Lakeroadsters' Build Thread: '65 SWB Step

It's my understanding that rain barrels on downspouts are Verbotten also... yeah, go figure.

I am familiar with the Longmont salvage yard, I used to work a couple blocks from there. It's a part of town that is starting to see urban sprawl. An industrial "ish" area that is being cleaned up. I'm surprised the yard lasted as long as it did.

If you want good "solid" sheet metal Southern Colorado is a much better choice. Longmont isn't really all that arid in comparison, and the sheet metal reflects that.

It's all relative though. Compared to Ohio, the trucks in the Longmont yard are "cherry".

 

A Garage Build Thread...

In preparation for the pending relocation of "Lakeroadster's Garage" I've been designing a new shop.

Plan is to down size this shop to make it more cost effective to build, and not worrying about making it tall enough for RV storage.

I've settled on a 30' x 44' building with a 9' side wall. Going to use scissor trusses just in the lift area, and attic trusses for the remainder. Attic trusses will provide for a bunch of storage space. The new home is about half the size of our current one, so we will need some storage space.

The side wall / scissor truss combo gives enough clearance to fully lift all our vehicles. It wouldn't work for a suburban or a minivan or a trcuk with a cap on it, but we don't have any such beasts.

Here are some screen shots of the general arrangement. If ya got any thoughts or ideas I'd love to hear them.

 

New Shop...

Looks good to me, I do have a question or two, since you asked.
I'm guessing this shop will be a "stick-built", custom structure. You show a lot of trusses for it to be a pole barn type building. The thing I would consider, would be a good quality pole barn, either wood or steel. The cost to push a pole barn on up to 12', would be minimal. Mine is 14', and one side has steel pallet racks set to form isles and shelves, rather than fork-truck access. The top can then be "bridged" to form a second story storage area. They can build some pretty attractive "pole barns" these days, even using brick on the exterior. Are you going to finish the interior with drywall, or steel, or...? I used plywood up 8', then steel on the top 6', at least the half I've been able to get done. You could use hi-rib commercial steel to span your ceiling. What about heat? I like radiant gas heat.

Don't get me wrong, I like your drawing/idea, esp. if your lift allows you to get under your vehicles without stooping too much.
These suggestions may be worthless, as, I live where there are few rules and no restrictions on pole barns.

I can't wait to see it...

 

Garage/Shop Ideas

I have a GREAT idea ~ come test build it in my back yard first , then you'll know what changes you'll want for the one you build at your next house.....

I'm embarrassed to post pix of my 1923 'T' Model garage that's jammed full of tools & parts, also home to 1/4 million termites ~ one of these days it'll just collapse and I'll be well & truly screwed .

 

Sounds like an awesome set-up Steve.

At our pending new place, per HOA reg's, the building is required to be "of similar design to the home, made of similar materials." The new home has an HOA that is DOA. The subdivision was established by the older folks who owned the land. They have since passed. But a fella put up a tall blue poll building like you discussed, blue to match the color of his house, and quite frankly it looks out of place, it is the only tall building in the subdivision and the only steel building too.

So I just figured it "good game" to follow the originator's wishes and to design a building that meets my needs and that will meet their original intent. Good karma for me.

As for stooping under the cars, that won't be the case. That's the reason for the CAD models of each vehicle. Each of our vehicles ride the lift as high as the lift will go and still clear the scissor trusses (I created a CAD model of a new extended cab Silverado and used it with the lift at full position to determine the best location for the lift). What won't fit is a vehicle that has height at the rear of the vehicle, like a Suburban or a pick up truck with a cap on it.

I do like pole buildings though and had a real nice "Lester" pole building erected back east when we lived in Ohio. The classic red barn with white trim. I built a huge 10' x 30' loft in the back of it. And I'd go that route again... except for the reg's and the layout of the lot. We had 5 acres back then, and a big ole pole building looks at home on a larger lot. IMO it looks weird on a small lot right up against a small one story home.

Photo below is of the "The Big Red Barn" and 1/2 acre pond we built in Ohio. It was an empty lot when we bought the place. Truth be told, they are about the only "material" things I miss about Ohio... but I sure don't miss mowing 4 acres of grass every third day!


You can see the loft in the background of this photo....

No need to be embarrassed. My fondest memories of wrenching on cars are at my Grandfathers bank barn, helping him with his Model T Fords when I was just a kid. No doubt I wasn't much help but it was always an adventure at Grandpa's place.

His machine shop was in the belly of the barn, dark, damp and small... and packed with every tool it took to build a tin lizzie.

The shop is just the means to an end. But it's always fun building stuff, be it out of wood or out of steel.

Thanks for the input guys.

John

 

At Home With The Kiwi Birds

Here are some photo's the new owner sent me of him and the truck in New Zealand.

I know I am hardly impartial, but that is one good lookin' truck :grin:

 

New homes...

Glad to see the orange crate made it. I'm still in denial that its gone.
I had a friend that loaded trucks at a terminal I hauled out of for years, from New Zealand. He was the hardest working guy on the property. Never applied for US citizenship. Worked on a green card. I'm sure he would be disgusted with the freebie some are getting today.

The ol' Chevy got a new home. I'm still wondering about Lakeroadster's new home.

 

Gone But Fondly Remembered

That's nice John ;

I bet he's doing a pee-pee dance every time he looks at the details and quality of work ~ you can't ever beat a job done for one's self over paid works .

I'm keen to see where you go from here .

 

We're moved in to the new place and I've been re-working the attached garage.

Our previous home was huge. It had a 35' x 35' attached garage and a 30' x 40' unattached shop, that's over 2400 sq ft

The new place reflects our quest to downsize into more reasonable space. But the bummer is it only has a 26' x 32' attached garage, that's 1/3 of the sq ft we had before.

