Ain't much of a garage to brag about...

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  • WagonCrazy
    Registered Member
    • Mar 2012
    • 1869

    Ain't much of a garage to brag about...

    We've lived in tract home in Santa Clarita (Los Angeles County) for the past 24 years. It had an attached 2 car garage that was set up as best as possible for working on cars. But it had a washer/dryer and other shared stuff with the missus...

    Then we moved (after 24 years) across town to an older-more rural part of Santa Clarita (called Newhall) and I now have another 2 car garage. This one is detached, so no sharing . Our home/garage is on a half acre in an area where most properties have been subdivided into smaller lots. So it's kind of a premium to find this size lot in this area. Bought it 5 years ago (from the bank who was unloading it at the top of the real estate meltdown) and had been renting it out.

    So now we're here...and we have some room to spread out and some equity to (someday) build a new larger garage on the back quarter acre.

    This weekend, I retrofitted this empty shell of a 2 car garage and built a workbench with cabinets on one wall, and erected steel shelving for the other 2 walls. Found it all locally on Craigslist for cheap. it's a lifesaver, as there's not much room in an 18 x 20 garage structure with 1 car in build mode in it.

    But now I have the room to resume the Nomad build. Onward!

    Here's pics.
    Paul

    IMG_2892.jpg
    IMG_2893.jpg
    IMG_2894.jpg
    IMG_2895.jpg
    1957 Nomad- LS1/T56 on C4 chassis
    1959 Fleetside Apache 1/2 ton, shortbed, big window, 327ci.
  • LEE T
    Registered Member
    • Aug 2013
    • 418

    #2
    Looks like you're ready to start getting serious.
    Best wishes forward

    Comment

    • Eds56
      Registered Member
      • Sep 2014
      • 91

      #3
      Looks like you're off to a Good Start, keep moving forward and Good Luck!!

      Comment

      • Bluegrass Trifive
        Registered Member
        • Mar 2012
        • 175

        #4
        Looks good, Nice and neat, takes a lot of discipline to maintain!

        Comment

        • Custer55
          Registered Member
          • Feb 2015
          • 695

          #5
          Congrats on the new shop. Nice to have a place to work on your car again.
          Brian
          Brian,

          Comment

          • markm
            Registered Member
            • May 2012
            • 3471

            #6
            Its a lot more than I started with, I admire your organization.

            Comment

            • WagonCrazy
              Registered Member
              • Mar 2012
              • 1869

              #7
              Update:
              The house was originally built in 1947. Wood stud single story on concrete slab. Sometime in the late 60's, it got an addition, and the main electric service panel was put on the addition. That's 100 amp panel has been limping along serving the house and freestanding garage. Woefully underserved I might add, as the garage was just an extension off an existing 15 amp circuit that served both the kitchen plugs and lights. Anytime I ran a power tool out there, and my wife was using the microwave or had all the lights on....pop went the breaker.

              So job 1 on the resurrection of this property is a new 200 amp panel on the house with a new line out to a 60 amp subpanel on the garage. Now I have 240v out there and can run the compressor AND welder at the same time. And still have capacity for a 120v 30 amp RV plug too. Yee haw!

              Out with the old...

              IMG_3092.jpg

              And in with the new...

              IMG_3095.jpg

              IMG_3094.jpg

              We'll have this all buttoned up and stucco repaired by end of day tomorrow.

              Then I can get back to work with fabrication on the Nomad project.
              1957 Nomad- LS1/T56 on C4 chassis
              1959 Fleetside Apache 1/2 ton, shortbed, big window, 327ci.

              Comment

              • WagonCrazy
                Registered Member
                • Mar 2012
                • 1869

                #8
                And it's all properly grounded with new rods in the ground now. That makes me feel a little better...as the grounding on the old system was suspect.
                1957 Nomad- LS1/T56 on C4 chassis
                1959 Fleetside Apache 1/2 ton, shortbed, big window, 327ci.

                Comment

                • chevynut
                  Registered Member
                  • Nov 2011
                  • 11012

                  #9
                  Paul, looks good and that's a big project to take on. Did you run a new service cable from the transformer? Seems like going from a 100 amp panel to a 200 amp would require a larger cable if you use a larger main breaker unless it was already large enough.

