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:

Bill had been dreaming of buying this new building for years, but it was zoned for agriculture uses, making it impossible for most businesses to use. Finally we took the plunge and convinced the county to allow us a conditional use of the building for auto repair. We received the conditional use permit back in May and moved the shipping dept and inventory into the building in the beginning of December. Due to bureaucratic wrangling, it took until the 11th of January to get final building permits.
Once we had the permits, things started really happening!
To date: Fire sprinkler company hung maybe 1/3rd of the sprinkler pipe before running out of material.
General contractor demolished old office areas, filling 3.5 giant dumpsters to date!
Shipping moved into a temporary office trailer inside the building. Shipping dept deserves some sort of medals for working in crappy conditions. The warehouse has one 30 year old heater attempting to heat 22,000 sf and it is just not up to the job in current weather conditions.
New electrical junction boxes hung.
New office walls going up. Bathrooms demolished. New sheetmetal through roof for HVAC equipment.
Three trucks of gravel dumped in lot to fight the muck (this was before muck froze solid!).

Stardate 1/18/08 Solar panels being installed, roof being sealed, electricians running conduit for shop lighting, carpenters carpentering (more office walls). Notice the gun ports under Bill and Teri's office windows to keep the work flowing.

1/21/08 Steel framing for shop walls starts to go up. Scissors lifts running all over the place between framers, electricians and HVAC guys. New roof units did not show, so HVAC folks are hard at work running ductwork in the office walls. Solar crew busy mounting inverters to turn the DC from the photovoltaic panels into three phase A/C to feed into the grid.

1/22/08 Steel wall construction continues, made slightly more challenging by a somewhat uneven floor. HVAC guys had some bad news, rooftop units are three weeks out. The good news is the radiant heat units are due in Denver shortly, so maybe next week we can have some real heat inside. Of course it's supposed to be 40 instead of 20 next week...Not that I'm complaining! Sprinkler man still MIA. Big construction equip showed today to start on the septic rework. Glen started work on running phone/ether link cables. Big piles of drywall arrived today and the third solar invertor gets mounted.

1/23/08 Lots of stuff accomplished today! Big holes for septic out in front of the building. What really makes it look like stuff is happening is one wall mostly covered with drywall. More conduit run for the solar invertors, hoping for no snow tomorrow to hook PV panels together on roof and wire to the invertors. Glen ran a bunch more ethernet and phone cables and the electricians are still scooting around on their scissors lifts, lots of new conduit for lighting up top.
Kind of interesting, the HVAC ducting is more sophisticated than you would think looking at the sheet metal from outside. The ducts are insulated inside, but more interesting to people interested in airflow (which should be all gearhead geeks), there are airfoils mounted inside the ducting at the sharper bends to direct airflow around the corners. These aren't just a single layer of sheet metal, they are two walls formed with an airfoil shape. Makes me think about Miata radiator mouths and some of the stuff we have been trying for better cooling.

1/24/08 Good stuff happening today. Solar guys are almost done getting the conduit down to the invertors. Sorta looks like a shift boot where it goes through the roof! Tech Ghetto walls reconfigured to open things up with arched openings. Drywall done to top off office area walls on one side and remainder of steel wall for R&D area studded in. Electricians still scooting everywhere and Glen has used up the first 2,000 feet! of etherlink and phone cable, going back for another 2,000' Yikes! While everything is going on hidden inside FM, the neighbors go about their business tending the peaches. Exciting news that the radiant heaters for the shop area arrived today, so maybe the shipping guys can take off their wooly hats. And the sprinkler man is back at work and hopes to have inside of building done by the end of next week. Hopefully the ground will thaw enough for excavation to run the 8" main required for the sprinklers and also for the septic guy to keep working.

1/25/08 Drywall is flying up and the first wall done is being "mudded". Solar will be done today, other than final hook-up, which can't be done until rest of electrical service is done. Septic field is being scooped out, eight feet deep. Electricians still sparking away and HVAC guys still busy hanging ducts. Yet another scissors lift arrived today, think that makes six running around inside now. Roofers need to come back, as we had a little snow last night and a couple of the roof penetrations are leaking badly.

1/28/08 The shipping guys should like this, big radiant heaters going up today. I think the HVAC engineer really overdid it with the heat, this place will be like a toaster oven. First attempt at hanging them (per the plans, oops) had a lot of heated parking area and some not so heated shop area. Had to move the first four they hung. Each unit is 60' long. More digging for the leach field done today and more fire sprinkler heads installed. Over halfway on the sprinklers now. Parking lot is a soggy mess.

