Page 1 of 1

Why did I wait this long

Posted: January 24, 2018, 8:14 am
by slick4x4
I have bad habits .....
I'm not going to tell all of them here.. not enough space

Just the 2 that effected this project .... " cleaning up the shop "

Packrat-itis & procrastination

I've lived on this farm my entire life ...
I always built stuff , even as a kid
If it wasn't on the farm ... I didn't have it
So I never threw away ANYTHING that I thought might come in handy
Old sparkplugs , used sprockets , belts , wiring, any mechanical part....

The cupboards were packed to the brim
I had so much .. I had nothing ... cause it was hidden or forgotten

Sheepishly I say... "it's kept me out of my garage"
Kinda depressing ...
the thorn in my side was my toolbox .. a home made one kind of
Cheap ones bolted together ... drawers would stick or come untracked
So I bit the bullet and bought a new harbor freight rolling tool box
Then I started cleaning ..and cleaning..and cleaning
I have filled the trash dumpster full ..6'x4'x4'
And a pickup bed half full of stuff I'm gonna give away

I'm probably a 1/3 done

Better late than never ... I guess :roll:

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: January 24, 2018, 8:16 am
by slick4x4
Hopefully the three outbuildings full of parts
Won't have to wait too many more years...

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: January 24, 2018, 8:38 am
by grump
Sometimes it's cheaper to go buy what you need than to spend hours and hours looking for what you know you have somewhere in the shop and then still end up buying it because you finally give up looking for it. Of course two days later when you no longer need it you'll find it laying in plain sight.

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: January 24, 2018, 9:24 am
by unibody madness
Well, if you find a set of those mirrors I am looking for, or at least the brackets, let me know!

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: January 24, 2018, 10:12 am
by 36truck
I hear you Pat when I moved to Montana I had a huge cleaning job in front of me. I sold & scraped so much stuff. Much better off without all that hanging around getting in the way.

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: January 24, 2018, 10:45 am
by oldsmiley
:clap: Well GOOD for you.....

Lol, now I need to do the same thing. I built a 56 F-100 about 30 years ago. One of the rear cab arms was beyond repair rusted, and one was good. I bought 2 new ones anyway, but kept the one good one because I just KNEW someone somewhere will need one. To NOT bore you with a long story, I threw it away last summer after all these years. It laid in the same spot untouched for 29 years.

Even now my wife says she hopes she dies before me, because she doesn't want the task of getting rid of all my JUNK/inventory....lol.

There's a SPECIAL bond between a man and his truck.....

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: January 24, 2018, 3:36 pm
by Jhaas63
I have always been a guy who tends to throw things away if I can’t use them or if I know it won’t be of use to me in a long time. For the guys who save everything...how often do you find exactly what you need when you need it?

Seems like all the crap I have saved, I can’t find it when a I need it.

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: January 24, 2018, 4:32 pm
by slick4x4
Honestly ... I'm still gonna have a LOT of stuff left
I just HATE to see something thrown away
Even just a bolt ... screw .. nut ... locked up 292 bolted to a 4 spd :oops:
I hate being broken down...
So plenty of hose clamps , o-rings , snap rings , tubing. Pipe fittings
Filters, fuses , lights , speakers , wiring , paint, brake fluid , antifreeze....
You get the point......

I found an old cordless screwdriver in a drawer
I remember saving that because if had a neat little motor & gearbox
Figured I could make something really cool out of that....
Then I remembered where I got it....
I brought it home from highschool....

I graduated in 1981 :shock:

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: January 24, 2018, 8:45 pm
by 64 f100
Just remember the Possum lodge pledge " I'm a man and I can change , if I have to. I worked with crap most of my life and saved stuff others threw away. I am a packrat and frankly have hauled stuff off thinking it was not good for anything, only to find out I needed it the following week. I do have a periodical cleaning ever century or two. It's hard to tell what you will need in the future. Finding it when you do need it is another problem. I separate nuts and bolts and try to keep thee organized enough to be able to go and find what I need when I need it. This is a never ending task and consumes a lot of time as I am constantly upgrading all the time. Keeping things where you can lay hands on these things when you need the parts is tough, but key is keeping it organized enough to know which pile to dig in. Plastic peanut butter jars are real handy for nuts bolts and whatnot and you can see the contents. I also use a magic marker, one that does not rub off. The jars that grapefruit sections come in work well also. I also have two bolt bins one with removable containers. That one came from a Ford dealership I bought out many years ago, and had a lot of original Ford stuff in it. Over the years I've used a lot of the bolts out of it. Still in it are hood hinge bolts from the 50's, pins that held the lock tumbler in the mid thirties cars and trucks, and other oddities.

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: January 25, 2018, 2:02 pm
by Toyz
I'm going thru the same thing now! I'm a well-established pack rat, but I didn't realize how much stuff I had at the now-sold townhouse! So, I'm stacking, packing, and throwing! over 5000 ft of shops, plus multiple Sea-cans, and I STILL will have to squeeze to get in and outer of either shop, let alone move vehicles!
Paul

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: January 25, 2018, 3:14 pm
by The Big M
I hear ya. The last two moves I've brought everything I have in the garage without really weeding through it. It had to get out of the old garage, and it had to get stuck somewhere in the new one, so I'm looking forward to a long overdue shop purge.

I'd say it's definitely held back my project as it's really tough to get any momentum going when everything is in a temporary home and there's no room to work. :(

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: January 28, 2018, 1:39 am
by Alan Mclennan
I have been cleaning stuff out as well Pat... we wont dwell on Lenore........ my 1977 Jungle Princess Pinball machine went this week,
anyone in the market for a Flaming River tilt shift column, a MSD ignition box, heaps of good metal off cuts. I can't sell my poker machine.. their illegal here :shock:

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: February 7, 2018, 9:23 pm
by slick4x4
It's starting to look good .... leg was hurting one day , so I sat & organized
Drill bits ...... tap & dies.AND ...... just lots of little things......
the Lowered Slick project took a back burner this winter...
I wanted to have it driving to SS 8 in KC ... not going to happen
But it will be driven in 2020 SS .......
On a good note .. the slick project was taking about 1/3 of my floor space up
But after some organizing & storage changes it's only using about 1/5 now :clap:

Image

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: February 12, 2018, 11:03 pm
by slick4x4
I think maybe I've went a little nutty (a little bit MORE nutty)

Looked at the old bolt bin .... been in that corner since 1978....
It was an old filing cabinet... works pretty good really
18 bins that are about 8" wide 12" tall 16" deep....
But after 40 years , lots of things in there that weren't bolts :shock:

I dumped out the 1/4" bin.... lots of 1/4" nuts & bolts ....
Plus.....
Washers , wrong size nuts & bolts , nails , screws , cotter keys .....
Hand sorted all of them
1/4 , 5/16 , 3/8 , 7/16 , 1/2 , 5/8 , 3/4 , 1 .......

I should have done this long ago.... better late than never :mrgreen:

Re: Why did I wait this long

Posted: February 13, 2018, 11:14 am
by The Big M
Go man go!

I see you managed to stash most of an inline six (less intake and headers) in between the wall framing. :wink: