The last time I posted about this , we got sidetracked , and talked about boats and cars and names and realationships and interesting stuff haha , and it got deleted . But there were some good ideas , so thanks , and this time I'll try to stick to the knitting .

We have the keys , although we haven't settled yet , so we can't change the locks or security codes etc until the end of next week .

This gives you an idea of how huge it actually is . Over the next 2-3 weeks , we have a large superquiet compressor and air lines going in ; more lights and power points ( standard and 3 phase ) ; we want yellow hoists so thats taking time getting components painted and powder coated . We'll initially have 6 , hopefully by the end of April .

Our main shop is twice the length and a bit narrower ( and not much more than half the stud height ) , but we have an engine building room ; a machine shop ; a 4 wheel dynomometer ; a paint booth ; and a specialist fabrication area ( press brake , english wheels , guilotine , presses , drill presses , etc ) . So we struggle to get any more than 20 cars in our main shop . Here , all we will do is work on cars -- any manufacturing or fab work will be done at the main shop . So we rekon we can get 40 cars here , maybe having to push a few outside to work on others .

But boy is the outside utilitarian / ugly ! We suspect its because everything is so square , so regimented .

Just as a matter of interest , those exterior panels are a kind of 'pearl' effect , almost translucent . If you look at the different pictures , they look beige in some , grey on other angles . At night , they are quite dark .

Our thoughts so far --

5 of these Corten panels in that frame out the front , with orange LED lights ( low voltage 12 volt ) as backlighting at night .

Do a sail cloth over that open deck in bright orange . Make it trapezoidal , as everything else is square , so it will bring in a biot of colour , but also an interesting shape .

Re-do the rails around there in cedar instead of beige powdercoat for 'warmth'

Initial suggestion was to paint the front railing in black or charcoal ( too much beige ) , but we're actually thinking maybe hot orange -- so 98% is still that beigey gret , but the sail cloth , the corten panel backlighting and the front fence in orange ? Any thoughts thanks ?

Previous owners were an importing company , and I'm going to take a wild guess not N Z born haha . I like Wok cooking -- whenever I cook , everyone says 'Wok the hell is this . . . . . . .'

The lift and stairs are all pleasant enough , more beige , more corporate , but the irony is we won't be using the front much initially .

The showroom is pleasant , but more beige .

So our main question -- what do you think of adding some orange on the exterior ? Cheers