First off, mods (Icemark), I am posting this here because I work mainly on 2nd gens, and most everyone here knows me pretty well, so I feel it is more pertinent to this section than any other.

Up until this point I have been working out of my home/basement. As business has grown and my schedule become more crowded, so has my parts inventory grown and it got to be a bit too much at the house. I found it real hard to keep the upstairs clean, much to the dismay of my wife. I also had a real problem finding a place to keep my 3 cars, my wife's car, our guests' car(s), partscars I bought up along with customers' cars.

So, I was presented with an opportunity to lease a building and decided to go through with it. IT was pretty rough, but I have cleaned it up a lot and it is now decent for a work/storage area. I have about 40% more space, plus it is a commercial property so no one can bitch about city ordinances such as having unregistered/junk cars or excessive noise. (no one did beforehand, but I knew it was coming sooner or later).

Here are some pics. IT isnt much, but a good start I suppose, and Im getting a good deal on it. Plus, I love having my basement to myself, clean and neat, for actually storing my own vehicles.

 

Nice, Glad to hear the business is expanding. Is that your Turbo Vert?

 

Very nice. I need a garage, too bad I still live at home.

 

Good to hear Kevin! Glad business is doing good for you, you'll probably be hearing from me sometime soon, more than likely


Are you worried at all about leaving cars outside in a area where you cant watch all the time?

Oh, not to hi-jack, but since you're here, do you sell S5 shortblocks? I dont have a core to give, just need a S5 shortblock.

Looks good, hope it works out well for you,
Jonathan

 

Congrats Kevin! Looks like a good working space. Good luck with it!

Doug

 

Congrats. I was wondering how long the wife was going to put up with it!

Is that Flav-O-Rich in those shots?

B

 

Outstanding - I hope it's close to home.

With a sign on the door, you're on your way.

 

I never thought I'd say it, but that is a damn nice 'vert.

 

Congratulations Kevin.

It’s nice to have your own shop, and not have to work from home.

 

Looks like your moving up in the world! Thanks for providings such a valuable service all these years. Keep up the good work.

 

glad to see that...ive never heard a bad word about this guy...and his prices....cant be beaten.

 

Congrats, Kevin!

 

Good job Sir! I will keep lookin to you for parts in the future (lol)
Good luck!

 

Dont ask me how the HELL the forum double posted what I wrote. Icemark or someone, can you kill that second one? Last night when I last checked the thread the double post wasnt there.

The place is in an area that isnt such a great part of town, and if you had something of value that was accessible the mexicans wouldnt mind taking it off your hands in a midnight relay race. Of course most of what will be out there are partscars which have no worthwhile electronics/wheels on them anyway, and I have been telling customers who leave their cars here to remove any stereo equipment before dropping it off and to be sure their rims are secured with locklugs.

B, flav-o-rich hasnt been around in a while, he has been working with his dad doing electrician work I believe. That is my friend Steve who got layed off from his old job (the same place I worked at for 6 years). HE is damn good at ripping a car apart in no time, but we're still working on lowering his proficiency with the wire cutters. HE has been working around here pretty solid for about 2 months now, usually about 4 good days a week, tearing down cores, cleaning and painting engine parts, removing and installing engines, etc. I let him do all the simple labor jobs, but he doesnt touch any engine assembly work.

Poor redneck, as of late I have been requiring cores up front. At this time I should have enough pieces to throw together an s5 shortblock, or for that matter even longblock. Course the cost will be more in absence of your core, but I will credit you some for any other cores you can obtain. Probably lookin at $1400 for an s5 shortblock with no core, $1600 for a long block with no core.

Sureshot, it is about 10-15 minutes from home depending on traffic. IF you note, there is a sign on the door already...the small door. When you come down that road, it is pretty obvious when you see all these 7s sitting in front of this building, so I dont beleive there will be cause for confusion. I do have a lot of the local school kids stopping by asking questions about whose vehicles those are (my convertible, silverado, or s-10), if I want to sell them, and "are any of these cars twin turbo like the one in the movie". I have had a couple kids ask if they can come by and help/work for free. IT is pretty funny, really. IT'll be interesting to see the direction that cars take in about 5-8years when all the kids growing up now start modifying stuff...

 

Nice, when are you geting a lift?

 

Well, for one, I dont have a pressing need for one. Sure it'd be damn nice to have, but when you look at the fact that installation of even a cheap version will run around $4-5k, you quickly figure out that a jack and stands arent as archaic as you were thinking before. There really is no particular job that would be made extremely easier by presence of a lift, seeing as how I dont do exhaust work, and clutch jobs are easy to do with jackstands, I can do so in about 2-2.5 hours easily.

 

congrats man. glad to see your business growing so quickly.

 

Nice! It looks like you could use some more/better lighting for the night-time or rainy days you can't keep the overhead open, but emminently usable for sure!

 

I priced out a Asymetrical Rotary 2 post for 3250 installed.

 

Yeah John, another problem is the fact that this is lease property and per the contract any permanent changes that are made to the property must be left behind when/if I leave. Im not sure if I may find a better location later, or if Ill keep this one, so I dont want to do that just yet. I'd like to find my own land somewhere and construct my own building, and THEN do the lift(s) and dyno

And yes, the lighting does suck ***, but I have spotlights for the main work areas that we need light for. Due to the high ceiling, Id have to rent a stinkin high-lift just to be able to GET to the lights and install more, plus the wiring looks really hacked up/fubar. IT is just a project I dont feel like tackling. I have thought about putting lights on the walls, like a paint shop, though...I could run my own wires that way.

 

Kevin, whats up one of these weekends I am going to truck down my vert so we can fix that coolant seal. Congrats on the new building. Now when I kidnap Britney Spears we have a place to stash her.
Sean

 

There are plenty of good rolling lifts available for a lot less then 4K. That way, you can take it with you when you leave.

 

Sweet place. Just be careful. I'd invest in some security camera's.

My parents owned a car audio store for 18 years and we've seen it all. They will use a car to bust the doors in they will try everything.

Or atleast place fake camera's up high so people are scared away and place area monitored signs.

Good luck with the place. Once I get a TII your one of my options for getting a rebuilt.

 

Congratulations, Kevin.

 

Kevin,
Congrats!