Finally finished painting my garage

Modena AL

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When I built my house the builder told me it would cost $1100 to finish the garage. That means painting it and putting trim around the bottom. I told them that they could shove it because there was no way I was paying that much to have them paint it a color that I would just paint over nor have them put trim around the garage just so I could run a lawnmower into it the first summer. So I opted to do it myself.

My goal for the garage was a neat and organized area for detailing cars and putting sweet mods on my Mini. I also wanted it to look good so that I would feel at home and comfortable since I spend 10+ hours in there each weekend. But the main thing I wanted is to make sure no one had anything else like it. I'm far from done because I have expensive things to buy, but the painting is finally done and this was a bear to do. I was going to wait till I had everything I want in there, but since Kimi won the F1 world title, I just had to show it off now.

The results:

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The garage was painted red with a checkered flag around the top. This took a MONTH of weekends to do. You wanna know why?

Drywall sucks up paint like no tomorrow. First I applied a coat of primer. I probably should have done two becuase of what happened next. I painted the white next, which took 3 coats. Weekend 1 gone.

The next weekend I masked off my line and did the red. This took 5 (FIVE!) coats, and it still wasn't covered right and needed another. I knew it was hard to cover but this was ridiculous. I didn't do another coat because I didn't have enough paint and was so annoyed I didn't want to go get more or continue Weekend 2 gone.

Next I masked off the checks (top row and 3rd from top row). That alone took 8 hours! Painted the black the next day. 2 coats. Weekend 3 gone.

The next I masked off the 2nd from top row and the bottom row of checks. Only took 4 hours, but I was so drained I waiting till the next day to paint the black. Again, two coats. Weekend 4 gone.

I was so frustrated with painting that I waiting until this weekend, 4 months later, to paint the ceiling; 1 coat of primer, 1 of white. It needed two coats of white but I was so annoyed I didn't want to. Next we epoxied the floor TAN and put white and black sprinkles on it. This really brought the garage to life and it looked so much better and really brightened it up.

Corner 1:

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My white container has all my MF towels and polishing pads in it. I was going to take a picture but it took 30 minutes to fold them and get them all in there and I didn't feel like taking them out. I want to replace it with a craftsman tool box to hold all of that mess. The black shelf thing will also be replaced by a workbench and hopefully a compressor next to it!

Corner 2:


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My detailing cabinet that I got at a employee sale for like $50. I'm going to give it to a friend that owns a body shop and have it painted black. Also my tool box that is full. I hope to get another one to go with it and hopefully hold everything.

Corner 3:


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Gladiator corner! Part of my goal was nothing on the floor except big things. These worked out great for that. A little overpriced for what they are, but I don't know of anything else like it, however, they really freed up ALOT of space. I also want to replace the lights with some flourescent ones, but I ran out of money :(

the wire running up the wall is for comcast. They did a horrible stupid job installing and ran this wire up the wall and across the ceiling. I'll be fixing that next weekend :mad:

Corner 4:

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Just the lawn mower and ladder. I wanted to keep it clean and open wherever someone had to get out of a car everyday so they wouldn't be tripping over everything and would have plenty of room to walk around. Success.

Detailing Cabinet

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It's getting full :(

I hope that by the end of winter I can get my extra toolboxes and work bench to finally finish it off. Maybe santa will bring me a compressor! Things left to do: reroute comcast wire, put a piece of rubber trim around the bottom to clean it up and keep water out of the walls, buy a beer fridge and fill it so I can immediatly empty it.
 
Umm, I bow down to your garage supremacy!!

Nice job, I can only imagine it feels a whole lot more gratifying to do it yourself!!

Fantastic job
, :righton::cheers:
 
Looks great!! Thats a ton of work you should be proud!
 
good job man

I know its new and just painted and all, but I dont know how people keep garages looking so good
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makes mine look like a crud covered pig sty lol

O and your detailing cabinet is really cool!
 
Awesome:righton:, It does look great. The question is, how can you keep it that way and still work in it?
 
That is Bada$$!!! Sorry it was such a PITA. The pictures look great. What I wouldn't give to have my own garage.
 
Thanks for the compliments! This really was a huge chore but it's so great to have it finished. I forgot to mention I told the builder to put a cable hookup in there so I can put a TV in there. That coupled with the beer fridge and I'll never have to leave!

We'll see how long I can keep it clean like this. I was doing pretty good before I got the organizing done, so now that everything has it's place it should be easy. The black shelving unit is a bit of a mess, but once I get a work bench with drawers to replace it that will be cleaned up nicely. The detailing cabinet needs to be straighted about once a month because things fall over and I fall into it after details sometimes. The toolbox, however, is a disaster from installing tons of things on the car this summer. I am not prepared to organize that again the the moment
 
Update on the garage: I've detailed a few cars and have more lined up so that means I'll be getting me some new lights today! Going to get a pair of T5 fixtures from lowes so that should give me enough light for detailing at night.

Also the epoxy floor has not held up well :( chipping, peeling, and coming off in every direction. I didn't rush the cure time (waitd a week before a washed), but I did spread 1 gallon over a two car garage when they say it will only do a 1 car garage per gallon. I don't even know how to use that much paint. I'll be scraping it off and starting over next spring on that :( I'll still go with Tan though because it looked awesome.
 
Man let's hope you fix your paint issue soon, anyway your garage is a dream, it's one of the most beautiful garages I've ever seen.
 
dude........that looks incredible! I've been wanting to empty mine for a couple of years now and do something nice...not quite THAT nice though! Sheesh.....thanks for making me feel like a slob.......lol.
 
Nice Garage. Love The Ferrari Motive. Now All You Need Is A Couple Of Ferrari Whips In The Garage To Complete The Masterpeice. Nice Job
 
Thanks guys!

Only real update right now is the addition of a compressor and a work bench. It looks alot better than that black wire shelving POS I had, and gives more useable space. However, it created a problem that I did not foresee and that is there is no where to put car show trophies or my stereo! I really wanted to keep them in the garage, so I put some shelves up above the work bench. I really don't like the way it turned out (not as I envision it) and it didn't give a whole lot of space or look good. I'll be taking them done come spring but can't think of something else to do. I'll try to snap a pic later today of how it's looking right now.

If any one has any tips or ideas that would be awesome :cheers:
 
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