Repair drywall

Build a 2x2 frame

Drywall that

 

Overthinking it. First, you need to cut the opening larger over to the centerline of each stud. Then cut a piece to fit an upside down simple 'U' (like the white in Neal's first pic) as close as you can get it to the EMT. Then, fill in the gaps with mud. If you want, you can use painter's caulk with the longer nozzle to get between/under the conduit for slim gaps.

Note that this wall is NOT a firewall. It is only a fire separation wall. So you only have to fill open gaps - it is not critical what material you use (subject to AHJ amendment, but that usually only bumps up to Type 'X' from basic 1/2" drywall).

As far as stubbing out 2 empty 3/4" conduits, I assume that would be only for future garage circuits, as I don't imagine anything done interior of the house would be run on the surface of the garage wall. So what else would you add, and why bother when you are allowed to use NM and drywall is cheap and easy to do? But if you do run stubs, just mount another empty jbox next to the existing one.

Primer shouldn't be a problem.

 

Thanks. Appreciate the tip about the slim gaps. Yes, I did exactly that U / cut over to stud centerline for the holes above the panel. I actually cut all the way over to the edge of the stud for most of those so the screws had more drywall on the outer edge, and let the existing panels be supported by nails elsewhere on the stud. Not sure I fully appreciate the tradeoff but I think I like cutting out more rather than less.

This is in California and it's either a state thing or most AHJ that require Type X on this wall (and existing drywall is Type X), which is why I'm using it.

The 2 empty 3/4" are for (1) CT leads if I decide to switch to a different type of energy monitor. Currently I'm using the type that's installed entirely within the subpanel, other types require a separate box. (2) Feeding larger conductor sizes into the crawlspace. The LB I have installed there helps bring an 8/3 MC in the crawlspace up to the panel. I had originally wanted to leave enough space for additional 12/2's under the house without having to open drywall again, but ran out on that conduit. (3) Another reason to do additional surface conduit in the garage would be for EVSE, since you can get away with #8 with conduit for 50A circuit. In this picture I had to bring 8/3 and 12/2 into that large pull box which holds some support circuitry for the EVSE. I would just route surface conduit starting from the large pull box if I want to extend this circuit. Now that I have the dual-output EVSE installed in the front of the garage I find it annoying and may switch (in a few years) to two single output EVSE installed in the back of the garage where the cables are out of the way.

Now that you mention it, after the experience from this project (my first one with this level of new wiring & drywall patching, so I wasn't sure about opening up the drywall down there, not knowing how slow/fast I would be with patching, and not knowing the existing conditions)... in retrospect I could probably open the drywall near the bottom of that wall and just diagonal drill into the crawlspace as was done with a 10/3 NM when the house was originally built. For small enough cables and conductors that would be easier and neater than adding more conduit. So that leaves only the external energy monitor use case for pre-emptively adding conduit. Probably not worth doing pre-emptively for the energy monitor.