• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

NXCoupe's Shop Build

Nice. Don't forget to pack that stuff in. Wheel roll or compactor.
 
Nice. Don't forget to pack that stuff in. Wheel roll or compactor.
He's trying to finagle a compactor attachment for his bobcat so he can compact it down before the next rain. May have to just pay him to rent one for the day.
 
Driveway was compacted yesterday. I haven't seen it yet, but after the last rain it felt like walking on concrete. I'm hoping it just smoothed it some. Dyno is functional. Time to start on phase 2 since phase 1 is now complete with all the equipment functioning.
 
He redid the grading of the dirt around the pad and garage to enhance drainage from the concrete. He says he compacted the gravel but then he drove over it with the skid steer and it looks marginally better as a result of the tracks loosening it back up.
Biggest news is I got the dyno going was able to start making some tuning money and then my 7 year old dyno electronics stack(my 5th or 6th one), refused to communicate. So it needs replaced. They don't make this crap anymore, so I had to man up and buy the new gen 2 electronics package. Basically it is everything but the drum and brakes. Lol. Lucky me. Just start seeing what I thought was light at the end of the tunnel and it turned out to be a train! Bought the package and all new straps for a total of 4800 shipped. Yep, now I start all over trying to get caught up. Sucks big time but the alternative is a 60k buck oil change rack. Lol. Assembled a few more shelves and got more totes emptied. Set up my buffet table/engine disassembly table since my engine room is tape marks on the floor. Lol. Think Les Nessman.
20221006_213651.jpg

Before pics after a storm.
20220906_144626.jpg
20220906_144609.jpg
 
Ok, so after much delay, we have started on phase 2 of the build. What is phase 2 you ask? Well, it's building the interior rooms and insulating and building walls for the perimeter of the shop. We went to Menards and bought 50 stud 2x4s and 20 8' 2x4s. I don't have a wholesale lumber hookup so it was about 240 bucks with tax. About 50% more than it used to be but not as bad as it was even a year ago.
20231231_142808.jpg
 
Next, we(me) climbed up the ladder and hung a plumb bob from where the ceiling endsand makes a corner, so the walls will go up to that and it will be drywall on that part of the ceiling for the second floor. That is the end goal is to have the ceiling sealed up so we can hold the heat in. Eventually it will be insulated with blow in insulation. We measured and laid out the wall on the floor and used my new tool, the STUDMASTER 1000! Lol, it's the 16" version because after my input from my friend Luke and then Kern Dog and Hawk from here, we had a pretty good idea of what we were doing. We laid it all out on the floor and used a square to make sure it was, well, square. Then we lifted it up and slid it into place. Once the all three walls are in place, we'll insure it's square and I'll tapcon it to the floor.
20231231_142745.jpg
20231231_142755.jpg
20231231_144410.jpg
 
Your garage is great, and I'd love to have something like it. Having said that, I have slowly made my own limited garage pretty decent for the space that I have. Like you, I have been chipping away at it for a while.
Keep at it and it will be great when you are done! :thumbsup:
 
I went out to the shop today and snapped a pic of the wall attached to the 6x6 post.
20240101_152123.jpg


And the plumb bob.

20240101_152136.jpg
 
My wife rode up to Lowes with me so we could shop for double doors to use as the entrance to my engine room. I use double doors, 60" wide so that any engine stand will fit through the doorway without issue. Heck, the engine hoist can make it through there.
The stores weren't very crowded, so we got help quickly and the guy looked on their site for double doors and priced it out for me. It was 630 bucks plus tax and it was 45 days out, crap! I thanked him and said I wanted to shop around. Next stop was across the street at Home Depot(pronounced 'DEE pot'), and again, no one was in the store and we had 2 guys eager to interact with other humans even if it meant doing their jobs. I asked for double doors, he asked what size, I replied 60x80 and he said right this way. Around the corner and there they were. 279 plus tax. Sold. They loaded it on a cart and bid us farewell. A nice young gentleman asked if I needed assitance getting it into my vehicle and I said yes. He helped albeit struggled, to lift it up into my truck all the while I'm holding my end up and balancing it, but we got it in the truck. Got it home and my neighbor Jeep Mike(his nxcoupe given name) came down to help unload and shoot the shh er bull for a bit. That's all for now.
20240101_152208.jpg

