The new place is about three miles from home, usually about ten minutes drive. Not as convenient as my back yard but still not too bad. The good part is I spend a little less than 10% yearly of what building would have cost. Add in the cost of money, the increase in property taxes, utilities and maintenance and this quickly becomes a better deal financially.
We have 2000 square feet, including a small office, storage room and restroom that have both heat and air. It has gas, water and 200 amp, 3 phase electricity all under 12 foot ceilings. All things considered, this is way more than I could have done in my back yard. The following are photos of the place. Some of the cars are fairly permanent and some come and go.
This is our front room or lounge with beer keg and flat screen television. The door
on the right is the restroom. The other, more cluttered room, is the store room. It
is mostly spare parts and other replacements.
This is the motor for my Sprite, overhauled, painted and ready for a car to put it
into. It has since been moved under the large industrial shelf unit for better
safekeeping. The faded red A series motor is still there, still on the test stand and
is for sale although I have not advertised it yet.
These shots are in the general work area. On the left is the work bench with cabinet
below full of tools. On the right is another tool cabinet, a stick welder and torch.
These photos are of the north wall taken from where you first enter the shop area. The
three different configurations show what I meant about some of the toys being transient.
The MGB, the MINI, the 914-6 and the Vespa all have the same owner. The MG was sold and
left a few months ago. The Porsche is sold to a buyer in France but has not left yet. The
MINI went home, probably to make room for the Porsche. The Volkswagen is Judy's and the
white 450SE in the far corner is mine. The pretty red 560SL belongs to my other partner.
At this time, the Porsche and my Mercedes are not driveable. And this little furry critter
is our guard dog. Don't be fooled, she is very big for her size. The Volkswagen is discussed
here.
The MGB in the work area belongs to the owner of the 560SL. He is building it to be a rally
car. The Austin Healey Sprite in the background is mine. It is waiting for a lot of work.
More on it can be found here.
I have not seen actual concours results but I suspect the yellow Porsche is very nearly
a 100 point car. The Midget and TR3, on the other hand, are definately projects. The TR3
was purchased for the purpose of selling on. Its previous owner had started a full frame
off restoration several years ago but lost interest in the project. It is a nearly complete
car, lacking a full interior and needing some paint repairs before reassembly. The Midget
will probably be sold at some point. It was purchased from a mutual friend who never should
have bought it in the first place, having no idea how to finish putting it together. It is
a rubber bumper car that has been converted to chrome but the conversion leaves something
to be desired.
I'm sure I had grand plans for the shop and what all I would accomplish there but very little actually got done other than reducing that massive clutter in my garage as shown in the last chapter. The only other significant things that I can think of is building the components for the Prefect clutch, hand brake and auxiliary electric fuel pump here. The Prefect never made it to this shop as there just was not enough room. It stayed home instead.
As it turned out, each of us had or at least developed different ideas on how the shared shop should function. As a result, the partnership dissolved after a couple of years and we went our separate ways.