I need to get organized. Again.

Saturday afternoon I drained the fuel from the F250 and dropped the tank. It didn't go perfectly smooth, but it's done. The front tank filled up while there was still about 5 gallons of gas in the rear tank. I remembered that I had a Boxster gas tank that didn't go to the dump yet, and drained the rest of the fuel into it. When the rear tank is back in the truck, I can use the fuel pump in the Boxster tank to pump the fuel back into the truck.

The tank itself was fairly straightforward to drop with the biggest problem being disconnecting the fuel lines on top of the tank. I had to pause and squeeze between the bed and tank with a fuel line disconnect tool and push the tool while pulling the hose - using both hands while propping the tank at an angle and assuming a yoga position under the truck. One hose came off as it should have. The other was stubborn enough that I cut the tubing at the fuel sender with a hack saw, then went back under with the tank removed to finish the job. The fuel sender unit I've had on hand is exactly the right replacement part.

While I was laying on the ground under the truck in 40 degree weather, covered in ~7 year old gasoline I tried to explain to myself why I do things like this. It's not my truck. I'm not being paid or asking for any favors in return. There's a lot of other stuff that I could be doing. It would be hard to convince anyone that it was fun. The best answer that I could come up with is that it's just what I do. My neighbor could have taken it to a shop to have it fixed, but it had already sat up to this summer since 2015 without being repaired, so not likely it would get done unless I did it. Somehow, I'm glad he let me. The truck itself was damaged while he was 'escaping' the 2015 Baltimore riots. The whole left side of the truck is scraped and dented, the driver's door was jammed and window broken (I replaced it in the summer). He has an emotional attachment to the truck for saving him and making it back to Oklahoma, but when he got back, it was parked and left unrepaired.

The fuel tank looked terrible inside, full of rust colored sludge. I don't want to buy a new tank or treat the whole inside with a sealant. There's a limit to my commitment and I really don't think he's going to use the rear tank much. Today, my solution was to swab out most of the sludge with the clothes that I was wearing yesterday cut up as rags (it's hard to get that fuel smell out anyway). With the sludge out, I used a power washer to blast the interior of the tank. It came out 'good enough for me'. I'm letting it air out tonight and I'll probably wipe it with some commercial alcohol to finish up before I install it. The inside isn't terrible now:

The garage? Yes, I did a little of that. First I had to do a little bit of work on the KLR 650 that I had parked in front of the shelves that I'm supposed to reorganize. It's been starting hard, then idling badly after warm up. Yesterday evening before heading to work, I removed the carburetor so I could give it a good cleaning during my shift. That all went very well except for the choke (enrichment) cable being a total pain to remove and reinstall.

Today after cleaning out the truck's gas tank I put the KLR back together and parked it behind the garage. With the bike out of the way and the truck done for the day, I attacked the shelves. They are empty now. There's a big pile of stuff on the floor to sort, but it's progress. It's going to be nice to have these shelves organized and accessible again. I think that power tools and pneumatic tools will fill it nicely. ...clean the concrete a bit and put some old vinyl 'click-together' flooring down while I have a clear space.

I really want to get back to work on the Fiero and get the timing belt done on my Gambler 500 CR-V. I have now through Christmas of night shift and actual days off before a 10 day stretch of day shift. It's going to be a busy week.

Yay, progress!

If you look carefully at the blur, you can see that the power tools are carefully arranged on those shelves now. The weather is too nice today not to clear some maintenance projects off the list. I will continue the garage starting on Sunday night after work. I am committing to the 30 minute a day (night) starting Sunday.

The Ford truck is back at it's home. The rear tank has a new pump and sender, but that didn't fix the fuel transfer problem. If/when I get back to work on it, I'll change out the unit that switches tanks. Today is timing belt, cam seals, front main seal, valve adjustment, and water pump on the CR-V. I'll have a couple hours available tomorrow (Christmas) to finish up in case it runs late.

