Art & Inspiration how many would you own?

We live in the suburbs as well so space and neighbors are a consideration. In our city any vehicle without current plates is a derelicit. I can't say I'd want more than one major project anyway. But none of this really matters, She who must be obeyed has said 4 cars tops including her daily driver. Phil

 

My answer is no, I would not own more. I have 3/4 of an acre, 2 daily's, 2 complete HAMB friendly cars and one being built, the garage can hold 4 "HAMB friendly" cars. I have the space but there is no way I can maintain more with the time and budget available. If I made high 6 figures, maybe, but being on the cusp of retirement, no way. I am quite happy with what I have.

 

You don't need more property to have more projects just get more buddies with property and if they have enough shit hanging around you can slide yours in with theirs and they won't even mind! I have 1/3rd acre and a 2 car garage in a gated community with a major pain in the ass HOA. My Harley is in a neighbors garage and my F350 dually is in her driveway. My daily drivers are in my driveway. My A roadster occupies 1 bay of the garage and my shop/workspace the other bay. My 34' RV trailer is in a paid storage yard. All my extra hot rod parts are in a 10 x 20 rental storage bin. The utility trailer and 1954 Met (future project) are at a buddies who has 5 acres. Sure takes some juggling and makes it tough to find the car parts when I need em, but hey, I am getting the A roadster done!

 

I own a half a double house in a Boro with a one car garage out back.....so, for me, it's 5 rented storage sheds and I also rent an old business garage that has 4 bays plus storage up top. I own 3 64 falcons, 1 63 1/2 falcon convertible, 1 63 fairlane 500 hardtop, 2 66 fairlane hardtops, 48 ford business coupe and 1971 chevelle SS. Then there is my dad's stuff....62 mercury comet, 63 mercury comet, 64 ford falcon, 70 galaxie fastback, 86 olds 442. Getting ready to pick up a 56 ford club sedan in a couple weeks. At my house in the borough I have my three daily OT cars as none of my cars listed above are completed. I kind of like having them all....work on one till I have to spend money on something and then go weld on another one for a while. Most of them are above 50% done until paint work. If I live long enough I should have fun deciding which car to drive that day.

 

9 acres. Wife and two kids, so I have one old car and one daily for each of us, all out of the weather.

Oh, and four motorcycles......

Most of the acreage is pond and hay ground.

 

The most i ever had a one time was 14. I thinned them out to 9 now I’m down to 5.problem with me is this stuff seems to follow me home.

 

I have 30 acres in another state about 45 minutes away where I keep all my junk. I ended up acquiring about 18-20 old cars before I realized I wouldn't live long enough to build them so I started selling them off. Only have 5 left to get rid of. I keep my good stuff at my home, its kind of cramped with 5 old cars and 3 daily drivers. I do wish my home lot was bigger than 1/4 acre.

 

I got two, one more than I've ever had, its enough. A few parts here and there, enough to build a car, but I live next to a guy who can't get enough "good" stuff. His place looks like a shithole, cars and trucks every where with the hoods or trunks open, rotting away. Count me as not a fan.
BUT, I also take the view, live and let live.

 

I've always had more cars than room....but just recently moved to a place with 5+ acres, 2 big shops and an airplane hanger.
I have no desire to "fill my property" with shit I'll never get to.
Its nice not tripping over crap.
And now that I've been working at a hotrod/custom shop....I really don't wanna build anything for myself....except 911s....lol

 

I live on 4 acres and more than one person told me that they were worried about me having that much space to fill up after I moved from my little 1/5 acre lot in town. I've been here for about 5 years and I have surprised them and myself by only adding one car and two tractors to the collection. I'm at the point where I want to get rid of a lot of the crap I know I'll never get to and I'm more selective about the junk I bring home with me these days.

 

Been collecting vehicles since I was 16, now have over a hundred, but have enough land and timber that you can drive by with in a couple hundred feet and not see a lot of them. Some good , some not so good. Thought I’d fix them up when I retired. Retired now, just don’t seem to have the same drive I had as a young man. I keep a few cars/projects at my home, 20 miles from the ranch. Gives me something to do when I get inspired enough to work on something. Spend most of my time visiting and taking it easy.



Bones

 

We have 5 acres in a rural environment. The house has a 3 car garage that houses two daily drivers and a golf cart. The detached 32 x 50 garage contains a '55 Chevy that is done, a '37 Chevy that is 98% complete and a '54 Dodge truck in pieces. A couple of trailers and a vintage John Deere live outside the detached garage between the garage and a privacy fence and out of view from the house. My later model truck sits on the driveway somewhere.

The missus is insistent about not seeing "junk" outside so she accepts the above situation. She tells me she does not care what is in the garage--she doesn't want to look at it outside. No complaints from the neighbors and I don't have any complaints with the neighbors. I guess I'm not a real hot rodder.

 

I don't see how a car guy could ever be happy living in a neighborhood with a home owners association, most of those seem to rule like nazis.

 

Who wants to live in a "Junk Yard" ?

