Oh god, dont say that!!

Updates, why yes...

This is about five days old, but I thought it would be easier to just keep things in chronological order and bring you up to date. Had a huge week last week, and reached a few miletones - and I have to say a huge and heartfelt thanks to a few people for their help -->
>Mrs Treloar - my gorgeous, talented, hard working and suppremely supportive wife gave me a hand throughout the week when she could, and without her, I could not have come this far - thank you my love for everything!
>Cameron (Cazmo) - came to the rescue with a nice bit of 10mm steel plate for the crane, well done mate and thanks!!

So milestones - the power finally went on Wednesday, and the wife was instrumental in helping me pull cabls through etc. No more leads!! But, I then decided that I didnt like the sheet metal panelling (old roller door sheet) that I had used to mount the sub-board (in reality, I did it prematurely so that Chris the floor guy could do his stuff). So, I decided that it had to match the rest of the shed. So, disconnected the board, pulled out all the cables, bought some more MDF sheet and cut it to size and fitted it up:


Then, fitted it off again, and voila, lights and power:


The cable entry points will end up having a cover over them from 2.5mm alloy treadplate just for a bit of mechanical protection:


Friday the forklift showed up. Now I could move the machines from the top shed, down into the bottom shed. But, it turned out to be a comedy of errors. The forklift continually got bogged up behind the house. So, hook up the trailer, went up to the local landscape suppliers, and got a metre of roadbase. Then spent the next two hours shovelling the suff and levelling it out (broke the handle on the rake) to make a platform. The forklift still dug in so I put down all the spare sheet metal from the shed (roller door portector). This folded up like a tin can under the weight. Scrap MDF from the shed panelling worked as long as I kept the speed up. After every run I compacted it down with the X-Trail - it took all day!!


But finally, by days end, the machines were in their new home:


At the end of the day though, with no load on it, went to turn it around behind the house and ran off the end of the concrete near the washing line - irrevocably bogged to the floorboards. I just left it there overnight and tackled it the next day. The X-Trail did not budge it, so had to get the neighbours front-end loader/tractor (lucky we live on acreage!) over to help lift it out. The ground was just water-logged clay, so no wonder - clean up in aisle 6!!


Installed the crane up on the mezzanine. Thanks to Cam for providing the base-plate for the crane. There are 10x 16mm bolts holding the base-plate and crane to the mezzanine joists. Once it was up and installed, I swung on it, not a creak or groan, solid!! Just need a battery up there now and power for the battery conditioner. Even though the photo doesnt show it, it is in the pefect location and can articulate up and down and rotate through 360 deg. without hitting anything:


So now, I have lights and power, and could test the hoist etc. Painted the panelling to match the existing yesterday:


I knocked up and installed a little bit of joinery for somewhere to put the cordless phone, coffee/tea for clients and my mobile phone etc. Key hanger-up thingy for clients and shed keys:


Moved all the rest of the gear into place - finally have enough room to use the english wheel and to use my stuff without interference:




Also, the first of the suppliers sent some promo material. The colours are almost made for each other:


And finally, at the end of the day, moved in some tenants (of the non-permanent kind I hope!). Leonidas is still under the covers but El Gato is taking pride of place, and loving his new, airy, light and spacious home. Thanks once again to my lovely wife for helping me push him up the driveway and into his new home.


So today, its tackling the benches in the old shed. I did have designs of simply lifting them out with the forklift, however I built them in situ to suit each position and they will have to be fully disassembled, transported, modiied and then re-assemnbled in their new location. Time consuming, but its the only way!!

Also had a visitor last week, Cam came and had a sticky, thanks mate for taking the time to come over and say g'day. Thats three visitors so far - impressed!! More later and thanks guys for taking an interest.

Cheers,
Tricky

_________________
"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

Hi Guys,

Just a quick update on the thread - El Gato build thread.....

Had a phone call from the guy that is doing my front spoiler, to say that the mould is finished, and ready to take a part from. This is great news, as I had finished my work for him (getting power onto his shed) at Xmas 2012 - yes, 8 months ago!!

Anyway, he assures me that the first part will be ready for fitting up and painting by the 20th August - fingers crossed!!

Anyway, some teaser pics of the finished mould. The tooling gel coat is an interesting colour. They will be made available to the public soon. Apologies for the quality of the pics, they were from his phone.






Cheers,
Tricky

_________________
"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

*jealous*.

Did they not ask you to show the Mini?

http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/martin ... 2013-08-01

That looks amazing. A really cool workshop.

