Projects Have you purchased a part and then lost it?

Of all the things I have lost through time, I miss my mind the most ! Answer to your question is, YES ! I know it's here somewhere, just put away for safe keeping so it would not be lost.

 

I got one. Back in 1989 I worked at a Ford dealership in the parts section and right before they became obsolete I ordered a brand new 64 ford falcon grille from ford for my 64 Sprint. Never opened it and it moved with me to my apartment when I moved out on my own. I met my eventual wife and she moved in and I always kept this box in the closet. We moved and I put it out of the way on moving day and what I didn't realize till later(a year or so) was that I must have been so concerned with not bending it or stacking stuff on it that I left it behind. Fast forward 20 years and I started renting a storage unit off the same guy I rented the apartment off of and I had asked him if he ever remembered finding a falcon grille still in the original box way back when we moved out. I mean, how could you miss a box that big......right? He said he didn't recall and I wouldn't have held it against him even if he'd had sold it. After all, I was the one that left it behind. So, in 2014, after just every so often asking him if he had came across it with a "didn't see it" reply, I kind of given up. He did say he had a property in which he had stored stuff that was left behind by other renters and he said he hadn't been there for a year or two(got pretty much out of the landlord thing) and he was going to get that property cleaned up and ready to be sold. I got this call from him two weeks before Christmas in 2014 and he said there was an issue with my storage shed payment and that I had to come out to the office to try to remedy the issue. I pulled in and there was my Dad(which he called prior without me knowing who also has a storage shed) and the owner standing there. He told me to come into his office and low and behold......there was my Ford Falcon grille still in the original box leaning against the wall with a bow on it and he had a big smile on his face. He said he sent his father down to the other property the other day to just have a look around and that his dad had stumbled across it and threw it in the truck and brought it out and said..."isn't this what that Campbell kid has asked about for the last 25 years?". So.....yes, I have lost something and found it.......just a lot later than expected and in a way that was unfathomable. Thanks for listening.

 

Hell, I'm to the point I loose a wrench walking from the toolbox to the car. I can relate !!!

 

So the question bears asking? do you still have the Falcon? HRP

 

When I began to read this thread, some episode of similar actions popped into my head. I read all of the posts and began to relate my own story. Yep, I forgot what I was going to write!

 

Putting something in a spot for safe keeping is the kiss of death. You will never find it. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me. You'd think I'd learn.

Gary

 

I bought a NOS Sun Super Tach off of eBay for a OT 70's car I was building, put it up until I was ready for it. Went back to get it, it wasn't where I usually put things. Looked through my shop area, all through the house, nada, not to be found. Looked off and on for close to a year every time I would think of it, still not to be found. Found a used one on eBay that looked good, so I bought it. The day it came in the mail, I opened it in the bedroom, wife asked, "What's that for?" I told her the Maverick, she said "What's wrong with the other one you bought?" I told her nothing as far as I knew, I had lost it and couldn't find it. "Isn't this it?" she asked after walking to a end table in the living room and pulling it out of the drawer. Apparently I had put it there the day it came in the mail, why, I still don't know. She said I should have just asked her, which I had but she didn't remember me asking. Still have it, car is long gone, will end up using it in something one day.....

 

How difficult could it be to find a brown cardboard box,you would think something a foot square box just couldn't just disappear.

I've almost convinced myself it must be in the old attached garage of in the house somewhere or heaven forbid they are in the barn. HRP

 

I once lost some parts before I ever got them home. I remember I bought a nice set of 15" smooth stainless trim rings, the '50 Ford ones that you can't get in repro. I was carrying them around at the swap meet after buying them, and then they were gone. Never made it to the truck. I must have set them down when looking at something else, and then walked off without them. I bet they were really cherry.....

 

I'm hell for losing things. I can relate to every story you guys posted. On the 'be on the lookout' list lately, 1 '63 327 crossed flag emblem (I had a PAIR), 10mm deepwell socket, mighty-vac, ....unrelated, my 'good' binoculars, a new red felt ballcap (winter here ya know..), square point ditch shovel (been gone for yrs), just to name a few I can remember off hand. Ma used to tell me I lose my head if it wasn't tied on, think she was right.
If any of you guys got any of this stuff, just drop it off, no questions asked....

 

HRP.....yes, I still have my high school car which is a 64 ford falcon sprint, V8 4speed car. Plus, a lot more cars also including two more 64's.

 

We lost a whole '50 Chev coupe once. Somewhat hazy on details, but rhubarb wine & being 14 - 15 years old were factors. It happened on one of those first warm spring nights ... chicks were involved ...
they wanted to go in their nice radio & heater equipped car, not some "pinto painted, noisy, rough riding junker". We parked it. Late in the fall, when the weeds started dying & blowing over, somebody found it behind the local slaughter house.

 

Go ahead and use it before you loose it....again! HRP

 

I always told my wife before she died and still tell anyone.........if it don't make it on one of my cars it will definitely make it in my casket. We have a history now you know.........

 

I bought a set of N.O.S. headlight lens retaining clips for my '36 Ford Coupe from a Gent at the Ford Barn (I had Looked EVERYWHERE for a set!!) the new re-pops don't work worth s*it.. Left them in the original brown-bubble envelope and they must have grown legs and disappeared... Never to be found again!
(Still looking for a set of OG clips if anyone is holding lol.)

