No Restoration at this time

The restoration of my cars or just miscellaneous ramblings of mine.
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mikeyr
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No Restoration at this time

Post by mikeyr »

Yes, its been a VERY long time since I posted any news about my cars. That is because I have not worked on them in case you did not guess that.

Never fear, work will restart, right now though I am moving to a new house and building a garage. The total new size is 22x40 but as you can see I had to have a little whoops in the middle to meet zoning regulations.

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Work however HAS started :) might even be done by Thanksgiving, then I move the old garage to the new and right about the first of the year I start working on cars again.
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Mike Rambour. Site Administrator
1953 Singer 4ADT (sold), 1934 Singer 9 Le Mans, 1934 Singer 1 1/2 4-Seater Sports (sold), 2009 BMW K1300GT
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mikeyr
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Re: No Restoration at this time

Post by mikeyr »

progress ! soon there will be Singer's on that concrete slab.
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Mike Rambour. Site Administrator
1953 Singer 4ADT (sold), 1934 Singer 9 Le Mans, 1934 Singer 1 1/2 4-Seater Sports (sold), 2009 BMW K1300GT
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mikeyr
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Re: No Restoration at this time

Post by mikeyr »

Well just so you know that my Singer priorities are perfectly correct.

Still have no walls on the new addition, big holes in the current garage where the skylights will go, no doors of any kind but the Singer is IN the garage already waiting for me.
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Mike Rambour. Site Administrator
1953 Singer 4ADT (sold), 1934 Singer 9 Le Mans, 1934 Singer 1 1/2 4-Seater Sports (sold), 2009 BMW K1300GT
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mikeyr
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Re: No Restoration at this time

Post by mikeyr »

Both Singer's are now safely in the garage and doors are up so its all waterproofed. I will work on the siding after Christmas before New Years and start off the new year the right way. House is even moved (kind of almost, if you don't count all the boxes we have to unpack).
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Mike Rambour. Site Administrator
1953 Singer 4ADT (sold), 1934 Singer 9 Le Mans, 1934 Singer 1 1/2 4-Seater Sports (sold), 2009 BMW K1300GT
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mikeyr
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Re: No Restoration at this time

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Wow, its been a long time since I posted here, better throw in some new pics. Its been "finished" since Feb. 13, 2009, that is when the building inspector signed off on the building and I moved into it that weekend. Unfortunately, even though it is bigger than my old garage once everything was in and on the floor you could not move around so I started building shelves and things like that. Then the county tax guy sent me a letter and appraised the value much higher than I think it should be so we are "discussing" it, until that is done I really can't keep finishing it as they will inspect it again but at least they let me keep my junk in there, that would have been a disaster if they made me empty for who knows how long.

Anyway, its done, its awesome (or at least will be soon) and the cars will be worked on VERY soon. Wifey is happy with the progress on the house itself so I am going to be allowed garage time :)
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Mike Rambour. Site Administrator
1953 Singer 4ADT (sold), 1934 Singer 9 Le Mans, 1934 Singer 1 1/2 4-Seater Sports (sold), 2009 BMW K1300GT
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mikeyr
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Re: No Restoration at this time

Post by mikeyr »

SO CLOSE !!! SO CLOSE !!!

After months of delays and hassles ( I think city/county employees have it in their job description to make life miserable for others ) we emptied out the garage last night and put it all under the sunny Calif. skies, cars, tools, everything on the lawn and the garage is empty. Kind of weird, we filled it to the ceiling many months ago when we moved, so full and disorganized I could not walk around in it very well, had little goat paths to get around. Now that its empty its HUGE !!!

Electrician is there doing his thing right now, going to have so many lights all over the place I will need sunglasses to walk in and even the members in Canada will be able to see the glow of my garage, as you get old you need more light and I am getting old. Also putting plugs EVERYWHERE, way more plugs than I ever will use, every 4ft. will have a plug. I will only have 3 50amp 220v plugs in strategic locations, just could not decide where everything would be in the end, I prefer to work in the garage a while and let tools naturally migrate to where they will live, so I chose by the 2 big doors and one in the middle for the 220v plugs. Have a dedicated 100amp panel so lets use all those amps up.

Tuesday the drywaller shows up to insulate the garage and start the drywall. He thinks it will take a few weeks to do it all, with the cathedral ceilings its awfully high to insulate and drywall and he has other jobs, main section will be done next week he says, then he has another job for a week and then back to finish mine, then paint, run the compressor lines from its newly built super sound insulated home outside the garage ( but well ventilated through fans and baffled inlet/outlets ), then move only half the junk on the lawn back in, the other half can go to the city dump :) I was in my old house/garage 32 years and I can't believe I moved so much trash to the new place, we had no time to pick and choose what to move but wow I had a lot of trash/junk in the old garage.

