My New Shop

[AgitatedPancake]

So if you're friends with me on facebook you might have seen this already, but I recently had the opportunity of a lifetime fall in my lap. The race shop I was volunteering with for the last year and a half had to shut down due to the hard times, but the owner and #2 man were going to rent shop space and offered to bring me on board. I jumped on the opportunity instantly of course heh, these guys have more knowledge in every aspect of chassis/engine building than I could learn on my own in 40 years. They found a shop space and we're all splitting it, they offered up the materials cost to paint the walls white and epoxy the floors so I threw in as much labor as I could, and now we're to the point of having most stuff moved in and almost ready for operations to begin! They are doing personal projects, but this is a huge step into the future for me .

Here's how it was when we first got the keys, I believe it's slightly under 3500sq feet, 2 rollup doors so we can get a cross breeze during the hot months




Then we painted the walls white 8ft up




Next we epoxied (epoxyed haha don't know) the floor


And I didn't show it, but we came back and did a two part urethane on top of the epoxy, the floor is awesome. Recently started moving stuff in. This is one of the guy's space


And here is the picture that shows one of the absolute biggest reasons this is an incredible opportunity for me. On the left side of the pic is a full set of sheet metal tools including a brake, sheer, roll bender, notcher and bead roller. Along with the horizontal and vertical bandsaws. On the right side are the Jet mill and lathe, manually operated but they have digital readouts for precise operation. All I can say is...game on!

[PurpleZJ]

Dude, fuck yeah man that's awesome. I'd kill for that workspace

[MoonWorks]

Congrats man. Good luck!

[blackjack12982]

Badass!

Congrats!

[AgitatedPancake]

Thanks fellers! I expect some significant improvement in the methods of my work with all of this, I'm going to start doing SO MUCH more intricate work now, it's going to take my capabilities to a whole new level. Torchmate a slick fold together fan shroud out of aluminum, then put it through the brake to fold it together. Bead roll whatever shapes I want to add style and rigidity, the only thing I'm missing is the TIG to weld the corners back in. This is still surreal to me, I haven't stopped grinning every time I think about it for quite a while

[UTChavok]

I bet you are ecstatic man, that is going to be a legit set up. Good luck and look forward to the blingin builds.

[rstrucks]

Score! Sounds like a really good opportunity.

[OverlandXJ]

Well that dont suck.. Congrats man!

[downtowncb]

Right on! Is the plan to turn this into a full time business?

[DRIVER61]

Seeing you are from Sac., you must have worked for Ron Sutton. Good luck with your future endevour. If you need to stock a parts room, call me, All my inventory is for sale. www.brettthompsonracing.com

[AgitatedPancake]

Thanks Ryan and Overland! Cody, yep I'm going full time with it, though the scope of the business will be broad across all platforms, not just rock crawling or desert stuff.

Driver, you nailed it. His program was flat out one of the most bad ass experiences I've had in the industry, it was really sad to see them having to shut down. At least I'm still in contact with all of them to keep the good times rolling! I don't think I have a need for the parts, but I don't know what all you have available heh.