1/29/08 Lots of progress on the office wiring and all of the radiant gas heaters are hung, with the roof vent for one installed. They still need the rest of the chimneys and then gas and electric to work. Maybe warmer within the week? More HVAC ducting run and more drywall taping/mudding done. And the hole for the leech field is getting *really* deep. Can't see the top of the loader when he's down in the bottom.
And a news of the stupid flash: Our car trailer is six inches wider than the eight foot openings it would have to go through to get out of the shop now. Fortunately, there is a new shop door going in on the trailer's side of the wall. Duh.

1/30/08 Yippee! Roof units for a/c and office heat were mounted up today. Lots more wiring going on in office and shop areas, three electricians here today. More drywall finishing still going on.

1/31/08 Lots of little chimneys going through the roof now for the radiant heaters. Bathroom vents put in (critical!). Big box'o'shop lights arrived. Loads of wiring still going on and the shop drywall is starting to look good. Most of upstairs office HVAC pipes have now been run. Carpenters ripped up the front door area, getting it ready for a two door vestibule entrance to keep the cold at bay in the winter.

2/1/08 Good stuff today, plumbers back to start hooking up gas to heaters. Electricians starting to feed wire into the conduit they've been hanging for the last couple of weeks. Old office door is turning into a window and new wall splitting up one of the bathrooms. Meanwhile, across the street the peach farmers do their winter pruning.
Glen has a new half wall to hold the customers at bay. Eight out of nine heater chimneys are up.

2/4/08 Relatively quiet around here today. Plumbers are trying to finish the rough-in to call for plumbing inspection and the downstairs electrical inspection was done today. Just two five minute fix problems and they can come back to ok the downstairs drywall. A new wall went up on the second floor today and the plumbers are routing gas pipes to the radiant heaters. There might be real heat here someday. On the down side, last night's snow pointed out more leaks at the roof penetrations. Roofers are getting to spend a lot of time out here. Glen is back hooking up etherlink junction blocks.

2/5/08 Progress today-plumbing inspection went well, structural engineer seems happy with our wall designs and we are signed off for drywalling the first floor. New wall went in between the upstairs offices today, plumbers hooked up gas lines to most of the radiant heaters. Amazingly enough, something that was here before we arrived looks like it will still be usable, the central alarm system. It's about the only thing in the building that didn't go in a dumpster.

2/07/08 Pretty good progress today and yesterday. Heaters are waiting on the electricians to fire up, as well as gas line inspector. Apparently we have six different inspections scheduled for tomorrow, then drywalling starts in the downstairs offices. Glen has run about all of the etherlink and phone lines and the new phone system awaits hook-up. A couple of new walls appeared upstairs, as well as a new closet.

2/08/08 Another quiet day, a little more framing done and framer has left to go window shopping (literally). Septic field is complete and being filled in today. We passed building inspections for mechanical (HVAC ducting), framing, electrical, plumbing, insulation and *almost* gas pipes. Next week should see 8" pipe for fire system late in the week and downstairs dry wall.

02/11/08 Busy place today. Four electricians, one still working out in the shop, three have moved into the upstairs office areas to rough in outlets, lights, etc. Huge wall vents installed in the South wall, to be matched to large exhaust fans on the North wall, per code. We have to move "x" amount of air per minute for the size of the shop. Downstairs walls between office and shop area got insulated today. Drywall is starting to go up in the downstairs offices.

2/13/08 Didn't make it up here yesterday, lots has happened. First new upstairs window is in and one more new one downstairs (more crappy views). Big news is that the steel studs are up for the walls of the new shipping office (looks kinda like a jail cell at the moment!) . Both ventilation fans are in the North wall now and lots of overhead lights sprouted while I was gone.

Valentine's Day 2/14/08 I guess we got a Valentine from the electricians today, as they hooked up temp power to the 30 some 400 watt metal halide lights. All of a sudden we can see what we're doing! The new shipping room wiring is all roughed in and ready for inspector. Another big window in the Tech Ghetto and the front doors have gone. The front doors are being replaced with a vestibule airlock type of set-up.

