It Begins

We had been talking about it for a long time.

We wanted a place for us to work on our cars, motorcycles and other projects. I love cars and building things, but now that I live and work in Manhattan it’s hard for me to indulge these interests. I needed a place nearby to store tools and cars and finish the projects that I’ve started.

My friend, A.Y., told me that we could have access to a section of space in an old building his family owns. We looked into building a wall to section off our space, but because of the high ceilings and relatively small space we would be able, the cost to get things going was going to be a bit too high for the return on investment.

Then, we realized there was an existing space that, with some work, would be perfect for our project. This location isn’t permanent, but if we have it for a year and a half to two years, I will be happy.

The first job was to figure out how we were going to get material and cars into the space. We decided the best way was to cut a hole in the wall and make a door. We opened the wall in a few hours and built a temporary door that was welded to the column.

This door wasn’t the most sturdy or secure solution, so we soon built a heavy duty rolling door that we chain to the wall on both ends.

We then demolished and cleared out much of the furniture that was sitting on the elevated concrete pads. There are also a few hundred threaded rods sticking out of the concrete that we had to cut down.

On the largest pad, we filled the lower center of the elevated slab with concrete so we would have a flat working surface, then painted it with garage paint. In this photo, you can see J.B., A.Y. and K.Y.

We sealed all other entrances but one, which we put a padlock and hasp on, and called it a shop.

So far, we have had 3 cars and 3 motorcycles in the shop, with many more to come. I will be chronicling the daily activities in the shop on this blog, posting as many pictures of our projects as possible.

-W.W. SBSS