Parts Storage at Home

[Skibb]

It's been about three years since I've rejoined the Model A Highway. At first there was one or two parts laying about, now it's a bunch. Surely I'm not the only one whose challenged with organizing parts. So, New Year and a new project to collect, organize and store those Model A parts. Looking for ideas or photos of how best to do that.

[SeaSlugs]

depends: do you have a seperate shop or attached garage? how much space do you have? how many and what kinds/sizes/weights of parts do you have? Like are we talking small odds and ends carburators or are we talking rear axles and engine blocks?

Do you plan to use these parts in a restoration soon or just stockpiling extras for those if and when moments if somehting breaks?Meaning do you plan to use them very soon or can these be bagged and tagged and put in a labeled box in the garage rafters or something.

[hardtimes]

Originally Posted by Skibb

It's been about three years since I've rejoined the Model A Highway. At first there was one or two parts laying about, now it's a bunch. Surely I'm not the only one whose challenged with organizing parts. So, New Year and a new project to collect, organize and store those Model A parts. Looking for ideas or photos of how best to do that.

Hey Skibb,
This is timely subject/question...on more than one level,eh ! Personally, I'm in same boat as you...and maybe worse (she says..my boat is sinking ) !!
As space to store is a biggy for lots of us, here is a situation/suggestion that I encountered over last two weeks.
An OLD timer just died and I'm helping a son with selling the home. Well, I got into more than I bargained for ! The old car fanatic dad had filled up all of the garage, the back yard , side yard and needed more space to 'organize' / store his stuff (model a/flathead V8/V12). So, dads solution was to store thousands of $ rare stuff.....UNDER the house. Yup, it is bone dry under there and he was a brilliant guy..who am I to disagree ? Long story short ..I'm tooo old to be doing that type work, but the son is in worse shape, so...

Just for the record, at home she says no, no and NO !! Hm, and she doesn't know what all I bought..yikes !

[Roadster62]

I'm in my New Years" Organizing mode. There are three actual projects, the 30 Roadster, '29 60C Steelback and a T Bobtail race car. I was amazed at how many parts I had for the Bobtail, they were scattered all over, now that project has a desiganated shelf. Plan is to do the same with the parts for the other two. I have a trash can, brass, copper, steel scrap cans, and a wood stove that needs to be fed. I can see a concrete floor in places. If it looks like someone wants an item I eBay it, car and non automotive. Bob

[Skibb]

Originally Posted by SeaSlugs

depends: do you have a seperate shop or attached garage? how much space do you have? how many and what kinds/sizes/weights of parts do you have? Like are we talking small odds and ends carburators or are we talking rear axles and engine blocks?

Do you plan to use these parts in a restoration soon or just stockpiling extras for those if and when moments if somehting breaks?Meaning do you plan to use them very soon or can these be bagged and tagged and put in a labeled box in the garage rafters or something.

Excellent questions SeaSlugs. Attached 2 car garage. All small stuff 'cept fenders for the restoration, it's new muffler, it's seat springs, bumpers and assorted window mouldings plus a dozen extras. Tires and a wheel and some small parts are "parked" on her patio off the family room.

The big issue is the little stuff placed in the upright tool chest and on various shelves which are miss used for home and lawn use. I also have incorrectly purchased (it's a learning process, right) several, several jugs and bottles of motor oil, trans fluid, greases and such.

I know, get out there and move it around. But, that hasn't worked. I need a template or plan.

When it rains good here in the summer "wet" season, the water table is about three feet or less under our house's pad. Would I ever love to have a deep, dry basement again, yes sir.

[Purdy Swoft]

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Hanging parts from trusses in a storage building gets them out of the way but when you need them you've got to use a ladder.


Coffee cans on shelves are good for carburetors and other small stuff. I label the cans with info, where I got the part, what I paid and when.



I'm begining to stack stuff on the floor.

[Purdy Swoft]

[Purdy Swoft]

[Purdy Swoft]

[Purdy Swoft]

[Purdy Swoft]

[Skibb]

Purdy those are amazing photos. I envy your abilities at organization. Ty for the pics.

[Purdy Swoft]

Thanks Skibb, I like collecting parts as well as the cars. I am slacking off quite a bit lately.

[al's28/33]

After you have collected three or four of everything how many more do you need ???
I sold off all my excess stuff years ago, now I only keep whatever I can fit in a steamer trunk size wooden box. If I find a better one than what I already have then I sell off the less desirable item.

[Charlie Stephens]

I put the following together as the first of a two part article for my local car club newsletter. The second part will get into the actual garage. I will post the second part as soon as I finish writing it:


I am not going to suggest moving the car stuff into the house because that would just get me into trouble. What I am suggesting is to move some of the “non-garage stuff” into the house. Moving holiday decorations, old college text books and off-season clothes into the house will free up a lot of space. Look around the house for any underutilized storage space.

Be sure there is a second shelf in the closets above the clothes rack. A single shelf was considered adequate (and cheaper for the contractor) when they built the house but there is room for more. If your attic is useable for storage a pull down ladder will make access to the attic easier and thus make it more likely to be used. Be careful about how much weight goes into the attic. Use it for light stuff like holiday decorations. Remember Southern California is “earthquake country”.

