What did you do in/to your Garage today?

General conversations about BMW E28s and the people who own them.
Mike W.
Posts: 26872
Joined: Feb 12, 2006 12:00 PM
Location: California Whine Country

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by Mike W. »

vinceg101 wrote: Mar 30, 2021 3:41 AM I made this little tool sometime back last summer, but I had to fire up the M535i since I couldn't remember the last time it left The Hangar.
Even with the hangar door open and the rear door open also, running a car in here gets problematic.
Image

Simple parts: 33' of 6" diameter high temperature vent hose, (1) 6" Inline Duct Fan, (1) 6" hose clamp and some HVAC seam tape. Works like a charm and I don't pass out. Yay!
I like it! Even with my stuff that I think of as new just about asphyxiates me if I have been backed in and do a cold start, I can only imagine what the hanger and the M535i must be like.
gadget73
Posts: 1176
Joined: Nov 22, 2017 10:30 PM
Location: New Jersey

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by gadget73 »

first time I started my diesel after doing the timing belt I got a face full of that stink. Had the door open and the back end of the car was facing it, but I get a pretty steady breeze coming in through the door. Diesel engines reek despite what the brodozer crowd seems to think.
gadget73
Posts: 1176
Joined: Nov 22, 2017 10:30 PM
Location: New Jersey

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by gadget73 »

boat motor is back together, spent time polishing it. Need to hit the lower unit with some rubbing compound. It has a bit of an orange stain from the water, and I'd prefer it go away. Need to get some touch-up paint too, over the last 14 years there are some spots where the paint rubbed off. Still need to change the lower unit oil, so I'll do that first and then detail the motor.
gadget73
Posts: 1176
Joined: Nov 22, 2017 10:30 PM
Location: New Jersey

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by gadget73 »

oil changed. Had just enough, pump started sucking air as it started coming out of the fill level hole.
gadget73
Posts: 1176
Joined: Nov 22, 2017 10:30 PM
Location: New Jersey

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by gadget73 »

put up some shelving and did some organizing. Still needs more work but its a step in the right direction and I haven't filled the shelves yet.
Mike W.
Posts: 26872
Joined: Feb 12, 2006 12:00 PM
Location: California Whine Country

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by Mike W. »

Fixed my Roto hammer. It was still hammering, but not rotoring anymore. Wasn't, it is now. :D No diagram and no parts left over, and it works! Locknut on the clutch came loose and wasn't locking anymore. Retorqued with locktite and away we go. I should probably have taken an after pick, but that's less interesting. I was in as far as the armature, short of rewinding I'm not sure I could have gone much further.

Image
gadget73
Posts: 1176
Joined: Nov 22, 2017 10:30 PM
Location: New Jersey

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by gadget73 »

Winterized the boat, and while I had the ladder un-blocked I cleaned the gutters on the garage. How excitement.

I need a better home for that ladder, the only wall I have open enough to accomodate it is blocked by the boat so its a whole process to get it out. I've considered hanging it overhead with a rope and pulley system but quite honestly having things hanging above me and/or the cars makes me nervous.

Earlier in the week I aligned headlights for a friend with my old Hoppy headlight aimer.
vinceg101
Posts: 4802
Joined: Jun 20, 2007 2:40 AM
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by vinceg101 »

Okay, so about time I came back to this thread.
Winter in The Hangar is full of small pickup projects; some for the cars and some for the shop space. As an ongoing project that never seems to end is my upgrading this small wooden roller drawer box. It's a wonderful little tank of a box home-built by some DIY'er that I managed to pick up off Craigslist locally back around when we first got The Hangar space.
Image
Image

I haven't really done much with it except for adding the drop-leaf sides which extends the working surface which has come in REALLY handy as it's at the perfect height especially for working on seats. I have plans to add metal top plates to make a hardy work surface but haven't got around to them yet.
The only other think I've done is paint it to match my other Craftsman tool chests. The interiors of the drawers all came divided which wasted a lot of space so I removed a lot of them, but I didn't really have an immediate use for this nifty little box so I really didn't know what to put into it.
Since then it has become my hardware cabinet which I then had to add back in dividers and bins to hold everything. That has turned into a long task of trial and error trying out various products.
I think I finally found something that will work:
These were what I was using from Rubbermaid: interlocking shallow trays. Downside is trying to divide them in half and labeling:
Image
Image

