Flyin' Miata 1 800 FLY MX5s

Thanks to the expansion of our business - especially the addition of FM Salvage - we need more room. So we're moving into some new digs. We'll give you a full tour once we've moved, but here are a few details.

The new address is:
Flyin' Miata
499 35 Rd
Palisade, CO
81526
USA

The new shop is a few miles away from our current one. It's in the middle of orchard country and has stupendous views. This doesn't really make a difference to our business, but it does mean that we can go cycling at lunch! We're planning on getting wireless headsets for the techs, so they can answer questions while relaxing on the front porch and surveying the state of the peaches across the street. The facility has quite a history - it's been used as an indoor riding arena in the past before the concrete floor went in! Keith wants to hold an indoor autocross.

The new building does need some work before we can move in. We're building a special dyno room to keep the noise down, as well as throwing up a few walls to keep salvage, the warehouse, the FM Westfield build area, the engine building area, sales, shipping, the machine shop and all the other inhabitants from fighting. We're also going to install solar panels for power because we get ridiculous amounts of sunshine and we want to save the power plants for all the electric car drivers.

We're going to be moving in a couple of stages. Inventory and shipping are already up at the new place and working from temporary accomodations. The techs will remain down at the old shop until late February.

Bill's diary:

(click here for the first two months)

03/03/08 Parking lot full of contractors today. Fire inspector came and supervised a 15 minute full flow flush on the new 8" to 6" fire line. That's a lot of water! Fortunately they brought two empty water trucks to keep our neighbors downhill from drowning or sliding off in a sea of mud. There could have been choppers rescuing people off roofs on the news.
Downstairs office mud is all done except for one chase that is waiting for the last couple sprinkler heads. We moved inventory around a little today so fire guy could finish the last two runs of sprinklers in the shop. Framers were working on a platform at the bottom of the second stairwell and the drywall guys finished rocking the upstairs and started mudding up there, too. Also, the stucco crew showed up to re-stucco the front of the building.

03/05/08 Some bad, mostly good today. The bad news is the contractors killed our electricity from morning until almost 5 PM without giving us a heads up. Given warning, we could have run a generator for the shipping office. As it was, only two priority orders made it out, and those only because James drove them to the UPS depot.
On the good side, the shipping room got its new window and all of its drywall. The Tech Ghetto received texture and a good part of it painted today. Upstairs the mud continues-TurboDog wasn't too sure about the mud man on stilts! Speaking of upstairs, the new stairwell is mostly done. The stucco crew made good progress on the facade and the wiring continues, more outlets everywhere in the shop and the new service got hooked up today. Still need to pull the switches on the solar power.

03/10/08 Most of the downstairs office area is painted and the base coat looks complete on the outside stucco. I think they just have to texture the outside. Electricians continue to pull wire and started hooking up breakers in the upstairs new panel. Office ceiling lights are in and it looks like the downstairs outlets are in, too . Tomorrow they will be framing for the back garage door and I believe carpet and tile start to go down. New stairs are closed in. All in all, it's starting to look like something!

03/12/08 HVAC crew is here today working on the heaters, stucco on the front of the building is done and looks great. Painting is done in downstairs offices, except for shipping room, which has been textured, but not painted. Upstairs got painted today and carpeting is going in the downstairs offices. Things are looking good!

03/13/08 More painting today, most of the doors have been painted, but not hung. Lights hung in all the offices and five electricians hard at work. Jon and I have one lift standing and bolted in to the floor. A forklift really makes lift installing easier!

03/17/08 Things are really shaping up, the carpet crew came in on Saturday and again today, so I think all the carpeting and tile is done, except for shipping and one bathroom. The upstairs offices have lights! We have two of the five lifts bolted in waiting for wiring and the electrician's hooked up our forklift charger on my handy new stand. Forklift was about ready for a long drink of current. HVAC guys were here to do battle with the new heaters, I think two of the nine radiant heaters work now and the thermostats are up for the new roof units. The new stairs got railings and the other stairs got mostly carpeted. And all the doorways have doors now. What a concept. Coming down the home stretch to move in a little over a week. Still need a back shop door, though.

03/19/08 Mostly details today. We have two lifts powered up and working and started moving some of the shop stuff up. Jon will be ready to work here by the weekend. The big move of the offices is scheduled for the 27th, with salvage following a few days later. Moving salvage is not something anybody is looking forward to…. Solar is finally hooked to the main panel, but looks like teething pains with the inverters. Maybe tomorrow.

03/20/08 Getting closer. I think all the painting is done, carpeting, etc. Electricians are finishing up details, but all lighting, plumbing, etc seems to work. Glen has spent many hours installing phone lines, etherlink cable, jacks, hubs, etc. He should get the new phone system up on Monday. Jon and I brought another trailer load up today, looked like the Beverly Hillbilles with my toolbox and a bunch of workbenches. They walled off one of the old shop doors that was in terrible shape; a new door should go in on Saturday. Solar worked briefly today, more brains coming back tomorrow to make it work for good, we hope.

03/21/08 First (very dirty) car is on a lift. Remaining: paving, final phone hook-up, new shop door, final fire sprinkler hook-up and central alarm, dyno room. Almost there….

03/28/08 (note from Keith): Bill's been busy, making sure the internet connection, phone lines, long distance service and all his employees made the move on the 27th. The first turbo installation has been completed at the shop though, so we're making progress!

04/09/08 We're finally all under one roof, as of last Thursday, when we finished moving salvage up to the new building. The week before we moved everybody else. Yesterday the solar finally got hooked up and immediately started pumping 9,000 watts into our building. Today with miserable rainy skies it's a whopping 180 watts, enough to light three medium light bulbs….
The parking lot is a mess, every time the paving guys get it ready, the skies open. First sunny days are scheduled for this weekend. The rest of the building is pretty much done, with the exception of the dyno room, which got mostly framed out today. The walls are being built with alternating studs, so that outer walls and inner walls aren't directly connected. The wall space is then filled with a blown in cellulose insulation. We'll have to build or buy some huge mufflers.

FM's new digs

A view from our front porch. Yes, we have a porch. Those are peach orchards across the street, and the Grand Mesa in the background. That's about 5000' higher than our shop.
Mount Garfield dominates the view to the north.
Inside, the demolition starts. We have to do some major work to turn the offices into a suitable space, as well as put up some walls in the warehouse.
The old offices come apart.
While work is being done on the offices, our inventory has been moved up to the new building. Steve works at loading up the shelves.
The shelves are filling up.
Bill has a bit too much fun moving butterfly braces.
The shipping department is working out of a job site trailer for the time being. We're not sure they view this as an improvement over the old shop.
Part of our new sprinkler system.
A fleet of Miatas awaits while the gas lines are being installed.
Hmm, that's a weird looking Miata.
Once this guy is finished, we can make it rain indoors.
Time for some ventilation.
One nice thing about our climate is that we can use evaporative (aka "swamp") coolers. They use a lot less energy than normal air conditioning. Here some of the contractors install the base for a cooler.
Meanwhile, on another part of the roof, workers are installing 50-odd solar panels. We get around 250-300+ sunny days a year (depending on who you ask), and the high altitude makes the sun very strong. Why doesn't everyone around here use solar?
This alien bug thing is a cool little crane that's being used to transport the panels on to the roof.
Inside, the demolition is finished. Now it's time to rebuild. Our new offices will have two stories. These windows are for Bill and Teri's offices. Bill says the slots are gun slits to keep everyone motivated.
Inside the main body of the warehouse, we're building walls to keep the kids from fighting.
More ducts! We're considering having them extrude honed.
A peek inside the ducts. There's a bit of cleverness in here.
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