The Toy Car Garage

End of this blog -> New blog started

2009-02-07T11:33:00.002+01:00

This blog is no longer maintained. I have started a new Blog about Tiny Toy Cars and model cars, both new and old.
All news releases I receive are published there on a daily basis. It is currently in Dutch only, but I am working on an English version which I hope to release soon!

Please visit www.modelautonieuws.nl and join us there! Thank you for your visit!

Nose emblem from bus STOLEN!!!

2008-05-25T15:10:00.001+02:00

Last night the nose VW emblem was stolen from my bus. I am pretty much upset about it!

The Bus!

2008-05-24T21:10:00.004+02:00

Yesterday our company logo's and texts were applied to the bus . It looks stunning and very '70-s.

Various items from last week

2008-05-24T21:07:00.002+02:00

Another update. What happened last week? Well, the car lift is finally finished. All painted, and connected to electicity and it WORKS! Wonderful! Although it will never move again, as it will be in the 'up' position from now on.

Furthermore I finished working on the blister towers, made of old oil drums. And I spend one day working on the gas pump, which looks much better now!
Yesterday I started installing the shelves.

Lift with underneath the shelves.

Start of the shelving. Space between is about 23 cm (9 inch appr.)

Hey, what's that...

Ah yes, the first model car is already on the shelves!

KONI promotional picture

2008-05-21T13:53:00.002+02:00

KONI Stertyl did use an old car lift for promotional purposes, a couple of years ago. I received this picture from them! Thanks!

Car lift almost finished

2008-05-16T22:11:00.002+02:00

I am so excited!!! The lift looks like a real lift again!

The effect is amazing!!!

Opening: 7th of June!!!

2008-05-14T20:56:00.002+02:00

It is final, we have set ourselves a deadline. The official opening of the Toy Car Garage will be:

June 7th 2008
from 13:00 till 17:00 hrs

There will be a giveaway car for each visitor.
Free beverages.
And a 1:1 car show!

For the car show, we can use any interesting vehicle! So if you own a classic, or just something special, bring it to the opening the 7th of June! In front of our Garage is a large, private, parking lot which can be filled with over hundred cars easily!

We will make this a very, very special day!!!

Painting the Car Lift II

2008-05-14T20:27:00.002+02:00

The smell of paint is almost gone from my nose... last week, with lots of days off to work in the Garage, we only did a lot, and I mean a LOT, of painting!

Hey, what's this!!! This is a garage, or what?!?!?

Loose parts are so much easier to paint! And foremost, to clean!

These are the last remaining 'dirty' parts that will be painted red

Used till now:
2,5 liters of red
1,75 liters of white

Now where is it actually??

2008-05-04T20:20:00.004+02:00

Although the street name where the Garage is, is very famous in 's-Gravendeel, the street itself is quite difficult to follow and the beginning and end are several kilometers apart from each other.
Even people who have been living their whole life in 's-Gravendeel do not know exactly where the Garage is. I hope this photo trail will clear up the confusion! The area is called the 'Vlasstaete'.
This picture was taken standing alongside the Mijlweg. On the left is the 'Nieuwstraat' crossing, and in the background, left, you can see the Texaco / De Geus tankstation.
The Garage is located behind the gate.
Looking behind the gate, a huge (private) parking space is seen. At the end of the parking space, the building is visible in which the Garage is housed (behind the yellow/white truck).
And here it is!

Progress on the KONI car lift II

2008-05-04T20:10:00.002+02:00

Friday I took some 'in progress' pictures of work done on the lift, but unfortunately these were lost. I made some new 'end result' pics today to keep everyone updated and provide a peek review on the way the dirty, old lift is transformed into a nice, old classic.

Volkswagen dealership sign

2008-05-04T20:08:00.003+02:00

In my village there used to be quite a large Volkswagen dealership. They had this nice 'sign' outside, with a real 'bug' on it!
Too bad the dealership isn't no more, but the sign, complete with bug, is still there!
Today I drove my T2a underneath it and took this photo.

3 Inch show 2008

2008-05-03T20:53:00.002+02:00

Again, this years 3 Inch show hosted in 's-Gravendeel, was a huge success! We had participants from as far as Austria, France, Belgium and of course the Netherlands.

Painting the Car Lift

2008-05-03T20:48:00.003+02:00

Finally we started painting the lift yesterday. It took centuries before preparation was finished and as a final action I had to remove a thick layer of some kind of tectyl from the 'runners'. Stuff that does solve when in contact with any kind of paint... Not a good base for some nice & fresh red & white colors!

Here is my wife Paula in action applying the base coat of the Hammerite paint.

And I'm working on my 'beloved' runners...

