I’m sure you can relate to the phrase “dream garage.” Go ahead. Take a few seconds. Close your eyes. What would your dream garage have in it? Is it full of perfectly finished bikes and dream cars or is it filled with great shop equipment that will allow you to fix or fabricate anything that you desire? Is it a “shop house”, “Shouse”, Barmdominium, man-cave or she-shed complete with a bedroom and kitchen? I think a dream garage means a lot of different things to each of us. Are you building a shop to simply store or display your vehicles or are you setting it up for productivity? In the next few columns I want to tell the story of moving into my own new space and let that hopefully spin off some ideas for you in your own space.

First of all, let’s talk about the “dream” aspect of things. What I am working with, I’ll be honest, isn’t the dream shop I imagined. I had imagined a 40’x60’ metal building with a 2 post lift for when I might need to do automotive work (also a great way to make new friends right?) a full machine shop area and parking for my van along with a floor drain in it so that I could do indoor washing/detailing. Polished and coated floors, enough light to eliminate any shadows and maybe a little lounge area. Oh, it would also have an attic with a lift built in so that I could store my spare parts easily without having to carry them up and down any stairs. The only problem with this plan is that my dream didn’t include $250,000 to pay for it all. As Nicky Hayden once said about Honda changing his race bike to fit another racer on the team, “You have to dance with the girl you brought.”

The “girl that I brought” is the basement of the house that my girlfriend and I just moved into. When we took possession of it, it included a lower-level carport that lead to an unfinished basement thanks to a set of double doors. Certainly not a bad set up, but it also needed a little help to function exactly the way I needed. So where do I start? I start with my home away from home, my cousin’s shop near my hometown in Kentucky. Cousin Dennis’ shop has everything, but it’s unassuming. After owning a motorcycle shop for a few decades, when Dennis decided to call it a career, his personal shop at home became his life’s work. Armed with an impressive array of tools and shop equipment, his 30’x40’ detached garage took on a life of its own.

In the dawning years of the new millennium, I became a regular fixture in his garage. I didn’t have a shop of my own to work in, so I made the 80-mile round trip to work at Dennis’ house. The first advice I received from Dennis was “a shop is never finished. It only evolves.” How true that is! Because of this, Dennis recommends everything that can possibly be on wheels, be on wheels. His shop has a long built-in work bench along the wall. In referencing that massive bench, he states, “If I had it to do over again, I would have built that bench in sections and on wheels so that I could move sections around as needed, and then clamp it back to the wall when I wanted it there.” Clever. Clever enough that when my stepdad built his own backyard work shop, he built his work benches in that exact manner.

What Dennis’ shop lacks in “showmanship” it makes up for in usefulness. “Everything has it’s place and every place has it’s thing” is the rule of the day. This means lots of shelves, bins, as well as heavy-duty and well labeled stackable plastic totes. My favorite part of his shop is the dedicated “machine shop” area. In roughly a 12’x12’ space it houses his belt sander, drill press, bandsaw, mill/lathe and all of it’s tooling along with a shelving unit that’s full of saved brackets, unique fasteners and spare parts. In a very small amount of steps you can completely fabricate most any part! It’s efficient!

Remember the wheels thing I mentioned? You need a tool cart on wheels. This is what will stay near you while you’re working on your bike (or car) and needs to include your most high quality and most used tools. Modify this tool cart, let your imagination run wild! The more tools you can neatly store on this cart, the quicker you’ll be able to complete any project. Dennis modified his tool cart by installing bolts on one end of his cart to hang wrenches off of, and then there is a store bought screwdriver holder on one edge. Every inch of the tool cart is used, yet everything is relatively organized and once you get used to where your tools are, it’s like texting on a smart phone…you can nearly grab what you need with your eyes closed.

With that, I conclude this installment of “Dream Shop”. At this point you completely understand where my inspiration comes from, what I’ve learned from a mechanic with over 50 years of experience and how you can make small changes to your existing shop to make it work better for you. Stay tuned for the next installment where I’ll walk through the process of how my new space came to be. Happy wrenching.