Cleaning up

Bashing down a bit of a wall aint something done without a trace afterwards.
Ridiculous amount of dust from the diamond blade and lots of gravel from the rotary hammer going bezerk.
The big chunks ain't no problem except for the weight.
But all the other smaller remains…
I filled up 6 Wheelbarrows with dust and gravel.
I had a big hole in the ground at my property that I filled with all remains with the Wheelbarrow.
The fact that I have a Wheelbarrow with a flat tyre didn't help either.
It became another hard labour for the office desk klerk to drag, yes drag, the Wheelbarrow up the hill where the hole was.

The only thing left now is the big stones that I will take to the local waste recycling centre.

Filled up six of these

One down, five to go.

The big chunks

Big chunks and gravel

The flat tyre

Waaaay up there I took the gravel

The opening

One crucial thing for me is the possibility to go directly from the house in to the shop.
This was also a good thing because on the other side was a bedroom and a closet that I intend to use as machine room and storage and will increase the Speedshop size quite a bit.

So the job begun.
A job that should out to be harder than I ever could imagined.
Before I begun I rented two jack posts and put one of each side of the wall, just to keep the structure intact.

The job started with two drilled pilot holes through the wall and from there I used plumb line on each side to get the square.
Trace a door square after the plumb lines and the top line that I measured from the ceiling.
After that I used a big angle grinder with a diamond blade to cut after these lines.
The disc penetration was about 7 cm (3”)  and the wall was just over 20cm (8”).
So after I cut on either side I was left with a 7 cm (3”) part that I thought before I started was “just” to crack when I gave the wall some beating with a big sledgehammer.
OMG, was I wrong there or what.
It took sooo much more effort than I’ve thought both with sledgehammer and rotary hammer.
First I did a hole on top and thought that now the wall must come down if I beat on it with sledgehammer.
Nope
I made a “T” through and started pounding again and after much pounding I saw some cracks and I could lift off the stones one after the other after continuous beating.

First cut after the lines

Same view from both sides

I´m through

Top bit gone

Middle bit gone

Finaly the sladgehammer could do some good

Bit by bit...

....by bit by bit....

So in the end I was the winner.

Painting the new shop

So now the building of Speedshop MkII has begun.
YESSSS. FINALLY !!!!!!
So good to have started this, have been so much stuff with higher priority first so this project have been low priority way to long.
First up was to empty the area, then spray paint and roller new white paint on the walls.
And after that black paint on the radiators.

The timeline after painting will be something like:
# Empty the garage from stuff – Done
# Painting walls – Done
# Painting radiators – Done
# Open up a door hole from the workshop to the future machine room – Work in progress
# Paint the floor in the workshop area
# Move all stuff from Speedshop MkI to the workshop area.
# Renovate floors in machine room and storage
# Shelfs in the storage room
# Move most stuff from workshop area to the storage…and machine room

It’s gonna be a long and twisty road with of course lots of changes in the plan.
But that’s the plan so far, the next step, the start of Workshop interior, workbench, chill zone, will be a later question.

Some pics from step one, painting workshop walls white.

A dream come true with this new garage,

just the ability to open up is so awesome

First empty the workshop area before paint

Masking off everything before spraypaint

The dark hole before painting started

Halfway there, one wall left.

Four wheels...

My shop ain’t suitable for vehicles with more than two wheels...I though.
Never really sought after an ATV or Quad like almost all living men does.
But when such opportunity appears I´m not worse than I can change.
Got a text message with a small pic of a orange Quad from a friend with the text.
"You can have it...if you get it NOW, otherwise it goes in the bin".
An offer like that is always appealing.
Both questionable status and free, what else is there to have.
Short while after I rolled up in front of his garage, we put in the now beloved irreplaceable Berlingo and home I went.
It turned out to be a RWD 250cc Chinese Quad that have been sitting outside for a while and now he had come to an end with it.

Took a quick Visual inspection at home of the state and it resulted in:
# OEM china (plastic?) tyres with lots of cracks and puncture
# No battery
# Broken brake lever
# Cracked fenders
# Lots of rust and oxidation
# Lots...and lots of little things neding overhaul.
A lap with WD40 on all things that looked needy for that and I rolled it away for a rainy day.
Or at least when the shop is enough up and running.

But what on earth should I have it for?
Mainly just because, not a bad reason really.
But except from getting the mail with it I´m hoping to have it for plow some newly fallen snow and maybe drag some "trees" now and then.
There is no registration on it so it will never be street driven, just around my vast, vast property. #irony

Four wheels....in four wheels

Side view

The mighty front

And the ever more mighty 250cc powerplant

New inhabitant...

Another bucketlist unicorn landed.
Have been dreaming about a Suzuki XN85 since I had the posters on the wall in my boy room in the early eighties.
The feeling of driving a old turbo bike is quite surreal, the turbo kick is quite big and it starts to spool very late, especially if you're a Harley Davidson guy like me.
At 5000rpm it starts to pull and over 6000rpm its "insane".
Not insane maybe, but for me with no experience with high revving Japanese bikes is a big thing.
The name says it all, XN85 stands för 85 horsepower so its no rocketship, but it pulls unexpectedly hard when the turbo spools.

My plan was to buy more of a project bike but this is way better, actually really nice.
Do anything with this except love and take care of it is blasphemy and economic waste.

So if such project bike shows up...

Mirror lettering, so oldschool and period correct

Nice stance

"Turbo" all over the bike

The magic model

The 16" front wheel, hi tech racing equipment in the early eighties

Updates

The updates from the shop are few and far between nowdays but sometimes the ordinary life makes itself visible and stops wrenchin' temporarily.
The renovation of the house is running great, just by the plan, but not all time is spent there.
Also som quality time planning Speedshop Mk II have have appeared lately.
Did a schematic sketch over my new hideout.
The shop will be divided in three parts. Machine room, storage and workshop/garage.
Machine room is for drillpress, lathe, grinders....
That part is also divided by a curtain to keep the dirty jobs in there.
Storage is what it sounds like, a storage room. So most parts, material, good-to-have stuff  etc. will have it's place here.
Workshop/garage
Also what it sounds like.
Both where the bikes are parked and where mechanical work is done.
In here it also will be a another retreat, the Bombus chill zone equipped with stuff like music, TV, magazines, books and appropriate cold and hot beverages.

And don't be surprised if the weather smiles towards us there can be both seating and BBQ outside the shop.

Hibernation

So 2018 came with full force, but in the shop it's calm and quiet.
All my darlings will be resting for some more month.
The BMW, Burgman and the Speedster will wake up first, hopefully for the journey to the new shop.
The Zündapp and the Dragster will rest for longer time and will not make the move with their own power.
The Zündapp will be the first project out of the new shop in the spring of 2019....together with the BMW, in the shape of a Kaferacer.
But until then full focus will be on the house renovation and in a couple of months then focus will shift to building Speedshop MkII.

The Speedster

Zündapp Kaferacer...in the making

The Italjet Dragster is hiding behind a pile of junk

Moto Morini Batbaby for the little ones

BMW K75 covered up for the winter

Suzuki Burgman 125 always redo for battle