wae
PowerDork
9/30/22 10:37 a.m.
I made the mistake of looking at Bessler's inventory because my adopted PT Cruiser needs a left front knuckle/hub assembly. Turns out there's a PT GT in the yard. Do you know how much self-restraint it is taking me to not run out there and put yet one more engine on a furniture dolly in the shop "just in case I ever need one"!?
The county is having their "fall clean up" event so I have a chance to get rid of a bunch of the old coolant and motor oil I've got laying around along with the old trailer tires I still haven't disposed of. And an old couch and love seat that have been sitting in our garage waiting for me to get rid of them since April. Of last year.
Anybody want a couple motorcycles?
wae said:
Anybody want a couple motorcycles?
You really should just post them up here. They both seem to have GRMers as a target audience.
Edit: If I had time and space, I'd want to build some kind of mechanical abomination out of the Goldwing.
In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :
I've definitely been guilty of "Ooo! That's a good deal for a rare item!! Must. Buy!!!" It's how I have JDM A/C parts for a classic Mini. It's how I have multiple carb setups for a Triumph Spitfire engine. How I have a number of the guitars and effects units/pedals in my collection. How a few bicycle parts are in my inventory as well.
Well, I managed to empty out my indoor locker and schedule a move out date. That'll give me about $90 a month back into my budget. My S10 and Beetle are stashed in the garage for the winter, and while I'll do a little work on the S10, there are no huge projects planned over the winter, which is good, because other than a couple small pathways, this is pretty much the only work space I have for the next four months:
I'm hoping to gain a bit more clarity about where I go with the S10, and some future project ideas over the winter, so I can decide more about what can stay and what needs to go in the spring. If the Beetle doesn't start getting driven more next year, it is on the chopping block, even if it is really cool.
Oh yeah, one realization I have - I've pretty much outgrown my first mechanic's tool set. Its a Craftsman set that I bought in college, but other than a few of the 1/2" and 1/4" SAE sockets in it, it barely gets used anymore. The ratchets are the old 36 tooth design, and I have a multiple 72 and 90 tooth ratchets that get used regularly now. The good part is, opened up, it has storage space, so the drawer it is in gets used to store extensions and and other socket wrench bits. Still, I could recover half the toolbox drawer if I stashed the set away somewhere. Being my first "serious" tool set, I'm not sure I could just let go of it, though.
In reply to wae :
What kind of bikes we talking about?
Fire is probably not a good way to declutter, at least when there is stuff you want to keep mixed in with stuff you are "meh" about.
It supposedly started in the unit right next to mine, and consumed several on down the line.
My wheel collection, minus some 14" 4x100 mopar wheels I was holding on to for the Miata. They were glued to the floor with melted plastic from the shelving unit they were on. You can see the one I was able to pry loose on the left. I just tossed it back in with the rest.
The Corvette wheels I just recently got from Patrick (and just hauled to the locker last weekend) took the brunt of it. I'll have to do a little digging to find out if they are safe to use someday. One of eastsideWife's GTI wheels has some discoloration that is either crap burned onto it or melted clearcoat. The plastic centercaps are intact, so I am guessing they stayed cool enough to be safe to reuse. I just need to figure the easiest way to remove tire carcasses. The steel VW wheels have some scorching on the paint that may come right off. The two Pontiac GTA wheels that were there seem to have come out in pretty good shape, too. Picked a few other things out of the locker, but almost everything else was a loss, or like my engine hoist, would require so much restoration work, that it's not worth the effort.
Here's the worst of it, though:
That was a wood and metal handcart that I believe was at least 80, but possibly over 100 years old. Used to be my grandfather's. I thought about taking it with me to restore, or turn into a coffee table, but realized I have way too many things to do, and it would just sit around taking up space and making me feel guilty about not doing anything with it.
Going to sit down with a notepad and start writing down what I remember was in there, and see if it is worth make a claim on my homeowners insurance. If it is not far enough above my deductible (which I need to go check), it may not even be worth it. Especially since a lot of what was in there was used car parts that would be hard to value. A lot of it was cheap, but not so easy to come by things, like interior trim pieces for a 1st gen S10.
Many thanks to Cooper_Tired for coming out this morning to help clean up and haul stuff!
In reply to eastsideTim :
I'm sorry. Lousy thing to happen. Is the rental place offering any compensation?
Really a terrible way to declutter.
Sorry it happened, I can't imagine processing losing that many years of parts/memories. If you need a truck for grabbing anything else let me know.
I'll bring you the receipt for that LS7 I sold you that was completely lost in the fire. Incase you need it for insurance...
frenchyd said:
In reply to eastsideTim :
I'm sorry. Lousy thing to happen. Is the rental place offering any compensation?
