New shop building is finished...sorta.

[hotrod98]

Hope you guys don't mind my placing this new topic in the aero section. The new shop was built with the intention of expanding my work area in order that I be able to have more room to not only work on my wing car clone projects but to be able to expand the wing car parts production as well. When I decided to try building new wing car parts, I quickly realized that I would need a lot more space than the other two shops allowed. For instance, I hadn't realized the amount of space that would be needed for the storage of the molds for the f/g parts that we were planning to build. In addition, I have come to realize that I would need to build a few pieces of equipment to build some of the specialty pieces such as the trunk hinges. They're definitely not going to be as easy to build as the wing braces.
The next phase of the shop project is to complete the office/kitchen/bathroom area as well as installing the new paint booth and mixing room. I've had so many requests for resto work lately that I may eventually leave my job at the dealership and work at home full time. I'll keep everyone posted when we get back on the wing car parts production. I hope to have something going as far as the trunk hinges are concerned very soon. For now though we have the wing braces and are converting the trunk lids. At least it's a start. We're also working on producing an upper trunk lip for the front of the trunk opening to be used with the vega style plug. Pics soon.
hotrod

[dads_69]

I think it fits the thread. I'm envious. Now if you had a big  mopar sign outside it would be done.
Mark

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

Sweet garage DuDe!!! , now we can see u go to town on yours and howies daytona projects -MATT

[70charger_boy]

Hotrod I'm so Jealous!!!  You're doing what I want to do?  I have one question for ya.  Were you afraid to go out and invest in a building and your company?  Number 2 question is it hard to get financing for a business?

[hotrod98]

Hotrod I'm so Jealous!!! You're doing what I want to do? I have one question for ya. Were you afraid to go out and invest in a building and your company? Number 2 question is it hard to get financing for a business?

Fortunately, I didn't have to borrow a dime. I sold my 70 challenger convert hemi clone. Needless to say that gave me a little cash to work with.   
I'll miss the car but have many more toys to play with. I just wish that I could have done all of this when I was a little younger. At least I don't have huge debts like some people do which will help me get this new venture (adventure) going. The wing car stuff will just be a small portion of what I plan to do. The resto work is what will pay the bills. There's not much profit in the wing car parts. I just want to play around with the wing cars for the fun of it. I've made very little profit on the wing braces. Never intended to. If you plan to make a living selling wing car parts, I would warn you that the market is very small and pretty saturated. I'm not saying don't do it. We need some decent deals out there for the guys on tight budgets. Just don't jump in thinking you're going to make a lot of money.
I don't recommend borrowing a lot of money to start a business in this economy and of course to borrow the money, the bank will want somewhere between two and three times equity to back the loan. If you decide to start a new business, just be sure to lay out a solid plan with plenty of backups.
As the old saying goes "People don't plan to fail, they just fail to plan".
hotrod

[BigBlockSam]

nice shop bro.  thats my dream garage . good luck with everything. Rene

[70charger_boy]

Good luck and I think I might my some wingcar parts from you if you have any

[hemi68charger]

Man,,,, That's awesome !!!  Nice letting all that debt go as well.... 

[hotrod98]

Thanks for the compliments everyone. Here's a couple of pics of the interior as it is now. Won't look like this for long.  The office will be approximately 16 X 16 and will have a restroom, kitchen cabinets, fridge, microwave oven, tile flloors, sofa, flat screen tv, computer, split system a/c and heat, and of course my desk.
The scissor lift will be placed in the first bay just outside the office. The concrete in that area is two feet thick to accommodate the extra weight. I chose a scissor lift so that I can have total access to the body of the car not only for body work but for wet sanding and buffing. It's getting harder to bend over these days. I'm leaving the two post lift in the other building. I had the builder install a floor exhaust duct in the floor behind the office in case I decided to spend the extra money on a downdraft paint booth. Haven't decided on that one yet. The other two bays will be used for teardown and assembly. I set the shop up to have 20' wide bays so that the cars aren't too crowded together. That was the biggest mistake that I made with the other shop building. The cars were too close together to open all of the car doors without hitting something. 
I'll coat the floors with U-Coat and install two infra-red heaters and flourescent lighting. I still have a lot of landscaping to do as well as having a 20 X 60 pad poured in front of the shop. Looks like all of this work will slow the resto work down for at least another six months. Should be worth it. We're still doing some of the resto work at the dealership though.

[BigBlockSam]

wow, nice!

[nitrometal]

Looking good there Larry    

I am so envious. That's what I need (except not nearly that massive). It's on my "to do" list after we pay off the taxes for the Petty 'bird next year.  It sucks working on the car out in the driveway!!!   

[hotrod98]

Phil, One of the things that I would like to do by next summer is to get my bird clone on the rotisserie. Every time I see a superbird, I get that itch all over again. I have all of the parts that I need to complete it. I need to get the work finished on Howie's daytona clone first though since his project was started first.

[hemigeno]

Larry, the shop looks great - and I'm sure you'll have it cranking out wing car parts in no time 

What are you going to use for lights?  Fluorescent, metal halide, other?

[hemi68charger]

Holy Mackeral Larry !!!!  Again, awesome....... The interior shots make it look so much bigger........