Painting in Progress

2008-04-29T17:56:00.002+02:00

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

2008-04-29T17:50:00.002+02:00

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!

2008-04-29T14:14:00.004+02:00

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...

2008-04-28T15:12:00.002+02:00

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

Then

Now...

The bus that brings a smile to your face

2008-04-26T21:39:00.004+02:00

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!

2008-04-24T22:01:00.002+02:00

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!

2008-04-23T14:39:00.004+02:00

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!

2008-04-23T14:22:00.003+02:00

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

2008-04-23T14:16:00.002+02:00

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

2008-04-01T17:23:00.003+02:00

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

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

Saturday pictures

2008-03-29T10:57:00.002+01:00

The window framing finally fit! I understood it was not exacty a perfect fit when they started putting it in, but now all is ok!

And yet another picture of the inside, because it is so beautiful and industrial...

Hanomag Henschel dump truck II

2008-03-29T10:47:00.002+01:00

Here are the front pictures of the old Henschel, who is unfortunately not from Ruizeveld but from one of their customers... Too bad!

A real discovery was that this is a Hanomag Hensche...

Some nice tank! Probably not the one fitted in the Hanomag Henschel factory...

Peeking through the side window...

Does it fit...

2008-03-27T23:15:00.003+01:00

Today was a rainy day. Everything looked dull, gray and muddy.

The second part of the front of the building was removed. I watched them doing this and it is just a job of minutes, building it takes much longer!

The inner walls are now all finished for my part of the building! Now, I finally get the feeling of the actual size of the part I will get. And I can tell you it is nice and roomy! I almost regret putting in all the tools & cars I have bought already! No, I'm kidding!

This picture does say it all. Muddy, wet and gray. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

The Wall

2008-03-26T17:11:00.002+01:00

Today they built the separation wall. Now I finally have an idea of the actual size of the shop!

The first row of bricks is carefully placed upon the floor...

Around noon this was the status...

And at 15:00 hr the largest gap was closed! Jurre and Rozemarijn are fascinated by it...

When all walls are built, there would be no way to get out of the shop, because currently there are no doors in it. But a quick removal of part of the front of the shop created a new 'way out'.

Hanomag Henschel dump truck

2008-03-22T16:38:00.004+01:00

I find local automotive companies very fascinating. That is why I love to have a real Koni car lift, because this is a local company.

Another automotive company is Piet Ruizeveld kippers, a famous company manufacturing all kind of 'kippers' or dump trucks.
Last week I spotted something interesting on their parking, an old Hanomag Henschel dump truck. Does this bring back memories of the early '70-s!!! I went back this Saturday afternoon, but unfortunately the gate was closed so I could only take a few pictures from behind the fence. Hope you enjoy the pics!

Then and now...

2008-03-22T16:30:00.003+01:00

Some of you might wonder why we need so much space to expand...

Well, here is a trip down memory lane...
Here is our attic in early 2005, when we are a few months 'old'. What you see is pretty much our whole stock at that time...

Now fast forward to 2008...
Same corner, somewhere at the right of this image...

Same photo location, but now aimed to the left. This is 'isle 3'.
And this is 'isle 2' ... There is NO MORE room left... boxes are everywhere...

Yes, we are looking forward to more ROOM!!!

Concrete floor finished

2008-03-12T21:35:00.003+01:00

Today I took a couple of pictures of the finished floor.

This is how it turned out. The man who made it told me that using this 'vlindering' technique, he could turn the floor blue. And look here... it is blue!

The water is from the sawing machine with which they freed the floor from the foundation of the supports.

The floor is 7 days old now and to be completely safe it will not be damaged, we have to wait 7 more days before they can restart any work in the building. And with the upcoming Eastern weekend, they decided to start after Eastern.
And a lot of things will happen then: removal of the old facade and installing the new one and building the separation walls!
WOW!

A genuine Tokheim Gas pump

2008-03-10T20:07:00.002+01:00

Patience pays... As today I spotted this excellent gas pump on a Dutch auction site!

This pump fits perfectly into the Garage equipment, it is of the correct time period and it is Dutch, in origin and in execution. Writing on the plates is Dutch, in guilders and liters. Excellent! It is not new, but has the exact desired amount of patina.
The decals will be removed and maybe I'll add decals of an oil company... We will pick it up this Saturday!

'Vlinderen'

2008-03-06T21:52:00.003+01:00

Part two of the concrete floor...

Two men are working till very late (or better, early tomorrow) to get a super smooth finish of the floor.

This is a funky toy, looks like a hovercraft, but is driven by two horizontally mounted large blades, who spin and leave a super smooth surface. The two controls make the machine turn into every direction, even circles.