I made a list for the previous owner of all the stuff that they needed to remove from the garage.... their realtor said I was "anal". Then to add injury to insult they did a poor job following through. So I spent a day cleaning out crap... carpet, paint, plywood, shingles, etc.

Luckily we haven't moved the cars up here yet, so I have until Tuesday to get everything organized. It's coming out well... I'll post some photo's once I am done.

Then the hunt is on for a contractor to build my new shop.

This moving stuff is hard work..... No way I'd ever work this hard for somebody else.

John

 

real estate agents...

I'm glad the deal did not fall through this time. I hope you can get your shop built quickly, sounds like the Pickup, and the Jeep are going to sit outside in the meantime.

The sellers realtor told YOU, you are anal??? That would be VERY difficult to take, I'm thinking.

I'll withhold my opinion of realtors in general, and only say I'm glad I've never had to deal with one.

Keep us up-dated...

 

Lakeroadster's High Country Garage

My new neighbor Bob is a car guy. He's got a b-i-t-c-h-i-n '47 International pick-up that he and his buddies built.

He offered to haul our (3) old cars up from Denver to our new home... that's a 300 mile round trip! My wife and I had planned to rent a U-haul pickup and trailer combo, but using Bob's rolling stock made more sense... and with the weather Colorado has been having it allowed us to pick blue sky days where hail and thunderstorms would not be an issue.

We hauled the Model A on Thursday, an uneventful trip, all went well.

On Friday we headed to Denver and loaded up the Model T on Bob's trailer. My wife and I decided at the last minute to go ahead and just drive the Camaro. It was a great trip, the Camaro ran flawlessly, storming up the mountains with ease. The 350 SBC / 3 speed Muncie combined with the big diameter rear tires is a perfect combo of gearing for mountain driving. It was about a 3-1/2 hour drive, and with the flood detours the total mileage was about 150 miles.

They have some bizarre bugs up here. They splatter a bright yellow / gold color and when we cleaned them off the cars the rag looks like French's mustard.... weird?

In any event, we are now officially moved. Awesome. We are truly tired of the 7 hour round trip drives.. and all the crazy drivers.

Now we gotta get a contractor lined up to build my new shop.... the attached garage is now just a tad bit "full"....

John

 

Glad you got moved, finally. I'm guessing that garage will get a little chilly come January. Got any leads on good contractors in your new neighborhood?

Also, the vintage tin under tarps in the picture, what, are you teasing us?

PS, COOL JEEP!

 

Bob, the neighbor, knows a couple guys.. I hope to make progress on the new shop this week.

You haven't seen the old Fords? Here ya go:

The '31 Tudor: 355 SBC, 350 turbo, 12 bolt posi. The wife and I built this from 1988 to 1998. We had a little money, a few tools and lots of other priorities.

​

The '27 RPU: 5.0 HO SBF, 4-speed SROD manual trans, 9" Ford rear. We started this one around 2000. It's quite the fun machine. This one took about 3-4 years.

​

 

Wow...

Thanks, John, for the pictures and the story behind them! I like both of them, and would want to drive the Tudor every time I went to town!
The roadster pickup is cool and looks like a lot of fun. The photo with the mountains in the background is a very nice shot! Perfect wheel selection IMO.

Retirement in the mountains with a Jeep and two hotrods in the garage, I think YOUR living the dream!

We just need to find you another old truck.

PS, what a blessing to get a neighbor who is a good guy, and a car guy! I think you beat the odds there.

 

I'm a lucky guy!

Thanks Steve... life is good.

 

Upon further review.... you're right Steve, a pole barn makes a lot of sense.

I've been working with the local "Lester" rep. and we've designed a building that enables a 10 ft side wall and trusses spaced far enough apart to give the shop plenty of height for my Rotary lift.

The building won't look like a big tall pole building and therefore it should compliment the home.

The big advantage of the pole building is the lifetime warranty and the lack of maintenance....... more hiking and wrenching time makes John a happy fella.





_____
John

 

not your grandpas ol' pole barn...

They have really improved the design and appearance of modern "pole" buildings. Laminated posts, improved trusses, paint finish and fade resistance. My cousin just had a 44'X32' post garage built by some Indiana Amish guys, and it is really nice. Interior finished, and painted, and concrete, and AIR CONDITIONING. It is very similar to your drawings, except two overhead doors on the front and a small side overhead door on the side for big utility tractor, etc. Walk in door on the front also.
I'm guessing construction costs might be slightly less, and, build time should be shorter.
I'm curious about your lot size, and if there is any slope away from the house. If so, you should not even notice the 10' wall height.
I assume the colors in the drawings are representative of the color combo you are going with. I've noticed they are using brick or stacked stone up to the windows a lot now around here. My barn was originally planned for brick on the front under the windows, but, never went ahead with it. I have plenty of extra brick from the house, so, maybe someday if I ever retire.
Your comment on low maintenance is exactly how I feel about everything. There is always plenty to keep our days busy.
I would suggest at least a full car length concrete pad out front right from the start.
I thought the way your old house was finished and landscaped was beautiful, and absolutely loved the concrete drive.
I don't think we've seen the new house yet.
This should give you enough space for your current stable, plus, maybe enough space for another old Chevy truck.

 

Sweet !

I'm just wishing I had the $ to lay down a new concrete driveway pad to work on.....

You're doing well here John , I can't wait to see what you end up with .

 

Nick created a new forum for "Garages"... so I let's take the "building a building" conversation over there.... here's a link: https://talk.classicparts.com/showthread.php?p=108993#post108993

 

Good to see you have complete the move John and and started plans for the new garage.
I would have sent the Agent & Escrow company bill for the clean-up.