKES. :thumbup:

RUMBLON

344chief · Aug 20, 2010

993James993 said:
Very nice! Please post photos of your 964. I love the slate grey/stone grey color. Is it a coupe or targa? Were brake air scoops and chrome D-90's stock in Norway? Have you done any modifications to it?

I bought the car(used) in California in year 2000, I was working in silicon valley at the time.
The chrome wheels came with the car, and the brake air scoops was added when the car was repainted 6 yrs ago. I've used the D-90's for the winter tires the last 4 years, but the car hasn't been much out in the snow. Running 17" turbo twist wheels for the summer tires.

Haven't done much modifications apart from a "performance" chip, white side repeaters and the RS exhaust pipe. Eventually I need to do the engine, suspension etc.. but the car is still running good and passes the EU inspections with no problems.
The roads have been neglected for years here, so the stock US spec suspension has been nice. But would like to lower and stiffen the car up a bit..

344chief · Aug 20, 2010

RUMBLON said:
WHAT YEAR ARE THE INDIANS? VERY COOL BIKES.

RUMBLON

The big one is a 1944 Chief and the small bobber/racer one is a 1939 Sport Scout(with a later engine etc)

RUMBLON · Aug 20, 2010

344chief said:
The big one is a 1944 Chief and the small bobber/racer one is a 1939 Sport Scout(with a later engine etc)

WOW, very cool. I have wanted an old Indian for years. With all the room I have I have zero bikes and muscle cars. I will have to remedy that!. Very nice.

RUMBLON

344chief · Aug 20, 2010

RUMBLON said:
WOW, very cool. I have wanted an old Indian for years. With all the room I have I have zero bikes and muscle cars. I will have to remedy that!. Very nice.

RUMBLON

yeah, indian motorcycles are special

Too bad this also reflects the price of one.. however the prices seems to be down quite a bit in the US.
I actually have a chassis (no wheels or drivetrain) for a late '40s chief stored in Ohio, plan to ship it to Norway later.
I'm still more into riding than storing perfect restorations in my garage, and the later indians (1935->) perform really well in modern traffic.. apart from the front brake though..
I took some US, Australias and Swedish Indian motorcycle friends(10 in total) on a round trip here in Norway less than 1 month ago. And apart from a worn clutch(from previous sidecar riding), all bikes ran well. And the roads put a bit of strain on the bikes, but it's off course more fun than the boring straight roads..

Been working in the old garage again tonight.. just hooking up airlines and misc stuff. tomorrow I'll work on the NEW garage

993James993 · Aug 21, 2010

Thanks for posting the 964. I love that color and that body. Do you work on the car yourself?

344chief · Aug 23, 2010

993James993 said:
Thanks for posting the 964. I love that color and that body. Do you work on the car yourself?

Thx, I think the 964 models combine the old 911 shape and more modern technology/ comfort in a good way. I would have bought a 964 RS (Euro spec) if they weren't so expensive. But the stock 964 carrera 2 is much easier to live with on these roads.

I do the most of the maintenance work on my car, and this would be easier and much more comfortable when I get the new garage and a lift.

Worked until midnight yesterday with the new garage, trying to get some progress while the weather is nice. The weather forecast is heavy rain tomorrow, so I have to wait until wednesday with the mortar/ wall building.

344chief · Sep 5, 2010

Starting to fill up.. motorcycle garage version 0.1

344chief · Sep 8, 2010

some progress on the new car garage.. still a bit left before we can start preparing for the floor (concrete)...

the days are just too short now..

344chief · Sep 28, 2010

No car garage yet.. but we have done lots of work to the driveway and backyard.

The top crown of the garage is done, had to pick up the concrete with the trailer and carry it over to the garage foundation walls with a shovel.
I had to carry most of the 2,5 metric tonnes of concrete myself while mye girlfriend was picking up more concrete with the trailor (weight limited..)

Next task was to level the inside of the garage foundation, before filling it with rocks/gravel.

We hired someone to fix this, but I wound up in the excavator myself and did almost half of the work in a weekend. I have spent some hours in an excavator before, but just on a hobby basis.

I got the "fun" job of leveling the "big" rocks inside the garage foundation walls.. A bit tricky with a short reach small excavator from the outside of the foundation walls. And then I spent quite a few hours compacting and removing the excess rocks (way too much..)

Some of the drain tubes and the red tubes going to the garage (for power, compressed airlines etc..

After this, the driveway was leveled and some of the larger rocks was removed.

And then some big tractor loads of rocks was dumped in the driveway...and then 5 hours of compaction those.. the ground was soft at some points, so it took a while before the rocks stopped sinking into the soil.

it was a "shaking" experience..

Tonight we have compacted the top layer of very fine gravel.. but it got dark before I managed to shoot some pictures.. but my big landrover didn't leave any marks on the gravel, so it's probably pretty good now. However, we will wait until spring with the top layer(probably mixed asphalt and cobblestones).
The soil and gravel needs to settle first.
Next up now is to waterproof/ paint the top of the foundation walls and pour the concrete floor. Hope to start building the garage framework shortly after that.

As a break from the work with the new garage, I decorated one of the walls in the motorcycle garage.

Constantly moving tools and mortar etc around in the motorcycle garage, looking forward to finish some of the projects..

