Hello Autopian members/fellow wrenchers. I’m finishing up moving my entire Michigan garage into a small LA office, and in so doing, I’ve realized that I’m a bit of a hoarder. I’ve got tubs full of car parts that, if I’m being honest, I may never use. But I can’t get rid of them, because what if — many of you probably know what I’m talking about. So let’s discuss this problem that many of us garage-dwellers struggle with.
Check out this video clip I recently posted to my Instagram:
View this post on Instagram
As you can see, I’ve taken everything from my Michigan garage, shoved it into (far too expensive) plastic bins, and crammed those bins into my office.
That’s all this stuff here (minus the crane, which is in the parking lot, along with my spare engine), just shoved into my place of work:
There are lots of spare parts here. I’ve got a spare radiator for a Jeep Grand Cherokee ZJ, a spare seat for a ZJ, plus in the video clip you see some spare alternators and a spare cylinder head. I could go on and on for days about the parts I have sitting around for my 1966 Mustang, 1985 Jeep J10, 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee, 1994 Chrysler Voyager Diesel 5spd, 1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle, and you’ve already read about all the parts my free Nash Metropolitan came with.
Parts — they just accrue!
I’d love to hear about your stach; is it out of hand? How do you deal with it? What kinds of parts do you keep around? What is the single part that you’ve had sitting on your shelf the longest?
I have a some”just in case” parts at my house. A few of them are a windshield wiper motor that will fit various BMC/BL cars, an air box for a 1974 MG Midget, a brake and clutch master cylinder that I know would work in a MG 1100 (ADO 16) Sport Sedan, a front hub and a spare wheel for the aforementioned MG. Ooh I just remembered, I have the AM radio that was originally installed in a 1974 MG Midget. I haven’t owned a British car for 40 years, yet I hold on to this stuff because, you never know.
BMW E61 rear air springs. Just waiting for the inevitable.
Today, most of my spare relate to Virgil, my 1932 Chevrolet. The previous owner bequeathed me several boxes of new, used and NOS parts that I have yet to use but still as you mentioned they certainly fall into the category of too good to let go of. Will I ever use two upper radiator hoses when the existing one is just fine? Hell no! How many sets of lightly used sparkplugs does one man/car need? One at most, so why do I have five sets? Over the past three years I have added my own purchases to the hoard. The first two mirrors I bought for the side-mount spares didn’t match, requiring the purchase of a third that matched a bit better but still not the same. As a result I have a $55 spare mirror that no one will ever use. Ouch!
On another note, I have a large plastic jug labeled “Things That Screw ” that is primarily nuts, bolts and oddities with threads that all came from previous cars I have owned. Amongst them is a couple that are daubed with canary yellow paint. They came off of a 1958 Triumph TR3 that I bought for parts in 1969. The rest of the car is long gone and yet these last two items bring back a rush of memories of working on my own ’62 TR3B in my drive way on a warm summer evening in San Bernardino, circa 1972. As the twilight faded my loving wife brought three cold Coors out to me for my friend Bruce, herself and me. We stood there talking about getting “Damnit” ready for some weekend event. Golden times indeed!
I still have the trailer hitch that was removed from my parents’ 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 when it was being restored. I also have assorted small parts — including a really neat tin of Buss fuses — that, based on their age, were likely spares for this car. On the more modern side, I have the original stereo head units for both of my Grand Cherokees (the ZJ shipped with a tape deck!), as well as two old aftermarket units. I also have the original rear vent covers for the ZJ, but they’re in such poor condition that I don’t know if they really count as spare parts. And I’ve kept the original, non-locking gas caps for all vehicles in the household, just in case.
In the LJ rebuild, I’ve acquired some wrong/surplus parts I need to get rid of:
Aftermarket inner fenders (unnecessary unless you mud-bog, which I don’t/won’t)
Two console lids, one from the wrong year, one from the right year
Two aftermarket console lid covers
Cruise control servo (Keeping. Mine has some damage but is working)
Bows for the factory soft top
I have managed to acquire no fewer than 6 VR6 coil packs for when the one in the Cabriolet dies, because they always do, and I am still one the same one 3 years later…
Also, MK1 Cabriolet windows. I thought I would break at least one of the windows and have been lugging these around forever.
a 1985 amc eagle has been sitting in the garage for about 7 years now. being in michigan, the wife is starting to become resentful that it gets garaged and her car sits outside. anyone interested in an eagle?
For my Scout, I’ve got 3 of each front fenders, a spare tailgate, hood, cowl, and lift gate. two spare doors for each side. Two decent-for-the-east-coast windshield frames, one complete dash assembly, two 1972-specific front cowls, and an entire 345 V8 sitting in the corner of the garage. Plus 6 Rubbermaid bins full of smaller parts, all collected over the last 25 years. Everything I can lift has gone up into the attic of the garage.
Now I’ve got a new project, and I’m starting to inventory redundant Scout parts I’m going to sell to fund it.