 

Read posts above. Many do. Not all people are happy with the same life. Live and let live is the way I see it. If a guy doesn't want to look at what another guy loves, he has the right to work hard and toward buying enough property in a place that he can't see what someone else has or buy a place where everyone agrees to a set of rules in a neighborhood. That's not for me. We all should have the right to enjoy life our way on the peice of ground we earned and when the other guy gets to enjoy OUR property the way HE sees fit somebody is getting screwed out of a happy life. Everything I own is in a nice building. I constantly try to consider others and respect them but everywhere I have lived before someone found something to complain about as in calling the cops because I was using a spray paint can on my front porch. I keep my thoughts of what I want on my own property and leave the other guy alone. I worked hard all of my life to get enough property to live away from controlling assholes.

 

If I Can't Lock Three Up At Night Then Something Is Going In The Classifieds...Stay Focused...

 

I've enough acres(6) but not enough buildings but I am too old and too poor to build more.

 

I want everything in a garage. Two daily drivers, my hotrod and a project. My old Ford tractor sets out and I hate that but that will change soon. Plenty of room on three acres but not going to fill it with dripping, leaking "future projects."

 

each to their own - I was on the low end of I got more than you got group - having 1-2 full projects and 2-3 drivers with 3 or so OT dailies, all inside or under carports, on my ex-1 1/2 acre country place - had friends that wanted to "temporarily" store extra rides & projects at my place, no Thanks - didn't loan out my trailer either - not that I am very tempted most every time that I search around on craigslist, etc - important part is not having so much money that you do not have to say no - a friend used to do upholstery work for a guy that had about 300 cars in warehouses

 

Charlie Pontiac says...10,000.00 and ten acres....seems reasonable....

 

I bought a place with a bigger garage and collected more cars, this area doesn't allow cars sitting outside unregistered without license plates, so I'll never have more than can fit inside the garage.
Daily drivers and the car trailer sit in the driveway, no car parts stored outside either. I don't know how guys can live in those HOA places either, which are tougher than our normal laws, and with good conscious have to bother their neighbors with storing stuff at their places.

 

wow!! you guys are a hoot. i learned a long time ago, if you want to get along with other people DON'T LIVE ANYWHERE NEAR THEM. as far as having to many cars, they don't eat anything and they don't cost anything to sit where their at. we don't have a police force where i live and everybody doesn't seem to care what you do on your own property. we don't even have a traffic light. wife don't care what i got but sometimes says the place looks like a junkyard and i say thank you. i trained her pretty good in 33 years. i really never understand when people say they can't get to all the cars they got until they die. i say who cares. that will be the families problem. they may bitch but when they find out how much they are worth they will all be fighting for them. great stories guys.

 

First house was a big lot and drive way we had an average of 15 or so mostly runners and then added an acre place I was going to build on plus a rented shop - then I was up to about 30 plus with most all runners with a half dozen parts car....sold that acre and bought a small shop....still at about 30 give more than less....then was able to by an acre in a spot I always wanted....with a tennis court ! Sold shop and trying to get most all over there with some - with about 10 or so still at my old place. Going to down size soon as I a little past retirement age know....don't count my 305 Honda's...triple Kaw's or Ford 8N's...........

 

At one time, I had an acre in the country and I had 13 cars + the two daily drivers and a 24' x 36' garage I couldn't get a car into. Everything sat outside. We have moved 2 times since then, the herd has gotten smaller.

The current location has .6 acre with an 1800 sq ft house and a 2 car garage, with basement 2 car garage under the first one. I have added a 7' x 24' extension to the top garage. It happens to be zoned business. The upper garage addition has a walking path between the small parts storage and some shop equipment, and about 1/4 of the 2 car garage also has shop equipment in it. The remaining part of the upper garage is my work space, and parking for my wife's car when there isn't a paying job in there. The bottom garage has a very low ceiling and is mostly storage for stuff I thought I needed to keep over the years. I could put a lot more stuff in it, if it wasn't such a pita to get to.
On the west side of the driveway is a 75' x 75 ' grass area that is where I park "customer's vehicles". beyond the grass storage is a dead end street that ends at the back of my property, at a set of active railroad tracks that run along the north edge of my property. There is a 40' x 80' cement block building on the back corner of my property that runs along the tracks that does not belong to me. I wasn't interested in doubling my investment for a building that needs a new roof, had no heat and very little electric.
On the driveway sits my daily driver pickup. Along side of the driveway is my 48 Plymouth coupe. There is an empty space beside the coupe. Then sits my son's 57 Dodge wagon parts car. Next to it sits my just retired frame (plates expire tonight) rotted 4x4 truck. In the spring I will probably dissemble it. When ever it gets out of the body shop, my 39 Dodge pickup will probably occupy the empty space between the coupe and my son's parts car. There has been a varying amount of customer cars that have also been parked in the storage area. Every time we get a new Nuisance Inspector in the city, I get a visit and have to inform them this is a business property. I usually get static until they discover I am correct. Then I get an apology and everything is cool until we get a new person in that office.