2/15/08 Still in awe of having light in the building, I guess I'm just easily amused. Concrete was poured today for the front vestibule and in a couple of the bathrooms. One half of the tech ghetto is almost drywalled and the sprinkler man was here today plotting where to run the fire sprinklers in the downstairs offices. Something that completely amazes me is that the international fire code requires sprinkler heads outside the building where there is an overhang. Seems to me if the building was on fire, I'd step off the walkway, but I guess this gives the option of staying and getting an outdoor shower. It's only money...

02/18/08 I felt bad for everybody who had to work in the new place today, as I made the mistake of believing the weather report on Friday. The report called for 50F on Sunday, so I thought I could save $120 or so by turning off the 40 year old heater for the weekend. It never got that warm and it was pretty brisk inside this morning. Another few tons of drywall arrived today for the upstairs offices and the new shipping office. Both are scheduled for inspections tomorrow and Weds, so those walls will start closing up this week. Drywall guys are coming down the home stretch on the downstairs offices and the front door is back in place. The vestibule still has to be built and the second door installed. The second big window upstairs should be framed in today, two more to go. About 100' of trenching done today for the septic pipe; the rest will get done over next weekend (weather gods smiling) as it has to cut across our parking access. Place seems quiet with only three workmen here, plus James and Jason doing shipping.

02/20/08 Sorry for skipping yesterday, no big leaps in progress. Combining yesterday and today, some good stuff happened, though. It looks like the plumbers hooked up the new heaters to the gas meter and bled the piping, don't think they have tried them yet. Maybe tomorrow we can retire the antique heater! New front door arrived and was installed today, looks nice. With the double doors, we won't blow everything off Glen's desk every time the door gets opened. Deb got a new window in her office and Teri and I both got our interior windows installed. Framers were busy today!

02/21/08 More drywalling downstairs, shop windows got trimmed today and the first of the new heaters fired up. Unfortunately, we can't use the new heaters until construction is complete, as plaster dust and other construction crap will void the warrantee. At least weather is starting to warm up. Work started on the second set of stairs to the upstairs offices.

02/22/08 Fair amount of stuff going on today. Security alarm crew is here, resurrecting the alarm system and adding some new sensors and a second keypad. Framer is finishing framing fourth upstairs window, so maybe we'll have two more windows today. Drywallers are hard at work upstairs, downstairs is waiting for mud. The water company is excavating and installing a wet tap for our fire system. They're also excavating phone lines by mistake. Once they are done, next crew has to lay 200' of eight inch line to hook up to our sprinkler feed. Plumber is rerouting a vent pipe that's in the way of a new window and framer finished trimming inside shop windows.

02/25/08 Forgot the camera, so no pics today. Painters started painting the shop walls after a discussion of "Do these things have hemis? Can't be fast then..." Electricians are back and the septic piping was completed across the driveway over the weekend. A new hot water heater seems to have sprouted while I was in the other building this morning and the drywallers continue with the downstairs offices, should be done today with the rock itself. Then they head upstairs and hopefully the sprinkler installer comes tomorrow to finish downstairs offices and shipping office.

02/26/08 The shop walls are painted on the lower level, should finish the upper story tomorrow. The sprinkler man's truck died coming over Vail pass, so he was a no-show. Electricians should be back on Thursday to continue wiring main service and hopefully connect the solar. Lots of drywall went up today in the upstairs offices. Some new big holes and ditches out front, which should be for the 8" fire line. It has finally been warm enough to turn off the old heater the last couple of days, with any luck this weather will hold. Oh yeah, weather. The roofers are back for visit number can't remember, still battling with leaks. Lots on new and old penetrations in this roof, the building is over 30 years old. And.... exciting news, ETC is now March 19th. Fingers crossed, we are all looking forward to being under one roof.

02/28/08 Good stuff today. Lots of drywall upstairs and a good part of downstairs offices are now mudded. 8" fire line (200' long!) now hooked up from street corner to a six inch line going through concrete footers into our sprinkler system. More progress on downstairs fire sprinklers. Still waiting for electrician to tie in the solar grid, hate paying for all these lights when there is free sun power going to waste on the roof. (isn't that what windows are for? - Keith)

02/29/08 Another good day, more drywall, more sprinkler pipe run and 6" pipe almost done for fire system. Electricians are back, wiring up the main board and putting conduit and outlets all along the shop wall. A quad outlet every 10' should be nice, plus welder outlets. We're even hanging a couple welder outlets on the lifts for convenience. Looks like solar will get final hook-up next week and they will start painting the offices next week, then carpeting. Nothing exciting to take pictures of today, sorry!

(newer entries)

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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