Finishing my Buick Shop

[JoelsBuicks]

Thanks again for the encouraging and kind words.  While we are on the subject of doors, I just built two more plywood doors for my paint booth.  I covered each one with white 26 gauge flat metal along with corner trim.  I’m trying to keep things waterproof inside the paint booth so that I can use it to wash cars and wash the booth itself.  Fit snugly but weatherstripping will still be needed.

 

If you’ve ever messed with doors much, you will understand there are nearly as many ways to fix a screwup as there are ways to screw it up.  You will also know that perfectly plumb, level or flat doesn’t exist anywhere except in a good dream.  Thank God for shims, hand planes, caulk, and optical illusions!

 

I got those doors swinging in pretty good shape, now it’s time for a little hardware and weatherstripping.  Oh yes, and more bare plywood that needs something. 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2018 by JoelsBuicks
To add one more pic. (see edit history)

[auburnseeker]

My friend is selling a drum sander.  I think it's a grizzly.  He wasn't happy with it because of the speed at which it sands.  He really likes production though to keep up with his saw mill.  I was going to buy a drum sander before,  but never ended up doing enough work to justify it.  Maybe someday,  if I get it all figured out.  I still have to put a floor in then electric before I worry about those luxuries. 

I spent all day and part of yesterday grading the fill that came out of my driveway (not nice stuff to try to get a good surface on) so I could plant grass on it,  so I won't have to deal with the mud when it gets wet.  (if the mason had only poured the walls at the height I wanted I wouldn't have had to cut the driveway down 18 inches, subsequently not having a pile of fill to deal with. )

I probably could have put half my windows in, in the amount of time I spent on that,  but I wanted to get it done before the pending rains they are predicting. 

Your project is looking good. 

[JoelsBuicks]

Added door stop, weatherstrip, glass and hardware and now moving on to another set of stairs.  I won’t miss working on doors. 

 

The new stairs will allow for frequent, safe and convenient access to what will be storage space above the paint booth.   This space has a 3/4” plywood floor, lots of headroom and is 400 sqft. I thought about framing it in but enough is enough.  I will have shelving up there and a way to organize car parts.  And probably like every one else, a gob of stuff I don’t yet need but might some day ?.

 

I installed the last six light fixtures in my mechanics room. It’s way too bright but I have 3 switches.  Still gotta do something with that plywood.  It will be paint for sure, once I pick a color.

 

Sheetrocker was supposed to come look at this today but he didn’t show. There’s always tomorrow. 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2018 by JoelsBuicks
Edit allows me to add more pics (see edit history)

[MrEarl]

Tha’s a nice long run on them stairs there! I like that! and the doors look good! 

Jeeze, tha’s a lot of plywood there, I hope you got some kind of deal on it. Why plywood instead of Sheetrock? Where’s the sheet rock you speak of going? You’ve yet to insulate those walls right? 

Whats behind that little piano hinged door?

[auburnseeker]

You are going to beat me to the finish.  I was all excited I got 12 of my windows installed now i see you are way ahead.  Just when I thought I was closing the gap.  

Now i need to figure out how to cut my 6 windows left over down to 12 half windows.  It's going to take some planning as they are brand new Pella $500 windows.  I don't want to screw them up.  

[JoelsBuicks]

6 hours ago, MrEarl said:

Whats behind that little piano hinged door?

That is the doorway to incompetence and poor planning.  And, I’m surprised it’s not bigger!  I know next to nothing about electronics/communications/phone etc. and so I laid in a big conduit in the ditch with my plumbing and brought it up in the wall.  I didn’t know how all this stuff was going to be wired up so I just left it in the wall and provided access.  Who knows, maybe all this wire stuff is already obsolete. 

 

 

[JoelsBuicks]

7 hours ago, auburnseeker said:

Now i need to figure out how to cut my 6 windows left over down to 12 half windows

Regarding cutting those windows in half I can offer some very useful advice:  Do not cut them in half diagonally!  Now a rough carpenter might suggest you saw them half in two and break the rest over your knee but I dont think you need a rough carpenter. 

 

Actually, there’s some tricks out there you should not discount. First, a table extension behind your table saw can save a disaster. Next, you can attach a temporary scab across and over a cut line to keep things intact through the cut.  Then after the cut, just remove the scab.  One last suggestion is to go buy a good blade with at least 24 carbide teeth. I’m talking about one that will cost aroun $30. Also, I’ve made some pretty nice cuts with a good aggressive blade on a jig saw.  Attach a straight edge to guide the saw.

