A good few months work.... (Warning, 500kb)

[iwatkins]

Hi All,

My best friends run a tuning shop here in the UK. They have recently moved to an old Victorian railway building that was most recently being used by a printing company.

After four months of hard work (I personally dumped about 10 tons of paper/card) they have the workshop up and running and are due to start taking new work on soon.

I've been taking shots as progress has happened, mainly as a record for them of quite how far they have come. The shots below are over a four month period and shot from roughly the same location and angle. All are with the 10D + Sigma 12-24mm IIRC.

Cheers

Ian

September 1st 2004 (first look around before purchase)


November 30th 2004 (first workshop ramps go in)


December 9th 2004 (major workshop hardware is in, floor being laid)


January 8th 2005 - Staged Shot (workshop functional and on going long term work is in and being worked on)

[marie]

wow

'what a difference a day makes'
in this case four months

sounds like it was a lot of very hard work clearing out the printer's stuff

it looks really nice now and ready for business

so this is what eventually becomes of an old railway station
great to see it being used like it



I'm sure it was hard to imagine ( in september) that you would get to the stage of seeing it almost fully completed like this

nice record of it all

[iwatkins]

Hi Marie,

Yes, it was hard work and I only worked there weekends.

Every time I saw the guys getting a litle demoralised with the whole thing I would produce some more before and after prints for them to egg them along.

They now have a 180 degree panoramic shot of the interior on day 1 above another panoramic from this past weekend on their office wall. This really shows the before and after

Cheers

Ian

[sameerb]

Coming Back to Life
Nice set of pictures

[Mills]

I like the series. Keep us up to date. Bet you will get some great car shots, looks like there are some cool ones in that last one.

[jgbeam]

Nice series of shots. How old is the building? The cast iron columns and riveted girders seem to place it somewhere in the early 1900's. They did a nice job restoring it. I'd be interested in some exterior shots.

Jim

[iwatkins]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Jim,

The building was built in 1856. It was originally four stories high but it is now only two stories following a fire in the early 1900's.

The exterior is fairly patchy in quality but hopefully a grant has been secured to restore it. The level of detail given is huge, I don't think you could realistically build something like this these days.

Some exterior shots below, still a lot of work to do

Cheers

Ian

[AeroSquid]

Damn! It's WRX City. Those are nice cars++

[iwatkins]

Yep, they work on a lot of Subarus, mainly Jap imports rather than UK market ones (because they are better). But there is also a new Mustang GT and an older Porsche 993 in the shot just to balance it out a bit.

There was also a Lincoln Navigator in the building but decided not to put it in shot as it would have probably blocked the whole view

In addition, they are awaiting delivery (for a customer) of the new Ford GT (the GT40 repliaca). Put it this way, I *will* be having a go in that car as the original GT40 was my dream car when I was a kid.

Cheers

Ian

[Ballen Photo]

Nice documentary Ian. Looks like it's going to be a very nice automotive garage.
I'd like to have a go in a GT40 as well.
-Bruce

[Avalonthas]

Did u keep any of that paper/card :P

[iwatkins]

Well, I kept some

Actually, the majority of the kept stuff was all A5 or A4 sized and given out to all the kids we know for colouring etc. A very large batch of different coloured card went to the local primary school.

Most of the other stuff was either too huge to use or was specialist. I think the total that went for recycling was close to 15 tons. (I hope I have that right).

Cheers

Ian

[NJDrew]

Originally Posted by iwatkins

Yep, they work on a lot of Subarus, mainly Jap imports rather than UK market ones (because they are better).

Indeed

I like the windows ps, it gives it kinda a church feel "praise be who driveith a subie"

[jgbeam]

Originally Posted by iwatkins

Thanks for the comments guys.

Jim,

The building was built in 1856. It was originally four stories high but it is now only two stories following a fire in the early 1900's.

The exterior is fairly patchy in quality but hopefully a grant has been secured to restore it. The level of detail given is huge, I don't think you could realistically build something like this these days.

Some exterior shots below, still a lot of work to do

Cheers

Ian

That's a really nice building. Too bad it's missing the top floors, but it is still a beauty, IMO. Thnks for posting the shots.

Jim

[Passionatereds]

Nice pics! I'm sure my BF would die if he saw that in real life because his favorite car is the WRX/STI.