Morris Minor Owners Club

Time for a different sort of rebuild story, methinks!

I have owned a Minor, of one sort or another for over 25 years now and in all that time I have NEVER had a decent sized garage in which to do work on the cars in. I'm sure that's true for many forum members too. My Dad's garage was the equivalent of 2 single garages end to end so you could hardly open the doors. My first house, after a number of years living in flats and bedsits, only had a remote car-port in a communal parking area, and my current house currently has a detached 17ft x8ft asbestos-sided garage which is decidedly past it's sell by date. If it had been in Scotland over the last week the garage would now feature as part of the shipping forecast!

I'm always amazed by the quality of a number of rebuilds that happen in very confined spaces (see David Miles resto of his Minor pickup as an example - great work with next to no room!) and of course Messrs Beardmore who have done many rebuilds and mystical conversions in a single unit.

For me, all that is about to change!! I'm just in the process of preparing to put in a much bigger garage/workshop by extending the existing concrete base to create a new garage base of 25 ft x 13ft. Once this is done, I will then erect a treated redwood timber garage in place of the old monstrosity (after having paid £300 to have the asbsestos taken away safely!). A sparky friend of mine has agreed to put the garage on mains electricity (another luxury I have been denied over the years!). I note one or two other forum members are also doing this which got me thinking!

So, two questions for you:

Firstly whilst posting a few pics of a different sort of 'rebuild' over the next couple of months so you can see how I'm getting on, how about sharing a few pics of your garage? I know some will look like Steptoes Yard (but you know where everything is don't you!!) and others will look like they have never had a car in them - ever. Don't be embarrassed - share your working conditions so we can all empathise with how it is for our fellow minor bretheren.

Secondly, if you were fitting out a new garage from scratch - what equipment would you include? I won't be able to afford hydraulic lifts or mondo-expensive gadgets but would be interested in what you think the essentials and nice-to-have's are?

I am working to a deadline - the blue shelled convertible in the pic below needs to be re-built by the end of April at the latest otherwise it ain't going to get to the 2012 MOT trip to Bergerac!

I'll post a few pics on that too as things progress .

Look forward to hearing from you

No pictures to share at the moment, but just a simple single brick built garage on the side of the house. Not huge amounts of room, it's draughty, but during the rebuild I felt quite at home in there, even on a chilly evening!

Well, this is my first "garage"...[frame][/frame]
And this is the second, which is adjoined to my grandmother's house, and is a lovely wide two-car garage:[frame][/frame]
You will almost certainly want a retractable garage door of some kind. A hard flat floor (wood planks, plastic rubber, preferably concrete, which it looks like you're doing) does wonders for cleanliness and ease of use. Windows are handy for ventilation while spray-painting or using glue, and a 'human-sized' door aside from the garage door would be nice. Good lighting is a must (in the large garage, lighting is poor, and in the lean-to it was nonexistent, so I've gotten used to using worklights like the yellow one you see on the ladder). If I were building a garage from new, I would want plenty of shelving and pegs on the walls for storage of piece-parts, and I would want a stove and a small air conditioner, for when you need to control the temperature (paint drying, headlining installation, cold outside, etc). A dehumidifier would be lovely to entirely halt surface rust while repairing metal.

I bought an ex-showhouse with the garage as their sales office, so my garage has plasterboarded walls and ceiling, coving and artex, oh, and a wooden floor with polystyrene slabs underneath so the floor is never cold !
It is lovely to work in and I am not suggesting you go that far, but the insulation and draughtproofing of the plasterboard is well worth having. What I would also like would be a pit. Something to consider when you are doing the concrete floor.

My Dad was a mechanic by trade so built a double garage with enough height for a 4 post ramp...... very handy [frame][/frame]

and so we can go double decker![frame][/frame]

My new 20x30ft garage was finished just last week and I keen to get started moving stuff in! Its not wired up yet but I gave notice on my lock up were stuff is stored so will have to move in anyway. Its steel joists with 18' wall at the bottom and non drip cladding to prevent condensation. No finished pictures yet but will add one soon.

Oh for the joys of a large garage. Ours is integral to the hose (built 1989) so can't be extended but the MM fits in and I can get to both sides and front and rear although doesn't look that way from the picture!

