A new home for Rightway,

Well it's official and it's already just happened: Over the last 3 weeks I have moved my business Rightway Heritage Trimming into a brand new shop space!

It's a new unit building in Langford (Victoria's western neighbour) right off the Highway #1 - at 2770 Leigh Rd (unit 136).

A friend from the Old English Car Club bought the new unit as an investment opportunity and for some extra car storage.
After meeting me after a presentation I'd made for the car club about my business - he offered me the front half of the building including the entire upper mezzanine and shared space downstairs for 2 of my/or my customers vehicles.

Given the much better location and proper amenities I was lacking in my old shop - like heat, and a bathroom - I jumped at the opportunity!

After reading and signing the contract, sorting out my new license and insurance for the space, I first got to work on preparing the upper mezzanine for my business...

The mezzanine had been finished with industrial carpet tile which is not really conducive to the dust and carpet fibers I create in my line of work.
So I decided to float a new laminate floor right over top of it - using the stiff carpet as an underlay. That way it will be easy to sweep and keep clean.
So I borrowed a chop saw from my friend Bill, and installed the floor one morning with my friend Bryce.

The next thing I needed was a proper 8 foot cutting table that I could also use for laying out and cutting materials & for material storage underneath.
I drew up a simple design and built the table in an afternoon. I built a shelf and arranged all my car books and material sample catalogues along the one side as you enter the room from downstairs...

With all my rolls of materials stored under it, and good lighting right above it,  it's made a very functional and organized work table - big enough to easily lay out a full hide of leather for marking and cutting jobs...

The next pieces I added were a proper steel cabinet for all my paint and chemical storage...
and then another 8 foot work bench which I made using 2 second hand drawer sets I found at the Re-Store. I just added a 3/4" plywood top to join them together and finished it off with a nice aluminum edge finisher along the front leading edge of the bench...

I moved in all my tools and supplies, hung some peg board racks for hanging tools, my Grandfathers beautiful hand crafted tool boxes and some sets of plastic drawers for all my fastener hardware, and voila! - another very organized and functional work space...

I finished the up stairs production area by arranging my wood cutting area with a bandsaw, table saw, drill press, air compressor, vacuum and mini sandblast cabinet...

And of course my big sewing table, complete with more drawers for supplies, and pegboard racks for my tools...

Of course I hung up all my hundreds of patterns along the one wall and added several banks of steel shelving for customer jobs and material storage...

Downstairs as you enter the building I moved in my old 8' work bench I had built years ago in my first shop - I refinished the top of it with some leftover flooring and added some shelving for storing all of my Healey parts. This is the bench I will employ when working on customer cars...

I wanted to make this entrance area especially appealing for customers, so I also added my glass display cabinets full of all my model cars and pics of my upholstery work on display...

Here's my first new customer car in the new space - an Austin Healey in for a tonneau cover and door panel repairs, this car has come all the way from New Brunswick! having driven to the Conclave in Deadwood this summer and then on down to California - it's going to spend the winter here on the island before making its return trip east next summer...

Of course a few more display cabinets leading back into the main shop area, past the bathroom...
The main area in the back of the shop is being shared by a few guys storing and working on their cars. Eventually my Healey will fit back where the tables and chairs are on the right.
The front area leading back from the main door is where my customers cars will park and be worked on..

In preparation for street advertising on the front of the building, I'm having a few of these window decals made for the front door and the upper mezzanine windows facing out to the street...

I also made a few new posters for to brighten up the walls inside...
mind the colours - these are tiny screen shots from the Vistaprint website, where I designed and ordered these from...

With the move into the new space complete just in time December, I'm very happy and grateful to have lots of new work rolling in. 
The bright new space is warm and delightful to work in, I very much look forward to many exciting inspiring years of growth and development ahead.

Until next time -