You ever spent all day looking for a $11.00 part lost in your garage

spent 5 or 6 hours looking for a $11.00 part, that I know is somewhere in there, just buy another one, and as soon as it is installed I will trip over the original one.....maybe I tossed it on one of those "clean up/organize days"

I spent quite a bit of time looking for a spare bike tube in my garage that I know I bought. Once I went and got 2 more and installed one, I noticed the other one right in plain sight.

Gah! This E36 M3 happens to me all the time! Glad I'm not the only one!

YES! Except it was a $2.62 part. You know that stupid rubber/plastic doohickey nipple that holds the other side of the shift fork in the bellhousing of BMW transmissions? Yeah, that thing. It held a project from going together for 3 days because I had to buy a new one. The day the new one showed up, literally as I heard the UPS truck pull up and honk - I remembered that I taped the one I already had to the shifter so I wouldn't forget where I put it.

I berkeleying hate me sometimes.

More times than I care to remember...

I'm guessing organization is part of the difference between pro restoration guys making a living and us hacks who take years to get a car together. When I start restoring my 1800ES, one of my first tasks will be to get a bin rack and start sorting through the tubs and boxes of parts from when I took the car apart 5 years ago. I've had a taste of what it's like to do it right. When we tore apart the ex's ES to replace the transmission, everything was bagged and tagged, which made it all go back together much easier.

All. The. Time.

And as soon as you order the replacement and take it out of the package, the part basically drops into your lap from the sky. Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm on the Truman Show or something and I'm just being toyed with for the amusement of others... =)

Proper sorting/organization requires space and money.

As I noted in the shop thread, Im much too busy when in the shop to worry about clean and neat (since I rent the garage). When I have my own place? I refuse to move into the house unless the garage is completely setup.

Luckily, the girlfriend is fine with that lol.

I religiously throw everything out unless it is more than $30, or is no longer available. Life is too short to horde stuff.

God hates me. She hides my E36 M3 no matter where I put it. I just accept it.

All the time. And its usually when I just had it in my hand.

It's the gnomes who build the world for each moment of our lives. Since we aren't in all of the spaces around us all the time they often leave things out of the "set prep". (lazy workers with a good union)

The trick is to walk in, look around obviously and say aloud "I really need that ....." then walk back out for a moment and give the prop department a chance to put your widget in place where it had been last.

HiTempguy wrote: Proper sorting/organization requires space and money. As I noted in the shop thread, Im much too busy when in the shop to worry about clean and neat (since I rent the garage). When I have my own place? I refuse to move into the house unless the garage is completely setup. Luckily, the girlfriend is fine with that lol. I religiously throw everything out unless it is more than $30, or is no longer available. Life is too short to horde stuff.

No it doesn't.

I have a box full of ziplock baggies and a Sharpie beside me when I work. Put associated parts in a bag, label it and throw them in a cardboard box. Label the box and put it in the trunk of the car. Total investment: about $2. Or, if you're like me, you have a stash of heavy duty ziplocks left over from a medical supply company that went belly up.

For extra points, have multiple boxes for different categories. I'll usually spin nuts and bolts together to make it easier when I pull things out of the bags. It doesn't take any more room than an unorganized mess, but it makes it a lot easier to find something later. It also doesn't take any more time - a couple of seconds on each loose part and you'll save yourself a lot of time at the other end. I spent last evening reassembling the cabinetry of a 30-year-old VW Westfalia camper, and I didn't have to spend any time at all chasing my tail.

No, but there are several $11.00 items I have multiples of.

Keith Tanner wrote: Snip

Maybe I should have been more clear; I am a firm believer in the 80/20 rule.

I simply find I get much closer or "freebie percentage points" towards 80% (or even slightly higher) by spending money rather than time.

Time is finite, I only have so much of it in a day. I can always earn more money, which doesn't even directly correlate with more time spent (earning money by being smarter). Same with storage space, there is a bare minimum of space required to do certain projects and not have space impact the time said project takes.

So it's not worth spending a little bit of time up front on organization to avoid spending more time on reassembly? I don't get the storage space comment, cars are full of storage. Putting boxes of parts inside the car when you're working on the engine bay doesn't cost you any storage, but it will save you time from having to source what you threw away in the name of efficiency.

Being smarter can save both time AND money. But it takes more effort than not being smart.

