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Came up with this idea while reading a thread on another post and figured I'd see what kind of ideas you guys have come up with in your garages.
1. Rubber mats for horse stalls - make great pads to keep your feet from hurting and hard material your creeper seat can roll across.
2. Laptop and flat screen tv - tvs are cheap as **** on fb market place and install a linux operating system for a cheap garage computer for tracing wiring diagrams.
3. Old cheap roll around tool box - make great welder carts and storage for welding/fabrication tools.
I get 4 inch PVC cut it to the lengths I need and mount them to the wall. They make great place to put moldings, wood trim and a variety of other things.
Like this:
I actually stole this idea from Bob K. Out of the way and easy access when needed. Plan on setting up a charging station next.
1) I installed a poly parking lot bumper keep my front end off the back of the garage
2) Also I'm kind of a pack rat when it comes to chunks of plywood. I'm a carpenter by trade, so I 'm always in the need. I recently been fastening them to the rear wall and now have a few layers deep that only take up a few inches.
Carpet people are throwing out makes good backyard a-hole creepers. Just make sure it is not a doggy household. Also throw under engine stand to soak up drips.
Last edited by derekderek; 04-16-2019 at 03:52 PM.
Anybody with a C3 knows they drip, from somewhere. I found some heavy steel pans measuring 2 ft by 4 ft. with a one inch lip around it. I bought three and lay them end-to-end under the car. The first drip pan is for a slight leak at the differential. The middle pan catches an occasional ATF drip. And the front drip pan is for the notorious P.S. drip- drip-drip. I found them at, believe it or not Walley World. But, tough to find, hidden on bottom shelf in the motor oil aisle. Only $12 ea. Not a misprint, $12.
I also sprinkle some cat litter / oil dry in each pan. When visitors view the Vette, they can not see any of the (embarrassing) drip pans.
Home Depot Rustoleum Epoxy Garage Floor Kit: BEFORE MOVING IN. $200 and 3 weekends of labor (2 for prep, 1 for application and drying) -Not perfect but looks really great and makes cleanup easy. USE the anti-slip powder!
Retractable electric cord reel on the ceiling: I mounted mine right in the dead center of the garage and it's the most awesome time saver / annoyance saver ever.
Retractable air hose reel on the ceiling: My next purchase. I am putting my air compressor into a Gladiator Garageworks cabinet, then applying dynomat and the foil insulation to the bottom section of the cabinet where my air compressor is (cuts down on noise), then adding a retractable reel air hose close to the electric cord reel.
Sink: My other hobby, homebrewing, means that I have a stainless commercial spray sink in my garage.
Good lighting: I upgraded to LED lighting, but I'm adding 2 more LED lights and a dedicated over-bench light.
Keggerator w 2 beers on tap at all times. ;-)
Carpet scraps for laying on
1972 Craftsman 1/2 hp Bench Grinder with a dewalt wire wheel: although the motor's not 100% healthy, I really don't understand how I survived without this thing. Other cheaper wire wheels just turned me into a human porcupine; I got the widest DeWalt I could fit into mine and it's a GODSEND.
1972 Craftsman Bench Vice: just like the bench grinder, once I got this I knew I'd never go back to NOT having one
Rechargeable blutooth speaker: I haven't gone to having a TV or screen in the garage yet, but the bluetooth speaker lets me run a show or music off of the phone and still get phone calls.
AMERICAN MADE Air Compressor: I was a dumbass and bought a cheap Chinese one at first and like clockwork it died after 2 years. These things are just too @#$# useful to not have a good one and why by 10 of them? Just by once and cry once.
T-handle ratcheting alan wrench: I don't know why, but alan wrenches just annoy the @#%#@ out of me; the Dewalt ratcheting T-handle doesn't. It just makes alan head stuff quick and easy to deal with.
Things I WISH I had:
natural gas or electric heater
Amazon Alexa "Dot" -Yea, probably controversial with this crowd, but being able to just say "Hey Alexa: "Set a timer for 20 minutes" or "Convert 5/8" to millimeters" comes in handy working on the car AND when I'm brewing beer. (They have 120v high-amp outlet plugs that you can Alexa-enable too so you could technically have Alexa turn on things for you while in the garage "Alexa turn on the Air Compressor".)
Adam
Last edited by NewbVetteGuy; 04-16-2019 at 08:27 PM.
I was over at my buddy's place - and he was doing some welding for me- and I saw a neat idea.
When I got home-I immediately located some colored electrical tape-
Next time I'm at Harbor Freight I'll get some more colors...
