Dave's Garage Makeover: Accidental Origin Story

It started out with the idea that I needed to clean out the garage, get rid of some spider webs, and maybe re-curate some of my art choices.

But I ultimately decided to repaint the garage to make it feel a bit more like an old gas station, many of which back in the early days were painted a simple white in an attempt to convey cleanliness (info I gleaned from an old book titled "The American Gas Station" by Michael Karl Witzel. Great book!).

When I first designed my garage and we built the house in 2012, I wanted the garage to feel a bit like a museum, with wall sconces and chandeliers and dark walls. The dark walls have been great, but I was now convinced I could make the space feel much larger with white walls (the ceiling was already white). Through the years, I found that the dark walls made it feel very cave-like unless I had every light cranking. Walking in from the bright outdoors always took a moment to adjust to the lower light. So in addition to the new paint, I am planning a new set of brighter light fixtures that will eventually replace the hanging "drum light" chandeliers.

Over time, I hung up many things of importance to me, many fun items that just looked cool, and some mementos from my car-guy life. There was a bit of method to the madness, but mainly it grew over time without too much thought. The dark walls worked fine with the brightly-colored cars I tended to collect as well.  My "Skittles" collection was at its peak in 2018 when I added an Orange Shelby GT350R to the red, green, blue, and yellow that already existed.

But many of those cars were now sold. Both red cars, the green car, and the orange car were around for years, but eventually got sold. The blue car got un-vinyl-wrapped back to original black, and the yellow car remains (it is actually Tungsten Silver underneath the yellow vinyl wrap). Now with multiple silver, black, and grey cars, the garage wasn't quite as bright. 

So, first thing to do was to remove everything, start patching holes and get ready to paint.  Which I did.  For a couple of weeks. Mad respect to guys who paint for a living, because the prep work alone is enough to cause me to need an extra 30 minutes in the hot tub at the end of the day.

But in the end, all went as I hoped.  I love the new, clean, open and bright garage look. But here's the strange thing that happened along the way. Without really trying to, I ended up with various "sections" of the garage with a theme, with parts of my life reflected in each theme. It just started to make sense as I put things together.  Here's the wider angle view, and then let me show you how each section evolved.

 The Racing Wall

I've always loved auto racing, and I have a couple of pieces of art that signify the early impact on me from LeMans Racing, Can AM Racing, and IMSA Racing I had seen on TV as a kid. So on the far wall as you walk in, I made sure I featured those pieces near a couple of my favorite cars to drive.

My Porsche Beginnings

Looking directly to the right of that wall, toward the bathroom, we come to a small section that ends up reflecting my first job. I worked at a gas station when I was 16, and in addition to enjoying the ability to raid the old soda machine, I had a boss who would "let" me wash his 1978 Porsche 911. I fell in love with the curves of the 911 fenders and forever after would consider myself a Porsche guy. So this corner honors that beginning with a great tile mosaic my wife bought for me, and my vintage 1958 Vendo 81 soda machine.  

The Workbench

Not much of a story here, just the hope to keep the area clean while allowing the globe lights give off the vintage gas station feel. Cabinets are key to hiding lots of tools, parts, nuts n bolts and massive messes. Just don't open the doors to see the chaos! The workbench area also acts as the focal point of the exercise room, the part of the garage my wife actually prefers.

The Origin Story

My first car was an orange Datsun 510 2-door. I built it up and imagined my self a race car driver. Now I'm lucky enough to drive my vintage Datsun 510 race car in some great races around Northern California, and the love for the Datsun 510 and its place in motorsports has never left me.  Knowing this, for my 60th Birthday, my friend and his wife gave me a fantastic original art piece that featured my Datsun 510 race car reflected back as my original 510 street car. A very cool piece of art that really captures my car history. So it gets a spot of honor on the wall where I park both my Datsuns at different times. 

The Pub

I grew up in a town with a really great pub called "The Prince of Wales". Many a night was spent there after working at the gas station: playing darts, foosball, and Asteroids, while eating the world's best Fish n Chips. I didn't really try to recreate the Pub atmosphere, but a dart board and a poker table are necessary parts of any car-guy garage space, IMHO.

The vintage gas station

Here is where I decided to dedicated one wall to the old brands and signs I collect and like. Centered in there is a Route 66 sign that commemorates a road trip I took with one of my daughters. Road tripping with both my daughters across multiple States while they were each in college remains a highlight of my car background. Whenever we came across an old town or vintage gas station, I tried to stop and have a look.

Ironically, and maybe slightly purposefully, the wall also hosts my EV charger and where I park my EV.

