Garage Tips
Planning a Safe and Efficient Working Garage
Article and pictures by John Roncallo
After completing one complicated restoration project in my garage in Connecticut, I decided that before I did any more work, I was going to apply some principles I had learned at my company and redo my garage with an eye toward safety and efficiency.
My goal was to make the most efficient use of my limited space of 728 square feet – 28 feet by 26 feet. While that may seem large, it had to have space for two engines and transmissions out of the cars at a time, with at least one car on the lift and the second on jack stands at various stages in the project.
In addition, the garage had to contain my machining and auto-repair equipment, including a four-post lift, Bridgeport milling machine, 11-inch Logan lathe, surface grinder, welder and welding table – all required for projects such as my installation of a V-12 engine in a Mercedes-Benz roadster.
This photo shows one view of the garage before I started with tools, equipment, storage shelves and work areas haphazardly scattered all over the garage.
Before starting, I cleared everything out and repainted the walls, improved the lighting, and installed a military-specification floor coating.
To maximize space, I then consolidated tools to one toolbox and installed storage space just above head height around the perimeter of the garage. Regularly used equipment was stored on the bottom shelf, six feet off the floor, for easy reach; lesser-used equipment was stored above. Additionally, I built an exterior shed so that I could store gardening equipment completely outside the automotive working area.
Once the walls and shelves were completed, I placed all my large tools in such a way that all car doors on two vehicles could be fully opened without interference and there was walking room around the lift at all times.
Here are two views of the garage after it had been redone.
While the garage is not a Jay Leno looker full of memorabilia and decorations, it is now a fully functional garage capable of housing a complete restoration involving a complex engine swap.
At least I think it would have been – fortunately or unfortunately, just as I started to prove its safety and efficiency, I was transferred to North Carolina. This time I am constructing my working garage in a 30-by-48 foot steel building. While the building was under construction, I used an online computer design system to plan a layout that would allow me to separate the garage area from the machine-shop area so that I can segregate the dirty tasks from the clean ones and still be able to move back and forth easily. The 2- and 3-D plans shown depict how it will be laid out.
2-D and 3-D layouts created using an online planning program.