With 1108 sq. ft. of heated, insulated, well lit, over electrified garage, my Singer's are going to be in heaven.

Oh yeah, its already wired for gigabit internet and flat screen TV goes in too :) not a big TV but this place is really going to be my hideout.

Now I am excited !!! with Phillip's post early this week about blocks being available which sparked my Singer interests again and a new garage to work in (about 8-10 months later than expected) this year is shaping up WAY better than last year. Lets get everyone going on their Singer's, this is the year !!!
Mike Rambour. Site Administrator
1953 Singer 4ADT (sold), 1934 Singer 9 Le Mans, 1934 Singer 1 1/2 4-Seater Sports (sold), 2009 BMW K1300GT
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mikeyr
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Re: No Restoration at this time

Post by mikeyr »

I know I don't post on this site anymore...but I was going to roof the last section of the garage this week and call the garage finished and start working on my cars soon. On a whim I called the roofer that did the garage and house for a quote on the addition...I was surprised at his quote and I am not going on the roof in these temps anymore :)

The Le Mans will get a wrench turned on it for 5 days for the first time in well over 2 years. Pics of the finished Singermahal coming soon.
Mike Rambour. Site Administrator
1953 Singer 4ADT (sold), 1934 Singer 9 Le Mans, 1934 Singer 1 1/2 4-Seater Sports (sold), 2009 BMW K1300GT
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mikeyr
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Re: No Restoration at this time

Post by mikeyr »

Lets take a tour of the new Singermahal !

