Moving Into Shop

It has been a busy couple of weeks spent mostly moving stuff from the tool shed into a big heap at the front of the shop. I did get to wrench on Boo's car, Astra, though. Today's post is mostly about Astra, but the pictures show the move of stuff as I didn't get my phone out to take pictures of Astra's alternator replacement.

 

Weather the Weather

shop heap

One of the best parts about living in the Pacific Northwest are these incredible spring days. When I first moved here decades ago, we would enjoy what I called "the weather donut hole" in April. It was a short, maybe 2 week period, when the rains stopped and we got these just gorgeous sunny days. Then, we would descend into another 2-1/2 months of rain until July 5th. Through the wonder of climate change, our spring weather donut hole has grown. Maybe 10 years ago, it would last most of April. As recently as 2 years ago, the donut hole never closed, and we did not get much more than 2 or 3 days of rain a few times before the summer dry season hit. This year is looking more like 2 years ago did, with mostly clear and dry days with a few passing rains to knock the pollen out of the air. While I worry about summer fire season, we make the most of these below 25*C (80*F) sunny days with daylight lasting until 9PM.

 

So, with that backdrop, I had a meaningful car repair to get after.

 

Astra's Backstory

Boo replacing Dude's starter

Well before I met her, Boo used to drive an Opel Kadett. Always generous, she let some friend use it and never saw it again. Years later, when I met her, she was driving a gold Saturn sedan (named "Dude"). She loved that car, doing everything she could to keep it on the road. Again, a friend of my dad needed a car for a while. This friend was running errands for the less-physically able in my parent's building, so she loaned him Dude. It was stolen, and when it was recovered by the police, the ignition and steering column were destroyed. With considerable sadness, she let the car go to police impound auction. She had owned Dude for 18 years.

 

Fast forward a few years and I'm driving along and find myself behind a 4 door hatchback with a Saturn symbol on it. At the next red light, I snapped a picture of it and sent it to her. We were in the market for a new car after the GoRo disaster and had been talking about a Mazda3 or maybe a small SUV. The Saturn appeared to be an intersection of her appreciation of the looks, lines, mileage and size of the Mazda3 with her love for Saturn. I started investigating and learned that the Astra was built with Stellantis/Vauxhall, owner of Opel and original manufacturer of the Kadett. In fact, the Kadett evolved into the Astra. So, the Astra was really an intersection of her beloved Saturn, her equally beloved Opel Kadett and her appreciation of the Mazda3. Of course, now I had to find one. The Saturn Astra was only available in the states for 2 years (2008 and 2009), and not many were sold. We lucked into one outside Salem for literally $2kUS and after applying another $1k of repairs and tires, it has been a fantastic family member.

 

tool shed "empty"

She is not without her issues, though. Sometimes she does not want to downshift and just groans in a too-high gear. This is reset with a restart, but that's not easy in traffic. Over the last 18 months, though, the battery had been not charging enough on shorter drives to start again. She priced having someone replace the alternator, after having it checked, and the $800 price tag lead us instead to get a jump pack to jump start her when she didn't want to start on her own. This lasted over a year until a couple of weeks ago I took on the task of replacing the alternator. By the time I got to step 3 or 4 in reading the online "how to", I understood why shops were giving her a "go away" price.

 

Alternating Astra

In January, Boo and I planned for a trip to the east coast the week before Memorial Day. We were going to visit my sister and her family and then see our son K2 (currently serving in the US Navy at Quantico). Then the trump administration decided to pick a war with Iran, airline prices spiked and our plan was scrapped. Thanks trump. Nature hates a vacuum, so what would have been a trip to the east coast became an opportunity for me to spend up to a week fixing her car with no drive-to-work pressure.

