I'm getting shop envy creeping up on me... :hail:

Don't know how I missed this!!


AWESOME JOB!!


Now! Post up some more pics!!

years ago i had a shop similar to yours, it was a tad bigger, but i dont remeber the size, it had the paint booth on one side and bodywork booth on the other and the wide open up front, your really going to like it the way you set it all up, looks awesome !!!! you did an great job !!

Thanks Greg!

We're working as fast as we can. If all goes well I will have some pictures of Sam and I building the stairs (in the rain) by tonight.

We were just talking about how nice the upstairs would be as an "apartment" when Deb gets tired of me... I'm sure the upstairs will be used for part storage for years, but eventually...

Shop's lookin great Tom.Sorry I missed your cookout last fri night really wanted to come to Indy.Just too many things going on.

Definitely missed having you here Scott!

Rained all day, but Deb, Sam and I were able to get the stairs completed today. Normally we build stairs at the completion of a project, but I figured with all the work that needs to be done upstairs this would save us time in the long run. The guy I worked for framing houses many years ago never taught me to build stairs, but I watched him more times than I can count and luckily I picked up a few things.

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Tom,they look awesome.I wish you were closer.Love rough framing/would to be there just helping out.I kinda miss that work.But I don't miss the cold winter's working outside.I'm a master @ stair's & Rafter's.

You guys are doing great. Not only do you build the cars, you build the place to build them in too! :thumbsup:

Been following along, you guys are doing a great job. Keep up the great work!

Thought these pictures might give a better perspective of the height of the trusses. They are two pieces and we will attach the top once they are stood. Because we are going with a metal roof the truss engineers talked us into using pole barn trusses at 6' on center. Definitely not what I like, but they really wanted us to go 9' on center but I just couldn't agree to that. Of course the two story section will be a rafter system.

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It took a little work, but we were able to shove two trusses up to the second floor. Luckily Kaytlin's new father-in-law pulled up as we were doing the first one. Great guy and incredibly hard worker!

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Deb can't do anything without getting dirty. This was the ink from the back of the OSB that we are using for sheeting the sides. To me she looks as good in her work clothes as she does dressed up!

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Starting to take shape. We still need to add tails to the trusses for overhangs and soffits.

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Awesome job Tommy! It is looking great.

Wow, great progress! At this rate, it wont be long.

Thanks guys! My summer part time/full time gig with the National Guard just came to an end so it is back to the normal firehouse schedule that should allow some more time for shop work. Also have some maintenance to do to our 66 and wagon before next weekend (Bowler Transmissions "A day at the strip")...

Alright, I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but getting the ridge board up today was huge. Not sure of the weight, but it's 26' of 2x12" and had to be lifted 18' to be mounted.

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We tried last Friday with ratcheting straps but after the winds picked up and it started to rain I had to admit failure. Grrrr!

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Worked 48 hours over the weekend at the firehouse and was able to war game a better plan and pick up some pulleys and nylon rope. (Harbor Freight is in our fire district). I'm not saying it was easy, but it went much better for Deb, Sam and I.

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Ive done 22' ones by myself drill a hole and tie one side up if you need add another 2x4 for more of a ledge set the other end on your shoulder walk up the ladder and raise it above where you are going and lower it in place. Looks good by the way. Kevin

Cutting and installing the rafters is taking longer than we expected, but forward progress is always good. We're down to just 14 more to cut and install. Sadly, Sam will be gone all of next week down at DSE during his fall break. Luckily, Kaytlin's new father-in-law is a school teacher and will be available to help out for the next two weeks!

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We had been storing the wagon in the new shop while we were getting it ready for Bowler Transmission's "A day at the strip" autocross. Well, I needed to pull it out to get ready to load. The virgin concrete was just begging for some tire marks....

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haaa nice cherry pop on the floor. shop is looking good

Lookin good Tom.:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Just a quick update with some pictures. Finishing the rafters seemed to take forever and now putting up the purlins for the metal roof on the 16" on center rafters is crazy tedious. But, it all has to get done...

I had family help with all the rafters except the last four. I never want to try that again by myself!
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Both cars temporarily stored after returning from Bowler Transmission's Day at the Strip event.
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Another almost $1400 in lumber! Not sure where all my buddies that are into crossfit are while we're loading and unloading material..
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Just some rafter pictures
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Hours of working on purlins only got us half way up one side.
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And here is where we were as of last night. Tough to see upstairs but we started putting in the ceiling joists to tie the rafters together and give it more stability before moving on.
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I'd make whoever marked up your new floor scrub those off! :poke:

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Sadly, I don't have anything that is even fun to do a burnout in anymore - -the 'Burb will barely spin one tire on smooth concrete!

Garage is looking AWESOME!

You probably feel like this though - - > :G-Dub:

That's exactly how we feel! The 275's made such nice black marks on the floor I was thinking about putting a set of 335's right next to them. :D

Tom - shop is looking awesome.

Are you putting in garage doors where the header panels are for the part of the garage that has the roof up?