Richard
I love that one. I got a 5 pack of colored electrical tape just for this purpose: I have different colors for my electric brewery cables: one for each vessel.
I have a 5 year old and a 3 1/2 year old so I get very short bursts of time to spend working in the garage and I need that time to be as efficient as possible.
How many of those 2,604 posts are of you eating popcorn, lol.
BTW one of my forum favorites
Good thread - Love to see many other ideas.
Thats a good question. I used to hit the subscribe tab to follow along on the threads as I don’t have tons of experience to contribute, but then I discovered the “popcorn bucket” and it’s quicker because it’s one click less than hitting the subscribe tab.
Thats a good question. I used to hit the subscribe tab to follow along on the threads as I don’t have tons of experience to contribute, but then I discovered the “popcorn bucket” and it’s quicker because it’s one click less than hitting the subscribe tab.
Thans for seeing the humor here, I really didn't want to **** anyone off.
Sorry for the hijack OP - I'll take some pics tomorrow of my garage progress.
Anybody with a C3 knows they drip, from somewhere. I found some heavy steel pans measuring 2 ft by 4 ft. with a one inch lip around it. I bought three and lay them end-to-end under the car. The first drip pan is for a slight leak at the differential. The middle pan catches an occasional ATF drip. And the front drip pan is for the notorious P.S. drip- drip-drip. I found them at, believe it or not Walley World. But, tough to find, hidden on bottom shelf in the motor oil aisle. Only $12 ea. Not a misprint, $12.
I also sprinkle some cat litter / oil dry in each pan. When visitors view the Vette, they can not see any of the (embarrassing) drip pans.
For those that have Autozone, I'm pretty sure I saw them for $9.99. I've been meaning to grab about 10 of them because I'm building a new shop and will want to contain the 1,000,000 from all my various project cars now that I'll have a nice new floor haha.
1. I gut my old 18 volt batteries and screw the shells on the wall, then I use them to house my cordless drills
2. Simple, but I keep a paper towel and toilet paper dispenser on the wall
3. I made a sheet metal holder for the HF nitrile gloves mounted to the wall to serve as a dispenser
4. I keep a small dawn dish detergent bottle (with flip top lid) filled with gasoline (the universal solvent) handy
5. I have two wooden boxes under the workbench, one for clean and one for dirty shop towels. (I wash and reuse mine)
6. I buy pint paint cans in bulk and fill them from quarts or gallons, to have paint on hand for small jobs. They take up less room, keeps paint fresh, and are easy to organize.
7. I made four 10 1/2 by 10 1/2 by 7 blocks out of two by fours. three on top, three on the bottom and two runners. They make great supports for any thing, vehicles, for cutting wood, a quick step, etc.
8. I get all our old bathroom rugs, they're the best for lying on, the toilet ones are great for motorcycles, the cutout fits around the tires.
My `76 leaves a small pool of oil on the cement floor if it sits for a few days so it always has a chunk of carpet under it. I upgraded from cardboard because it's a really nice car and deserves the best. I also have 2 antique Ford Tractors, a `50 Ford pickup and 3 small hydrostatic vintage John Deere tractors. They all leak. Luckily my son manages one of those big box drug stores and he has his staff save the best cardboard boxes for me (the thick kind). I have some under all of my leakers. I also haven't used a creeper in ages. I'd rather use low profile cardboard.
Originally Posted by derekderek
Carpet people are throwing out makes good backyard a-hole creepers. Just make sure it is not a doggy household. Also throw under engine stand to soak up drips.
I get 4 inch PVC cut it to the lengths I need and mount them to the wall. They make great place to put moldings, wood trim and a variety of other things.
Good tip! I'm gonna steal that idea. I have some 6 inch PVC pipe left over from a koi pond project and I also have quite a few 1/8 to 3/4 steel rods and a bunch of flat stock that was my father's. He had lathes and a milling machine in his workshop on the farm
Originally Posted by 540 vette
I get 4 inch PVC cut it to the lengths I need and mount them to the wall. They make great place to put moldings, wood trim and a variety of other things.
I upgraded from cardboard because it's a really nice car and deserves the best.
Good morning laugh. My neighbor has a 1980 Mini Cooper. When ever I feel bad about my power steering leak I just go look in his garage. I always thought the line "No oil under them, means no oil in them." was just a joke, but it's the truth.
04-16-2019, 09:17 AM
Ideas to help in the garage
Good morning laugh. My neighbor has a 1980 Mini Cooper. When ever I feel bad about my power steering leak I just go look in his garage. I always thought the line "No oil under them, means no oil in them." was just a joke, but it's the truth.