Project Thread ‘TIGGER’

[MaxA]

Great project, and also a nice garage. I should supplement my project thread but the garage usually looks like a disaster area.

 

[Harryblue]

... try and squeeze a mid height lift in there to do brakes and wheel off cleaning things. Cant flipping wait!!!

I plan the same, the centre section of the garage will be big enough for a proper professional garage lift, so I'll be able to do a lot of my own work.
Labour prices mean that it probably wouldn't take that long to pay for itself if you're regularly fettling underneath the car.

 

[Ghostrider78]

I used to have a lovely double garage until we moved recently. We didn’t stay there very long (about 18 months) but I converted the garage as my first project, and a very enjoyable project it was and a great chance to spend time with my dad, who’s help was invaluable.

As my car is currently in for an operation and service, I thought I’d stick some garage photos up rather than pictures of my engine on a garage floor covered in oil. (aos failure basically)

Anyway, said garage was a decent size, 7m x 7m and a very generous roof space. Much newer than the house it was built next to, but still ripe for conversion upstairs. So my dad helped draw up some plans, did the structural calcs, and I whilst I didn’t need planning permission, I did want to obtain sign off from building control for regs.





Started with the timber framing for interior walls and floor joists. Plan was to convert the upstairs into a usable space for my home office/music room/man cave. Downstairs I wanted space for one car and a workshop area. Building regs approval meant I needed an internal fire door between the garage area downstairs and the habitable space above. So I created a lobby downstairs where the personal door was and the staircase.











I also wanted a full height velux window in the roof, overlooking our garden. So that was a learning experience. Worth doing though, so we created framing for that before insulation, floor boards and plasterboard.




I switched between upstairs and downstairs jobs, dependant on how board I got with cutting plasterboard and insulation, and taping and jointing. Worth pointing out, I’m not a trades person, so all of this take me a lot longer to do than a pro!

Tidied up the downstairs lobby area, and made space for a consumer unit to be installed by my sparky. I had this directly connected to the supply, rather than coming off the house CU. So a trench had to be dug across the garden, to take power and also internet.



Downstairs workshop units installed - essentially an Ikea kitchen!



Back upstairs, I also had a cable end window to replace, which turned out nice and got the Velux in too.





After much decorating, plastering and general faffing with skirting, flooring, lights, power and keeping the building inspector happy it turned out nicely.

I do miss it and would dearly love this type of space again.

 

[Harryblue]

That looks really good.
The bloke across the road has a similar set-up as that, downstairs is car and workshop and upstairs is office space, he ran his business from there until he retired.

I've got a weird situation with mine, the house is 400yrs old and there are some weird things in the planning permission for the garage that was built there in the '80s, so I'm not sure how far I'll be able to go, I've got a refusal from some years ago where the old owner wanted to turn the upstairs bit into a small office and he got told it wouldn't be in keeping with the area, yet as I said the bloke over the road has pretty much exactly what you have in those pictures.

My plan is to knock it down and start again, the old owners made some really poor decisions, they had the garage built so you can fit two cars in and that's it, there is no space around the vehicles, at the moment I can fit two cars in but that's about it.

I've got the space to build a triple garage and extend it back a metre, which would be perfect, but the price of the building work is steep and I'm not confident to do the brickwork and foundations myself.

 

[Ghostrider78]

That’s not far different to the property we had, the garage was built in the 90s but the house was 1700’s, but not a listed property.

I wouldn’t have got permission to change use of the garage for a similar reason, but the orginal planning permission allowed for ‘non-habitable’ use. That allowed for office space, but no bedrooms essentially. Building control we’re happy and the planners said I was fine to proceed with my plans.

Perversely, before we left I did get planning permission to build a double story extension on the side of the house, extending out and increasing the front elevation by about 6m - which was something that planners had refused a number of years previously, but times move on and not every planning officer thinks the same…

 

[Harryblue]

It's all a bit murky, I didn't think we'd need permission to make the upstairs bit into an office, but as I said the previous owners applied and got it refused. That has me wondering now whether I'd get any problems demolishing the existing garage and building a triple. According to the basic rules I've read I don't think I need planning permission for a garage build based on the percentage of ground I'll be building on compared to the overall space available, but I'm not sure.