                  When I built my house I told the electrician I wanted a 200 amp panel installed and found out when I built the shop that it's only a 150 amp service. I have added a 100 amp panel in the basement, a 125 amp panel in the old shop, and a 125 amp panel in the new shop all coming off of it. They don't have to add up to 150 amps.
                  56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


                  Other vehicles:

                  56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
                  56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
                  57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
                  1962 327/340HP Corvette
                  1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
                  2001 Porsche Boxster S
                  2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
                  2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

                  Comment

                  • WagonCrazy
                    Registered Member
                    • Mar 2012
                    • 1869

                    #10
                    Did you run a new service cable from the transformer?
                    No.
                    Seems like going from a 100 amp panel to a 200 amp would require a larger cable if you use a larger main breaker unless it was already large enough.
                    The power company (So Cal Edison) came out and verified the drops from the transformer were plenty sized big enough for a 200 amp service. I did this prior to pullng the permit for this changeout. I've had an electrician buddy doing the install. I'm not proficient enough to tackle this, but picked his brain all the way thru the project so I can learn. All kinds of code shit to deal with. Had to add bonded grounds from plumbing pipes serving the water heater over to the gas line. Had to stuff 2 eight foot copper grounding rods into the ground 6 feet apart and then bond those to the new panel.

                    Also a 3rd ground rod out by the garage subpanel, because the wires going to that panel (technically) don't contain a ground. Only 2 hots and a neutral (for 240v). So the box has a seperate ground bus bar that's bonded to that copper rod now.
                    1957 Nomad- LS1/T56 on C4 chassis
                    1959 Fleetside Apache 1/2 ton, shortbed, big window, 327ci.

                    Comment

                    • chevynut
                      Registered Member
                      • Nov 2011
                      • 11012

                      #11
                      That grounding crap really gets complicated and how you do it seems to depend on where you live. Some places require you to tie neutral to ground and other places prohibit it, even though it's essentially the same thing in the end. And like you said it depends on if there's a ground at the house panel. I had to drive a rod into the ground and tie ground to it, but I think I had to connect neutral to ground in the panels in both shops, even though there's one at the house 100 feet away. I don't know why you would NOT want to do that.
                      56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


                      Other vehicles:

                      56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
                      56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
                      57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
                      1962 327/340HP Corvette
                      1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
                      2001 Porsche Boxster S
                      2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
                      2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

                      Comment

                      • WagonCrazy
                        Registered Member
                        • Mar 2012
                        • 1869

                        #12
                        Yes to all. The Neutral bus bar in the service panel is tied to the Ground bus bar. That is then tied to the grounding rods...

                        Hopefully, my system works as it should in the event of "over draw" on any individual line... That being to cause the breaker to shut off first INSTEAD OF melting a wire somewhere inside the house causing a fire...
                        1957 Nomad- LS1/T56 on C4 chassis
                        1959 Fleetside Apache 1/2 ton, shortbed, big window, 327ci.

                        Comment

                        • BamaNomad
                          Registered Member
                          • Nov 2016
                          • 3880

                          #13
                          Originally posted by WagonCrazy
                          ...
                          Hopefully, my system works as it should in the event of "over draw" on any individual line... That being to cause the breaker to shut off first INSTEAD OF melting a wire somewhere inside the house causing a fire...
                          The KEY to that is to make sure that you always choose your wiring to handle MORE current than the breaker on your circuit... (I always go a size larger on the wire than is recommended for safety, but that does cause more issues when installing, and more cost)...

                          Comment

                          • chevynut
                            Registered Member
                            • Nov 2011
                            • 11012

                            #14
                            Originally posted by BamaNomad
                            The KEY to that is to make sure that you always choose your wiring to handle MORE current than the breaker on your circuit... (I always go a size larger on the wire than is recommended for safety, but that does cause more issues when installing, and more cost)...
                            Actually the wires can handle WAY more current than required by code. It takes a lot of current to fuse even a 20 gauge wire. I wouldn't recommend using a larger wire than recommended because it's a lot harder to handle and it costs a lot more with the price of copper nowadays as you said.....so why do it? You need 14 gauge for a 15A circuit and 12 gauge for a 20A circuit per electrical codes.
                            56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


                            Other vehicles:

                            56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
                            56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
                            57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
                            1962 327/340HP Corvette
                            1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
                            2001 Porsche Boxster S
                            2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
                            2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

                            Comment

                            • BamaNomad
                              Registered Member
                              • Nov 2016
                              • 3880

                              #15
                              You are correct Chevy nut... 14 gauge for 15A breaker circuits, and 12 gauge for 20A breaker circuits is CODE, and is sufficient for those circuits, but in my garages I've built, I install 12 gauge for all, even if I'm putting in 15A breakers on some. My reason for this is that I once bought a 'hot water/pressure cleaner' (which I love btw and always use cleaning 'new OLD cars I buy)... When I first used it, plugging into the closest outlet I had in my garage at the time, for cleaning under a car outside, after a few minutes, the 15A breaker got hot and popped. So I had find a 20A circuit outlet for that ... and later changed out that breaker for a 20A breaker (I'd wired the entire garage with 12G individual wires in metal conduit, so it was no big deal)...

                              In a house, 14 gauge is typically all that is used for the standard circuits, but in the garages I've built, I wire with 12G, even with the pains with terminating the ends...

                              Comment

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