Because of all the 'stuff' hanging on the walls it has a protective cover year round though
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As already said, insulate the walls whilst your building it to make it more comfortable to work in winter and put in plenty of lighting and electrical sockets to plug things into, so you don't have cables running everywhere

I found some rubberised foam floor tiles in Costco that really do make a difference as concrete is cold and hard to stand on for long periods. I left a gap under the car for the wheel track and a drip tray though, old cars do leak!

Excellent garages Gentlemen - we must all be contortionists

As promised, I am attaching the 'before' photos. Fortunately, I have a massive garden so robbing 3 or 4 feet of length will not make any difference at all. In the second photo, I am standing about where the end of the garage will be. The width of the garage goes from the edge of the path on the left, to about half way into the herbaceous border on the right. There will be windows on three sides too in order to maximise the natural light.

I am restricted by the boundary wall and you can see I have already started laying a base for a narrow path so I can get down the side for maintenance and the inevitable weedkilling. It's not ideal, but I will be extending the existing concrete base on three sides and will be using some gash metal grid panels that will go under the existing concrete base and help tie it all together as much as I can. Since the new garage will not be sitting on any of the joints between old and new, it should be OK.Concrete base will be about 15cm thick with a sub base of 15cm of rubble and hardcore. Ready mix costs will be about £350.

Old garage doors will be cut down for shelving, and the scaffold boards I am using to form the edge of the concrete base will then be used to lay across the internal roof joists of the new structure so I can store wings, bonnets and bootlids (and those really awkward Christmas tree stands that just get in your way) up there. May also use these to construct a small fence on the boundary side where the garage will not quite meet the boundary at the front.

Hear what you say about lighting and sockets - there will be loads, I promise. Also the points about insulation are useful too, especially the floor!

All being well, I will have completed the excavation stage by the weekend - providing the weather allows some work in between gales and deluges! There is also some foliage to remove so that should keep me busy for now.

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One thing I would make sure of and that is a decent Alarm system, either a independant one or run an alarm cable from the house alarm along with the mains feed and connect all opening doors and windows.

Some swear by a pit -so something to consider - and a small wood burning stove would be useful - I certainly wish I had one ! Pallets are plentiful and free for collection....... Add all the height you can - perhaps not for double decking - but my Hornby Dublo layout baseboard is above my Trav when it's tucked up in the garage..... - and a floored loft area is invaluable for storage.

I would really like a pit but, because of the way I'm doing this, it's not going to be possible without a shed load of additional work. The existing concrete slab will stay put whilst I extend around it. Maybe after it is all in place, I have the car back on the road and I'm past my June 2012 deadline I will dig a pit from the inside. I agree it would be very useful indeed.

Like the idea of a wood burning stove - the location of the garage gets all the wind so I already know it will be quite cold in there during the winter. Height may be a problem as I am limited by planning regs. The garage is very close to my boundary which limites overall permitted height to about 3m. I'll get as much height as I can though.

Foliage is now cleared and tomorrow I have a day digging out the soil to allow the hard core to be laid. Can feel my back aching at the thought.... Given that Friday is supposed to be horrendous weather, it's probably helpful that I will hardly be able to move! Will post some more pics tomorrow.

Hows the new garage coming along?

Bit slower then anticipated but making progress. The footings have now been dug out around the old garage and have laid a base of hardcore. I am just waiting for some money before setting the new concrete base. Will post some pics over the next few days

I would build in a ventilation fan -- something exhaust air out of the garage when you need to. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, but a good strong 3 speed fan with self-closing louvers on the outside would be nice. This is particularly useful in winter, when you'll typically have doors and windows closed. The other thing is a comfortable spot to sit and think. Stopping, sitting and thinking can often prevent mindlessly moving ahead -- with negative results. In that same regard, it helps to have a wood stove with a nice flat spot on top to keep a kettle on. One downside, however, of a wood burner is that you can't instantly shut it down when you spill something flammable in any sort of quantity A sink is also a wonderful thing to have if convenient to install.

This is all a dream, of course, because I have a shop on the boat (it's 60 feet and 50 net tons) and work on the car on the levy. There's about 200 feet of dock in between. Nonetheless, one can get a lot done. This last weekend I pulled the boot lid, carried to the boat, stripped it, pounded out the big dent, filled the rest, level sanded it, primed it and got two coats of color on. Put it back on Monday morning with just two of the hinge bolts and a bungy to hold it closed. I've got a truck I could have driven to work, but I'm determined prove something here -- although I'm not sure exactly what... I had no idea when I bought the boat and left the garage behind that I'd get into moggies, but we adjust.