Hi Guys,

Bro - yes, its an awesome product, you need to see it in the flesh to realise how good it is.

Matt - Thanks matey, but I am so vertically challenged eating off the floor is not that hard for me

Pete - excellent, we need to get together now, as I am ordering materials for the booth in the next few days. Are you local to me (Burpengary)?? You are now the technical advisor - can you PM me your mobile no.??

Goodie - hi mate, how you doin'? Thanks, yep, it is really as good as it looks.

Off to pick up the new compressor now!!

Cheers,
Tricky

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

Spray booth sounds good.
I might be keen to hire it from you to paint a few mini's once its up and running. Its hard finding decent booths to hire . When i painted Tomtoms mini i reckon i spent 30mins just cleaning the guys booth before i even pushed the mini in there.
guess some people aren't as anal about booth cleanliness as i am.

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Tim
Dusk Blue
1964 850

Hey MrFail,

Yep, we can certainly discuss that for sure.

Anyway, have been doing some work on the shed while I have been waiting for stuff to arrive. The steel for the mezzanine was supposed to arrive today, but looks like it is going to be Monday now. Which is a bit of a disappointment as I really wanted it finished this weekend. Looks like a job for next week now.

I dug a trench and plumbed the overflow for the rainwater tank, seeing as it is already 3/4 full from the recent rains. Wednesday Pete (850pete) came around for a few hours to help out with the design of the spray booth. Such a wealth of information that man and he gave of it freely. Thanks a bunch Pete!!

Yesterday and today I having been hauling ass lining part of the shed with MDF sheeting. I am only lining the areas where the workbenches are going and the machinery room and paint prep room. This is for a few reasons:
1. There is nothing worse than stuff rolling off your workbench and being lost for ever down the gaps in the wall sheeting. By butting up the workbenches against a flat panel this stops that from happening
2. Gives a little bit of heat insulation on the northern and western faces
3. Gives some noise insulation as the northern and western face the road and the neighbours property respectfully.

So, grabbed 16 sheets of 2400x1200x12mm MDF and lined the walls. It was a big job for a single person but its almost finsihed now,. Ran out of sheets though and need 5 more to complete the job. I then filled all the screw holes (20 screws per sheet!!) and will sand them back tomorrow, ready for a nice coat of semi-gloss white. This should make the shed look lighter too! Maybe a racing stripe or two wouldnt look outta place...???

I deliberately left a gap on the bottom in case I ever need to hose out the shed and the gap will allow this to happen without damaging the MDF sheets.

The pics:




So, should have this all finished tomorrow and the first coat of paint on!! Once the lining is done, I can then move all the benches in, and I wanted to do that at the same time as moving the machines to limit the time I have the forklift hired. Also, once the lining is done, I can run the air lines and finish the electrical outlets on those two sides.

Cheers,
Tricky

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

Looking good Tricky, hopefully you got my emails ok? Am happy to help out however I can. Your determination and effort in piecing together your shed and business is inspiring and admirable. I think these qualities will shine through in the results of your customer cars and will be appreciated by many!.

When im back at work next week I will try and suss out some reps for more stuff too.

Your doing exactly what I want to shed/ toyshop wise, what are you doing for a booth? I'm keen to build a little one at home too

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Potato

Mate looking very nice,green green green with envy ,well done mate

I have no doubt this will be a very professional ?? looking workshop

Cheers Hallsey

PS PM'ed some pics of the race car

Well after spending the last 2hrs reading this war and peace novel I have gone through your ups and downs and I must say you must have the patients of an angel and one very, very, very long fuse. Your El Gato is certainly something to behold and that would be an understatement.

As far as setting up your workshop would you be so kind as to PM me your details once you are up and running, I have just started the what appears to be a long road to 'tweaking' my '77 Leyland , my plans are in no way as impressive as yours were but other than Theminiman (Mat) I haven't come across any other reliable and devoted mini mechanics (there may be others but I am yet to come across them).

And again thanks for sharing your experience.

Ken Nelson, Mini Automotive in Ipswich 32814255

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1964 998cc Cooper
1971 Mini K x 2
1972 Clubman GT

Pete,

Yep, got all your emails, thanks mate. Will be getting together with you again this week if you can make it (via email) to discuss some other thoughts. Been thinking that if we put all the filters in the roof, then by definition it becomes a downdraught booth and the airflow requirements go from 0.5m/s to 0.25m/s. Thoughts?