I have a pie shaped cul-de-sac lot so I knew I was going to have problems, I wanted to tear down the existing garage but the city said if I did that, I would have to move it to the 6ft. setbacks and lose yard space (effectively give my neighbor 6ft. since there was no fence in that area at the time). I chose to add on.
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I had to stay 6ft from the side and 10ft. from the back so we built a mish-mash but I like it. I really like the 10ft. setback from the back fence because it gave me the perfect place out of sight to store my car trailer and truck and some junk.
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The old garage was 20x20 and the new one is 22x24, on this drawing the new one is 24x20'6 but we changed that as the property lines were better defined by the surveyor. In pictures below you can clearly see the separation between the 2 garages, I wish that beam did not have to be there but it was too expensive to fully retrofit and this works well and divides the 2 garages which I think is kind of neat.
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So, lets walk in shall we ? This is the view when you walk in the man door, the opening behind the car is the "Powder room" (sounds wrong for a garage). Here we can see the mess, how did it get so messy so quickly ? You can see we are still in construction mode as you can see shingle samples on the floor next to the lathe and skill saw in the front of the pic, but its REALLY close to being finished. Racedeck tiles are from the old garage so they are dirty with 8+ years of dirt. And as you can see, the 34 Singer Le Mans is patiently waiting for me to turn a wrench on it, more like do some carpentry work on it, will I ever get away from woodworking ?
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Immediately to the right of the door, is my table saw, honest its under there somewhere. You can see my way cool double doors behind it, I really like those doors on a hot day. I like being able to open the top half and leave the bottom half close, it works great in the rain too since the overhang keeps the rain off the top doors and allows natural light in.
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My primary take a apart workbench and welding bench, 1/4" plate for the top takes a nice beating. All the 2x4's on the bottom are my high tech height adjusters for the casters, easily removed to put the thing down and make it stay put.
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Lets look up at the ceiling and skylights. I can open those when it gets too hot, there are 4 total, 2 in the old garage and 2 in the new. The hooks (the ones you really can't see here since they got painted when I sprayed the ceiling) are through bolted to the joists and are spaced 4ft. apart for 4ft. light fixtures, the plugs are wired so one is always hot so I can hang some droplights and the the other is switched for the lights. The 8ft. fixture in the middle is on its own switch and a total of 4 4ft. fixtures are on their own also, the idea is that I can use the 8footer only during the day because of the skylights, but at night I can make it so you need sunglasses to walk in (at least when I hook up the 4footers you will need the sunglasses) And yes, I live in S. Calif. so that heater is absolutely necessary, it can get really cold in S. Calif.
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Now, here we are near the back of the garage looking towards the front garage which was the existing garage, it still needs its insulation and drywall and serious uncluttering, but you can see the lift with the other Singer and my awesome Dino under it. And YES it will get Racedeck flooring also. You can see the separation between the 2 garages I was talking about earlier, kind of neat, gives me a "dirty" garage and a "clean room" garage where I will assemble the Singer. Tools boxes on the right, the one with the shiny drawers is my "have to have it as soon as I saw it, regardless of cost" custom built tool box and workbench combo. 1/4" plate for the top and I chose the drawer configuration and even paid extra for the fronts to be stainless, it was stupid and silly but i have never regretted it. Next to it is just a older C-man.
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Out the front of the garage looking in from the driveway, my poor Dino has seen cleaner days and with the fresh concrete floor its obvious I have a oil leak that needs fixing right now.
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Where am I going to put all this junk ? The compressor has its own little spot that I will show you in a moment but there is my jointer/planner, a spare Dino motor and gearbox and lots of junk.
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Here is some junk that I have to find space for...ok, its not junk, its a running Dino motor ready to go in should I do something dumb on my Dino.
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3 webers, bet it sounds great at 8,500RPM (yes it does)
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Mom owned a upholstery shop for 20 years, guess where I would go work for gas money while in school ? when she retired, I kept this, trust me under the mess is a sewing machine that will sew up 2 1/8" steel plates, ok that might be a exaggeration but its awfully nice and will come in handy on both Singer's.
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Ok, back into the "main room", here you can see my way cool toolbox and lathe/mill combo, next to the lathe is my original powder coating oven which I kept because it heats up so fast for smaller parts. On the floor is the motor for the Le Mans that is ready to go in.
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A better view of the lathe. Its a nice toy, I really don't know how to use a mill and when I try I usually make things worse but the lathe part I got down.
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and my original lathe, I got this one in High School back in the 1970's, it is awfully small but does some things better than the big one, like carb needles.
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And now we move into the Powder room (that sounds just wrong for a garage), the oven is a 3ftx3ftx3ft inside and the booth is 4ftx4ft. And yes, when I get back to powder, I will clean the top of the oven off before I turn it on.
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Homemade Blasting Cabinet with plans from Tip Tools and you can see the pocket door to the compressor room on the right.
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The compressor room, its built with 2x4's but 2x6 top/bottom plates so I will weave the insulation between the studs in a attempt of quieting it down for the neighbors, I will have a commercial exhaust fan at the top to exhaust the heat and if it really gets too hot, I will open the pocket door as my Champion is not very noisy. But I hope that with the exhaust fan sucking the hot air out it will be fine. The room is 5ft.x6ft. which should give the compressor lots of breathing room.
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One last tool to show off, actually 2.
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And that is it, my new shop. I thought I was going to have lots of space but I was very wrong. I still have not found my English Wheel and Planishing hammer that is somewhere in the front (old) garage. But I am ready to start working IN the garage instead of ON the garage. That Singer on the scissor lift wants to be on the road this year ! and I think it can be, just not finished with new paint/etc. most of it is ready to bolt on.
Mike Rambour. Site Administrator
1953 Singer 4ADT (sold), 1934 Singer 9 Le Mans, 1934 Singer 1 1/2 4-Seater Sports (sold), 2009 BMW K1300GT
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mikeyr
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Re: No Restoration at this time

Post by mikeyr »

ok, just a quick little celebration...I finished my garage last night. Well, I still have to caulk all the siding, I still have to prime it, I still have to paint it...but its finished :)

Who would have thought it would take me over a year to side the thing, I used Hardy board siding and there was a LOT of it to do. Did the majority early last year when the framing and roofing was finished but there were lots of areas where the siding had to be cut to fit the roof angle or around the door and other details like that and I finally finished it last night.

Now all that is left is the details, prep for painting and painting but I will likely hire that out when the house is painted this summer and be done with it.

Inside the garage the addition is fully insulated, painted, wired and heated. The original garage is still bare studs inside and I can actually tell the difference in this cold, that half of the garage is colder and forcing the heater to stay on longer. It felt like below freezing this morning, it was 42 degrees outside, the heater had to work hard to keep the garage at 60 because of that lack of insulation. Going to insulate that and sheetrock next. Finish up the wiring in there this coming month, running too many electrical plugs just like the addition, way too many lights just like the addition and wire up ethernet for the computer and that will be done in a month or so since I hire out the sheetrocking and hit the inside with paint using a sprayer, its quick.

Work on the car has been progressing too, but that is the subject of another thread.
Mike Rambour. Site Administrator
1953 Singer 4ADT (sold), 1934 Singer 9 Le Mans, 1934 Singer 1 1/2 4-Seater Sports (sold), 2009 BMW K1300GT
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