Getting Organised (Part 2) - Shelving in the Garage

During the many years that my car was left, unloved at the barn my spares, and the few bits already taken from the car (roof trim and indicators - that kind of thing), had been stored at a council lock up I rented on the other side of the town where I lived. These had been transported to the lock up in shallow, stackable cardboard vegetable crates - secured from a well know high street supermarket chain. Probably eight or nine crates.

The Lock Up. Body panels stored in the rafters

When I woke up and decided to restore my car, the first plan had been to bring the car back to this lock up and work on it there......somehow.....I was going to figure out a workaround for the lack of space and electricity later on.......

Anyway, with space clearing in mind, I retrieved the boxes of bits to the wooden shed at the end of our garden. I was always worried about them being stolen from the lock up, so this was no bad thing. I also took the wooden work bench I'd been storing at the lock up and, by cutting 18" off the end and 4" off the back, manage to shoehorn that into the garden shed too - turning what had been a bike and lawn mower store into....... you've guessed it: a Man Cave!

Zinc plating action in the Man Cave - April 2016

I managed to do some initial work on car bits in that shed (and fill a couple more veg crates with more bits removed rom the car) but it wasn't very satisfying and the car itself was still many miles away. One of the best things I did though, was to empty all the boxes out over the lawn and to catalogue everything. EVERYTHING. Every rusty nut, every perished grommet (almost). I maintain this as a spreadsheet to this day. One or two things still go astray, but generally I can lay my hands on the things I want or remember having.

When we moved to our new, bestest, house in May 2106, the garage here served as a holding point for our household belongings as we settled in. The workbench and DS veg. crates were un-ceremonially dumped in a corner. Low down the list of priorities.

DS Bits - August 2016

As the garage gradually began to clear, I started to trickle in all the other big bits and pieces that had been left at the lock up - seats, wheels, wings and doors. It couldn't happen soon enough as I was worried that someone would break into the lock up and sell everything for scrap. There was a lot of stuff....

Wings and doors went into the new shed at the end of the garden. Leather seats and soft stuff were quickly relocated to the spare bedroom before Gayle could object. Veg crates stayed on top of the workbench........

I got by for a while with the veg. crates stacked on top of each other, but it was inconvenient having to get at that crate right at the bottom..... I needed a better solution. 

I had brought with me a couple of cheap DIY store shelving units and had inherited several home made shelf units made from angle in my new workshop. Initially I was using these for little odds and ends, but felt I could make better use of them.

After a little bit of planning and measuring, with a day at home to myself, I set about turning these into some more useful storage down one side of the garage. I dismantled everything and re-assembled to optimise the space.

There was a lot to accommodate.

Some of the inherited angle was very hefty and I used this to make an extra strong run of shelving with strengthened shelves for the heaviest pieces - such as engine blocks. Deep bins underneath for those handy to have spare gearboxes.

All the shelving was fixed to the wall and stood on feet to minimise the chance of the legs buckling. As part of the wider reorganisation I found a safe home, away from the kids, for the engine crane. I chained it to the wall to stop it falling over.

Most spaces are filled with DS things of one sort or another.

And a lot is still in the workshop too.

A Quick Word About..........Stereolab

Well what a surprise! My mate Jerry has just texted me this. I'm not sure who to credit it to. I suspect it came from one of the old weekly music papers:

The Groop - Summer 1991?

It features the early core members of a band I would possibly rate as my favourite - certainly consistently up there in the top two at any particular point in time. The Groop - STEREOLAB. Formed in 1991 and active through the 90s and 00s, Sterolab soundtracked my life and accompanied me on many of my Ds fries in the early and mid 1990s.

'SYE 29 something'. The car doesn't have clap-hand wipers - so is possibly 1965 to 1967 vintage? Tim's got the door open - so was either being cheeky or they'd arranged to use it for a photoshoot.

The band line up dates the photo as probably summer 1991. Is that DS still out there I wonder? I've not seen it at rallies.

Anyway, more about Stereolab: the photo shows Tim - ex of McCarthy (another great band) - his French girlfriend and sometime McCarthy contributor Seaya (aka Laetitia)  in the foreground - and Gina Morris (a friend and NME journalist) in the background. Together with Russell (from Moose), Martin Kean (The Chills) and Joe Dilworth (Th'Faith Healers) they formed an indie superGroop. Oh, hang on. This says it far better:

From south London, England, Stereolab wear their John Cage and John Cale influences on their sleeves, but within a short time-span have amassed an impressive body of work. The principal mover is Tim Gane (12 July 1964, Barking, Essex, England; ex-McCarthy), who was at first joined by his girlfriend Laetitia Sadier (b. Paris, France), Martin Kean (ex-Chills) and Th’ Faith Healers’ drummer Joe Dilworth, also a Melody Maker photographer.

Gane gave the band its name, after an obscure offshoot of 60s folk label Vanguard Records (it has also been stated that the title was taken from a hi-fi testing label). At their early gigs they were joined by Russell Yates (Moose) on guitar and Gina Morris (New Musical Express journalist) on vocals. Too Pure signed them, allowing them to keep their own Duophonic imprint. By the time of the release of the ‘Low-Fi’ 10-inch in September 1992, Mary Hansen (b. 1 November 1966, Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, d. 9 December 2002, London, England) had arrived to lend keyboard and vocal support, and Andy Ramsay replaced Dilworth on drums. ‘John Cage Bubblegum’, which some critics have noted as an adequate description of their sound, was released in the USA only, on Slumberland, via a limited edition version containing a stick of gum. By the time The Groop Played Space Age Bachelor Pad Music was released in March 1993, further line-up changes had occurred, with Duncan Brown joining on bass and ex-Microdisney guitarist Sean O’Hagan also guesting. This set was the closest to ambient soundscapes, à la Martin Denny or Arthur Lyman, that they had yet come.

Stereolab left Too Pure for Elektra Records at the end of 1993, once again retaining the Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Disks imprint for their domestic releases. Duophonic would also issue material by Arcwelder and Herzfeld, the latter featuring another former McCarthy member, Malcolm Eden. The double LP Transient Random Noise-Bursts With Announcements straddled both indie and dance music markets. This was more minimalist than ambient, and maintained their reputation not only as a competent rock outfit, but also as an important fixture of the experimental dance axis. The addictive Music For The Amorphous Body Study Centre continued to embrace subjects outside of pop music convention, on this occasion acting as a soundtrack to the work of artist Charles Long for an exhibition at New York’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. The excellent Emperor Tomato Ketchup (the title was taken from a Japanese cult movie) was another mix of melodies that crept under the skin. It is almost irrelevant that many could not understand the French lyrics, such was the strength of the songs.

Stereolab, with all their influences, from the sparse sounds of Moondog to the gentle side of Nico’s Velvet Underground, remain hauntingly original and one of the most rewarding acts to emerge from the 90s. Ever prolific, they have released several albums including the dance-orientated Dots And Loops and Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night, indicating a willingness to experiment with their established sound. Gane has also collaborated with O’Hagan as Turn On. Tragedy struck in December 2002 when Mary Hansen was knocked off her bicycle in London by a lorry and died from the injuries sustained.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze