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I was at a junkyard when I saw the same car as my show car and, for some reason, thought to myself, “I should take the entire steel guardrail bumper, that’ll be useful in the future!”
Now I’ve got a full size LTD bumper sitting on the floor in my garage, I don’t know what I was thinking!
My parts hoard is out of control, I shop for cars that I have the parts to fix, instead of the other way around. My marketplace time is divided between looking at project cars and looking for a good deal on a used forklift to shuffle parts around with.
For the longest time I was the guy that everyone called when they wanted to unload a project or storage unit, Hauled home many $200 truckloads. I always sell stuff, but work and life have gotten busy and the hobby stuff often takes a backseat so I mostly only deal with friends who reach out looking for stuff.
So many fasteners!
I’ve got about 24 wheels left over from my drifter career, the turbo install from that car in case I ever get another 1.6 Miata, and the front bumper and one home made front carbon fender for that car (the other one is hanging in the workshop of the guy who sponsored me).
Early aluminium steering rack, AP racing callipers, rear diffuser, two pairs of seats, 4 ruined indicator lenses, a small box of electrical parts that never went wrong, all for an S1 Elise.
Steering wheels from every car I’ve done motorsport in, four out of date 5-point race harnesses, battery cut-off switch and some tow eyes. Out of date motorsports fire extinguishers (3 or 4?).
A box of service parts and pillion foot pegs for each motorcycle.
Then there’s my tail light collection: Miata NA, FC RX7 (facelift), S1 Elise, SW20 MR2, GT86.
I wouldn’t be surprised if all of that stays in storage for 30 years and then has to get thrown out by whoever gets that shit job.
That taillight collection would make a pretty great art installation with about $50 worth of LEDs and a little wall space. Just something to think about…
😀
I’ve already bought a 12V power supply for exactly that. I’ve had it for three years, so…
Beyond the few parts I have kept “just in case” for my regular cars (the worst of which being a dinged rear bumper and a spare diff for my Z4), I only have Datsun Z parts which are hard to find that could be considered “hoarding”.
Now, I have plans with most of them:
– the spare L28 engine I got for free is currently being machined to become a stroker
– I have kept the original gearbox from the car in case I ever sell it in its original 4 speed configuration to a purist
– the fuel sender from a Cedric looks a lot like mine which is damaged and will crap the bed eventually
However, most of this stuff is heavy, cumbersome stuff which isn’t exactly helping the garage organization.
And I have no proper excuse for the extra 5 speed gearbox I bought because it was just 150€, the broken Clio engine which I bought to swap the head in mine for shits and and giggles but will probably never do, nor the LD28 parts I have not thrown away after pulling the crank from it for my stroker project …
I may be a bit of a hoarder.
In addition to small parts, I do have a spare engine for my ’67 VW squareback and a spare set of heads. When I needed a rebuilt engine a few years ago, I ended up purchasing the longblock instead of rebuilding mine, so I stilll have the old one. A few years before that, I finally obtained the proper heads for my dual port dual carb engine as the ones I had were from a later bus. I had a local VW race engine rebuilder rebuild the heads, Ray Vallero (RIP), yet they did not get into the engine.
I haven’t had a split window VW bus for about 40 years, but I still have a few parts. Same for the Vanagon I sold about 23 years ago. I have parts for unknown vehicles. I did sell a few VW bus parts recently though. Since I have had a VW Type 3 since ’78, so yeah, I have a bunch of small parts hanging around. Came in very handy being able craft a proper pair of carbs from the two extra pairs I had without having to by anything. Ford ’64 era F100 parts, mostly interior trim pieces. Crewcabs need double the bits and pieces. Found some I put behind my workbench just a couple of weeks ago.
Jeep Wrangler parts and air cooled VW parts/spare cars.
Getting hard to find anyone that needs that stuff now .
