Clearing The Workspace

Tonight, I took a look at the state of the garage and decided a clean-up was in order. Initially I'd just put all the wheel-bound boxes etc in the back corner so they could be moved back to the middle in case I needed to put an extra car in the garage. 

 I've since worked out that it's easier to simply have it set up to work on a car at a time - as long as the E21 is drive-able I only need one side of the shed to be empty enough for a vehicle. As a result, I've decided to re-arrange the rest of the shed along the walls and across the doorway. 

 Before-hand, I've had things jammed here there and everywhere and it means that working in the space also means constantly evaluating, adjusting and navigating the space. I've also fallen for the usual trap of placing things on every flat surface, rather than the shadowboard where they belong. 

Part of the reason for this is that with the boxes as-is, you have to travel quite some distance around numerous objects to actually get to the shadow-board. 

All of this, of course, slows down the progress I can make in any time I get to work on the E21. As that time is sometimes quite limited, every bit I can do to make the space more efficient makes my time in the future more efficient also.

As you can see, quickly finding a tool, or a drill bit (or a roll of tape) in this is not a fast process.

Something I did the other day was purchase a new pair of goggles. I've been following Nigel Petrie's Engineered To Slide blog for a few years now and it's been no small amount of inspiration for forging ahead with this build even when it's seemed I'm facing an insurmountable amount of tasks. Shortly after I started reading his blog, he mentioned having to go to A&E with a metal shard in his eye from grinding, even while wearing safety glasses. His recommendation was then to purchase googles - I did and the pair on the left are ideal as I can wear them over my glasses and they are also comfortable! I've got other pairs but none really do it like these.

The unfortunate reality of all that use though is that they get dirty, grimy, and scuffed/pitted from sitting near welds and getting covered in spatter, grinding and being showered in sparks etc etc.

So, I took the opportunity to pick up another pair - the difference when wearing them is night and day! Before I couldn't see very well at all with them on, now it's like I'm not even wearing them! If you're interested, they are Stanley branded and available at Super Cheap Auto (as well as likely numerous other sources).

The beauty of all these boxes/cupboards having wheels is that they can be re-arranged like a giant chinese picture-puzzle, allowing me to do all of this re-arranging on my own despite the weight of some, and without having to remove the contents/objects on top.

Here my shadow board is filling back up - I love ratchet spanners and it's great being able to grab a ratchet, combination and socket in the required size due to the way I've got this laid out.

Plenty of lengths of aluminium and steel lying around. I want these off the floor so they are no longer a tripping hazard and so they're out of the elements if it floods in here again. 

I had to fold a couple of the aluminium lengths in half to get them into this space, but it's far better than how it was before!

It doesn't look like it's getting any better from this angle!!

But this angle tells a much different story!

And this one even more so.

Here I've moved the stainless steel-topped bench and air-compressor to beneath the shadow-board. This will give me a fantastic location to assemble the accessories to my fathers 350ci SBC (hiding under the sheet to the right in this image)

At this point, I've called it time to relax for the night; the rest can be done in the days to come - it's mainly just sorting out what's against the wall so the welder, box of parts and drawers can go against the wall. I'll move the table against the roller door so on nice days the roller door can be opened so I can take advantage of the daylight for visibility.