Too many Triumph spitfire parts.. I have the entire contents of a car that was stripped for the shell . Not to mention the parts car. And all the spares for various vehicles long gone.
I had so many i was able to build an entire other Spitfire on an s10 frame I had lying around.
My mindset has always been to hold on to things that I think I can repurpose later. Sometimes I’m good about it, sometimes I’m not. I moved to the west coast several years ago to a much smaller house than I had before, and promptly discovered the sheer volume of automotive parts and junk I had been lugging around for decades. It took me a while, but eventually brought myself to get rid of all the extra lug nuts, trim pieces, and type-specific auto parts (intake gaskets for a GM 3.8L V6, catted headers for my old Subaru 2.5RS, intermediate steering shaft for a GMT800, etc.). Now all I have is a 120lb bucket of automotive bolts and a bunch of parts to rebuild my ATV.
I kept random bolts, bulbs, and other bits from my 1992 and 1995 Jeep Cherokees for close to two decades and moved them around the world with me. When I bought my (sadly departed) 1995 Cherokee a few years ago, I ended up using some of the old parts. This was especially useful in Germany as you can’t just go to your local pick n’ pull and expect to find Jeeps. Now I have another box of old Jeep parts that will likely bounce around with me for another decade or two before I find a use for them.
Let’s be honest, my entire motorcycle has essentially been “spare parts” for 5+ years now but the spare vehicle part I’ve held onto the longest is actually for a boat. I sank my HobieCat on the Louisiana side of Sabine Lake 29 years ago and by the time I could arrange to rent a rescue boat the next day it was gone. I’ve still got the trapeze harness I was wearing that day and the spare parts toolbox that was safely back on the trailer. The spares consist of pulleys and turnbuckles and most importantly, the spare access port cover I had ordered to replace the cracked and broken one I had on the boat the day we sank it. Guess what part lead to our foundering?
I’ve never gotten around to buying another Hobie and live too far from the water these days to make one practical but I’m still holding on to those items and have moved them from house to house to house for whatever reason.
A spare complete 110F engine for a FIAT 500 that I rebuilt…its light, small, and looks like something that might be shown at Burning-Man (I have never been) so I have it displayed in my living room on a stand.
Now that’s interior decoration I can get behind!
I first got on eBay in 1999 and started buying GPz550 parts. On the shelves are three spare fuel tanks and other bits of bodywork, two banks of carburetors, a wiring harness (with battery box), at least one clutch cover, and a bikini fairing with mounting hardware. I do still have the bike, so in theory those parts are absolutely necessary.
The slightly older items are in the toolbox. There is a clutch alignment tool that goes to either a Beetle or an MG – can’t remember. It is in the drawer next to the two-jaw gear puller (about 30 years old) and was next to the impact driver (same age), but I needed the ID last year. I had used it once in 1993 and put it back into the original Craftsman packaging: I dropped it and the aged plastic packaging just shattered.
There is also a battery tender/charger from the mid-late 1980s and a roll of gasket material of the same vintage. I bought the roll, made one single-cylinder intake gasket, and have not used it since. By golly, it’s in there though, despite the fact that it probably could not be unrolled without a hydraulic press. I might need it!!
The front “bumperettes” from a 1972 Triumph TR6. Just in case I buy another one and want to replace the ones it comes with.
I’ve got a box of TR6 parts from mine. Carb kits, a used clutch disk, caps, rotors, points, etc, etc, etc. Haven’t had that car in 15 years.
As someone getting ready for a big move, this thread is kind of depressing.
From a past mini-hoarder tossing all the stuff is freeing. Yeah, that one thing you might have had from 20 years ago that might come in handy someday, might actually be needed the rest of the stuff will never be used.
I don’t have anything too exciting, but it is a good reminder that I need to clean some things out. Most of my stuff is MGB parts (extra set of Rostyle wheels, a trunk lid that was in too nice of shape to leave in the scrapyard, brake calipers, and many small parts and pieces.
I do have a set of rear wheel bearings for our STS that turned out to be rear brake noise (it took a mechanic a while to figure that out too). After replacing the front bearings, I took a back wheel off, looked at how much I had to remove to just get to one of the bolts for the bearing, and just said… nope, I’ll take it to the mechanic, and he found it was the brakes instead, and I just let him do those at that point. By then I was beyond the time when I could return the other parts. I know I’ll likely never need them, but what else am I going to do with them.
How about the new-in-box OEM Ford Focus SVT suspension kit that I bought for my regular Focus…a decade ago? It’s still in its box in my apartment, but at least I moved it from stacked at the end of the kitchen (guests: “What is that? Wait, car parts?!”)
So for me, I first started driving ~23 years ago. The part I’ve had the longest is probably the remnants of a ’68 Mustang that I bought from a JY, stripped, then sold back to the JY. I don’t really count those, as they are at my Dad’s place.
I do count my Aussie 250-2V Ford motor and bellhousings that a good buddy of mine shipped to me from Australia sometime in ’05 or ’06. I really need to slap those in my ’67 Mustang
In other news, finally got my truck running again this past Saturday. https://youtu.be/7frGVLlZOKM
Was a good day.