_________________
Ryan Filippi
Minis In The Gong
[email protected]
www.minisinthegong.com.au

Why is there a picture of a mini in your shed build...oh wait i remember now.

Seriously love it, im starting to get inspired for my build again now. Please keep updating.

_________________
Simplify and add lightness

Hi Guys,

Well, a quick update.

I have been working on clients cars this week, and last week, so not a great deal has been done to the shed. The most needed items at the moment was the benches, because its stupid tearing down engines and gearboxes on the floor!

It has take me two weeks to do the benches, to a point where I can use them. This is because I decided to recycle the old benches from the top shed, as they were very sturdy. The problem was though, that the benches in the top shed were custom built for that shed in those spaces, so had to disassemble the benches, transport them down to the bottom shed, modify them to suit the new spaces, and then reassemble.

It started by deciding on how much bench space and where. I wasnt going to make the same mistake as I made in the old shed by putting benches everywhere, only to have limited floor space and have bench tops piled with shite (you know what its like, the more bench space you have the more shite you have on them). So, the benches were only going to be down one wall in the reassembly bay. I also learnt another lesson from the previous attempt, the bottom rails were too low to allow the engine crane legs to get underneath - this made it very hard to get an engine up onto the bench. So, raised the bottom rail by 50mm and all is well.

Started with cutting the steel to size for the new space, and screwing it together:


Then, once the frame was all together, it was time to put on the bench tops. I am using film-faced ply. It is 17mm thick, and comes with a nice black veneer that is easy to keep clean. No, this is not form ply!


Wing-tip, self-drilling, countersinking screws are used and finished flush with the surface:


This is the old tops from the old shed - 20mm pine. It was not a good choice. I bought it originally straight from the mill, slightly green, After a while it shrunk back and left gaps between the slabs, not to mention knots and other irregularities. Also, some of the slabs bowed and split and the surface was uneven - I had to go back and screw in timber under the joins to help level the surface - crap choice really. The ply is much better:


This is what was left of the benches I pulled apart - a good bit of recycling:


Work in progres with both top and bottom benchtops on. The bottoms were a bit difficult as they had to be fed through the legs of the frame to be put into place. I needed to ensure that the cut-outs for the legs etc were bang on. The ply itself had to be trimmed about 50mm, so not a lot of wastage was involved, which I am pleased with.


And the finished benches sans the doors (or whatever I am going to use). The infill pieces between the front face (which is also film-faced ply) and the tops is 17mm quad, glued in place and then masked and painted, to match the Martini Racing stripes on the walls. I am kinda pumped how they turned out, and they are a good height to work from, and the film-faced ply just wipes clean:




Hope you like them. Just got to sort out what I am going to do with regards to doors now...

Cheers,
Tricky

_________________
"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

lookin good Tricky,,, lookin real good bro

But all i need to know is--> is my bed ready???

_________________
No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Fixed.

And yes mate, Top looking job there.

_________________
So what's the last thing you remember...

I'm pretty sure you were..

WRONG ANSWER!!!

Looking good Tricky.

I'm sure everything will be easier with benches. Everyone needs some flat surfaces in their work area.

_________________
"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

I hope you dont snore Matt you'll keep me awake

Seriously ,excellent work Mr Treloar

AS usual

Cheers Hallsey

those benches are class

_________________
1968 Mini-matic - 1340cc, 45 weber - 92hpatw, 14.5 @91mph, GrandmaSpec

Loving the look of this shed. Very jealous

WD40 & Hammer best tools ever dunno what those other tool are for lol

_________________

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the very kind words. Boys, your rooms are nearly ready!!! Now all I have to do is work out how to do the doors - thinking of making some slide-in modules or something....

Anyway, quick udate with regards to the front spoiler - its FINISHED!!!!

Yep, Royce rang me today and sent through the pics. After nearly 9 months, both the mould and the part are now done. It arrives tomorrow for a test fit. I havent seen it in a very long time so I hope it fits with minimal trimming. Not to rubbish Royce, he has had a very rough trot over the past 6 months, and his work is absolutely top-class - well worth the wait I am sure.

Without further adue, here are the pics...






Will do a quick test-fit tomorrow, when it arrives. Yee-Haa!!

Cheers,
Tricky

_________________
"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

Tricky, first time I've dropped by for a while and all I can say is wow!

You sure don't do things by halves do you? Love the shed, love your work. Well done.

Now finish El Gato.

Cheers,

Dicko.