The Bathroom

Last but not least, my bathroom remains done in "checkered flag motif", but now it also hosts the hand drawn art of my Fisker Karma. The art got moved from the garage to the toilet to reflect exactly what the CEO did to the brand. Multiple times. Straight into the sh*tter. How's that for symbolism?

So, that's it! The garage is a bit brighter and now I need to find the perfect overhead lighting!

 

Removing the Rust Monster on the 1971 Datsun 510

It was time for the final big repair item on the 510 I bought on Bring a Trailer in 2023. The Rust Monster! I know this is one thing people don't want to deal with and it scares them away at auctions. But I had seen it in person and it wasn't as bad as I worried about and I had somewhat of an idea of what it would take to fix it. The rust was under the rocker panels, and mainly centered in a few spots. the car had gotten a paint job some 20 years ago or so, and it seems they just allowed a few open holes to exist and painted over corrosion to keep it from spreading. It kinda worked.

So, I took the car to a friend of mine who does fantastic work. He ended up tearing out a good chunk of the rocker panels on both sides, removing rust, and treating the area under the rocker panels with some rust-inhibitor. Still not perfect, but it isn't an outside car and it isn't show car.

 Overall, though, he did great work removing the rust, welding in or filing in new rocker panel material, re-sealing it all, straightening out the bent pinch-welds, paint matching it all, and even using texturized paint-chip protection material, similar to what most new cars have on exposed underside rocker panels. So now it has that pebble finish under the side trim.

I'm really happy with how it turned out!

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

Bonus shot: Many people notice and comment on the massive stack of CA registration stickers that this car has accumulated through the decades. That's legit vintage!

Completed Datsun 510 Clutch replacement and engine check/freshen

Well, I finished installing the clutch a while back, and I pulled out the engine just to do some "tidying up". 

Overall, it was in pretty good shape so I decided to leave the bottom end alone. I adjusted the valves a bit, inspected and confirmed that the springs, etc were all in pretty good shape.

I pulled off all items I could, repainted things like the fan shroud, oil pan, belly pan, etc. Decided to leave the block as-is. Did a bunch of grinding and sanding and painting of other bits and bobs. 

I bought a new low-profile intake manifold so I don't need an adapter for the Weber carb, and I could then install the nice old air cleaner element I bought to bring her back to a stock look. Had the Exhaust manifold blasted and re-coated.

After doing all that, I put back the oil pan and valve cover with fresh gaskets. Then I tried to re-install everything on my own. It isn't easy without a full lift. I re-installed the engine then I tried several times to get that transmission back attached to the engine while under the car but I had very little room between the Quickjacks while laying on my back with no help. I even tried attaching the transmission and installing the whole thing, but that didn't work well. Not on my own.

So I gave up and I was going to haul it to my local expert Datsun shop but.... then decided to give it "one more try". This time, with 4 jack stands so I wasn't crowded by the Quickjack. After 20 minutes or so of bench-pressing that transmission and using my knee to shove the unit forward to engage with the engine, I was exhausted. I pulled the transmission jack over with my foot and rolled it under the transmission and let it sit. I walked away for about 15 minutes. Sometimes ya just need a break. Rotated the engine a bit with the front pulley to re-align the internals and jumped back under.  And presto! I slid that transmission right back onto the engine and tightened 'er down!

After that. it was time to start adding pieces back on. Thanks to lots of help from my friend Alex, we got it done in a few hours. We reinstalled the driveshaft, flywheel cover (had to slightly detach the transmission again), new head-manifold studs and gasket, exhaust manifold, intake manifold and carb, new head gasket, radiator hoses, spark plug wires, distributor cap, vacuum tubes (one still unused off the distributor I need to find a destination for ;-) ). Fan shroud, belly pan, weber carb adapter, air filter element, and the hood.

It was touch and go whether the hood would have clearance. I wanted to re-install the light blue OEM air filter element housing on the weber and bought a new intake manifold to allow the clearance. As we lowered the hood, I felt a resistance, but it didn't seem to be the air filter. So we re-aligned the panel gaps on the hood because they were a bit misaligned. and then the hood slid right down into place with no resistance. Very satisfying. 

A highly rewarding rainy afternoon, always better with a friend and a couple cold beers.

A few days later, I filled the engine oil, new coolant, transmission oil, and differential oil. I checked everything twice. Then, it was time for the moment of truth. I checked the electrical, tried a few cranks, checked for leaks, and then fired it up! 

And I couldn't be happier. It runs so smoothly now and the clutch doesn't chatter and the gears shift smoothly!  I can't describe the mix of joy and relief you get when something like this starts right back up!

But I wasn't done yet! Now I pulled off the wheels again and replaced the leaky rear brake cylinders, installed new rear brake shoes, flushed new brake fluid through the system, and then re-painted the wheels for a close-to-color match look. I love it!