Were buying a new house and I have a two car garage in it. What do I do first? ASfar as tools go I do have a couple of tool boxes fool but I want to get another huge set. I was thinking about building a workbench type thing. This is all to help me restore my truck. But at 15 I dont have a a very big budget so anything for the garage is taking away from my truck so it better be worth it.

Thnx, DREW

 

The best thing that you can do is to sit down with a paper and pencil and draw out your workshop. figure out where you want your bench and how big you want it, take into consideration what you plan to be doing (all phases of a rebuild in your case) and try to figure out what the best way is to lay out your shop.. gobs and gobs of neat tools and specialty machines are great but if you dont have:

room for all of them
+
room for the vehicle
+
room to work on stuff

then you will be swearing at your garage more than using it..

a 2 car garage sounds pretty big but once you tear down your vehicle and have stacks of body, engine, and interior laying around it gets pretty small. the most important things that you need to determine first however is that you have enough electrical outlets, the ability to run air tools, AND ABOVE ALL, that you have enough light. there is no such thing as too many overhead flourescent lights.

Good luck and may the force be with you.

 

Well hazard, If you have the basic tools, you can get by for awhile. You didn't say how much work you had to do on the truck, so its kind of hard to advise you want you will need first.
But as far as a workbench type thing, you will need one of these so you have somewhere to spread your work out on and not loose any parts. Sort of like a office, they all need a desk! You can build a workbench pretty reasonable. So I would make that priority #1. Also some pegboard on the wall behind it will come in handy for hanging tools and parts off truck for easy locating and storage! Digital Camera is a must, document your work in progress and pictures of truck so you will know how the parts go back on! Plus any questions you have for forum, you can include a picture for reference.

Good luck with truck,
Lenny

 

As you start getting more and more stuff, remember this: Try to put wheels on everything. I have my lathe on castors. I have screws that I can lift the castors off the ground to make it very stable.

It makes it easier to rearrange the shop and you can crowd stuff close together to get temporary open space.

 

Man you guys are quick. WEll first off I should have a good amount of lighting because it already has a standard lightbulb and were going to add garage door openers and thats going to be more light. Im doing a frame up restoration and havent even begun yet. Im planning it out so that I dont just get crazy with it and then make a mistake that ill regret. And about the pictures and stuff Im even thinking about filiming it like putting a camera in the corner. That might be a little extreme though.
thnx for the help , DREW

 

The key to efficiency is also in a simple saying:
A place for everything and everything in it's place!

 

Garage door opener lights are timed to go off within a couple of minutes of finishing their travel.

 

I have a pull chain switch wired into mine so I can keep the lights on. I checked my unit to make sure the bulb wattage was not too high though. I did not want the sockets or other plastic parts near the bulbs to melt. I also added a bulb socket to the opposite end of my opener for more light.

You need all of the light you can get in a shop so make sure the walls and ceiling are painted white. Add all of the flourescent light you can to the sides so that everything is illuminated.

 

2 light bulbs wont be suffcient, upgrade now, you'll be sorry if you dont.

 

You can buy 4 foot double tube flourescent fixtures at Home Depot for about $10. each. You want three of them - one over your work bench and one over the front half of the truck and another over the back half. Hang them from hooks using lengths of small diameter chain so they can be mover around a little.

Think about hanging sheet plastic down the center of the garage to seal off the other half from dust, etc when you're grinding/sanding. Rig up something like a shower curtain so it can be opened and closed when appropriate.

Get some wooden/metal shelves for storing parts on.

Take close up pictures of the engine and brakes before you tear them apart. Two years from now, you won't remember how they are supposed to go back together.

Buy an Hayne's or Chilton's manual for your truck as well.

Don't know what year your truck is, but one of the most useful tools you'll find for tearing down a truck to the frame is a 4 1/2 inch electric grinder. Here in Canada they come as cheap as $30. so if you're in the U.S., then obviously it'll be even cheaper.

Later,

 

My opinion on lighting is to arrange the lights in a rectangle around the vehicle, not over it. If the lights are over the vehicle, they will nicely light up the shiny side of the hood while you are at work under it. Three fixtures in a C-shape at the front and either one at/over the back of the vehicle or one at either side of the back. If headroom above the door is an issue, you can probably find room for a fixture or two on the ceiling right above the door header.