Meeni - Thanks mate. Custom fabricating my own, to fit the space. To buy a commercial booth would cost me $40k plus!! I used to work for a company called Steel Storage, and they make/roll their own sheet panels, this will be what I am using.

Bro - thanks, dont mean to make you envious, just sick of having NO ROOM to do anything, and the shed becomes a dumping ground for everyone elses crap. Yes, thats the look I am after!!

Jay - thanks mate, PM sent, and you're very welcome. Panthersteve has provided you with a top-notch Mini Mechanic if you have a Mini you want very well maintained and kept standard. I am more into the conversion/fabrication/customisation field. Matt Read is also top-notch and knows his schitz backwards. Either Ken or Matt will see you right, two of the very best!!

Steve - thanks for providing contact details for Ken.

Update,

Spent Saturday and Sunday finishing off the shed lining. Grabbed five more sheets from Masters and put them up. Then filled the holes andsanded all the filler (that took a while, up the ladder, down the ladder!). Then masked off the steel and put paper down on the floor to catch any drips or spills. Its now ready for its first coat of semi-gloss white. Should have time to put that on today, then off to pick up the mezzanine steel while its drying. Not sure if I can get two coats on today. But then again, being an unemployed vagrant, there is always tomorrow.

Had a great start to the morning though, jumped on the pushbike and road with the kids to school - magic! Its the little things in life really, isnt it!!

Anyway, pics - ready for the first coat:




Cheers,
Tricky

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

Did you know that orange conduit cant stand UV ? Looks like the sunlight is coming in there, dunno if its shining on the conduit, might be something to look at.

No worries Tricky whenever your ready shoot it through, spoke to my supplier today and they're happy to give you a tour of what they stock so you can see what you might want to use etc

Sooooo.......Tricky.............any updates on the horizon???

Pretty please.

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"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

Hey Guys,

Updates, of course, but first....

Norton - Even though the HD conduit (orange) isnt UV stable, it is not in direct sunlight. Any sunlight that comes through from the upper storey is filtered through the polycarbonate sheeting, so UVA and UVB is filtered out to the value of about 95%. Should not be a problem.

Updates - been working like an absolute beaver on the shed. Spent most of last week filling, sanding, undercoating then top-coating the MDF sheets. It took three top-coats to get any kind of opacity, in the end it looked pretty good.

Wednesday I took a trip to Pinkenba to pick up the 4T 2-post hoist. Its still in the trailer while I finish up the painting in the shed, or it will just get in the way. Man, it weighs a bit!!


Then it was back into the painting. First it was on with the red. Rub back, mask, three coats. Then is was on with the light blue - rub back, mask, two coats. This is what it looked like Thursday afternoon.




Friday the wife and I completed the bearers and floor joists to the mezzanine. Andy doesnt mind a bit of hard work, and after about 4 hours we had it knocked over. It just needs the yellow-tongue flooring to be installed now, handrails, and then its done:


Sunday morning unmasked the stripes to see what they looked like. Had a bit of bleed-through under the tape in places but all-in-all not too bad. These lines dont have to be particularly straight and level, as the dark blue is yet to go on!!


Anyway, spent all of today, yes that's eight hours, measuring, drawing lines and masking for the dark blue - it has to be dead-on straight and level with no waves, or it will show up like dog-balls on a mouse!! It took ages:




I did a quick stocktake today of the consumables I have used to date - 4 litres of undercoat, 20 litres of top-coat white, one litre of each stripe colour, and nearly 500m of masking tape, and its not over yet. Tomorrow its on with the blue, and I hope to get both coats on tomorrow - then unmask and voila....Martini Racing stripes!!

To Hallsey - so far bro I have spent about 22-23hours in masking alone - I now know what it was like to do The Cat!!! More updates tomorrow.

Cheers,
Tricky

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

That is one very special shed you have there Ticky!
More like a new car showroom, which I'm sure is part of the point.

Maybe I'll drive the 1100 up when it's done so you can respray it for me.

Madmorrie

I can't find any words to describe how good that shed looks, without triggering the profanity filter on the board

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