:30 Sunday night... Mostly not garage, but working on the related issues. It was a very windy day and the cover came off the Scirocco. I hadn't uncovered it for about six months, keeping it sealed until I am ready to work on it. It looks good with the cover off. I opened the door and checked the interior. I had left a complete socket set and about ten loose wrenches on the floor when I closed it up last. I grabbed them, then put the cover back on. In the garage, I realized that I do not have a *good* place to put them. For now, I put the loose wrenches in a big drawer of loose wrenches and set the socket set on the welding cart. Tomorrow if I get off work on time, I'll hit Harbor Freight for a large toolbox and start organizing tools into it.

In selling off some of my surplus Boxster parts, I mentioned to a guy with a Spec Boxster, that I'd be willing to sell him my Blue '98 as a parts car. He didn't want a whole parts car, but knows a guy looking for a chassis to build for endurance racing. I got a reply email back from that guy this evening asking for a picture of the car. I spent the rest of my garage time uncovering that car and giving it a quick wash and dry, for a picture in the dark. I love my Boxster projects, but however many I have  (don't make me count them again) , having one less would probably be good. This was the best I could do, using the light bar on my Gambler 500 CR-V to illuminate it:

:30 Monday night. Yesterday I looked online at some large rolling toolboxes at HF and Lowes. I found one with a great price that would work well for me at Lowes, but it was not stocked locally and shipping was $70. Looking at the pictures of big toolboxes, I also realized that I am not ready for one yet. No good place to put one until I clear more clutter. I stopped at HF after work and picked up a tool bag to put some wrenches in and a waterproof case to mount on the back of the 'new' BMW F650GS.

At home after dinner I just didn't feel like organizing the garage. I was frustrated that it still has so much clutter that I couldn't even figure out where to put a big tool box and tired from a 12 hour day at work. I went out to the garage anyway because I told *You* that I would. Accountability. I put the wrenches that I found the night before into the tool bag. "There, is that good enough for You?" ...no. I looked around and there was no calm refuge for my eyes anywhere. I looked down and there was a bucket with an assortment of residue from three or four projects in the bottom of it. If the big stuff is too much to handle, focus on a small thing.

I sorted the bucket. Tools went with tools, nuts with nuts, and bolts with bolts. Anything that didn't have a place or potential future use went in the trash. I put on some music. ...Rivets, I have a drawer of loose rivets and tools that should be organized. Another container of hardware from stripping a car, a tub that I just put random things in, drill bits mixed in with screws. An hour and a half went by before I knew it. Nothing big, but lots of little things.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

I'm proud of you. Sickness took all the wind out of my sails weeks ago.

Javelin said:

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

I'm proud of you. Sickness took all the wind out of my sails weeks ago.

I saw that and hope you're feeling better. 'Merry Christmas' with that. Get back to work Mike, we are watching you.

I'm not into New Year's resolutions, but I realized that organizing the garage is a good step, but not a solution for me. The root of the problem is that I have jumped from project to project without taking the time in between to put away and clean up. The job is not done and the next thing should not start until the tools are all back in their place and the floor is swept. I'm working on making that my habit and routine gong forward.

Loving the progress pics, Im still working on mine, inspired from this thread and Javelin's videos.

It's wild how time can pass so dang quickly without realizing how much time you were out in the garage doing something so small.

itsarebuild said:

Assign a dollar value to your specs. Every sf costs between $160 and $260. If 8' tall that's $20 to $40 per cubic foot. Can you buy that part again for less than the cost of storing it for as long as it will take to get around to it? Get rid of it.

 

Full disclaimer I heard this three years ago and have kept used parts I could have bought three or four times over new by now. But the advice is all the more relevant through my failures!

I'm told this is common in the manufacturing world, and is used to incentivize more efficient use of space.

I like the application of it to personal storage.

:00 Tuesday night. Got a late call at work and ended up doing a 14 hour shift. Ate dinner, walked with a dog, went to bed. Woke up, ate breakfast, went to work. Today at the office, I'll work on an improved floor plan for the garage.