The renovation: Construction phase 1

2008-03-06T10:42:00.002+01:00

This morning (Thursday 6th of March), the construction phase took of with a bang! When arriving, this is the view I had. A large concrete pumper, pumping concrete into the building.

It must be pretty close the largest pump available...

Workers were very busy getting the concrete everywhere, and level! Using a laser guided system, pretty nifty! The man controlling the 'hose' has this box with which he remotely controlled the complete operation of the pump outside. It even had a horn! Cool toys!

There were about 10 workers around. They did the whole floor in about 2,5 hours. WOW!

And this is the 'in between' result. Now they are waiting for the concrete to dry a little, and then get some funky looking vehicles to 'vlinder' the surface. This will result in a super smooth floor! They expect to be finished tonight at 4 AM...
I will take more pictures later today!

New functionality to the webshop

2008-02-20T21:26:00.003+01:00

Besides the 'Garage', we are also expanding the functionality of the webshop software!
You might already have noticed on the 'new products' page the 'Currently out of Stock' notification.
This identifier is part of new functionality. In the very near future we will expand the stock with cars that are expected, but not yet in stock. Say, the newest Kyosho Mini Car collection, or new Corgi releases.
Until now we never did this because we could not handle orders with cars not in stock.

The new functionality provides a 'Reservation' option for each new car that is 'Expected'.
When you 'Reserve' such a car, it will be added to your personal Reservation list. We take notice of this list and when the car actually is released and in stock, you will receive an email about this. Then you have one week to actually order the car via the normal way (creating an order).
After this week the Reservation is canceled automatically and the car is added to the normal stock level.
We think this is a great feature and will certainly help all collectors to make sure they don't miss any desired cars!

We expect to have this functionality available next week.

The renovation: Destruction final phase

2008-02-18T19:55:00.002+01:00

Last Friday (15th of February) and Saturday the floors were removed from the building. For this, a small crane with a hydraulic chisel was used...

Such a small crane with such a big chisel...

Look at the damage it can do!

Saturday morning most of the concrete was removed...

And Saturday afternoon also the 'Stelcon' floor tiles were removed.

Today (Monday 18th of February) the sewerage system was removed...

Food for archeologists...
And there goes another load...

Tomorrow a new sewer system will be installed. When finished, the iron works for in the concrete floor will be installed. The new floor will be put in next week.

We keep you updated!

The renovation: Destruction phase 2

2008-02-14T16:09:00.002+01:00

A short update to show that all inner walls have been removed. Supporting beams have been placed.
Outside it was really cloudy and gray, but look what a light place it is!!!
This space will be Tiny Toy Cars'. A little over 7 meters wide, and 15 meters deep... Next phase, starting tomorrow, is removing the floor.

There is still a lot of work to be done...

The renovation: Destruction phase 1

2008-02-11T20:42:00.000+01:00

Finally, today the contractor has started working in the Turbinegebouw (Turbine building). They have first removed the wooden wall (see previous posting). Then they started to remove the inner walls that separate the large area from the 'corridor' at the back of the building.

As you can see, they need to support the roof in the middle and large I beams are put into place.

Temporary support, I beam is on the floor (dark red)

We have a breaktrough! (pictured from the corridor)

Ha, we need more tools here!

We've got a real KONI car lift!

2008-01-27T17:24:00.001+01:00

And it is old. Very old! Specialists think this particular lift is from 1950, upon examination of these two pictures. The lift will be the center piece in our showroom! Plans are to paint it white with red running boards, just like the current KONI lift colors. But the current black color is the original color of the lift...
It will be delivered next saturday (2nd of February).

A little bit of KONI trivia: the original KONI factory, famous for their shock absorbers and car lifts, is located in Oud-Beijerland, which is a village in the Hoeksche Waard, the isle where 's-Gravendeel is also located on. And I think it is funny to have as much as possible items that were assembled locally! (links courtesty of Wikipedia)

GM Futurliner on Ebay

2008-01-15T22:02:00.000+01:00

Many of you might now that I am a huge fan of the fantastic GM Futurliner. For all information about this fantastic piece of rolling Art Deco US Car history, visit the GM Futurliner site

Now, Old Cars Weekly, announces that a restored and customized Futurliner will be auctioned on Ebay later this month. See their article about this Futurliner.

Tiny Toy Cars has famous customers, one being the seller of the 4 Million Barrett Jackson auctioned GM Futurliner, the other being a Swedish gentleman who has bougth an unrestored Futurliner which is currently on it's way to Sweden. See the photo report on the 3 Inch Forum.

If a real Futurliner is just a little too large for your garage, you may consider Norev's 1/64 GM Futurliner at Tiny Toy Cars...

