my system is rather simple and agreeable with my wife too!
first off only rebuilt or n.o.s. or considered rather scarce(rare or
extremly hard to locate) items are stored in the basement. nothing greasy
or having a garage like smell in the house for reasons of both safety(fire
hazard) and reasons of keeping peace with family. the items in the basement
are organized on steel shelving and when quantities allow are either shelved
or boxed in groups. items like fuel related items are shelved
together(pumps,carbs,linkage, intakes). engine parts are together.
transmission stuff kept together and so on. now items that i do not want in
my basement are stored in empty oil boxes(like mobil oil or castrol motor
oil cardboard boxes) in one of the out side sheds and general items are once
again kept in a like items system. boxes are labeled with general titles
like heater parts, front suspension parts, pedal boxes, and so on. now for
the hardware and nifty little easily lost stuff i have evrything sorted out
and seperated. 1 compartmented box of freshly glass bead blasted replated
original hardware (bolts , original style locking nuts, and screws and some
of the unique to spridgets types of clips ) and a second compartmented box
of bullet electric connectors and stuff like early dash light switches,
interior trim screws and carpet retainers and really small bits and pieces
that would get lost elsewhere. there a few exceptions to the storage system
but i know what is stored where and know where to look if it becomes
importaint to go on safari! and of course the mountain of transmissions and
spare rear axle are in a shed too.
i implimented this system near 20 years ago when seriously into nationally
showing my 56 chevy bel air 2dr h.t. and found that i was beginning to
aquire a collection of stuff that was rapidly getting out of hand that was a
growing collection of spares for that car and rare acessories. at one point
it was a mountain of stuff that almost filled an entire bay of a 2 car
garage. doors fenders and seats and a lot of big stuff. after a few years
of going hunting for stuff i knew i had it was obvious i had a storage
problem and needed a way to be able to find what i wanted in less than a day
of searching through what i knew i had to locate it. presently i have 4
steel shelving units with 55-57 chevy restored or n.o.s. parts 1 section of
spridget stuff and 1 section of saab 2 stroke stuff. and i need about 4-6
more units for the basement!
after a while anyone who has a large collection ofcars and or parts will
realise the need to impliment a system for storage that will simplify the
"big pile" or the"couple-o-sheds" system of storage. trust me if you spend
a whole day hunting for something you know you have and can not locate it ,
you have a problem. and after enough wasted time going hunting you will
finally sort out the collection.
a foot note here. realising my own mortality and my family's lack of
knowledge of what i posess(and my wife really has no idea what i have
collected and posess) i also decided to organise my collection of parts in
the event of my passing away and leaving my wife and friends the task of
sorting out my life's work collecting. i know that if i were to pass away
today that my collection can be easily liquidated and proceeds should pay
off our mortgage and pay for my son's education if he chooses a higher
education and a cash reserve to invest to suport them off interest hopefully
for rest of their lives or at least for next 20 years or so any way. after
all collecting stuff is like investing , some day you are going to want to
realise the fruits of your investments. hopefully you can do that while
still alive but if not ,do not burden you survivors with a horrible mess
that might be considered junk by others. i saw(as a child) my grand
father's collection of ww2 aircraft engine overhaul manuals almost completly
thrown out because my grandmother considered themold useless books(i have
around 14-16 manuals that i saved from an entire dumpster sized load she
disposed of!)! i decided that i do not want that to happen to my collection
that i so passionatly have been growing for so many years. i want my family
to benifit from my obsessions if that is what it come down to. how about
you?
chuck.
the crazy guy with all the junk!
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