My Dad has about half the body panels from a VW Notchback that match up to the same panels on a Squareback, and has had them since literally as long as I can remember.
Finally starting to talk about selling the Squareback
Sounds healthy!
She really is.
Damned sight better than running on 5 cylinders and consuming enough oil through blow-by to use a quart per tank of gas (and I was also getting 10MPG)
‘Win!’
Always a great feeling
I have a few parts for my Honda Insight Gen 1 since some of them doesn’t exist anymore or are on their way to disappear. Engine mounts, another set of wheels, hubcaps, engine oil filters, side skirts. Since the car is small, everything is small, they don’t use a lot of space in the garage. My next step is buying a salvage one and tear it apart just to keep parts on a shelve.
When cleaning some 1900lbs out of my garage a couple decades back, I came across an air-cooled VW engine I had no recollection of. Never did figure that one out.
The best saved parts stash I had was from when in converted my last EA82 Subaru wagon from stock carburetor (1987 supposedly had a bunch of circuits, and even my local Subaru Guru gave up on them) to a Weber 32/36, blocked the egr, gutted the cat, and removed every bit of emissions equipment from it. I wouldn’t do that now for a road car, but I couldn’t get parts anywhere, and much of it didn’t work well. Also removed the power steering to accommodate the Weber.
The 2 milk crates of hoses, splitters, valves, misc crap, served me for the next decade whenever I needed a random little vacuum hose, wire, or switch. Best win in recycling for me ever
Afraid of scratching the nosecone of my Tesla Model S, right after buying the car I went on eBay, bought a used one and promptly replaced it, leaving the mint new one in a box in my garage for when the inevitable happened. I also nagged Tesla until I was able to buy the harness mount for the parking sensors. Because, of course I was going to also break that.
It has been many years now, and the inevitable has not happened.
The best part is that the used nosecone that I bought already came with scratches. So I am saving a mint piece of trim while using a pre-scratched one, because I was afraid of scratches.
It still makes sense in my head somehow.
. I mean, no new scratches, because the used one I bought of course already came with scratches.
(Ignore that last line. Looking forward to being able to edit posts)
I get it. The psychological relief that you weren’t responsible for them is absolutely worth it. I get angry at myself for accidentally scratching my car but almost not at all if a friend, etc. does it. It’s like hey, they’re not enthusiasts, they don’t know, not their fault, etc.; but YOU buddy…you know damn well how could you do this?!”
Well, you’re screwed now.
Let’s see… roof, quarter panels, hood, front buckets I’ve had at least 15 yrs and a 400 ci block I’ve had for 25 to build into a stroker, all for my Barracuda. The 400 is for when the 360 currently in it dies, but it seems to be indestructible so who knows when that’s going to be. The body panels are for if and when I decide to paint it, but I don’t know if I’ll ever do that. Those are the big parts, I’ve got numerous others for it, my Charger, my truck, and undoubtedly for other cars I don’t have anymore.
One other part I’ll fess up to, sometime in the past 2 decades I purchased a Firm Feel power steering box at a swap meet believing it was for an A-body like my Barracuda. In reality it’s for a B-body like my Charger. Do you think I remembered that 8 years ago when I was putting together the front suspension on the Charger, of course not! So that box still sits, now I’m hesitant to try swapping it in place of a numb feeling but very non-leaky stock box.
Wow! Body panels! I’m assuming you’ve got a decent garage setup?
I used to have a shop with plenty of extra space, now I have a storage unit in addition to a decent size garage, if I didn’t have other storage items as well as the body panels I might have to decide if they were worth keeping, or maybe it would force my hand at finally installing them. I just hate to tear apart an otherwise perfectly running car that’s always done everything I’ve asked of it.
I’ve kept all of the lug nuts and other wheel-related hardware I’ve accumulated over the years. Some are brand new and never used for one reason or another.
I just bought a 2004 Toyota Sequoia 4WD which had awful aftermarket wheels on it and worse the tires were totally thrashed. I bought a cheap set of late model 4Runner wheels with good tires to swap on for now, but unfortunately the wheels that came on it used aftermarket spline drive lug nuts, and the key socket was nowhere to be found. But lo and behold I had a brand new set of Gorilla lug nuts in my stash, and sure enough the key socket fit and I was able to get the wheels off!
I, somehow, have full lug nut sets from other people’s vehicles from so long ago back that I’d have to get on Facebook (LOL, no) to find them in order to give them back to them.
Lug nuts just… stay. Its weird.
You must be a squirrel, ’cause you’re hoarding nuts. 🙂
For years I had a set of tail lights from a friend’s car in my shed. I couldn’t even tell you which friend or what car. If I still had them I don’t doubt I could post a pic and Jason could identify them, but they disappeared during one of my many moves over the last 10 years.
I had a spare A/C compressor I was thinking of rebuilding for my 1987 Celica that I kept for at least 5 years after I sold the car.