A new computer...

2008-01-15T21:45:00.000+01:00

As our old computer was in need of replacement, I bougth myself a classy Macbook! Experience with the Apple brand aging 20 years back (really!) were very good. In fact, that Macintosh experience was my start to trace Windows in those days (1985) and I ended up with Windows 2.11. But now, with all the 'new' features found in Vista, I was not so happy anymore to buy a new Windows based computer.

So this is what I got!

Only problem I faced was my email. On my windows computer, I used Pegasus Mail, also for about 15 years. Only the file system used by Pegasus was not compatible with any of the Apple mail programs so I had to convert it. There it went wrong. The conversion tool not only created nice and new formatted email folders, it also updated the original files... And I had not made a backup of my email. Resulting in the loss of about 50 important emails...

Never, never forget to backup!

Back from a short break!

2008-01-05T13:20:00.001+01:00

Right after new years day we went for a short break to Disneyland Resort Paris.

Jurre (my 6 year old son) and I agreed this would be a very nice Tiny Toy Cars company car:

Then we went directly for the new CARS attraction, to see Lightning and Mater!

Luigi and Guido in front of their Casa della Tires, maybe these two are even cooler than Lightning and Mater...

2007 = Finished!

2007-12-31T17:54:00.000+01:00

YES! Another succesfull year at Tiny Toy Cars! We have shipped more cars than ever, got more new customers than ever, got more new stock than ever! It was a thrilling year and we met our turnover goals, even 10% over it!

Other achievements was the succesfull launch of the first Dutch 3 Inch forum (http://www.3inchforum.nl) and the start of this blog.

Well, 2008 can only be better with the start of our Toy Car Garage (we're still looking for a brilliant name)! The opening of this show room will also include expansion of our inventory. For example, we will carry the full Siku range, including the Farmer range. Also we will expand into the 1/43 range with high end brands like Norev, AutoArt, Schuco and such.
The aim for these brands will be European cars ranging from 1950 till 1990.

Anyway, we hope to meet you all some day in our showroom! Or, like we used to meet, via the internet!

All the best for the brand new year!!!

Henri

Seasons greetings!

2007-12-22T14:58:00.000+01:00

May 2008 bring you:

Health
Happiness
and many model cars!

The Toy Car Garage before pics: Interior

2007-12-20T17:45:00.000+01:00

Today I was able to shoot some pics of the interior of the building. This picture is the inside of the front of the building. All this will be removed and large doors and windows will be added.

Here the windows in the roof are clearly visible. The wall underneath separates the room from the corridor behind it...

The corridor at the back of the building, over the whole width. See the 3 meter high windows... wow!!

This is the wall separating the front area from the corridor and which will be removed.

Last picture, where I tried to capture the roof structure... The wooden separation wall will be removed.

The Toy Car Garage before pics topic

2007-12-19T21:33:00.000+01:00

This is the Toy Car Garage in it's current form... It does look very bad and in fact, it is very bad. The building is from 1953 and was used heavily during the highdays of the flax industry (in Dutch, vlas industrie) which 's-Gravendeel, where the building is located, was famous for.

At the right side of the building, behind the large black wooden doors, were the turbines located in which the flax was processed. When all processing was finished, it was taken out of the building visible at the left side, the lower doors.
The flax industry has long left Europe...

Left side of the building... In the background is an incredible large, 15 meters high, storage area where the flax was stored.

15 meters high and I don't know how wide... If interested, the building is still available...

There is no lack of parking space...

My Toy Car Garage will be located in the marked area. It is over 7 meters wide and 15 meters deep.
During the renovation, which will start before the end of this year, the whole front will be removed and garage doors, as well as windows and normal doors, will be added.

But the best secret is kept at the inside, and that is exact where I fell in love with... The interior is so incredible '50-s industry style!!! It is wonderful, just look at the windows in the roof, which are aimed North. The wall you see underneath the windows will be removed, adding an additional 5 meters in length to the room. And the rear wall is completely made out of glass, also facing North. That makes the room extremely 'friendly', almost no artificial light is needed during the day! Unfortunately when I was there taking these pictures, the building was locked but I will soon add more pictures of the inside of this wonderful building!

Never finished...

2007-12-19T16:17:00.000+01:00

Ahh... Looks much better this way! I adapted the design of the Tiny Toy Cars website to the blog, well, I tried it someway...
It is not perfect, but it is ok for now...

Intro...

2007-12-14T16:18:00.000+01:00

Yes, finally it is going to happen: Tiny Toy Cars will have it's own real store! The contract is almost signed and then we can start the preparations for our 105 square meter showroom!

We will update this blog very soon with pictures and a more detailed description of our plans.