 

shelving starts

The challenge with removing and re-installing an alternator on the Astra is that the alternator only fits out the left front (passenger-side) tire well. Even then, it doesn't fit easily. So, the process is you get the car up on a jack, remove the wheel and the inner wheel well just so you can approach the serpentine belt and alternator. Disconnect the battery. I put the battery onto a charger while I did the rest of the job. I found removing tension on the belt tensioner especially difficult because of the required body positioning to access it and the steel supports blocking direct access. I you reuse the belt, mark the belt direction. I used a spanner-on-a-spanner (yes, it's cringe-y) for sufficient leverage. With the belt off, you can get at the 2 alternator bolts. With the alternator loose, reach around the rear and unplug the 2-pin socket. It has a latch holding it on. I palmed a small bladed screwdriver around everything and got the latch to release without breaking it. Then, remove the nut holding the main cable to the rear of the alternator. At this point, some folks have posted that they have been able to worm the alternator through the wheelwell. They must have a different engine than we do (2.0L). I needed to remove the air box and then the engine mount bolts underneath it, so the engine on the left side was no longer attached. I did set up the TravisJack under the engine so it didn't lower at all. Then, the engine itself needs to move as far forward as you can manage it. I just grabbed onto it from over the radiator and pulled. The alternator drops down and out behind the engine and out the rearward end of the wheelwell opening. I found that if the alternator is in the same orientation as it was when installed, it does come right out. Any other orientation and it will get stuck. Yes, this happened to me many times until I figured it out.

 

end of day 1

With the old alternator out, the install is mostly the reverse. Alternator enters the wheelwell oriented as it will be installed. I plugged in the socket and nutted on the thick cable before then attaching the alternator to the engine. Next, I put the serpentine belt back on. It has maybe 20k miles on it since it was replaced by the yard we bought the car from. With the belt tension restored, I moved the engine back into place and re-connected the mount. Then, I put the airbox back in and returned under the car to put the inner wheel well back on. I finished up with putting the wheel back on and the battery back in.

 

I had read online that this was a 8+ hour job, so I had set aside 2 days, hoping that I'd be done by Sunday in time to see our friend Maldarine play a show. It took me 6 hours, start to finish, backing her out of the shop and the lane way back into the front well before dark on Saturday. 

 

Moving In

With all the extra time I now had, I decided that I would get as much of our summer project done as I possibly could. I figured that it wasn't raining and every nice summer day I could save by doing things now, would make for a better summer. This year's project is getting everything car-related into the shop and everything home-repair related into the tiny shop (tool shed). Then, the only stuff in the garage is camping and ski gear, leaving plenty of room for Boo to park Astra when the fall rains return.

 

partway day 2

I had started with the garage, moving the red rolling tool cabinet before I even had the doors installed. This renewed effort was about getting anything else car or tool-related from the garage into the shop. This included my jacks and stands, the hypersonic-cleaner and lots of random parts. All that remains is my big black rolling tool cabinet. I hope to move that this week.

 

Next, was the tool shed. I regret not taking a genuine before picture. The shed was so full, the back half was out of reach, blocked by stuff. So, those large items blocking the floor were first, rooting through them a little bit looking for junk before moving the keeper-bits to the front of the shop floor. I noted that there was evidence of rodents, so I spent the next few days wearing a dust mask, shop-vacuuming a lot, and generally moving at a slower-than-hoped pace. I would vacate a shelving unit, dismantle and wash it, move it, and finally re-assemble it inside the rear of the shop. Most of the stuff that were on the shelves ended up in a heap at the front of the shop, or a heap for the dump. The exceptions to this were solvents and cleaners, which went onto freshly cleaned shelving, and everything painting related, which went into an old kitchen upper cabinet the kids used to use for skate and snow gear repairs and parts.

 

Those with a keen eye will see (in the shed heap picture at the top) that I put Zed on furniture dollies so I could move him around a little bit. These dollies are the $30, 1000# max variety found at Harbor Freight. The genuine car dollies I've seen cost up to 10x that much. Are they 10x better? Unlikely, except they work on heavier cars. I was able to move Zed by myself, one end at a time, so I could fit a shelving unit against the wall beside him. I used another pair of those same dollies under the paint cabinet.

