Painting in Progress

A painter can make the difference! Here is 'my' painter applying the first coat of white.
See the difference!!

Progress on the KONI car lift

As working on the lift is still a very dirty job (...) it is hard to take pictures while working on it. So I took these this morning when my hands were still clean!
The 100+ kg weighting gearbox. Took me about 4 hours to clean. I had no idea it was green!
Left side of the lift with the cable pulley.
Left rear leg, to be cleaned.
I-beam, that supports the ramps. This one had grease on it of each car the lift has ever lifted, it seems...
Box with loose parts we took off the lift so these could be cleaned in the parts cleaner. And the 3 phase 380 Volt motor.

Ikea!

For the shop shelves, we have selected the modular storage system from Ikea, called Broder

For the coffee table, we selected Forsby
Chairs Herman:

Then and Now...

Just for the fun of it, a then and now photograph...

Then

Now...

The bus that brings a smile to your face

Today we got the new, 38 year old, Volkswagen Transporter T2a. What a nice ride it is! Everyone who sees it, immediately gets a smile on their face!
This is a 'easy does it' vehicle, top speed of 100 kmh max! But cruising at lower speeds is much more relaxing!
The day was also special because of the beautiful weather!

Welcome, little bus!

Grease!

What a day... After my brother in law and I set up the KONI car lift last Tuesday, I started cleaning it Wednesday evening. After five minutes I had this feeling of 'I wish I never started ...'.
You will understand that a car lift of 58 years of age (!!) does have it's share of oil, grease, dust and sand. I have never seen a car mechanic cleaning his car lifts.

Anyway, I figured it would be better to remove most parts to clean them separately. And loose parts mean greasy parts, as they have to move or rotate. Today I spend all day removing these parts and cleaning the area's around them. Also, my brother in law helped me to clean the parts we took of the lift. He has a parts cleaner in his workshop.

Forgot to tell this lift is fully mechanical, no hydraulics or whatever. One electric 380 Volt motor drives a large pulley, which is linked to a gearbox that drives the two pulleys to which the ropes are attached. The gearbox is normally filled with oil, but mine does have a small leak so all and everything was covered in oil.

I'm done 3/4th now. Good thing is that where's grease, there's no rust!

Too bad I didn't take any pictures today. On the other hand, that would have been impossible with my greasy fingers...

Lights!

These lamps will decorate the Garage!

Available at Rietveld Licht en Wonen: http://www.rietveldlicht.nl/artikel.php?art_id=1111
This company has a lot of very nice, retro lamps!

The KONI lift is up!

Yesterday we got the keys of the building, so we could finally start with our own work!
Frist of all, we have to assemble the KONI car lift. It needs a lot of TLC and in the process doing so it will generate a lot of dust!
The main frame is assembled now and I will start cleaning and degreasing the parts this week. When that is finished, it will be painted white (frame) with red (ramps).
The parts are really heavy and I am very lucky a brother in law is working at a neighbouring company who has access to thinks like fork lifts and such...
It was like a giant kit to be assembled, coming without any instructions manual, but being the smart guys as we are, we were able to figure it out and finished yesterday evening around 21:30 as shown in the pic:
This moring I went back for some daylight images:
So yes, we now have the key which means almost all the work is done by the contractor. Electricity is installed, which was the most important. What still needs to be done is some detailing by a carpenter, installing the toilet and kitchenette.

VW Transporter T2a 1970

After considering many cars as candidate to become a Tiny Toy Cars company car, I finally found what I think is just the perfect car for the job.

Last weekend I purchased a 37 year old car... A Volkswagen Transporter T2a, from 1970!!! The current owner has maintained it very well and now I am going to use it as my company car for Tiny Toy Cars!
This van fits perfectly into the Tiny Toy Cars philosophy, it is everything we want Tiny Toy Cars to be!
Owww, the rear is as beautiful as the front!
Artist impression of the possible printing... But I think the actual design will be different... We're open for suggestions!

Doors & Windows

Today work continued with the placement of the 'garage doors'.

And here it is finished. It has remote control! Fancy!