I've been trying to do this myself- an hour in the shop, right after the kids go to bed. At least 3-4 nights per week. It's a great stress reliever and forces you to compartmentalize. If I only have 30 minutes I can at least get stuff cleaned and organized. And after an hour when I'm forced to head in, I'm excited and anticipating tomorrow's work, and not burned out from spending all day in the shop.
I'm in. Day 1 is tonight.
dculberson (Forum Supporter) said:. I like the 30 minute plan. I usually spend more than 30 minutes in the shop but I could say the first 30 minutes is cleaning only or something.
Also I posted about it previously but I got some permanent containers for my used car fluids and it looks and feels so much better.
It's a funny mentality. You can't let it go from 30 to longer. Reason is that it's then harder to go back for the next session because you remember the being tired part and you won't be as motivated. The mind is a funny thing but if you remember "time flew and I made progress" then it's easier to tackle the next session in a shorter time frame. If you're going to be in the shop for a longer time, 30 minutes only for cleaning and then the rest is doing other stuff totally unrelated to cleaning/organizing.
Those labeled jugs are awesome!
In reply to NOHOME :
The "demoralizing" bit is why I've procrastinated so long - except for the occasional instance when I really need to work on something. The shocks strewn about are actually the old ones from the Spitfire when I installed new ones a year or two ago.
I suppose one other thing to remember about all of this is I spent most of 2016 in NH for work and then again from Aug 2018 until Mar 2020. Rarely being home for more than a few days. And when I was home, I would generally go biking wth my friends rather than spending time in the garage working on various projects. Or I would do the minimum amount of house and yard chores I needed to get done before driving back to NH.
When all of this isolation started back in mid-March, I had lofty dreams of making progress on cleaning up my house and getting projects done. And then my laziness got in the way and it's taken until now to kick me in the butt - plus a return trip to NH last week which reminded me this welcome home-time may not last much longer.
And no... I really don't want a BGT anytime soon. If I end up with another old car it'll be another classic Mini or a TR7/8. But neither will happen until the current fleet is at a more manageable number and under control.
In reply to glueguy (Forum Supporter) :
And the last of the old fluids containers are in this weeks recycling. It makes the garage look so much nicer! I need to put up a shelf for them to have a dedicated spot
I fully support this. I started spending my first hour of each weekday in the shop (waking up early, which I hate, is totally worth it). I'm making huge progress on my projects and I start the day feeling great. I also probably spend 5-10 minutes each morning just sipping coffee and staring at the project. This time is also great.
What do they say, it takes 3 weeks to create a habit? You'll be driving that TDI in no time.
Time to change this up a little.
What did you do with your 30 minutes today?
I built a spreader for a hoist for my gantry crane.
The hoist is cheap one and is designed to mount on a beam. I want to mount it on a trolley. Since the mounting brackets aren't centered on the drum, I need to spread the load so it will hang straight loaded and unloaded. The spreader and a couple of cheap trolleys will do the job perfectly.
Time spent was a little over 30 minutes. Probably more like an hour.
I like this idea a lot. We are going out of town this weekend. I will start on Monday. Good luck and please update for group motivation!
Day 2.
As you could probably tell by the clutter in the page 1 pictures, there will be days when I feel like I didn't make much progress during my 30 min. But some stuff was put away and some other stuff thrown away. How does the saying go about eating an elephant - one bite at a time?
I went for a road ride after work, and started on the garage prior to making dinner - knowing that if I waited it would be much harder to get motivated. Plus, my ride was strange. It's windy as hell today, so I figured on just doing some interval sprints. Well, for some reason, my first sprint ended up being a lot harder than I had planned on and it basically spent my legs and I had nothing for the next sprints. Hard enough that I ended up setting a new PR for the section as well as moving up to #5 in the KOM rankings. Oops. If I'd gone 2 seconds faster, I would have been top three. The KOM would require me going 10 seconds faster and I was already averaging almost 25 MPH and I don't know if I have a 30 MPH sprint in me these days.
Awesome idea. I'm in.