[JoelsBuicks]

I finished the stairs today.  They have a 7.5” rise and a tread run width of 10.2”. This is about as steep that is allowed by some codes. The picture distorts this in my opinion.  

 

The wood treads were 2x6s that were flattened, planed, edged, and undercut on the leading edge.  I placed these on 3/4” plywood cleats that were nailed and glued to the stringers.  Treads were toenailed and glued.  I’m stuck on including glue for things like this.

 

Before I forget, that stringer is a 3” x 9” laminated beam that was used on a two-pole power line to span across the poles and hold two power cables.  I decided to leave it’s own patina.

 

 

Edited June 2, 2018 by JoelsBuicks
Add pics (see edit history)

[JoelsBuicks]

11 hours ago, MrEarl said:

Where’s the sheet rock you speak of going? You’ve yet to insulate those walls right? 

Posting #227 on this thread pretty much shows the area to be drywalled.  I estimate that it will take only 62 sheets with 40% of them 12 ft long.  The sheetrocker starts on Tuesday morning and will likely finish on Thursday, leaving me with textured walls and a bit of ceiling. I have insulated all of the walls that are part of the climate controlled internal rooms.  I’m looking forward to seeing another big change and the many more things I’ll have to do. 

[auburnseeker]

I did manage to cut one down today.  Of course most of the time was spent figuring as I have 5 more to do and the rest spent finding and deciding which tools would work the best.  Now that I know how they come apart and what I need to do and measurements,  I'm going to tackle the rest assembly line style tomorrow.  

I actually have a Freud blade on my 12 inch slider saw,  I did end up using that on the wood,  then cut the 45 degree corners wit ha fine tooth blade on my sawsall and a guide.  I really wanted to do it by hand with the a hack saw,  but since moving everything in my garage multiple times,  have no Idea where that ended up.   I even gave myself a nice hernia and man handled my Grandfather's Snap on top box,  out of my trailer to get to my chisels and other wood working tools.  Then of course realized I didn't really need the chisel.

I actually took photos today so I'll post them over on my garage build a little later tonight. 

[MrEarl]

15 hours ago, JoelsBuicks said:

They have a 7.5” rise and a tread run width of 10.2”. This is about as steep that is allowed by some codes. The picture distorts this in my opinion.  

 

 

Like that weathered stringer. Why not screwed on 2x for the cleats?  Yea, I use a lot of glue these days also. 

As you get older you'll wonder why you didn't make  the rise like 6" or so.  I salvaged some stairs for my old barn from an old building that have a rise of 8.5" AND run of  9.5". I use to be able scoot up them with a mounted tire on a wire wheel without even getting winded, but these days it's sit the wheel and tire on a tread, take a step up and repeat. and coming down with a load is a bit scary, especially given that they are narrow with no hand rail on the open side. I've told Rita that if ever she can't find me but knows I'm on the property, to look there first.

[MrEarl]

15 hours ago, JoelsBuicks said:

only 62 sheets

 

umm hummmm

[auburnseeker]

Smart to hire that Sheetrock out.  I hate sheetrock.  Hopefully you will hire them to tape and sand it all as well.  That's one job I hate doing and never happy with the results.   Especially when in a few years you get a few spots where the tape shows or the sheetrock seems crack. 

[JoelsBuicks]

11 hours ago, MrEarl said:

Why not screwed on 2x for the cleats? 

Certainly 2x would be the material of choice for the cleats.  In fact, I began that part of this project gathering 2x scraps that I thought would work.  Almost immediately I noticed most of those scraps had splits and I knew they’d never survive a nail gun and using screws never entered my mind.  I looked at what plywood scraps I had and used them.

 

I nailed them with 2-1/2” nails in a nail gun.  I think those nails must be coated with something that acts like glue as they are very difficult to pull.

 

One other thing, while I never want to build something unsafe, I’m tiring of this project and badly wanting to get back to my Buicks.  It seems that everything I touch takes twice as long as it should.  So, I’m becoming more interested in the easy way.   I’m hoping that getting that drywall in will help with motivation.  There’s so much more to get done. 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2018 by JoelsBuicks (see edit history)

[JoelsBuicks]

Drywallers came and went.  Led by a man that turned 70 on Wednesday, they hung the rock, in two days, taped and mudded  in one day and for a half day on Friday they finished mudding and then textured.  The texture is called orange peel, not something I would normally appreciate in the car hobby.