In my dad's garage, we wired the light switch up to a bunch of outlets in the ceiling. We put cords on the lights & just plugged them in. The thought was that we could move the lights around if we needed to, although we never did.

If you are in a cold climate & the garage is not already insulated & drywalled, do it now. It'll pay for itself in comfort the first winter & it's a real PITA to do once the garage is full of stuff. Running a space heater for a few hours in advance of working in an insulated garage can nicely take the chill out of the air. Even if you don't bother the the mud'n'tape, paint & prime the drywall with a white or very light gray semi-gloss. The semi-gloss will help with reflecting light & the lack of color will be helpful when painting stuff.

I'll second the motion on the grinder.

Basic digital cameras are cheap these days. I'd get one & photograph the snot out of everything you do. It will help you remember how things go back together a year or two from now. It won't matter if you get the garage camera grimy & you don't have to print all the pictures - just store them on your PC & share them with your FTE friends.

That's all I can think of for now.

Cheers,
Eric

 

Like others have said you will need more light. They are correct. I also have a two car garage with two standard lightbulbs and two garage door openers with lights in them. They can be turned on at the button to open and shut the doors. It's not nearly enough. Especially under a hood and under a car.

Do what you can to improve the lighting and electrical. A standard garage has one electrical circut to it for both the lights and outlets. Builders put in the minium. A medium size compressor will blow it if you are using an electrical too and it kicks on. And if you have any type of electrical heater, even a space heater raws a decent amount of AMPS. Hopefully you have a circut for lights and another for outlets or can add a circut or two easily and safely. If you don't know how get an electrician or ask here. Screwing around aimlessly in this area might prove disasterous.

Back to the lighting. Lots of good lights installed is great but if you can't afford or acomplish this consider the portable lights from sears or any other hardware store. They are cheap and provide l lot of focused light. Plus a little heat in the winter. I've used this set up for a long time with success.

Like others said, take time to plan it out and do the best you can.

 

garages these days are built to store bikes, boxes, and other junk, not to work on/restore vehicles. Too little light, and probably too little room. The more overhead lights you have, the less holding flashlights or other work lights youll have to do. But like people are saying, plan where youll be working and put lights shining there.
ie, work bench, front and sides of vehicle.
Also, make sure that you dont hang any lights such that the garage door will block them in the summer and when the door is up

 

"A place for everything and everything in it's place".........my things have multiplied and my places have shrunk......I am doomed.

 

ATTN:HAZARDOUSDREW
I'm curious- how did you pick your "name" for the FTE ? (Mine is my regular "nickname") Now to business: re. "what to do first"
You have already done the most important thing to do first.(After deciding to restore your truck.) Since you aren't old enough to buy your own house,you have been able to secure the use of a two-car garage conveniently built into/onto the house. Your parents must be very knowledgable/understanding/cool if they know and approve of your plan for garage use. I agree with the facts that you will need more light, and a work bench (placed underneath at least one 2-tube 48" shoplite) Think about your folks, though. Is there a door into the house from the garage? You mentioned a garage door opener--- in bad weather, Mom may want to park inside the garage, and enter the house (living space) while carrying food & other good stuff inside. Stay on your mom's good side in this type of situation and you will probably be able to use the other side of the garage without too much argument from your Dad. However... Dad will want some room for his tools, and a place to use them. Plan on sharing the workbench- use pegboard behind bench and area underneath bench for tool storage. Now that politics have been taken care of, since it's a new house (To your family) it is your duty to select a room of your own, close to the garage,with a bath/shower room handy. I know that this post isn't quite what you were expecting for a reply, but bear with me. The worst word I ever heard applied to one of my vehicles was "derelict" A derelict is something that has been abandoned or adrift. when you start your restoration of your truck, instead of tearing it down to little pieces for reassembly later, restore the parts/systems necessary for safe operation first(so you can move it if Dad needs room for one of his projects) after you have completed your "mechanical restoration" of the truck, you will be very familiar with its construction and be able to make knowledgable decisions about paint color, seat covers&upholstery, etc. sorry about so much opinion. Al