I have a 1990 Toyota Pickup (22RE 4wd) that I’ve owned for about 20 years and have been slowly accumulating the parts to give it an SR5 dash and feature set. Because it’s an old truck that’s lived outside in California for most of its life, I don’t want to disassemble the dash multiple times and test how much life the dash plastics have left. Most things are from junk yards, with the occasional eBay part. I need to collect the rest of the air conditioning system (a dealer add-on that my uncle decided he didn’t need) and then I’ll be ready to go. I’ve got the SR5 gauge cluster, SR5 turn signal/ wiper switches (with intermittent speed setting), clock, replacement vents, fresh backlight bulbs, heater core, blower motor, and maybe a few more things. When I replaced all the cooling system and hoses a few years ago the heater core sprung a leak, so if that gets worse I may have to give up on my search for an OEM AC in decent shape. I’ve got some OEM parts I pulled off my daily too, but those are out of sight and out of mind.
I’ve got boxes of OEM parts for my Sentra SE-R that I’ve had for decades now – stuff that I got because I was going to need and then did something else, or knew I’d need “soon” but I’m still not there on mileage, or whatever. It’s great to have, because a lot of this stuff is NLA now. I have a spare engine for the car because years ago I thought the rod bearings were starting to go bad and rather than replace them on my back, a friend had a spare engine with nice cams in it to boot that he took out of a car that he scrapped (rust), so I bought that to throw in while I rebuilt the original engine on the bench. Later learned my engine was fine so for years now I’ve just had a spare engine and a hoist sitting in the corner of a garage. That’s a bit extra. Also have a spare set of stock 14″ wheels, steel wheels on aged-out snows, and Miata daisy wheels that I used to have track tires on. Leftover JDM parts from the engine swap in my G20, a few 200SX parts from my late dad’s SE-R, and so on. It’s a lot.
Fiat has boxes and boxes of new parts but that’s just because I have a long project list for the car.
For the other cars I mostly just keep everything that I take off the car, whether because I replaced it with a good part or because I replaced it with something aftermarket. Just got a new set of wheels and tires for my 911 and I’ve told myself I’ll sell the existing set to offset the cost, but will I really?
Way too many. I’ve got at least one of each of the sheet metal parts for the Scout, minus another tub. And I parted a Travelall out this spring, from which I’ve got almost every sheet metal piece for the other truck (I even drilled the spot welds out on each of the rear quarters and have those stashed up in the garage attic).
Send help
I just bought an 09 KX450f and the parts pile is already growing. It came with an aftermarket clutch cover installed but the seller still had the original and threw that in. It’s currently fitted with a shitty K&N air filter so that’s getting ripped off and brought back to factory. The rear brake rotor was slightly warped so I just installed a new one. The chain and sprockets are mostly fine but I’m putting new ones on anyway.
Have I thrown away the old parts? Nope…most will likely become wall art or spares, but that K&N is going in the trash as soon as the new filters parts get here.
I did the sensible thing and tossed all the old parts from my XJ Cherokee when I upgraded it. Most were worn beyond being safe or useful and the rest was just not worth cluttering up my garage with. The amount of money I could have gotten for them on FB market place was not going to be worth the hassle.
I have some oil and filters on hand. Anything larger gets ordered as needed. Oh, snow tires too.
Now my RC parts collection, that’s much larger. To be fair it’s far easier to store. Spare wheels, motors, props, axles and hardware. It takes up some small storage organizers and a few shelves in the basement.
I have so many parts that need to be identified and organized. Most came with cars I bought. Some of it works, but some of it is junk, so it’s a long game of hunting and testing every tined I go into my stash. This disorganization has cost me a pretty penny. I just bought a starter for my 968, only to find a brand new one in the parts box that came with it. Same with a rear caliper for my ’76 Alfa Spider. Ouch.
And some if it is just hoarding for the future. I have three perfect NIB Saab 900 dashes, one of which I scored two weeks ago when the Sonett II race car I won on BaT broke down in SLC with electrical gremlins (no matter how fancy it looks, stranded speaker wire does not make a good witting harness!) and I stumbled onto one of the best Saab stashes around. Saab louvers are another hoard part that I can’t help buying when I come across them. Whenever I find a windshield for a 99, I pretty much jump on it even though I have 2 and that will probably be enough for the lone 99 EMS in my collection.