 

paint cabinet on wheels

Boo and I agreed that the Tetris I did to get Zed's entire interior onto the high shelf in the tool shed could not be easily repeated (see the upper deck in the tool shed "empty" picture above), so that stuff stayed. Otherwise, the tool shed is clear of car stuff, the shed is cleared of all evidence of rodents and the shop vac has been emptied and washed. Next, I will be moving home-repair stuff from the garage.

 

Wrap Up

This got really long, but a lot gets done on a full week stay-cation. I hope to get after the big black rollie cabinet and the garage-to-tool-shed over the next couple of weeks. Then, our summer project will have been completed before summer even arrives. We all know nature hates a vacuum, so that time will be filled by something. And that something will probably be either home improvement or car-related. Once that happens, I'm sure I'll post about it. Until next time, thanks, as always for following along-

Building a Shop - Construction Permit Complete

For a project that started in December of 2024, I am surprised it took so long for the shop to reach "complete" for it's initial build permit. Today, I'll review some highlights and touch on a Hapy adventure.

 

The Doors

shop permitted

I had an entire post about the doors (See Building a Shop - Doors) where I detailed almost buying the wrong size big door. Then, we got things right. That big door faces north. Next to it, our contractor guy Ray installed a basic HomeDepot-special 36" (1 meter) wide person door. That door is the only door with an external-facing lock. Moving around to the west side, we have a 10-foot (3.3m) wide opening. In the Ghost of GoRo post, I mentioned the west-facing barn doors that Ray built. I will give them more detail below. The southern opening also got a barn-door style install, though the actual doors are a little different.

 

Ray's Custom Doors

barn doors by seating area

I'll start with the west-facing big barn doors. First, we sourced an external barn door rail system (~$300US) capable of supporting a few hundred pounds. The opening had a double header, so most of the rail was mounted to that, through the exterior skin. In order to create sufficient space for a door to hang, the rail install includes a small block of 2x4 between the rail and the outer skin at each bolt-point. The header only spanned the opening, so on either side, from the inside, Ray added a 2x4 on the inside for the mounting to attach to. The south-facing smaller doors had a similar barn rail system installed. We followed the pattern of using 2x4 blocks to create the offset, and using 2x4 planks inside for the mount to attach to. Unlike the west-facing door, the south-facing did not have a double header, so the entire rail needed the 2x4's installed.

southern doors

With the rails in, Ray shifted to construction of the doors. All 4 doors were framed with Sun-wood. This is exterior-qualified wood, but lighter than cedar and not chem-y like pressure treated. Because the west-facing doors are bigger, they were assembled with brackets to hold them square. And, they had angled planks added for strength against twisting or flexing. The south-facing doors were joined with biscuits, and did not have the angled planks added. Once the frames were ready and test fit, the west-side doors had siding attached so they match the building. The southern doors were skinned with clear plexiglass. This will allow the little bit of winter light we get from the southern sky to leak into the shop.

Once the doors were assembled, Ray re-hung them, and installed interior grab handles to operate them. On both sets of doors, we added guides into the concrete so the doors would not move away from the building while in place or traveling. Last, I added a lock to each door so they could not be opened from the outside. I need to prime and paint the south-facing doors, but they are operational as-is.

 

Inspected

southern doors

When I had the building inspected in August of 2025, the inspector asked for 2 things: install the doors and add a landing for the person-door. With the doors now complete, and the landing added in September (See Building a Shop - Steel Building Erected), I was ready for an inspection. So, on Monday I ordered the inspection. The inspector checked the boxes on Tuesday and now I have an officially completed building (per drawings, spec's and inspections). What does this really mean? Well, in terms of the permit and inspections, it means I get to pay taxes on the land improvement, and my home owner's insurance just went up. It also means that anything contained within that shop is now covered under my home-owner's insurance and if something catastrophic happens to the building, I'm covered insurance-wise.