Your shop is HUGE!!!!

Thanks Craig! As of right now the plan is to put some sort of home made "barn" doors on the paint room side and we're thinking of a clear plastic strip hanging curtain deal for the machine room. We made the rough openings big just in case we changed our minds on anything. The paint room opening is wide enough to get our trailer shoved in without too much trouble.

Its coming along nice.

Sam and I are on our way back from a Chevelle road trip to Goodguys Charlotte and he's driving so I thought I would do a quick update.

Setting trusses has been a bigger job than we had hoped. With the help of a couple of young guys from my National Guard unit, Kaytlin's new father-in-law and of course Deb and Sam it is really not hard to get them lifted up in place, but running the purlins for the metal roof takes forever!

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This was a week ago at the end of the day. All our help came over after church so we got a late start.
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This is what the lazy dogs do when they are not chasing a tennis ball while we're building. Good shot of the 66 too.
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And this is what it looks like now. Actually this was at the end of the day on Wednesday. Two more trusses to go and I will build my own gable. Hopefully it will happen pretty quick this week.
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...psd94f2ce0.jpg

Nice progress. That's going to be a great shop.

One hell of a project Tom. It's looking fantastic!

Thanks Wayne and Todd! It is definitely our dream shop. Just a lot of work between the dream and a functioning building...

Tom,Lookin Great.There's nothin like the feeling of building a new Garage/Shop.I wish I could be there to help out.I hated building/Framing to pay the bill's.But love doing it for Fun!!!!!!

I feel the same way Scott. I remember even though we needed the money in the worst kind of way, I would hope for heavy rain and lightning so I could get a day off..

Yep, I've been meaning to update the build thread for a long time now and couldn't quite get to it. I have figured out the problem though. During the summer/fall when we stopped working at 6-8 pm we still had plenty of light so I could get decent pictures and update what we had just done. So, now it gets dark at 5 pm and we work until we can't see anymore and then clean up. At that point, we can't get updated pictures so I don't feel like showing stuff that is even one day behind. Oh well, just how my short circuited brain works...

Lots of things slowing us down including jobs, weather and moving out of the old shop but we're still pushing forward even in the bad weather.

First set of pictures is moving out of the old shop. It was 28x44', two stories and we built it right at ten years ago. Minus a couple of trips overseas, we have been working in it for that long. Before we started going to P-T events and while we were building the 66 we traveled the country picking up Chevelle parts cars and of course just stored massive amounts of parts that we would probably never use. And honestly, it seems like since we put the 66 on the road in 2010 it has been one whirlwind thrash after another. I say all that to say the shop was cluttered and not easy to move. Even though I had a lot of friends offer to help, I only bugged a few when the time came. Deb's parents did come down a few days early for Thanksgiving with the purpose of helping us move. We abused that relationship to the max... Great in-laws and incredibly hard workers!

Upstairs before
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Upstairs after
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We moved everything out of the upstairs so we could "organize" as much as possible.
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Completely moved out. Fairly sad when I handed over the key to the buyer.
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Basically two 16 hour days and one 6 hour day. Three trips with a large U-haul and countless trips with the truck and trailer. Wow!

On to what people really care about. When we first started building, each update showed real progress. I don't think anything will look too exciting until we get the roof on...

One of the most recent. Sam's friendly wave as we finished sheeting the gable. That would be one big ugly side if we just sided it, but our plan is to come out 22' with a lesser pitch roof that will be 22' wide. It will help break things up and be a nice place to park and work on decent days.
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Now that all the trusses are up you can get a good idea of how tall the 12' ceilings will be.
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...psec6834a3.jpg

Metal roofing for the complete shop. We really thought this would be a couple of two foot stacks of material, but this is enough for the whole thing. 25' 4" long and hauling it on our 20' trailer was entertaining. Negative tongue weight made for a long trip home.
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...psddbb3cb2.jpg

Tom,Wow!! The building is Awesome.You guys have done a ton work in a short amount of time.

Thanks Scott,
The positive reinforcement is much needed. :thankyou:

You just killed me with your "moving" pics….since I will have that coming up shortly. OMG!


The new shed is awesome Tommy. It's quite the project -- and you appear to have a good handle on it now.


I don't need to tell you -- that getting that first piece of metal roofing "square" is critical. If it's off just a bit - by the time you get to the far end -- it's a big OOPS! LOL

When I framed my Shop a few year's ago. The concrete guy's got the slab 2 out of square on one side. Man was it tuff getting the roof metal to look good down the one gable end. I was so pissed. Lookin good man.:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Tom,
Your new shop is looking great! We are getting ready to move down to southern Indiana here in the next couple months. Will be building a new house and a shop. I would love to stop in and get a peek at your place sometime if that would be possible? I have been watching you project and really like what you have done. Would like to see it in person to get a size perspective.

Good luck on getting it finished!

Yeah Scott, I'm sure we're a little out of whack but I do have a plan to split differences and make it look right... Can you caulk metal roofing? :D