The final underutilized space that most people overlook is under the bed. The cheap and easy way is to buy flat plastic storage boxes designed to slide under most beds. It’s a quick cheap solution but the flat plastic storage boxes I found didn’t make very efficient use of the space. Between the bed frame hanging down and the legs of the bed frame there was a lot of unused space. Stores like IKEA or Sit & Sleep (and probably others) sell bed bases with built in drawers. Unfortunately most of the drawer’s are not long enough to utilize all of the space and they were open to dust and insects. I wanted to use plastic boxes that were sealed against dust and insects so I decided to build a base for the bed that would allow me to put eight large plastic storage boxes (such as available from Costco) under the bed. I built this bed stand using 2x12 and 2x4 fir lumber and Simpson ties. I stained and clear coated the frame but an exact match was not important since the frame is not visible. I sized it for the 12 inch high, 17 wide and 27 long plastic containers from Costco. My bed is a California King and after the plastic containers go in there is room on each side and at the foot for shoes on the floor. The top of the mattress was higher but as it turned out it was easier to get in and out of bed. If you have a tendency to fall out of bed at night this would probably not be a good idea. The following photo shows the final result.

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi Skibb,

FWIW:

1. One way of logically storing & maintaining a collection of both new & used Model A parts is to first develop a parts inventory list that one can use as a reference as to which parts are stored.

2. One method of developing this list is refer to your favorite vendors' catalog, & to designate a number in numerical order for each of the catalog sections as they appear starting with the first page; for example: 1. WHEELS; 2. TIRES; 3. BRAKES; 4. EMERGENCY BRAKES; 5. FRONT AXLE; etc.

3. Small parts can be stored in labeled Dollar Store plastic drawers such as with approximate sizes of 8-1/2"W x 6" H x 13" L; & larger labeled plastic drawers for larger parts or multiple like parts.

4. Once labeled & stored as such, they are easy to find by referring to your own index or a vendor's catalog, with new small parts possibly separated from used small parts in labeled Zip-Lock bags in each labeled drawer.

5. If you go to order a new part, & you have a slight case of CRS like most of us, refer to your index first -- you may already have 2 or 3 of the parts you are about to order
& now can order that which you thought you could never afford.

6. Large parts tags made from cut up Manila folders, (maybe 2" x 4" with a punched hole on one end reinforced with Avery Permanent Self-adhesive Reinforcement
Labels), & securely fastened to various parts with heavy duty string, can be used to label parts such as 1929 or 1931, or straight balanced wheel as opposed to a wobbling wheel, etc.

7. As one can imagine, there are millions of ways to keep up with parts on-hand, parts in stock, parts ordered etc., & same with various types of merchandise acquired all over the world in both private & government inventory; however, the vendors' catalog numbered indexing method is just one way that will work especially if one orders parts from vendors who do not use the same FORD numbering system, such as FORD #A-2788, & hence provide their own private catalog part number such as 4010.

Just hope this helps.

[Skibb]

Thank you Charlie and H. L. My horizon is expanding.

[ctlikon0712]

The Garage Journal is a site much like this one and is part of "The Alliance" they might have some good ideas over there. It is an informative site.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/index.php

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi Skibb,

1. In my humble opinion, the "main" reason that most of us have for organizing, indexing, & keeping track of locations of Model A new & used stored parts is to avoid the frustration that so many of us have where so much valuable Model A "repair time" can be totally "wasted" in looking for just one (1) misplaced or lost part that one is positive that one has, but just cannot find it.

2. Another valuable method for keeping track of Model A parts & tools is "if" one buys new or used parts from more than one Model A parts vendor, or separate parts or tools from non-Model A vendors, it can be helpful to create separate vendor files in manila folders to file:

A. Numbered individual 8-1/2" x 11" printed invoices of parts, (in chronological order by date), returned with each order from each vendor which indicates part numbers, costs of parts, numbers of each individual part ordered or bought, out of stock items from each order, & when & where each item was bought.

B. Also, extra copies of special instructions & wiring diagrams for assembling & using special tools, parts, and/or equipment.

3. One good example for keeping invoices is that one can be 100% "positive" that one ordered a specific part a few years back, but somehow one looked for it all day to try to find where it got misplaced; however, because of a combination of maybe a slight senior moment, and/or a minor case of partial CRS, one refers to the filed parts invoices where one finds that he did "order" the item, but the filed invoice indicates "0" after this part because it was out of stock which means we did order it, but we do not have it -- at least we were mentally half correct.

4. Last but not least, in our hobby, every time we get frustrated because of wasting a whole day looking for some Model A item we cannot find, our wives just have another reason to assure us that we are definitely insane for trying to fool around with Model A's in the first place.

Hope this helps.

[jmeckel]

However you store the small parts you need to be careful that mice can't build a nest in the container. I have seen a lot of good parts become a rusted pile because of mouse nests.