:30 Wednesday night. I made a basic plan for the garage space. A new starting point that I can adjust from.

This area along the left wall has been collecting clutter for years. There's really almost nothing there that I need to keep in the garage. It's going to take some time to sort it all. Some of it will be temporarily set aside until I get a day off to properly store it or dispose of it. The box labeled "Challenge Car Parts" has sat there since 2019 and the only thing still 'Challenge Car' in it is a radar detector system that I removed from the car and didn't even use in the budget for recoup or trade (trash).

Much of what I removed Wednesday night went in the trash. The stuff on the bottom is going to be more difficult to sort since most of it has use for particular projects, just not what I'm working on right now. Everything there needs to be moved out and my workbench and welding cart will go there.

I think that tonight's focus will be on packaging some of the clutter to mail out. I have a couple due-outs that would be nice to ship tomorrow before the weekend/Holiday. The New Years Game box needs to go and I have Boxster stuff to pack and a few things that I need to confirm I have for a buyer. Additionally, the blue '98 is scheduled for pick-up on the 15th and I need to clear out the 914 parts I have stashed in it and load up more 986 parts. I may have that buyer ferry some large parts to Colorado for another Boxster guy. I hate to see that car go, but I'm glad to have it off the list. I got to go to work after sunrise a couple days ago (the night crew was in OKC and getting back to base an hour late) and got an updated pic. If I wasn't selling it, I'd buy it:

:30 Thursday night. Actually spent about an hour selecting more stuff from the garage and packing the NYG box. Box of Boxster parts partially loaded, but I still need to find the correct HVAC control faceplate. That could take a while. Didn't have time to do anything regarding the blue '98. Not sure if I will declare New Year's Eve a 'garage holiday' or put some time in tonight.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

Bit by bit you're getting there.....it's great to see.

:30 Saturday night. Bit by bit... As I have seen some others doing, just clearing off one surface every day makes steady progress.

This bench is going to be put on the opposite side of the garage. I may resurface the top of it with some wood and a heavy steel plate, but for now I'm avoiding rabbit holes like that and just dealing with the clutter and getting organized.

Put as much stuff in the trash as I can, sort the loose hardware and put it in with 'like' hardware, tools with tools, and parts with similar parts. Not everything has a good place to go yet. Mostly car parts are going into temporary places and will get a further sorting later, but as I go around I am being careful not to stash the parts in the place I just cleaned the day before. Tonight I'm planning to do the drawers and bottom shelf of this bench.

Organizing and cleaning up, has revealed one vice that you can't live without.  Nice progress.

Keep it up, keep inspiring us!

Jon sent me a free box-o'-garage-junk and I've been majorly slacking on posting it up. I mean, I'm not sure it was really required since it wasn't an "official" New Years Box, but it was a really cool thing to do, so in the same spirit, here we go:

This box was packed with the skill of a Tetris master. First off, a window net! Aw man, really? I just gave away two of these, and for a very short time, my life was window-net-free, but here we are. I'll either find a use for this or regift it at some point.

Next up...apparently these are something called Pozidriv? I've never actually encountered one of these, and I didn't own any of the bits, but now I do, so I'll be ready.

Nut drivers! I didn't own any, now I do. And they're metric too, score. These will go in the screwdriver drawer and I bet they'll come in handy.

I can always use spare bungee cords.

Hey, a Harbor Freight float charger. I have one of these already but one of the clips broke off. This one is still intact, so time to throw that old one out and let this one take its place in the drawer.

Turn signal bulb holders from something...maybe an engine donor Buick Rendesvous? I'll probably chuck the bulb holders but good amber-tinted 3157 bulbs are always nice to have on hand.

Hey, spare lug nuts. Wait, there's something odd about these...are they ball-seat? Eww. I guess if I ever wanted to put VW wheels on a non-VW or something, I might want these, but for now they'll just take up space in a hardware box compartment with the other lug nuts.

