Shop Take-Back 2012

[balthazar]

Finally am getting back out in my shop. I've spent a couple hours for 3 nights cleaning thru stuff & throwing things away, and tonight I began the process of pouring a concrete 'curb' around the inside perimeter of my building. This is because when the floor was originally poured, the bordering form wood to control the pour has rotted over time, and mice have been sneaking in. I hate mice. Anyway, the perimeter is lined with all sorts of stuff, primarily car parts but some outright junk, and I want it all either stored off the floor or sold/tossed.

I got only 10-ft done tonight (perimeter is about 110' (24'x48' building with (4) car doors), but chalk that up to getting into the swing of it. Had to wrestle two Buick 455 blocks out of the way (I have 3); next bay has 2 DeSoto Hemi blocks and a bunch of those parts to move. Next bay from that has about (5) Turbo 400s. By 'bay' I mean the space between each vertical structural timber- they're about 7' apart.

Once the shop is sealed up & clean out, it will be a LOT more inviting to me, and I can get back to work on the B-59.

Anyway, I intend to post in here on occasion as to the progress; a log of sorts to keep my motivation up.

[G. David Felt]

AWESOME BALTHAZAR!!! Look forward to updates and photo's when you get time. Have Fun!!!

[ocnblu]

Did you find a Buick?

[balthazar]

I DID see one peeking back at me from among the cobwebs & stuff, now that you mention it.

Here's a lil' sketch I did of the perimeter issue: the yellow 'board' is what's degrading, the 'curb' goes over top of it, about 1.25" tall & 4" wide, right up against the metal sheathing. Should prove impenetrable.

[ocnblu]

Mice have been laughing at the word "impenetrable" for one million yerrs.

[balthazar]

They CANT chew thru concrete tho.

[daves87rs]

Cool...

[ocnblu]

Of course they can't, balthy!

[balthazar]

I read that steel wool cuts their little gums.

I like that.

[Robert Hall]

Cool... mice are have always been a presence in my family barn and garages in Ohio..my folks always put rat poison in pans in the older, less driven cars..so the cars always smell of rat poison..

[balthazar]

The web is full of back-N-forths about deterring varmints. I have had success with this type of trap:

Put anti-freeze in the bottom and there's no smell, plus it works thru the winter.

[G. David Felt]

Wonder how many family mice will still call you Doofus once you have your wall of Fortitude built!

[A Horse With No Name]

Good luck, all I've got to work out of is a two car garage....and I'vde been getting it organized and working in it.

Good luck Balthazar, and keep us posted...

[balthazar]

Here you can see the form lumber that is no longer a secure seal from the outside (it's OK here, not so in other spots) :

Poured:

Edited August 2, 2012 by balthazar

[Drew Dowdell]

Get a cat.

[balthazar]

Have one up @ the house my wife looks after, but I don't go out there often enough (traditionally speaking) to keep one alive in the shop.

'Cat door' is out of the question; other, larger guests are only going to get in. It's like living in a freakin zoo here.

After I clean the whole building, it's one matter, but right now there's a few pounds of metal shavings sprinkled over the floor, too.

And I really am not interested in taking care of an animal- it's not my thing.

[Camino LS6]

Good stuff!

The barn is way overdue for this sort of attention...

[A Horse With No Name]

Keep us posted with photographs, Mark.

[G. David Felt]

Sweet job on that pour, It will really help you gain a warmer, cleaner and varmit free work zone.

[A Horse With No Name]

Sweet job on that pour, It will really help you gain a warmer, cleaner and varmit free work zone.

...that and he keeps digging in there, he might even find a Buick!

[balthazar]

It'd be about hopeless if I could completely bury a 18-ft car.

Edited August 15, 2012 by balthazar

[SAmadei]

The Caprice Wagon has just about disappeared in my single bay home garage. 8-0

[G. David Felt]

Sweet job on that pour, It will really help you gain a warmer, cleaner and varmit free work zone.

...that and he keeps digging in there, he might even find a Buick!

Yea I forgot what those old ones look like, he just might have something to retire with!

[A Horse With No Name]

I dan picture him now, a man as old as his previous avatar pic...rolling out the Buick for it's 100th birthday.

All sarcasm and joking aside, I love this car and want to see it on the road like I want Oxygen. Good luck to you sir, and maybe some day I can find my way to New Jersey and find a way to bribe my way into a ride.

[balthazar]

Poured another section of concrete today. Had to move a bunch of Hemi engine parts to do so. Then I got distracted & cleaned up an incredibly greasy Hemi timing chain cover :

Seems like in order to sell anything in this economy, you have to pour a few gallons of elbow grease into the piece just to catch someone's eye. I've had these 2 exploded Hemis for about 6 years, I want them gone in the worse way and have advertised the heck out of them, but only sold a few pieces. It's not in my power to scrap them, but....

The next section to pour is the right side rear section to the corner, and it's clear this corner is a major highway into the building.