I found these recently on Uline.com which are meant to go into the plastic parts bins. They just fit vertically in the drawers, small enough to separate out all the various different hardware varieties and have a nice little tab for a label (those are forthcoming):
Image

As you can see I had to put back in some of the dividers to organize all the bins best. They also have a larger bin cup style will work better for larger bolts and such; of course I will also need to keep a few of the larger Rubbermaid white bins.

Small progress.
e24mpwr
Posts: 247
Joined: May 12, 2007 3:45 PM
Location: Cary, NC
Contact:

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by e24mpwr »

I've been recovering my garage. We had the house painted inside and out, and I had to move into the back half of my garage at the same time to allow for the install of new garage doors. The result was chaos stacked on chaos.

Oh - and leading up to this (with about 24 hours separation) I had the family Mazda up because my middle spawn smacked the edge of a driveway at close to 45mph.

Image

Image

Image

Image

The result was obviously replacing essentially everything in that wheel well (Front passenger) except the brake caliper and carrier. I even did the wheel bearing and the hub, and of course the control arm/etc. Most of that (not the hub) was mirrored on the other side. And since I took the opportunity to upgrade the front struts to Koni, I did the rear shocks to match.
Image

That process was a bit...progressive. A couple times I had to order things I didn't know were borked or decided to add to the 'build'

The result was my garage was a mess. I took some time to really dig through some things before I just rolled it all back, so that was a process too.

And, of course, we've had other fun with the family cars to deal with, so it was a rockin' good time. :rofl:

I did take the opportunity to get my box organized too. That felt good. :)
Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

And then... the drawer of shame.. ;)
Image

All that's left is to sort the pile into trash/recycle/donate/keep, and then I get to fully own my garage again :)
Mike W.
Posts: 26872
Joined: Feb 12, 2006 12:00 PM
Location: California Whine Country

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by Mike W. »

vinceg101 wrote: Feb 14, 2023 6:42 PM Okay, so about time I came back to this thread.
Winter in The Hangar is full of small pickup projects; some for the cars and some for the shop space. As an ongoing project that never seems to end is my upgrading this small wooden roller drawer box. It's a wonderful little tank of a box home-built by some DIY'er that I managed to pick up off Craigslist locally back around when we first got The Hangar space.

Image
That is home built? Must have been a cabinetmaker. Wow, I'm impressed. :bow: No full extension ball bearing glides though?
vinceg101
Posts: 4802
Joined: Jun 20, 2007 2:40 AM
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by vinceg101 »

Mike W. wrote: Feb 16, 2023 12:15 AMThat is home built? Must have been a cabinetmaker. Wow, I'm impressed. :bow: No full extension ball bearing glides though?
Yes, it is impressive. It's built like a small tank and weighs equally so. All the dividers are rabetted and stapled into the drawer bodies not to mention the smaller cross dividers are slot cut so they can stack fit into the larger ones. 3/4" and 1/2" plywood.

There is nothing "mechanical" on that box: no glides, there weren't even any handles on it; just the roller base. It was just unfinished plywood; felt like they never finished the project.
When I painted it, I took it apart, sanded it all the drawers then waxed the hell out of the box and drawers and put handles on it (although I will probably change the handles to better match the Craftsman cabinets). Then I added the drop leaf side panels (sorry no pic at the moment). I had to drill some vent holes in the sides of the outer carcass box since there is too much air pressure resistance when you push the drawers back in (doesn't help that much).
All in all it was a good catch and worth while purchase for not a lot of money.
gadget73
Posts: 1176
Joined: Nov 22, 2017 10:30 PM
Location: New Jersey

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by gadget73 »

Aligned headlights on a friend's car. Whee. He bribed me with a stupidly long screwdriver so it was a whole lot easier.

