Getting organised (Part 1) - Workshop and Access

Although the plan had been to work on the car and replace the engine up at the barn, the previous 18 months had shown me that this was just unrealistic. Although my car was stored there, I lacked a suitable workspace. Well - not enough space and resources to do what I would need to do.

Car in the Barn - 8 May 2015

AND it was an hour from home. There was no way I was going to be able to put in the hours that would be necessary to fix the car at the barn.  With my trips to the barn infrequent, I would sometimes arrive to find my DS had been moved further back in the barn and sometimes completely boxed in by other cars. Sometimes it had things stacked against it. Not only was there no room to work, there was also a very real danger of the car ending up back in the corner again!

Unusually Empty Barn - 7 June 2015

Luckily that problem was resolving itself with our move to a house with a double garage. I just needed to make sure I got the car out of the barn as soon as I possibly could. That meant getting the garage at home ready.

Adjoining the garage was something I assume had been intended as a 'summer room' or early idea of a conservatory. It wasn't directly accessible from the main house, but did back on to the garage and had already become a workshop of sorts - complete with a couple of cupboards and a wood working bench.

When Gayle and I had first viewed the house, I'd made a mental note of the potential to have a door going directly from the garage to the workshop at the back.  That would be a messy job, so needed doing before the car came home.

In August 2016  I re-topped the workshop cupboards and workbenches I had inherited with 9" x 2" roof joists, held in place by hex-headed screws/ bolts recessed into the surface. As well as giving a rock-solid surface, this also raised the working height to something more suited to my 6'3" frame. I refitted the wood-working vice I had also inherited. This has proved surprisingly useful, opening, as it does to 13".

Richard came to visit, and we did a 'test fit' of the garage with his DS.

'Test Fit' With Richards DS - 3 September 2016

I also borrowed from Richard a HUGE and scary angle grinder and cut a doorway in the back wall of the garage straight into the workshop. Cutting the door was one of the messiest things I think I've ever done as the grinder turns the brick to heavy, cloying dust: cutting it, fitting a lintel and lining it took a couple of weeks. Hoovering the dust up took months! The results, however, gave me a really workable space. 

New Secret Doorway to Workshop

The ability to flit from car to a working space in a matter of seconds was a significant step on the journey towards getting my car back together and worlds away from the two hour trip to the barn and back.