20240101_140431.jpg
 
Last edited:
My wife rode up to Lowes with me so we could shop for double doors to use as the entrance to my engine room. I use double doors, 60" wide so that any engine stand will fit through the doorway without issue. Heck, the engine hoist can make it through there.
The stores weren't very crowded, so we got help quickly and the guy looked on their site for double doors and priced it out for me. It was 630 bucks plus tax and it was 45 days out, crap! I thanked him and said I wanted to shop around. Next stop was across the street at Home Depot(pronounced 'DEE pot'), and again, no one was in the store and we had 2 guys eager to interact with other humans even if it meant doing their jobs. I asked for double doors, he asked what size, I replied 60x80 and he said right this way. Around the corner and there they were. 279 plus tax. Sold. They loaded it on a cart and bid us farewell. A nice young gentleman asked if I needed assitance getting it into my vehicle and I said yes. He helped albeit struggled, to lift it up into my truck all the while I'm holding my end up and balancing it, but we got it in the truck. Got it home and my neighbor Jeep Mike(his nxcoupe given name) came down to help unload and shoot the shh er bull for a bit. That's all for now. View attachment 1583655
If you were closer I'd hook you up... I have four really clean/complete used roll up doors from a mini storage that was torn down.. They are 5' wide & 80" high... When I was looking at buying property with plans of building a house & shop these fell in my lap... I was planning to have three sections in my shop with two roll up doors allowing movement between sections while limiting dust/dirt travel between sections... Also was planning to have a couple roll ups to allow ventilation...
 
If you were closer I'd hook you up... I have four really clean/complete used roll up doors from a mini storage that was torn down.. They are 5' wide & 80" high... When I was looking at buying property with plans of building a house & shop these fell in my lap... I was planning to have three sections in my shop with two roll up doors allowing movement between sections while limiting dust/dirt travel between sections... Also was planning to have a couple roll ups to allow ventilation...
I appreciate that. I think these will work out but they really aren't what I was looking for but I want this all done in a few weeks, so had to jump on these. Yeah, wished more of the guys on here were closer by.
 
I appreciate that. I think these will work out but they really aren't what I was looking for but I want this all done in a few weeks, so had to jump on these. Yeah, wished more of the guys on here were closer by.
I got these things cheap & I've been storing them for over a decade... They need a new home... Back when I was looking at building they fit right into my plans & my cheap nature.. But in the end I chickened out & stuck with having my house 100% paid off...
 
I got these things cheap & I've been storing them for over a decade... They need a new home... Back when I was looking at building they fit right into my plans & my cheap nature.. But in the end I chickened out & stuck with having my house 100% paid off...
That has got to be an amazing feeling! I really want to get mine paid off. Plan on putting every cent of SS money on the house provided I make it to 70 and file. Then I'll continue to work until they ask me to leave or the house is paid off.
 
That has got to be an amazing feeling! I really want to get mine paid off. Plan on putting every cent of SS money on the house provided I make it to 70 and file. Then I'll continue to work until they ask me to leave or the house is paid off.
It's made Bidenomics less stressful.... :BangHead:
 
Productive weekend! We started on the front wall of the engine room and made good progress. After we laid it out, I called my buddy that is a construction manager as I was really having second thoughts about how to get it square, make sure everything was the correct length, etc. So after a pep talk, I was more confident with proceeding, thanks Luke. After giving it a lot of thought, I realized I needed to measure the length of the front wall, and then lay out on the back wall that length and run the other side wall perpendicular out from there.
So short story long, we started building the outside, rear wall inserts and figured out where we needed to out 4 2x4s so we could attatch the side wall to it at the proper distance from the other side wall.
20240106_154336.jpg


Here is us starting on the front wall. We are using a double door so after talking to Kern and Luke, I went with a 2x12 for the king header and we used 8 2x4s for support and framing out the door opening.
20240106_115806.jpg
20240106_124940.jpg

The 2x4 across the door opening is for when we lift and move the wall into place for rigidity.
 
We were running short on 2x4 studs and 8 footers, so I went to Menards and got 50 more studs and 25 8 footers. The guy at the counter said that 8 footers were on sale for 3 bucks and had an additional 1 dollar rebate. I was going to buy 20 but decided on 25 since they were so cheap. I went through about 80 studs to get 50 nice ones and man that is a work out! Then I pulled forward and started loading the 8 footers. Man, it took about 2 seconds to see why these things were marked down. What a bunch of trash! If I was building a log cabin or a split rail fence, they'd of been great. I went through about 100 of them to get 25, and only 20 were good, the other 5 were good enough because I'm tired of sorting through lumber.
We got an early start Sunday and got right into building the rest of the outside walls built and insralled. We flip them and put the plastic vapor barrier on using my new HF stapler. That thing works great, I can make short work of it just dragging it along and pulling the trigger as I go. We got them done and installed.
20240107_142809.jpg


Then, after a long lunch break as I was beat, we started on the other side wall and slid it into place. Then we made sure it was all square.
20240107_142803.jpg
 
Pic of the completed front wall. We will need 2 other folks to help us to get this into place as it's frickin heavy.
20240107_142814.jpg
 
Big progress!

I'll be jealous when you are done with this shop - it's sooooo much bigger than my little tight workshop! (But then again, I can see it is starting to fill up!)
 
Auto Transport Service
Back
Top