Need to pull the suction cups off my old Hoppy aimers. They're kind of petrified and have a tendency to fall off the headlights unless fairly heavily gooped with silicone grease. Have some wintergreen oil and alcohol that will soften rubber but I found that a 3 parts alcohol to 1 part oil mix left overnight dissolved a turntable platter mat into slime. I might try a 6:1 mix and less time.
1st 5er
Posts: 21718
Joined: Jun 13, 2008 12:15 AM
Location: Cypress
Contact:

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by 1st 5er »

Added a carport, if only I could post a pic. :pimp:
Mashford
Posts: 518
Joined: Jun 19, 2006 2:15 PM
Location: Takoma Park, MD

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by Mashford »

Mike W. wrote: Mar 30, 2021 1:09 PM
vinceg101 wrote: Mar 30, 2021 3:41 AM I made this little tool sometime back last summer, but I had to fire up the M535i since I couldn't remember the last time it left The Hangar.
Even with the hangar door open and the rear door open also, running a car in here gets problematic.
Image

Simple parts: 33' of 6" diameter high temperature vent hose, (1) 6" Inline Duct Fan, (1) 6" hose clamp and some HVAC seam tape. Works like a charm and I don't pass out. Yay!
I like it! Even with my stuff that I think of as new just about asphyxiates me if I have been backed in and do a cold start, I can only imagine what the hanger and the M535i must be like.
Very cool.

I’ve been pondering similar set up to work inside in the winter.

How tight is the seal on the exhaust pipe and how did you seal that up, if so?
vinceg101
Posts: 4802
Joined: Jun 20, 2007 2:40 AM
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by vinceg101 »

Mashford wrote: Feb 27, 2023 12:07 PMHow tight is the seal on the exhaust pipe and how did you seal that up, if so?
It's not that tight, the hose diameter is 6" but the spiral wire is sort of flexible so it fits snugly above the exhaust pipes and the bumper cover. I am able to push it down so the exhaust tips are inside the hose a good 4" or so. With a standard US exhaust and bumper I could see you needing some way to secure the hose to the tips. Probably one of those 6" hose clamps cinched down(?)

With the engine pushing the exhaust and the fan pulling it from the other end, I found I don't really need a tight seal. Sure a little gets out, but not enough to worry about.
I have a bigger problem at the outlet side since I have a swinging door just of out to the frame of the photo (it would be over your right shoulder if you were taking that photo). The hose is only so long and I can't really close the door all the way, so some of the exhaust exiting the hose migrates it's way back inside when the wind blows. If you have the means and opportunity then making a permanent outlet in either the exterior wall of the garage or garage door would be ideal as you can weatherproof it (just like you do with a clothes dryer vent, in fact one of those weather-hood outlets is what you would use).
Mashford
Posts: 518
Joined: Jun 19, 2006 2:15 PM
Location: Takoma Park, MD

Re: What did you do in/to your Garage today?

Post by Mashford »

vinceg101 wrote: Mar 01, 2023 7:21 PM
Mashford wrote: Feb 27, 2023 12:07 PMHow tight is the seal on the exhaust pipe and how did you seal that up, if so?
It's not that tight, the hose diameter is 6" but the spiral wire is sort of flexible so it fits snugly above the exhaust pipes and the bumper cover. I am able to push it down so the exhaust tips are inside the hose a good 4" or so. With a standard US exhaust and bumper I could see you needing some way to secure the hose to the tips. Probably one of those 6" hose clamps cinched down(?)

With the engine pushing the exhaust and the fan pulling it from the other end, I found I don't really need a tight seal. Sure a little gets out, but not enough to worry about.
I have a bigger problem at the outlet side since I have a swinging door just of out to the frame of the photo (it would be over your right shoulder if you were taking that photo). The hose is only so long and I can't really close the door all the way, so some of the exhaust exiting the hose migrates it's way back inside when the wind blows. If you have the means and opportunity then making a permanent outlet in either the exterior wall of the garage or garage door would be ideal as you can weatherproof it (just like you do with a clothes dryer vent, in fact one of those weather-hood outlets is what you would use).
Makes sense. Thank you.
Post Reply