 

What does this mean in terms of my personal use of it? Very little, frankly. I needed the doors so I could lock it. Once lockable, I can start storing tools out there, so I can work on a car in the shop and not walk the 40 meters from the shop to my tools in the garage and then the 40 meters back again. I have already repaired 3 cars in that shop with a 4th (Astra needs her alternator replaced) heading in on Friday. having a lockable shop means I can do that work that much faster because my tools will be right there.

 

Retrospective

where we began

Being an advocate of both Agile and Continuous Process Improvement (CPI), I believe that some kind of look-back when a project reaches its end is healthy and helps you and others make better decisions in the future. So, with that in mind, what did I learn that I haven't already mentioned?

 

     Permits: I covered most of the discoveries along the way in the linked permits post. Get Clean Water Services involved early and make sure you manage both erosion during the construction as well as any mud getting tracked into the street. Either can got your job flagged and then things get much harder.

 

    Survey: The "106" inspection is all about proper placement of the building relative to your plan and the property lines. If you don't know where your lines are and can't figure it out, you will need a survey, or you may not pass the first inspection. I split this inspection into 2 visits, with the first being informal wholly focused on the site location. This was Vai-the-concrete-guy's idea and he was 100% right.

 

excavated

    Bidding: get lots of bids. I had 3 and had I gone with one of them, it would have cost me ~$5k more for the flatwork. Part of every conversation about the flatwork included a conversation about the excavation. For every bid, the excavation was a meaningful amount, even though it's not terribly time consuming, especially for out project. This might be something we could have done ourselves, but the schedule worked out better having Vai do it all. Last, make sure every bidder fully understands all of the parts of the plan. Vai had a brain-fade about the carve-outs for the lift and had I not asked about it after they ran the compactor, there could have been an issue. This served as a reminder that without a designated general contractor, YOU are the GC.

 

    Inspections: While Clean Water Services did verify that the erosion control measures were in place, and made sure that the storm outflow was planned for, the adherence to that plan was not in any inspection.Does this mean it isn't needed? No, nor does it mean that it won't be part of your project, it just wasn't part of mine and I managed the storm water with french drains once I was unable to attach gutters. So, I have a rock pit in my yard without purpose. The inspector can be your friend. Case-in-point, I would not have even known about an "Ufer" if the inspector had not mentioned it and then approved it. I now have a passing-electrical ground because of the inspector.

 

cleared and framed for concrete

    Concrete: I asked the concrete contractor specifically what, if anything, I needed to do once the concrete was poured. He said "nothing", and I got surface cracks because it did not cure uniformly. The correct answer is "try to keep the surface wet with a garden hose for a couple of days". Then, the top does not dry too fast relative to the concrete beneath. 

 

    Oregon Carports: these folks were great from start to finish. They were easy to work with, the plans were spot-on for the permits and inspections and the installers were fast and nice guys. It would have been nice to know that a gutter could not be installed without retro-fitting, but at this point we have weathered a full wet season easily.

 

    Driveway: When I planned the shop, I knew that the ground sloped downhill south to north but I did not account for the west-to-east down slope. Topology matters. After the steel building was up, I had over 1/3m (an American foot) drop off at the southeast corner. This led to many hours of hauling and spreading rock. Since my labor is free, this did not factor into final costs, but it may factor into your plans.

 

    Overhead Doors of Portland: Similar to Oregon Carports, the overhead guys were great to work with. They found us a door that just smashes for less than half of what I would have paid for new. They stopped by late last week to install a header board over the door and install the weather seals. Both after my check had long cleared. We will be using these guys again.

steel skeleton

 

    Ray: Ray is a star. He has been a contractor building things since he was a teenager. Now, he's getting near retirement and is not taking on any new customers. So, those of us lucky to have worked with him in the past are blessed to still have him, at least for a little while. One of Ray's greatest strengths is looking at a project without filters. He can imagine what you are looking to do and make it happen. He built the barn doors, yes, but he also built our kitchen with salvaged cabinets. 

 

Timeline

For history's sake, and in response to my "how did this take so long?" question above, here's the time line for the build, start to end. There was a break in the action over the winter Oct2025-Mar2026 while we financially recovered a little bit from the costs incurred so far. We needed to get onto Ray's calendar and figure out the doors a bit too.