 

No sanding!  But when they were finished it looked like it was.  I watched as they worked the joints and nails and troweled out the mud into finely feathered edges.  They were craftsmen and I appreciated their work.  

 

Onward to paint.

Edited June 9, 2018 by JoelsBuicks (see edit history)

[MrEarl]

WOW!!!!  

While I enjoy doing most things on my own, sheetrock would not be one of them either. I attempted putting some 12' sheets on a ceiling in the first house I restored and ended up falling off the ladder with the sheet on top of me and a twisted shoulder that still pains me today.

 

I know you must feel better now with this big task behind you and able to move on to others.

[auburnseeker]

Money well spent.  It makes you feel like you really made progress as well.  When it's by yourself,  it seems like everything takes forever.

[JoelsBuicks]

I primed and I painted and about the best I can say at this point is that I’m glad it’s over.  With the walls painted, I can finally get those four Fujitsu wall units mounted and get the AC cranked up.  There always seems to be an order to things, especially when it involves AC.

 

So let’s go ahead and get the mechanics room out of the way.  The color is a light peach but it’s more like pale cantaloupe or dreamsicle.  Dad describes it as a certain shade of pink that is inappropriate to say here.  Would like a mulligan on this but I think it will look good with cherrywood trim.

 

[JoelsBuicks]

The living area is a light sage green color. I’m ok with it - it’s done.

 

 

[JoelsBuicks]

The two rooms upstairs are different shades of blue.  Again, very nice to have this done.

 

 

Edited June 20, 2018 by JoelsBuicks (see edit history)

[JoelsBuicks]

Last week I took a break from painting and I poured the concrete walls and floor of the drain box in my paint booth.  It took 7 sacks of 80 lbs Quickcrete.  Not my finest work; it takes very little concrete work for me to know I don’t want to do a lot of it.

 

 

Edited June 20, 2018 by JoelsBuicks (see edit history)

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

Looking good.  May I ask why so many different colors.

 

  I like Dad.

 

  Ben

[JoelsBuicks]

14 hours ago, Ben Bruce aka First Born said:

May I ask why so many different colors.

I engaged my wife in the decision making process and the green and blues were colors we once had in a house that we dearly loved but had to leave because of company relocation.  Dad’s pink was my pick.?

[MrEarl]

Tha's a lot of painting.

 

6 hours ago, JoelsBuicks said:

I engaged my wife in the decision making process and the green and blues were colors we once had in a house that we dearly loved but had to leave because of company relocation.  Dad’s pink was my pick.?

 

and did you engage her in the application process? ?

 

so how did you paint all that, rollers?

[JoelsBuicks]

Cool, maybe even cold!  I now have AC installed and working in the four interior rooms.  There are two Fujitsu ductless units, each zoned for an upstairs and downstairs room.  Now, I can work on getting these rooms finished with the AC on!

 

I have had one of these installed in the living area of my wood shop for about six years.  At 26 SEER, they do their job well and will heat when ambient is at zero degrees.  

 

Mr. Earl, You asked about the painting.  I rolled it on after rolling on a primer coat.  It’s another job like concrete that I’m glad I don’t have to do it often.  And, my wife offered to help but the “deal” came with several honey do’s and I opted out.?

 

Back in the wood shop for now to make my trim.

 

 

[JoelsBuicks]

Getting window trim ready.  Dug around in my trim and board supply and found some cherry, walnut and maple.

 

 

Edited July 3, 2018 by JoelsBuicks (see edit history)

[auburnseeker]

My wife thinks I do stuff too fancy for a garage.  I just use pine.  I should send her your way to nag you about it just being a garage.

I have my windows finished,  I have 2 left to paint as I couldn't get green metal to match the Pella windows.  Ironically the jambs on pella windows are semi gloss and the sashes are satin.  I added some nice orange peel and even a sag or two for authenticity. 

[MrEarl]

On 7/2/2018 at 10:30 PM, JoelsBuicks said:

 There are two Fujitsu ductless units, each zoned for an upstairs and downstairs room.

 

explain please. so in effect you have four zones ... scratching head...

