Racers Den: The Busted Knuckle Garage

This is an especially trying question for petrol heads when you move to a new location after many years, having established your space then having to start your garage all over again. I’ve spent many an afternoon/evening with GTM member Dave V over the years, and his old garage was well packaged for a modern two car. When he let me know he’d be moving to a new location “with more space,” I couldn’t wait to check it out.

Dave and his wife, two kids, two dogs, five cars and collection moved only several miles up the road from their previous home, but went more than 5x bigger in terms of overall available property. Dave’s new garage is more than double the size of his old space with an out building that complements it, and plenty of room for future expansion.

Deceiving from the outside, the garage seems like “just another two car with an office,” but the reality is, this building can swallow four cars, and any configuration of his vehicles from his full-size Toyota Tundra to their Jeeps.

Only one of Dave’s vehicles sits outside, and that’s his volunteer Police cruiser, which he details regularly. At his desk inside the garage, he spends time creating custom LED lightbars and other electronic accessories for the police department, testing them on his vehicle first, of course.

Tucked away in the back corner of the garage is Dave’s multi-prize winning 1988 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 Drag/Show car. The new garage “isn’t quite there yet,” says Dave. He works in interior design and carpentry for a living, so it’s only a matter of time before the beautification of his new garage starts. His old space had textured floors and checkerboard patterned accents, which was accompanied by a trophy room packed with awards. But only having been in his new space for less than a year, it takes time, like all good projects do.

“Wait… where’s all the trophies?” I asked Dave. “I kept the ones that meant the most to us, the rest I broke down and recycled. We just didn’t feel like moving them all. Plus, this is a chance to start over. I’m really into these repop signs now too, just need to figure out what to do with them,” he added.

We spent time talking about his lighting setup. “Ignore my dirty skylights, I need to get up on the roof and take care of that, but check out this HID LED lamp,” he exclaimed. “Blinding, but effective is the phrase I’d like to use,” I retorted. We also discussed his mixture of LED and extremely oversize Halogens being used in the space. He’d like to eventually replace the halogens because of the cost to operate them, even though they jokingly offer, “quite the heat source” in these colder months.

There’s more to the Busted Knuckle Garage than just cars, lights, and trophies. Dave’s loyalty to the Blue Oval is very apparent and from the pictures surrounding his tool chest and desk there’s a clear evolution of not just a car but the man who’s tirelessly built it to perfection.

The hand-built, color-matched replicas, and even a custom made Hot Wheels wedding gift (Above) are undeniably unique.

Each item in Dave’s collection is a jumping off point to begin another retelling of a car show story or drag racing adventure. And let’s not forget the custom built and carved tool cart (above) with Dave’s logo on it! There’s a story there too, just ask him. Other items that remained on the “keep list” during the move were some of the tools Dave inherited from his grandfather (below). “They don’t have much use for me nowadays, but they look good in the shop,” he says thinking back to when he was younger.

Dave’s garage is a lot like his prized Mustang, it’s a total sleeper. Dave has spent the last 30 years building out his Mustang using the techniques he learned when he was working for Drag Racing teams specializing in the Fox Body platform. Unless it’s running, his car is unassuming. “It’s just another black Mustang,” he likes to say.

But when you dig in much closer, you begin to see the level of detail that he’s put into his build, which will eventually translate into the garage that houses it. Dave has stayed in love with his Mustang for over 30 years, and it shows.

Moving the cars around in Dave’s garage is definitely a carefully orchestrated dance. Like anyone with multiple cars knows, there’s an art to storing them all “just so” everything fits with enough clearance. (As seen in the video below).

Dave’s son asked if he could “decorate one of the walls” in the garage. Not knowing what to expect from the project, “it’s really grown on me,” he says slyly. The mural isn’t quite complete, but it’ll be interesting to see how Dave incorporates it into the rest of his plans for the area.

And sometimes it’s the most minute accessories that really make the difference. Take for instance this “stinger” antennae from a car used to amplify the reception to Dave’s garage stereo system. As a petrol head, this speaks volumes to me (pun intended.)