 

2024-August: Boo and I decide to build a shop and figure out about where we want it

2024-December: steel building ordered from Oregon Carports

2025-January: permit started with Washington County (WC) ($700)

2025-March: Clean Water Services (CWS) involvement in plan

2025-April: permit accepted, initial payment of ~$1k

2025-May: self-performed survey, soliciting concrete bids; locating and placing "straw wattle"

2025-June: CWS inspection, excavation, WC site inspection, concrete poured, WC "106" inspection 

2025-July: steel building installed on foundation

2025-August: french drain install around foundation, WC "199" inspection fail

2025-September: rock and gravel of drain, north-side access

2025-October: move 4 cars before rains hit

-- work suspended to save some money -- 

2026-March: west-side barn doors, north-side person door installed

2026-April: north-side overhead door installed

2026-May: south-side barn doors installed, WC "199" inspection pass

 

Costs

Similar to the timeline, I'll detail the costs as I can find them. Of course these were all in as-of-that-day US$. With TrumpTarrifs and trumpflation, your numbers may vary widely from these.

        0: Advise from WashCo, inspectors and Clean Water Services

  1800: Permits with Washington County

23000: steel building from Oregon Carports

15500: excavation, framing, concrete pouring, incl $500 for the concrete pump rental

  7500: north-facing big door from Overhead Door of Portland, incl install and opener

  4800: all other doors, incl hardware, custom build, installs

    800: french drain materials, gravel

    500: large rocks for storm outflow

53900: TOTAL

 

From these numbers, I conclude that when you think about building a shop, the cost of the building itself could be less than half the overall costs. I paid more for permits than I did for rock and gravel, which is also interesting. The 4 doors cost almost half of what the overall building cost too. I could have had fewer openings, or installed a solid overhead door to lower costs, but I'm glad I didn't. Also it is worth noting that this shop has no electrical yet. I expect that will be a 5-figure as well since I will need a trench to run power, a panel, and then lots of cabling contained in conduit. Eek. I do not expect that work to take place any time soon. Instead, I will operate with a long extension cord from the house for as long as I can manage.

 

Hapy Shifting

In my last post, I celebrated Hapy shifting so well. That turned out to be premature. The next day, I lost the ability to put Hapy into gear and had to limp home in rush hour from around the corner.. in 3rd gear. One hot clutch later I was back in front of the garage and there he sat for a few days until I could get a look at him. Of all the things that could come apart, I did not expect the bolt going through the pin in the shift linkage at the front of the transaxle. In the image on the right, it's the screw in sub-component "P". I expected the grub-screw ("R" in the image) to have fallen out because I could not remember if I had run the bailing wire through or not. Turned out I did, and the grub screw was doing fine.

 

shifter diagram

I pulled the pin out and rummaged through my drawers of fasteners and found a 11mm bolt that fit. After around 20 minutes of wrestling, which consists of slightly moving the shifter in the cab, getting back under the bus, test fitting and repeating until you can muscle the pin through the hard plastic bits in the cage AND through the end of the linkage running from the front. This time, I put blue thread-lock on the bolt added a washer and sent it into the pin. I torqued it down as best I could considering my body position and the lack of something firm to grab on the opposite end. I used a pair of pliers to hold it.

 

Hapy is back to shifting normally again.

 

Wrap Up

After Ray finished the doors and I had locks on them all, I sat in one of the rear seats from C's new mini-van / stealth-camper we set in the shop as a seating area. I took a moment to just absorb. We so often will not take those minutes, choosing instead to rush off to the next thing. I sat for a few minutes, radio playing softly in the background and simply looked around at my shop. I really can't believe it. After so many years of lying in puddles, sliding on my back on wood chips or just outside in the rain, I cannot imagine what it will be like to work inside, on a hard dry surface come winter. Even now, as we head into summer, I will be working in the shade, on cool concrete, not hot tarmac. Of course, between then and now, I have a great deal of stuff to move and organize, but as of today, the shop is open and I can't wait to get out there.