[JoelsBuicks]

There are two outside condenser units as shown below. Each one has two line sets, you’ll see that in the close-up picture.  One set will go to a downstairs wall mounted evaporator and the other set goes to the room above it.  Each condenser (and evaporator) is sized for the total required duty.  Each room has its own controller; a hand held remote.

 

These systems are heavily modulated to control compressor and fans to maximize economy.  The unit senses thermal rates of change and reacts to them accordingly. For a reasonably insulated space, it is possible that a unit draw less than 2 amps to maintain temperature. Now I realize that heat loss is heat loss for any space but the efficiency is the difference. 

 

The downside is is that these units are suitable for open areas like a single room. That’s why you see my bathroom wall only going to 6ft high - I need the air circulation. 

 

Buick Gardens Sales & Service May be able to use such a unit, one line set for the office and the other for the display area.  You can turn off one or the other and the only thing that goes through the wall is two copper lines, electrical and a condensate drain tube.  The outside unit communicates with the inside unit by sending pulses through the high voltage lines.

 

 

Edited July 4, 2018 by JoelsBuicks (see edit history)

[auburnseeker]

How big of an area can you do with one of these?   Well insulated of course. 

Edited July 4, 2018 by auburnseeker (see edit history)

[JoelsBuicks]

I misspoke, these two condenser units are 21.5 SEER, not 26.  My smaller and older unit is 26 SEER.  

 

Each condenser is is rated at 18,000 BTUs of cooling and that will cool up to 1000 sqft.  I will have about 750 sqft on each.  I haven’t talked about heating but they are basically a heat pump and can pull heat out of 0 F air.

 

In the spirit of full disclosure, my cousin-in-law is an HVAC installer and has been selling/installing these units for several years.  Personally I am not connected with his business in any way.  I traded some cabinet building labor for the installation of these units.  The equipment in total cost me $6,600.

 

you can google Fujitsu and you can see that they offer units with up to 8 zones and a total of 48,000 BTUs of cooling.  Essentially, you can have a central-like system with no ducts and each room with independent control. 

[JoelsBuicks]

Window trim is spray lacquered.  I installed 4 window stools.  Aprons and jamb trim is next.

 

 

[JoelsBuicks]

Trim around the windows today.  Got a little cleaning and touch up left to do.

 

Edited July 7, 2018 by JoelsBuicks (see edit history)

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

My gosh, Joel, my house does not look that good!  Great stuff.

 

  Ben

[MrEarl]

wow, like uptown man!!!! Nice work, nice wood!!!!

 

nice tree...

[auburnseeker]

Maybe I'll try spraying my finish now.  Getting sick of all the brushing and sanding with crappy results and I used to varnish boats.  Probably the cheap crappy varnish from the hardware store. 

Looks great. 

[Rivman]

On ‎7‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 8:07 PM, JoelsBuicks said:

Trim around the windows today.  Got a little cleaning and touch up left to do.

 

 

 

Those windows look GREAT!

[Bill Stoneberg]

On 7/4/2018 at 3:53 PM, JoelsBuicks said:

I haven’t talked about heating but they are basically a heat pump and can pull heat out of 0 F air.

 

You are in for a surprise unless these heat pumps are different then mine.  

The colder it gets, the worse it heats.  I have to use Emergency heat to keep the house war when it gets below 30.

 

Does great for A?C though.

[Barney Eaton]

It amazing what you can do if you have talent.  

I can't wait until you finish the building and start on the car.......you will make all of us look like the amateurs we are.

 

Bill.......you must have something wrong with your system,  I have had heat pumps for the last 40 years and the auxiliary heat only kicks on when

stays in the 20's or if the outside unit gets iced over from a freezing rain.   I am heating and cooling 2100 sq ft with a single unit (single story)

Edited July 8, 2018 by Barney Eaton (see edit history)

[MrEarl]

On 7/4/2018 at 12:01 PM, JoelsBuicks said:

 

Buick Gardens Sales & Service May be able to use such a unit, one line set for the office and the other for the display area

 

You've got my attention. A precursory look into my needs would be a 48K unit split into 36k for the garage (1300 sq ft) and 12 k for the office (300sq ft)   Again this is only a precursory look but since I am seeing these systems (self installed)   saving approximately half of the first quote I received for a duct type system, I will be looking into it more.