There is a truck cab on a rolling stand on the driveway just to the west of the garage and there are a few parts along the west side of the garage that you can't see from the street in front of our place (there is an 8' drop in the ground grade between the front of the garage and the back of the garage). There is another large grade drop behind my privacy fence just before the rail road tracks. There is a chain link fence along the east side of my house. The area on the east end of the cement block building, to the north side of my house, and edged by the chain link fence is all a pretty large grass area.

I have just retired. At some point in time, my business exception to the city rules on vehicle parking is going to run out. I'm trying to reduce the number of vehicles that are parked here. Parking on the grass is a big no-no, and unlicensed vehicles are also a problem. I may have to add another 10' wide strip to my driveway to park my stuff on, get rid on my son's parts car (he has been warned) and hide the other stuff. Gene

 

I cut my grass one time and found cars I forgot I had!


Not really, but it could've happened at one time. I have 8.5 acres of a 38 acre plot all family owned, highway in front, family on both sides, a good neighbor on the back side separated from me by some wooded area. About 1/2 of my land is cleared. When I was in my 20's, between myself, my next door neighbor who was married to my wife's cousin, and some friends, I had about 20 vehicles in my yard around my house. Project cars, parts cars, drivers, only the driveway was open. I got tired of it, had the friends get their junk, neighbor get his junk, and I got rid of most of mine. Kept one project and one parts car, rest got traded or sold. Through the years I let a few parts cars collect behind the house close to the woods, but when scrap went up, I hauled them off, should've saved some things off them, but didn't.

Now, My Linc is under the carport in my working area, wife's Expy sits behind it in the driveway. My pickup is out in the yard as is her Firebird. I'm building a 22x40 carport and everything will be under a roof then. I have a couple of pickups stashed way behind the house, you can't see them unless you walk up on them. One is a friends and is a totaled rollover that only had liability insurance on it, it's being saved for it's running gear. The other was my late son's project, I don't know if I'll ever be able to build it, but think I'd like to in his memory. It's a way OT 82 F100 Stepside, lots of cab rust, so it might not even be worth fixing. Maybe one of these days I'll do it.

 

Sounds to me like a couple of Lemons entrants to me...I could just see you and your brother in a school bus competing. Even the bread truck would be cool.

 

Typical suburbia 1/4 acre, 3 car garage.
30x 44 shop 2 hours away. Not a great set up.
If I had more room I would have more projects.

 

I do! lol

 

We live in an somewhat upscale subdivision, on a .45 acre lot with a somewhat tightly controlled HOA. It's a really nice neighborhood and I appreciate the efforts of said HOA preventing neighbors from painting their houses chartreuse with magenta and pink polka dots, preventing folks from parking a 40 year old clapped out winnebago on the lawn or running an auto salvage operation from their front yard. There are neighborhoods not far from us in Nevada where all that ...and so much... more goes on.

I have a 3 bay garage, a 4 pad driveway and an extension off the driveway to a side gate to bring one car around behind a gate to work on it (it actually winds up being behind my garage, on the side of the house.) We have a newer Ram, newer Durango, a clean PT turbo convertible and my daughter's late model coupe. At present I have 3 vintage rides. A Chrysler 300, an old Plymouth and a 70 Challenger. All cars are registered, titled, tagged and operational. Despite this, several members of the HOA board began to pester me with accusations of "excess car storage". Mostly two or three elitists that live on the only street above ours.

They were kind enough to repeatedly send me pictures of my cars, along with notes asking me to remove some cars. I sent them notes back thanking them for their concern and declined. I also pointed out that all my vehicles registered and operational status. Mind you...at any given time, perhaps one of my classic cars was visible from the street. One or two were always either in the garage or parked behind the gate. So you can understand my added response in telling them to kindly go and engage in vigorous sexual relations with with themselves. The letters continued and I continued to ignore them and finally the board sent me a request for face to face mediation.

At this point, I parked all of my cars on the street in front of my house. Two months later one of said board members came to my door. He asked how long I intended to keep my vehicles parked on the street. I informed him that was none of his business and that if he didnt like it, he could engage in vigorous sexual relations with himself. He left, very upset with me, as I took out my cell phone and snapped a photo of him on my porch during this conversation. The street belongs to the city, you see. The Police came a few days later. I happened to be out front when the cruiser pulled up. I saw the officer look at the plates and tags on all three vehicles. I photographed the officer who then smiled and asked if these were my cars. I indicated in the affirmative and he responded that they were nice cars. He wanted to know i'd sell one. I indicated that I did not. He told me that he had received complaints but that the cars all appeared to be legally registered and that I was breaking no laws.

At this point I brought the nuisance letters, the picture of the angry board member on my porch (wearing a "police volunteer" jacket, no less) and the photo of the cop taking the plate numbers on all my vehicles to my attorney. He shook his head and said he'd take care of it. I don't know what he said, but I haven't heard a peep out of the board members since. I put all of my cars away.

Do I want more cars? No. Not here, and not now. Like anyone else I occasionally find "that awesome deal" that I reluctantly have to pass on. I kinda want to move someplace farther out though...someplace with room enough to have a lift installed...and a bigger lot...

 

Yep, the best way to get along with neighbors is to not have any. Next best is a high fence.