We debated ripping this center workbench area out completely; it's a dirty, filthy, greasy mess. The previous owner did a ton of metal fabrication along with boat engine work in here, and I doubt anything had been cleaned up since the 1970's. The construction of this area while a bit rough and funky is really solid, and the top surface is level and made of metal. Very unusual and potentially quite useful if cleaned up!
First up, re-finish the metal top. Several hours of grinding ensued:
This took off a lot of the rust and grime but before applying gloss coat seal I needed to do some anti-rust treatments. Nasty stuff and a real pain to clean off if left to dry even a little. Added several coats of gloss coating to seal the metal and finalize the top:
Added a secondary shelf in the middle to house all of our hand tools. Primed, patched, painted up the base for a cleaner look:
On to the right side of the garage...
The wall needed cleanup and re-painting along with some spackling:
Painted and with support bar for more hardware storage attached to the wall:
Sorted through the rest of all the miscellaneous hardware bits floating around the garage into two new units:
And then the final cleanup and reorganization:
Still more walls to be painted and areas to be cleaned, but the worst is done!