Power cord. Everyone has two dozen more of these than they need, right? I sure do, and this one will go in the same cardboard box in the basement with the rest of them. Maybe they can be sold for copper scrap someday.

Looks like a new oil pan drain bolt, with an o-ring in the middle? That's weird, never seen one like that before. I have a compartment in a hardware box that this can live in.

SMART-O, eh?

Hey, a 19mm short impact socket, that's useful, but...oh no, what has Jon done to you? This thing is severely mushroomed. This is going in the pile of broken stuff I'm keeping in the garage to make some welded "art" out of someday.

Some plastic trim fasteners, fuses, copper washers, a spare electrical clamp, and what looks like a cable tension adjuster? Sure, I have places for most of this stuff.

Ooh, score! A Bluetooth OBD-II reader! I had one of these and a basic handheld code reader at one point, and either lost them both or loaned them out and just never got them back. I needed to read a code off my mother-in-law's Honda the other day and I had nothing but fancy GM programming and tuning tools...no dice. This will come in handy for sure.

A cigarette lighter? Eh, no use for this, it's probably just going to hit the trash.

Random old dome light. Looks like a good festoon bulb and diode in there but I don't feel like it's worth the trouble to get them out.

Spanner wrench. I bet this fits some power tool I own, it'll go in that drawer.

Serpentine belt idler pulley, made in the good ol' U-S-of-A! Has a good 6203 bearing in it if nothing else. That could come in handy.

Eww, toxic waste. I might regift this to some unsuspecting New Years Box recipient.

The legendary $10 bluetooth head unit! This thing looks pretty legit, and honestly offers all the same features as the much more expensive Sony in my Conquest. If I don't find a use for it myself, I bet I can find someone who will want it. Great gift.

Ooh, new...what do you call these? Plastic screw things. These are something I actually need and would otherwise have had to buy. I will definitely end up using some on my Conquest. Awesome score, thanks Jon!

GM washer fluid reservoir cap. This would've been an upgrade for the one on my C5 if I hadn't already grabbed a nicer one from the junkyard. Since I can pocket pretty much as many of these as I would ever want at U-Pull, I'll probably just toss this one.

All in all, this was an awesome box of stuff! Thanks again for letting me help you clear out some space.

Confirmed, plastic screw clips fit the Conquest! This one will go in here once I nudge that panel a little flatter.

If I wasn't selling it, I'd buy it

i LOL'd because I've said the same thing

:30 ...was that Sunday?  I was making all kinds of excuses to myself last night to not go to the garage. Finally just walked out there and did it. As I write this I'm thinking of even more excuses not to do it tonight. Will four hours on Wednesday make up for skipping tonight and tomorrow? ...maybe. maybe not. I just though of an easy job; gather my little pieces of scrap metal that I still may use for something and put them in one big plastic tub. I have a tub with some already and I know a few [wrong] places scraps are stashed.

In reply to obsolete :

I'm glad that a couple things were useful. When I saw that you were doing your garage too I thought maybe I should have sent a smaller box. That 19mm socket looked good when I first picked it up, then I saw the mushroom. Your box was closer than the trash and it's still useful for hammering on things that you don't want to hit directly with a hammer. ...I suppose a lot of things can be good for that.

Last night I did put the loose pieces of scrap metal in the tub. If nothing else, I can use a lot of it for welding practice.

Today is my 'Friday' after a very long 'week'. It was busy, it was good, it was hard. Mrs AAZCD didn't want to hear how my day was anymore after I started describing last Friday's patient injuries. My dog always listens. For tonight's garage time, I'm going to sit in the Fiero and listen to some 90s music, drink some wine (out of beer), and figure out what to do in the days ahead.  I'm off work 'till Monday night.

:25 Tuesday night. Sitting in the Fiero in the garage.

Three bikes in the garage is too much floor space gone even if they roll out easily...

Why haven't I sorted this clutter yet, it looks pretty easy....

Hope Sandoval starts singing 'Fade Into You' as wine is about half gone. ...is that song about the Citroën that's in the video? Cool old car.