Engine reconstruction commences!

Family heads out, wrenching commences

With the family off to the grandparents' for the weekend (thanks everyone!), I set about beginning engine reconstruction.  However, before that could begin, I needed to finish building my "clean room".  I thought about just reserving the garage for engine building, but given my rate of progress, that didn't seem like a good idea.

The clean room complete

It has AC!

Ready to begin

A ding in the cylinder-head mating surface - the next bump in the road. But this piston looks good!

Piston when first disassembled

DIY Soda Blasting

I have sent several batches of parts to a soda blasting service, and been very happy with the results (see here). However, for a couple of reasons I decided that it would be nice to have the capability at home.

There is a fair amount of information on the web, but I never could find a clear guide that fit my needs and circumstances.  Here I will document what worked well for me.

Garage Renovation: Lighting

With the garage floor done, the next major issue with the garage was the poor lighting.  One 2-bulb fluorescent does not light 500 sq. ft. well!

Click past the break to see how I upgraded the garage lighting.

Garage Renovation: The Floor

When we moved into our first house last year, I was more excited about owning a garage than the rest of the house :-).  The garage was nothing special, but after years in apartments, I was thrilled to have it.

The floor was dusty when we moved in, and I thought no problem; I'll sweep it.  When I swept it and it was still dusty, I thought no problem; I'll hose it out.  When I hosed it out and it was still dusty, I learned that it would always be a bit dusty unless I specifically addressed the problem.  Our car interiors are black, so having light colored dust on our shoes every time we get in the car was not something I wanted to live with.

I did a ton of reading, mostly on http://allgaragefloors.com/ and the Garage Journal forum, and here's what I eventually decided to do.

Review: Concrete Oil Stain Removers

When we moved into our first house, I decided to tackle coating the garage floor.  Unfortunately, the previous owners and I had vehicles leaking oil that had already stained the cement.  Many small oil spots and a few large oil spills littered the garage floor.

I tried three different oil-stain removers:

1. Pour'N'Restore
2. Pull It Out 
3. Rejuvenate Concrete and Paver Stain Remover

Off Topic: How to Coil a Cable, Hose, Cord, etc.

I found this video eye-opening. I have always tried to wrap cables, hoses, power cords, etc. neatly, but it never seems to work well. Turns out I was trying to do the wrong thing all along...

All in the Stable

Ever since we moved into the house, we have wondered if our oversize two car garage would actually fit our three (relatively small) cars.  Tonight we quit wondering and found out.

The Stable

The threat of hail storms might have helped our motivation a bit...