Thanks, as always, for following along- 

Hapy Test Drives

Quick post today.

Before I start, Happy Cinco-de-Mayo. Our US-resident Latino friends and neighbors have had a brutal 18 months since the regime started incarcerating people in concentration camps around the country. This year, I hope there is more focus on the positive impacts of the Mexican culture and the negative impacts the ICE sweeps have had than on beer sales. While I'll probably be tipping a tequila this evening, I am not turning a blind eye to the perils our Latino friends are experiencing.

 

Hapy Drives

spring flowers

This past weekend, I had multiple shows I was asked to play, so I did not get into the vehicles much at all. Since I swapped things around, I did drive Hapy to both performances, though, so I got some quality test drives in. First, I sat in with a bluegrass outfit at a outdoor new food cart venue near Tannesborne. This was mostly surface streets, so I never got out of 3rd gears, but it was over 20 minutes each way. So, I was able to see how well he performed. As expected, he ran well. On the way home, dark had fallen, so I was able to prove that his lights were all working well too.

 

My other show was at a different food cart venue, supporting Brenda (find her here). She plays guitar and has an incredibly clean, clear voice. Anyway, that venue is in Hillsboro and rather than take the long slow slog out Tualatin Valley Highway (lots of traffic and traffic lights), I took the back country roads. This allowed Hapy to get up into highway speeds. Again, he drove great, had plenty of pep in 3rd and 4th gear. Even with the bigger nozzles and the CPU-tune, he is slow off the line from dead stop and doesn't really get his wheels going until we're over 2k RPM in 2nd. I recognize he's a loaf of bread getting pushed by around 120hp but I expected more, I think. I recall the test drive after the Malone tune, but as I re-read that (See Malone Tuning, Stage 2) post, again, Hapy really looked alive above 25mph moving into 3rd. 

 

MAF check-engine code

One thing worth noting, though, is all of the small improvements to his handling are really making a difference. Recall, the rear sway bar, but tightening the rebound on the shocks, replacing the tie-rods, the steering dampener, adjusting the steering box... for that matter we could go all the way back to my first few posts 20 years ago, like this one. Now, as I drove on country roads like a local (read: fast), Hapy holds the road, a cross wind doesn't impact as much and I don't arrive completely wrung out from stress. Again, he's still al oaf of bread so a cross-wind will move him more than a normal car, but its not nearly as bad as it was.

 

By the time I was starting Hapy for the drive home from the 2nd show, the starter noise when engaging that we heard over at Justin's place had disappeared. Perhaps the starter needed to wiggle itself into position a little bit. I don't know, but I will be sliding underneath to make sure the nuts and bolts are fully torqued down. 

 

Shop Locks

boost check-engine code

Other than than 2 shows, Boo and I mostly took the weekend off from projects. I did carve out a couple of hours to put some barn-door locks on the west-side barn-doors so they can lock from the inside. This will keep casual thieves out. I say "casual" because if someone wanted to smash-and-grab, there's plenty of smash-able glass. As I mentioned last post, Ray our contractor, is building some mostly clear barn-style doors for the southern doorway. These will move all the way outside of the door frames, leaving enough room to drive a car through, allowing us to move cars all the way through and into the "back 40" where I may need to store a car or 2 while working on others.

 

Wrap

I know there's not much in today's post. The big take-away is Hapy is absolutely operational now. He is driving great, starting immediately, etc. Of course, no adventure with Hapy is complete without something happening. As I was leaving the 1st show, Hapy threw one code (P0101: Mass Air Flow sensor) and has another pending (P1550:Solenoid Valve for Boost Pressure Control (N75) - Control Deviation). We have seen the P1550 before (See: Resolving the Stammer) and know how to resolve it, if it appears again and throws a legit code. For the MAF, I'll probably try to clean it first. Worst case, I need to replace it.

 

That's it for today. Thanks, as always for following along-