I have to move 4 THMs and 2 large shelf assemblies which are fully loaded to access said corner- hopefully this weekend.

BTW- the other 2 vehicles in the shop DO have stuff piled on them, but the Buick never has. It's quite in the open, beckoning me.

Edited August 4, 2012 by balthazar

[A Horse With No Name]

Good to see you get excited about the Buick again.

[balthazar]

Spent the afternoon out in the shop. Poured another 19' or so, prepped the next 7 feet.

My original estimate is about 110', I done about 35 so far. That alone has somehow taken 2.25 80-lb bags of concrete.

Hey, lookie! A tailfin!!

[balthazar]

Did a couple more sections. It's a nightmare to make your way thru the shop end-to-end now, but it's all in the process. About 55 feet left to pour.

I have been offered an 18-ft container box for free, which if I take it, I can store all spare (flip) parts in from things I strip. I have a bunch of '65 & '60 Pontiac parts, plus numerous misc '60s pieces. I will take apart my old daily driver '64 Cat too. This will clear a LOT out of my building and make it easier to work in.

[G. David Felt]

Very nice cement work, are you putting plastic on the wall and floor before you poor to keep it so clean or just water and a brush to scrub it up clean?

Eather way, my hat is tipped to you for a nice job.

[balthazar]

^ You mean outside the form? No precautions, I'm pretty neat.

I say "pour" tho in reality I am slinging it in there & working it with a trowel of sorts, like the one on the far left:

Any blobs won't stick- too small and the existing floor is really too glass-smooth.

I'm not obsessing if I get a lil here or there, either way.

[A Horse With No Name]

I've built lots of small transformer pads that way for electrical transformers, usually works out pretty well.

[balthazar]

you must use pre-cast pads too, no?

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

Awesome, man!

I know about the mice all too well; they've gotten to my Camaros pretty bad (despite poison and box upon boxes of Bounce sheets)

I don't like killing anything (for example, I catch spiders and put them outside) but by god, my disdain for mice is such that I take a 'no mercy' approach.

Don't scrap the Hemis! There has to be someone who can use them.

[balthazar]

Consensus is bounce sheets don't work well. Many have found mice sh!t on them, or torn to make nests. Same disappointing result with moth balls. Peppermint oil is supposed to be pretty good, tho.

Best bet is to prevent them getting in, after that I'd look into one of the bucket traps- I've had good success with that one.

I don't want to scrap the Hemi's, but I've advertised them numerous times over the 6 yrs I've had them, and I still have 90% of the parts.

[Turbojett]

you know what scent really repels mice?

Cat.

[balthazar]

Yes they do. I'm convinced I'd have mice in my house garage, but we have an outside cat that shows up twice a day to tie on the feed bag, and assuredly his scent keeps them out.

I would feel pretty bad if I didn't go out to my shop for 4 days and the cat in there was dead because of that, tho.

Think I'll go out there right now and get something done.

[G. David Felt]

So this kind of cat keeps the mice away????

[Turbojett]

I don't know how effective that'd be against mice, but sure, i'll take it!

Edited August 16, 2012 by Turbojett

[Drew Dowdell]

I don't like killing anything (for example, I catch spiders and put them outside) but by god, my disdain for mice is such that I take a 'no mercy' approach.

I'm the same way as you. I was mocked by Albert for getting "no kill" mouse traps and then putting the mice outside. Of course, the mice kept getting into the house. One day I left a package of Oreos on the kitchen counter and the mouse got in to those.

It was dead the next day.

You don't f@#k with my Oreos.

These days we have the cat who catches the mice and then brings them to me, still living, as a gift.

[Turbojett]

really? my parents' cat always brought them dead, sans head.

and on rare occasions, sans legs as well.

[Drew Dowdell]

From a cat's point of view, a live mouse is one of the greatest gifts you can get. She does kill them too, but she still brings me live ones as gifts. About the worst thing you can do is react badly to it. They think they are doing you a nice thing. If you saw the way the three of us interact, I'm her favorite while Albert is her servant.

Albert doesn't get mice from her.

[balthazar]

I have zero issues killing mice.

We had an in-house cat for 15 years, gone about 5 now. He would go out once a month in the sprint/summer, never wandered far.He did catch a vole now & then.

We have an outside cat that shows up for breakfast & dinner, often eating inside apparently for the reason (so my wife says) 'he's old'. He's too disinterested/fat to catch anything. Once I saw him toss a sweet gum ball

up in the air in the driveway, then it fell and he wandered off. We believe he's about 13 yrs old and has been hanging around maybe 8 yrs.

We're now about 2 weeks into having a 6-8 wk old kitten in the house, but I'd much prefer he live somewhere else.

I am actively looking for a home, but nothing so far. The other 3 here believe he's staying FFOORREVVEERRRRRR.

Edited August 18, 2012 by balthazar