 

Birds of a feather.........My snap ring pliers and my 51' Dashboard are still missing...I lost the dog's leash and he don't know where it is...In my machine shop I opened a cabinet looking for a couple of taps, surprise I got when all the taps and dies and allen cap counter bores were all neatly arranged in blocks of wood...Forgot I did that last year..Now I need the spring tapping center and I can't find it..Such a nice job of organizing and its gone, no where in that cabinet...In frustration I looked in another cabinet and there it was with the tap handles and die handles and me remembering thats where I always kept it..DUH!

 

These things are not lost, garage gremlins take them and hide them until a replacement is purchased then they will lay them in plain sight where you have looked countless times. I am trying to outlast them on the ash tray for my 57 Corvette but it has almost been 2 years now and not a sign. Warning you must be VERY careful not to ever let the garage gremlins into the house!

 

Losing your stuff isn't as bad as buying it, putting it "away", then 5 years later, buying another one.
Hell, I didn't lose the first one. Just forgot that I'd bought it.
My theory is that if your car takes decades to finish, this is gonna happen a lot.
I don't think it's dementia... 'cause I did this shit years ago, too.
I read a lot of books, then stack 'em in Rubbermaids or boxes. Always buying new paperbacks. What really sucks is to get to about page 4, and realize that I already have that book.
Maybe I should pay more attention to the titles.

 

When you do this, we want pics!

 

I've done this! MANY times!

 

Generally I forget that I had one to begin with so when I find something it is a complete surprise!

 

You took a page out of my book,It took me 9 years and one month to the day to build the Ranch Wagon and I during the early stages of the build Dennis Carpenter had a sale on the windshield and back glass rubber and I took advantage of the almost 100 dollar savings.

When we were in the final stages Dave ask me about the rubber and I assured him I didn't have any and he said he distantly remembers me ordering it,I went home and started looking through my receipts and started getting nauseated seeing just how much I had spent so I just dialed up Dennis Carpenter and ordered the rubber.and this was in late 2011.

Fast forward to December 2015 and I had just purchased new long sleeve Tee's for all the employees for Christmas so I decided to store them I the long stackable filing cabinets in my garage,low and behold there was the rubber I swore I had never purchased. HRP

 

Man can I relate. I had a lot of parts for my Ford on the kitchen counter, a big peninsula that has a lot of surface area. There was a NOS parking light bezel and trunk emblem in the mix. I swore both items were put in a 10" x 10" USPS box.

I looked for them in the house and garage for a solid 3 months, I just wanted to show them off.

FINALLY... I find them. Both parts were in Ford boxes and mixed in with some paint supplies I had on the counter as well. I did move them onto my garage work bench. The box had paint strainers in it, right over the boxes of Ford parts. I looked at that box from the paint shop at least a dozen times... nah, they can't be in there...

 

Wives ( or in my case, ex's ) can make this much worse.
Put my new clean little box of pretty things by MY chair... poof... gone
Under the bed, out of the way.... gone
WAY back in the corner, can't hardly even see it.... gone
Can't put the shiny new stuff in the garage, either... it's way too crowded in there
When I was married, I actually tried to keep some stuff in the trunk of my DD. She didn't drive it, surely it'd be safe.
And maybe I didn't want her to know what I was buying sometimes... maybe
Now I have a junk room with a lock on the door. No females allowed, no matter what.
In fairness, they've all looked through the doorway, and even their natural curiosity doesn't overcome their fear of sitting foot in that room, so all my stuff is safe now. I just don't know exactly where it is in the safe room, but it's in there.
The kitchen remodeling project from Hell has cost me so far, countless screwdrivers, drill bits, and 2 nice 25' tape measures.......... gone. Like being married again.
It will get worse, by my reckoning, the kitchen will take longer than the car I started in 1988.

 

Last year my buddy dropped off 3 French frier baskets to get welded up.
We Can only find 2. I welded 3, put 3 stacked up on the shelf and there's only two.

Lost the removable winch for my trailer.
Tore the entire place apart looking for it.
Found that heavy bastard on the top shelf- in a box behind a box. Eventually Found it by accident about 3 weeks later.

Lost the tapered chuck for drill press. Found it a year later in a box clear across the shop. The box was a dog treat "milk bone" box marked as and with 1-5/8 tube bends. That happened about 5 years ago. It really fucked me up for 3days and special order to get another. Ever since we found the chuck and Just today (every day) when ever something is missing -"did you look in the milk bone box?" We forgot where we stashed an engine block, did you check the milk bone box? Where's the XX keys, check the milk bone box. Where the hell did my coffee go, look in the milk bone box

 

I don't remember------------probably------------oh hell yeah-------------I think!

 

I've lost my LA Roadsters: A Retrospective about 6 months ago. I KNOW it's SOMEWHERE in the house here, but I'll be damned if I can find it. Shitty thing is, it had a bunch of autographs in it, including Tom Medleys.

 

I found some parts I put in a safe place a year after giving up the search (while looking for something else).

 

I've been losing '32 parts for DECADES...with '32 parts, when I do find them, I stagger backwards and exclaim "I can't afford that!!"
My kids will either become deuce millionaires or they'll put it all in a dumpster and sell it for like $12.00

 

I'm still trying to get an avatar posted, let alone pics in a post....hmmm