344chief · Sep 29, 2010

Status today..
The compacted gravel has a quite hard surface!

the evening will be spent preparing for the garage floor...and hopefully they have the trench drain modules in stock. Need to secure thes modules with concrete.

sachapan · Oct 1, 2010

344chief said:
As a break from the work with the new garage, I decorated one of the walls in the motorcycle garage.

Love the mural. :bowdown:

I can't tell from the pictures is it painted on or is it some kind of vinyl? I would be curious where you sourced it.

344chief · Oct 2, 2010

The "mural is a wallpaper

got mine from photowall.no
It's also possible to order the wallpaper with your own photo or drawing!
I have some photo's worthy to be on the wall, maybe later.

I also want to use a car related photo wallpaper in the car garage I'm building... Probably some vintage Porsche racing car.

sachapan · Oct 3, 2010

344chief said:
The "mural is a wallpaper
got mine from photowall.no
It's also possible to order the wallpaper with your own photo or drawing!
I have some photo's worthy to be on the wall, maybe later.

I also want to use a car related photo wallpaper in the car garage I'm building... Probably some vintage Porsche racing car.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

344chief · Oct 28, 2010

We finally found the time and weather(it's been cold) to cast the floor for the new garage. It started snowing the day before we initially had planned to do the flooe, and I was not home to cover it up. So we had to remove all the ice and water by hand over the weekend. The concrete truck arrived as we removed the last pieces of ice with a shop vacuum cleaner.
A friend helped us "polish" the floor at night.. we were done just before midnight. A bit tired after 12 hours out in 5+ degrees celcius and some rain at the end. Mother nature has been showering the surface with some light rain, so I think the drying process has been ok. And the temperature has been good as well. The concrete surface is really smooth, hope to treat the floor with a hardener and membrane sometime next week. Don't think epoxy will stand up to studded tires and salt from the winter roads..

The precut garage framework/ roof structure won't be ready for at least 4+ weeks , will be winter here before it's usable as a garage..

While I'm waiting, I'm doing minor changes to the motorcycle garage and workshop almost every evening.

Have soon filled up the garage too.. at least until the mc garage is expanded next spring. I need to find room for another sidecar and a skirted fender chief project.

will2002 · Oct 28, 2010

What an outstanding A+ job you are doing! Taking your time, and doing EVERYTHING just right. I seem to always get into too much of a hurry with my projects. My hat is off to you Sir.

344chief · Oct 29, 2010

will2002 said:
What an outstanding A+ job you are doing! Taking your time, and doing EVERYTHING just right. I seem to always get into too much of a hurry with my projects. My hat is off to you Sir.

Thank you very much!

I always try to hurry up my projects, and at times I work so fast that I need to go back and correct later. While I don't like it, I've accepted that I will never ever be done with all my big and small projects. I just hope I don't get fed up, and do "nothing" instead...like watching tv.
We actually don't have TV signals/ cable in our house. News and special programs (like TopGear) are easily available on the internet.
All the time we save by not watching TV is used for hobbies and friends!

Occasionally I wish I had just paid someone to build the garage, but it has been a good (...long..) learning process. And it's not critical if the progress is slow. For the planned house rebuild however, we will hire carpenters to get the roof and walls done quickly.

If we manage to get the new car garage up before the winter, I will work on the interior during the winter.. if not, I will continue improving the workshop and motorcycle garage.. and freshen up the 1944 indian chief a bit (it has travelled over 65000 kilometers since 2002).

344chief · Oct 29, 2010

..winter time approaching blues...

some shot's from the garage..

modern meets vintage..

italians vs austrians

1934 indian sport scout primary cover clock (in aluminum)

and finally the viscous guardtiger in attack position..

344chief · Nov 19, 2010

..short update again..
Due to travels and too many work projects, the car garage project hasn't moved at all. I still have a hope to get the walls and roof done this year.. but I need to hire someone to do this. And everyone have too much work already.

anyway, I've been pimpin the motorcycle garage with more lights and an Indian neon sign..

The wallpaper/ mural is now brighter due so some led lamps.
Now I can shut of the superbright T5 overhead lights and make it more cosy using just the led lights and neon sign. Very good for the days when I just want to look at the bikes or stream a Top Gear or Jay Leno's garage show on the lcd monitor.

LED light strips:

993James993 · Nov 19, 2010

This is coming along very nicely! Thanks for posting the update photos. I considered putting a similar drain at the edge of the concrete apron that attaches to my garage.

Please tell more about your black motorcycle.

Thanks,

Jim

Jack Olsen · Nov 19, 2010

That's a very pretty 964.

344chief · Nov 21, 2010

Thx!

The black motorcycle is my girlfriends bike, we restored it last winter.
However, the wheels still need to be rebuilt with new rims. The wheels on these old soviet bikes are "always" wobbly.
THe bike is a '60s Dnepr, 750ccm flathead based on the BMW R71 prewar/ war bike. They improved/ changed parts of the design over the years.
We need to sort out the bike after the wheels are rebuilt, but it runs pretty good. We will probably install a gearbox with a more suitable 4th gear ratio and reverse gear. Also, 2wd kits(with a differential) is available.
I like riding sidecars, but I wish the Dnepr had more power. BMW engines can be installed for more power and reliability.

The winter started (again) yesterday, so I moved the porsche to the garage floor. Now I really wish the garage was ready.. the poor 964 have to be outside..

Had to charge the porsche as the battery was near flat..

The bluish low budget workshop..and maybe:) later the garage ..

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