My 30 minutes today were spent putting up tools and straightening out the shop so I could get the G35 back where it belongs. I also gave the car a bath and took it for a short spin.
Nothing picture worthy though.
Day 3.
More nibbling away at the elephant, so not much picture worthy either. More stuff put away and more stuff thrown away. Tripped over a cord and jammed my big toe. Damn it hurts right now.
Anyone local need a 5 qt jug of Mobil 1 5w30 that I bought by mistake and have nothing to put it in?
This is a great idea- I need to adopt it also!! Hoping to get more of the last parts car sold but may end up junking more than planned...
This is a great idea- I need to adopt it also!! Hoping to get more of the last parts car sold but may end up junking more than planned...
Got out to the shop at 9PM and decided I was going to get the driver's side firewall fabricated. I was on a roll, and when 10PM came round I blew right threw it. Around 1/4 to 11 I realized I was getting tired, but the firewall was, in fact, in place, so I called it a night.
Let myself sleep in this morning, though. Rolled out of bed at a leisurely 6:11 AM.
I didn't get as much time to organize as I wanted yesterday but I did get some tires (aka mosquito breeding grounds) thrown away!
Day 1: install 1 panel of ceiling and assemble garage door opener. (No pic)
Day 2: mount garage door opener header rail and hang opener.
My 30 minutes today were spent hanging the electric hoist. Since the second trolley is smaller than the first I had to make a couple of plates to even things up.
Then I spent another hour working on the 16" lathe. Which was the reason I bought the gantry and hoist to start with. The 3 jaw chuck is probably 50-60 pounds. It can be a finger smashing affair pulling the smaller chucks on the 9" lathe. This one would probably mangle them. With the hoist, I can lift them off the lathe and set them on my rolling workbench. I was ecstatic with how well that worked. No smashed fingers, or pulled back.
My only complaint with the hoist is it's too fast. Luckily it came with a doubling block which halves the speed and doubles the capacity.
In reply to Toyman01 (Forum Supporter) :
Nice!
Day 4 - more chipping away at the elephant. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to take pictures that look like I've made a dent.
Toe is black & blue. Really thought it might be broken this morning, but as the day went on it hurt less. I was just about to go to a local emergi-care to get x-rays.
Day three for me. I'm just going through random boxes of stuff and deciding if I should keep it or toss it. Then I'm trying to put similar things in the same box. That way I'll have a chance to find it when I need it in the future. 30 minutes absolutely flies by for me.
Day 1 for me. I spent about an hour or so in the shop picking up. I gave up when my aluminum speed jack would not lift the 914 high enough to put on the skates I got yesterday. My big floor jack is buried.
Day 2 will be cutting apart a rancid old work bench as it is very much in the way.
Then I think our LeMons car is heading my way and that will take up the rest of the day gutting it for sell-ables and cage work. Probably welding tabs on the front crash beam for a hitch to flat tow.
Not sure what the OP wanted with this thread but clearly it has become a support group for E36 M3ty shops. Haha...
Day 5
This evening's session was why I started this thread. After a bit too much to drink last night, this morning was lethargic. Then I did a 53 mile road ride. And after shower and food, all I really wanted to do was veg out for a bit before going to bed. But not wanting to skip a day for no good reason, I put in the time.
Not much of note. More stuff put away or tossed. I did finally hang a couple of plastic nut/bolt bins that I bought who knows how long ago from H-F. So that was good.
Toe is now almost completely purple. But doesn't really hurt, so I don't think it's broken. And I was able to pedal for 3 1/2 hours on it. I'll probably go to a local urgent care tomorrow or Monday to get it x-rayed just to be sure.
Toss or keep. When you get stuck.
Sometimes you just gotta turn your head, squint, scream "LA LA LA" and toss the questionable stuff.
I reached that point recently. So far I'm happy with the results.
Day 3: the door goes up and down motivated entirely by the power of electrons being pushed and pulled through copper straws.
First step for me: GET E36 M3 OFF THE FLOOR. Shelves, shelves, shelves. Go vertical.
Now if I just stick to this plan...
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