We were talking about it this morning, we're still happy with the move we made there, but it's a parcel of land/house that the rest of the village grew up around and it's going to take some figuring out to get the garage right in the space that we have.

 

[Skoosh1970]

That looks really good.
The bloke across the road has a similar set-up as that, downstairs is car and workshop and upstairs is office space, he ran his business from there until he retired.

I've got a weird situation with mine, the house is 400yrs old and there are some weird things in the planning permission for the garage that was built there in the '80s, so I'm not sure how far I'll be able to go, I've got a refusal from some years ago where the old owner wanted to turn the upstairs bit into a small office and he got told it wouldn't be in keeping with the area, yet as I said the bloke over the road has pretty much exactly what you have in those pictures.

My plan is to knock it down and start again, the old owners made some really poor decisions, they had the garage built so you can fit two cars in and that's it, there is no space around the vehicles, at the moment I can fit two cars in but that's about it.

I've got the space to build a triple garage and extend it back a metre, which would be perfect, but the price of the building work is steep and I'm not confident to do the brickwork and foundations myself.


View attachment 115268View attachment 115269

H, you need to talk to the right people

 

[Harryblue]

H, you need to talk to the right people

I haven't forgotten, once I'm in a position to move I'll give you a shout.

If you're not at work when I pick my 930 up then pop down.

 

[Ghostrider78]

Not the most interesting update, but a rather typical one, for which I already have the t-shirt several times over. But, we enjoy it and so we keep doing it…right?

Car went it for a major service, so usual service plus gearbox oil, brake fluid, plugs, belt etc. Asked for them to check out an oil leak which I suspected was the AoS.

Got the call to explain that the AoS is leaking, can’t access it to replace it without taking the engine out. So I gave the go ahead.



Got another call, AoS is shagged, but it’s also leaking from the front of the engine, suggesting RMS/IMS seal problems. Fine, ‘whilst it’s out’ - take my money

Turns out it’s the IMS oil seal, which was changed about 5 years ago, but replaced and cleaned. RMS also new.

Popped in to drop my replacement exhaust boxes in (thank you @wellsy!) - we found a rodent nest and a load of chewed vacuum hoses, which will need replacing - *sigh*

While in I asked them to replace the rear coffin arms and lower control arms, new brake nipples, and change the exhaust over for me whilst it’s all out and accessible.

So, it’s been an expensive week, but I’m looking forward to having it back nicely sorted.

 

[martinsamm]

wait til they tell you the caliper nipples are seized!

 

[Ghostrider78]

wait til they tell you the caliper nipples are seized!

Luckily they all came out ok, looked dodgy but no drama - would have been typical though

 

[martinsamm]

i think thats a battle ive got coming but a rebuild from BCS looks like a good option

 

[gizlaroc]

Calliper nipples can be a pain, but I have found a way that always works.

Put some heat on the nipple, let it cool, then use a drill with torque settings, you know the ones that go from 1-10 and then the drill sign.

Set the torque to number 4 or 5 and let it keep going, if it doesn't break the nipple free, up it to 6, then 7. By 7 it will break it free.

This just gives enough torque to crack them free without enough twist to snap them.

 

[Harryblue]

It never ends does it, I can buy a Nissan 4x4 and use it every day for work, weekend trips into the desert and put 150k miles on it with literally just normal servicing and tyres, no issues at all, but every 911 I’ve owned has been a right drama queen demanding £££ spent every year.

I love these cars but they’re clearly designed to have a heavy maintenance impact. It’s probably why they’ve been the most profitable car company for years, they know people are going to replace most of the running gear of the car every few years so they don’t have to engineer it to last.

 

[Ghostrider78]

I was having the same conversation with our dog trainer last night. He trains military dogs all over the world, but pulls heavy horse boxes and finds himself in all remote corners of the U.K. - he swears by his Nissan - laughed at me and couldn’t comprehend why I would want a 25 year old German sports car when I live in the sticks and own a gundog. I did have to pause to consider my own madness.

I find the worst part about these cars is the corrosion, both the body and the fasteners. More often than not it’s what causes relatively simple tasks to become hard work, or the difference between me doing it myself and just taking it in to pay somebody else to do it.