Troy

[hotrod98]

Larry, the shop looks great - and I'm sure you'll have it cranking out wing car parts in no time

What are you going to use for lights? Fluorescent, metal halide, other?

I'm going with 8' flourescents hung at 10' from the floor. I'll buy the heavy duty version that starts instantly in cold weather this time. They're only $14 higher than the standard version. I've had the standard version in my old shop for almost seven years and I've replaced one ballast and no bulbs, but they hum and flicker a little in really cold weather until the shop heats up. The secret to using flourescent is in quantity. We're debating on whether to go with 3 rows or 4 rows. My ceiling height is only 15' 4" in the center which is really not tall enough for even the low bay halides really. You get a lot of shadows at that height.  My problem right now is finding time to get things going with the electrician, plumbers, etc. Normally, we're a little slow at this time of year at the dealership and I would have all kinds of time to get things accomplished, but of course we're covered up this year for some reason. Never fails.

Holy Mackeral Larry !!!! Again, awesome....... The interior shots make it look so much bigger........

Troy

I'll bet it looks a lot smaller when that office and paint booth are in place.

[TomP]

 Hey Hotrod, the pic of the shorten decklid on your website looks great.  Will that work with a Vega plug?  What do you use for the front channel of the decklid opening with that decklid?  Are you planning on selling that piece, too?

[Charger_Fan]

That shop looks great! Is it 30 x 60?
If you posted it, I missed it...'cause on Mondays I can't add & on Tuesdays I'm blind.

[hemigeno]

That shop looks great! Is it 30 x 60?
If you posted it, I missed it...'cause on Mondays I can't add & on Tuesdays I'm blind.

Can't wait to see what's up with Wednesdays for you...     

There are more pictures and details about Larry's cool new shop building in this thread:

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,20806.0.html

In there, he said that it is 40x80.

[hotrod98]

Hey Hotrod, the pic of the shorten decklid on your website looks great.  Will that work with a Vega plug?  What do you use for the front channel of the decklid opening with that decklid?  Are you planning on selling that piece, too?

Actually, that deck lid will work correctly on either an original daytona or 500 as well as a clone with a vega plug. The guy installing the vega plug would need to have the shortened trunk lid first before altering the rear edge of the vega plug. I'm altering them with the correct radius along the front edge and bending the edge just like the originals. I'm also spotwelding them just like the originals. I think a guy would have a hard time telling them from an original. We're waiting on the hinges before installing the hinge mounts. I'll be working on that drip trough in the very near future and plan to make some to sell as well. I'll have to figure out how to put the correct steps in and get that radius to match as well. The originals were actually two pieces. Hopefully I can keep the price down to a reasonable amount. I'll add it to the catalog page as soon as I get that far. We're stressing over the hinges right now. The tough part is making them look like the originals. I'll even duplicate the ramps like the originals.

That shop looks great! Is it 30 x 60?
If you posted it, I missed it...'cause on Mondays I can't add & on Tuesdays I'm blind.

40 X 80 is correct. I went with the 12' sidewalls to keep the temps down in the summertime and to have enough height for a lift. Started to go taller, but the price goes up exponentially for every additional foot and if you go too tall, they're hard to heat in the winter.

[Charger_Fan]

That shop looks great! Is it 30 x 60?
If you posted it, I missed it...'cause on Mondays I can't add & on Tuesdays I'm blind.

Can't wait to see what's up with Wednesdays for you...     

My memory.    Thanks for that link.
Since Rene was showing off his big shop in that thread , I may as well show off mine I made this summer.

Here's "the rest of the story"...
http://1970chargerregistry.com/70messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=3967

[hemigeno]

Since Rene was showing off his big shop in that thread , I may as well show off mine I made this summer.

Here's "the rest of the story"...
http://1970chargerregistry.com/70messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=3967

That was a fantastic read - love the part about the building inspector looking over the fence and the dogs jumping up to eye level...

[BigBlockSam]

very cool story. you did a great job man . 

[hotrod98]

Great story. That structure is a lot nicer than what I had for so many years. I hated looking out into the yard and seeing my cars out in the weather. It seemed like it took forever to get to the point where I could build something better to protect them.  I would trade my building to be 30 again.
I've never been to Utah before, but always kind of pictured it covered in trees. When I bought this place, the first thing that I did was cut down about half of the trees so that the grass would grow.

[Charger_Fan]

Thanks, guys.

I've never been to Utah before, but always kind of pictured it covered in trees. When I bought this place, the first thing that I did was cut down about half of the trees so that the grass would grow.

There's a ton of differing looks in Utah, depending on which area you're in. My house is about 40 miles from Salt Lake City & the area looks quite different than it does in Salt Lake. My area is considered semi-desert & actually is the bottom of what once was a big lake, thousands of years ago...nice & flat, with mountains surrounding us.
The ground is mostly a clay type material & doesn't support natural tree growth very well. We've planted a few trees here & all but the two pines have died. Some of our neighbors have had decent luck with Aspens, so I'm probably gonna try some of those soon. The only thing I don't like about Aspens is all the little tree starts they shoot off all over the yard.

I'd love to have a bunch of big trees around me like you do. On the other hand, it's nice to be able to dig in the yard & not hit a tree root every other 16 inches.

[mustanghater]

Are those billboard walls? there is one made out of a JD sign in the back woods out here.