You trip over stuff for 20 years. It’s in the way. It takes up space. You even haul it to your new place. Finally it has to go. You give it away. 6 months later you need it, really need it.
Truer words were never spoken. This is quite timely as I’m leaving today with a 45’ trailer to make the first of several trips to bring tons of stuff that will be scrapped by my family when I die. I was able to quit smoking but I can’t get over my addiction to old car “stuff” I will probably never need or use.
I can't count the number of times I have done just that! It must be some kind of cosmic algorithm that makes it work that way.
I am always Buying 50-51 Merc. Parts that I don't Need But I might need at a later Time I was talking to a Freind of mine & telling what I had & he asked me if I want to sell & I said No I have some Sheet metal parts that are worth a Small Fortune! Just my 3.5 cents Live Learn & Die a Fool
I don't consider it hoarding ! I am building my estate sale ! I'm thinking of other's Sent from my moto e5 plus using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I got stuff I've had for decades....I just keep shifting shit around and complain about it....What I should bitch at myself about is all the real good stuff I don't have anymore.
Look at it like this: You’re doing your patriotic duty by keeping that American iron here. Where it needs to stay. Not sent to China only to be melted down, mixed with inferior materials, and sold back to us in a lower quality piece of steel. Seriously though, I think most of us who mess with old cars, or anything of the like, do the same thing you do. I know I do.
As others here, I have long been aware of this potential outcome. However, in recent years, surveying the quantity of stuff I have held onto for so long...and not needed, I console myself that if that happens, I will not torment myself with “but just got rid of that and now I need it”. I will merely find it again or use an alternative, if there is one, and move on. The same thing I would do if I never had it in the first place. If a person sold all or most of the stuff they don’t need now, but might, maybe, someday want, and banked the money in a “parts reserve fund”......they could buy whatever at the then current price and still be way ahead money wise. In the short term we would lose the emotional satisfaction of thinking we “are prepared for anything that may come along”. The reality is, IMO, our hoarding is making it more difficult for others to find parts for their real and presently ongoing project. Ray
Story of my life. I find it's when your building a project that this rings true more often then not. I got into a groove of going to swap meets and if I think I will use something I see I bring it home rather than wishing I had it later. I'm guess I'm in good company as there are very few guys I know that are into cars that don't have a stash of stuff but they also can tell you a story of regret of letting something go. I even keep a pile of stuff for that someday car I probably won't ever get around to building.
Not only this but the reality is you are leaving a nightmare for those that you leave behind to deal with and unless they are in the car hobby themselves probably dooming it all to the scrap heap anyways. Everyone say "my wife/kids etc. know what it's worth so it won't go to scrap" but very few actually want to go through the trouble of selling it piece by piece so it actually ends up getting crushed. Sent from my SM-G950W using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Here’s the scoop. When I got the ‘50 F1 a battered 48-50 front clip came with it. The grille panel was in great shape. My old truck was wrecked and repaired with ‘51 stuff. I decided I would never use those parts so I gave them to a fellow HAMBER. Let me make it clear.... Giving that stuff away made me happy. It made the fellow who got it happy. That’s a Win-Win. I do not regret it in the least. With that said I do find it comical that after keeping that stuff for so long..... I get a parts ‘50 F1 with buildable fenders but a battered grille. Hey! It’s all good. The parts F1 solves lots of problems. A chassis to properly repair the wreck damage. A transmission, all the parts I lacked to go back to the Flathead.... This even helps with the Fairlane. I’ve come out smelling like a rose. You give and you get.... It’s all good.
Pilot bearing out of a 258 inline six.. Cracked the block and gave the block to my buddy for scrap. Two years later I needed the pilot bearing out of it or I was missing a big event.. He still had it in his yard where I dumped it. got the pilot bearing and made the event.
These days I'm trying to clear out anything I don't have a specific plan for. I've been tripping over too many cores and stuff that could be fixed for too many years. My oldest son has followed in my footsteps and has a car a year newer than mine, has benefitted a bit from my stash, but now he's moved out. We need to get the rest of his parts to his house. When I'm gone (hopefully a lot of years from now) he'll be the one dealing with anything that's left. Right now if I can make some space and generate some cash that's better than the old junk I've collected. Devin
Related - the only way to find a part I lost is to search everywhere 8 times, and give up. Buy a new one, then I trip over what I was looking for.
One of these days I’m going to open a door and be crushed by an avalanche 10,000 half inch wrenches and 5,000 9/16 socket heads.
Cudos to you F-one. As much as I too like making money I sometimes find more satisfaction in helping a fellow car guy along the way. There's been many a time I would rather help a guy as others have done the same for me and I never forgot someone's good deed.
I am listing vintage parts right now and pricing them so there gone. Just want to simplify. Going to sell off all Stelling , M/T , Nailhead , Offy etc. I am wondering when I get to the bigger parts like Model T, Model A, 1932 Ford-and F100 fenders if they will be easy to sell because of shipping.
I get on a buying spree or hoarding spree when I own a car, I like spares and threes of just about anything. Once I sell the car, I liquidate the spare parts, free up the cash for other purchases. For me it’s the opposite, if I hang onto something too long I never need it but stuff I don’t have. I do have a major issue at home and at work with hardware, nuts,bolts,washers,springs,clips,bracket, anything made out of brass, fittings, doo dads and kurfufulles. Just can’t let go of the little bits. find it’s a weird spring or but that saves my ass over a large part or assembly more often then not, and in today’s age of the inter web “ unobtanium” seems to be less and less.
I've tripped over shit for years and never paid it any attention. The moment I need it it disappears only to somehow reappear after I do an exhaustive search and then buy a new one! Must be some universal law of the universe or something.
Thank God for coffee cans. Now if I could only find a place to dump them out to search for what I want.