I didn't push for anything when I talked to them - my recollection from when I checked when I first had a locker is that in Ohio, it's up to the renter to insure it. Honestly, the financial loss is minimal compared to the time spent acquiring and organizing the parts. Lots of junkyard trips, drives to buy parts from FB and CL, and shuffling around to get parts in and out. I need to double check on a few things, like my S10 manual steering box, to see if they are in my garage. And I should start looking around local junkyards for some panels I lost for the S10, or just live without them like I have been, Fortunately, when I cleaned out my indoor locker in the fall, all of that came to my home - a lot of that was higher dollar parts.
There were some other things, like my engine hoist, that I could have grabbed, sanded down, repainted, and gotten a new hydraulic cylinder, but the effort just wasn't worth it versus just buying a new one when I need it. Same with my bike rack, and my bead breaker (if I could have found it, it was likely buried in a corner).
In reply to eastsideTim :
As I age I've given up on ever doing some projects and have eliminated others due to time involved.
In fact I'm really down to 4 car projects and finish the gift Jaguar to my granddaughter Those are 1000hrs on the Jaguar XJS , 300 hrs on the XJ12, and 200 hours on the MGTD plus 2000 hours on the XKE and trailer. Sorry I had to it it down in print for me to consider the actual time involved.
My wife wants her family's business to finish the details on the house. Frankly I'm OK with that. They are little fiddly projects that with my wife anger over dust and disturbance I'd really rather not have to deal with that.
However that leaves me with almost 10,000 bd ft of hardwood. At 30% of retail. That's at least $15,000
Plus all those woodworking tools to dispose of.
Retail value on those would be well over $10,000 even at bargain basement, good guys prices.
In reply to eastsideTim :
My landlord was clear on that. His insurance covers his building, not my stuff.
Sorry to hear that Tim. As much as it sucks you are responsible for insuring I'm your contents. If there was negligence on the part of your neighbor you might be able to go after their insurance. Assuming they have any!
In reply to dculberson :
Right now I'm leaning on just walking away from everything, and dealing with anything I need from it as it goes. I put together a list, and so much of what's in there is probably low value due to age or condition, so I may not even hit my deductible (I think it is $1K, but not sure). If all the wheels had been bad, it'd be different. Might change my mind by the time the insurance office is open on Monday, but frankly I've got enough BS going on in my life I'm not sure I have the space in my mind to deal with all this crap.
This has also reminded me of one of the reasons I bought a house. Not having to share walls with anyone means less risk of dealing with the consequences of other people's actions.
I'm thinking I may set aside the $95 a month it cost to store stuff in an envelope, and every time I need something I lost that is easy for me to just buy, I can pull the money from there.
That really sucks, sorry.
Slight progress in the world of organizing what I already have. Been accumulating some storage boxes, and have started filling them up, so similar things will all be in the same location.
With the exception of the fittings box, everything is new or nearly new hardware. I have a small set of bolt drawers for used metric hardware that has come in handy quite often. My used SAE hardware is unsorted, and there is a lot more of it than metric, so I need to figure out a space efficient way of storing it. It may just continue being unsorted, but consolidated into few bins.
This should help cut down on trips to the hardware store, since it'll be easier to find what I already have. I had been using a portable toolbox for some of this, and it may be able to get rededicated to tools, or if I am really good at clearing things out, it can be sold off.
wae
PowerDork
4/19/23 2:20 p.m.
In reply to eastsideTim :
As your friend, I feel like I have a duty to point out that is not a method to reduce hoarding but to do better hoarding.
wae said:
In reply to eastsideTim :
As your friend, I feel like I have a duty to point out that is not a method to reduce hoarding but to do better hoarding.
It did help already in a small project for the S10. All the hardware I needed for the light bar was able to be found in my garage, so I didn't need to go to the hardware store for anything. My hope is that I can slowly burn down my supply, rather than keep buying the same thing over and over because I don't know if I have what I need.
With a little self control, I'll avoid buying more to fill the bins up, just because.
eastsideTim said:
In reply to dculberson :
Right now I'm leaning on just walking away from everything, and dealing with anything I need from it as it goes. I put together a list, and so much of what's in there is probably low value due to age or condition, so I may not even hit my deductible (I think it is $1K, but not sure). If all the wheels had been bad, it'd be different. Might change my mind by the time the insurance office is open on Monday, but frankly I've got enough BS going on in my life I'm not sure I have the space in my mind to deal with all this crap.
I'm in a similar place. However she of an item doesn't determine its value. I have some things from the 1960's that because they are semi organized are available.
The problem is time. If I need 9/16's 2&1/2" grade 9 bolt it's in the 9/16's bin. And once I pull that out and dig through to find the required bolt. I have a mess to put back.
It doesn't take too long to have several bins out spread on every flat surface that needs to be put away.