On small projects that won't be multiple days for parts etc, I just keep one of those magnetic trays nearby. Long term projects, I use the Baggie method.

And I STILL have crap scuttle away when I'm not looking only to find it when I set the new part down. The only thing worse is to get something all the way together then see that unidentifiable doohickey in the tray or bag...

HiTempguy wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: Snip

Maybe I should have been more clear; I am a firm believer in the 80/20 rule. I simply find I get much closer or "freebie percentage points" towards 80% (or even slightly higher) by spending money rather than time. Time is finite, I only have so much of it in a day. I can always earn more money, which doesn't even directly correlate with more time spent (earning money by being smarter). Same with storage space, there is a bare minimum of space required to do certain projects and not have space impact the time said project takes.

I think you guys are talking about different things. There's a difference between "I just took this car apart and I'm putting it back together in a couple months", and "I'm disassembling a parts car and have a pile of extra stuff that I might want someday".

For the former, I like the plastic storage boxes with movable dividers. Size the compartment, stick the parts in, write on the top of the box with a sharpie (can be washed off later with alcohol if you want to reuse it). It's a bit more expensive than baggies, but it's easier to see everything at once.

For the latter, well, I don't do a lot of that. :)

I have a habit of losing the parts (like my bike tubes) by misplacing them before I ever have a chance to use them.

I'm pretty good about keeping things together as I take something apart. If I'm putting it back together in 5 mins I just set the bolts aside. Long term project, I put bolts back in their threaded holes/nuts on studs (I always put lugnuts back on the wheel studs)/etc. If the assembly is being removed all together I keep as much assy hardware in the associated holes as possible.

Sometimes I still resort to bags/boxes, but my problem then is if I forget which fastener goes where when there are multiple types.

Still searching steering wheel quick release for challenge car, 3 freaking days later

codrus wrote:

HiTempguy wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: Snip

Maybe I should have been more clear; I am a firm believer in the 80/20 rule. I simply find I get much closer or "freebie percentage points" towards 80% (or even slightly higher) by spending money rather than time. Time is finite, I only have so much of it in a day. I can always earn more money, which doesn't even directly correlate with more time spent (earning money by being smarter). Same with storage space, there is a bare minimum of space required to do certain projects and not have space impact the time said project takes.

I think you guys are talking about different things. There's a difference between "I just took this car apart and I'm putting it back together in a couple months", and "I'm disassembling a parts car and have a pile of extra stuff that I might want someday". For the former, I like the plastic storage boxes with movable dividers. Size the compartment, stick the parts in, write on the top of the box with a sharpie (can be washed off later with alcohol if you want to reuse it). It's a bit more expensive than baggies, but it's easier to see everything at once. For the latter, well, I don't do a lot of that. :)

Could be. I have multiple project cars and I do store parts for them. In many cases it's because they're expensive or a pain in the ass to source (ie, expensive in time if not money). Small subassemblies get partially assembled so all the parts stay together. Boxes of parts often have baggies in them with small collections of bits, labeled. Each car has its own shelves. About once a year, I'll go through and defragment the garage.

If you don't have a garage of your own, then long term projects are a difficult choice to make. And my steering wheel quick release is in the box with "steering wheel adapters/horn buttons" on it :)

I tend to use ziploc bags and a sharpie to sort/label things when doing disassembly- but I need to find a way of doing this that WON'T wash away or blur due to oil or other fluids ending up on the bags...

My problem is I always assume I'll be reassembling whatever I'm taking apart just as soon as I'm done taking out the last bolt.

That is rarely if ever the case. My E30 has been on jackstands in the driveway for over a year. I cleaned all the tools out of the trunk and bagged up all the loose hardware/other bits and pieces last weekend, all the while thinking to myself "Self, it's a good thing you bought all those spare parts from other E30s and stored all that junk in the basement, so you can cannibalize all the nuts and bolts you're inevitably missing when you try to get this thing back together."

HiTempguy wrote: Proper sorting/organization requires space and money. As I noted in the shop thread, Im much too busy when in the shop to worry about clean and neat (since I rent the garage).

I vehemently disagree. The less time/space you have, the more important being organized is. Time spent looking for crap or waiting for some part you didn't know you'd need but misplaced or threw away is time wasted.

It was easy for me to be sloppy in my ex's garage since it is so big. Only her being a neurotic neat-freak kept me from turning it into a huge cluttered mess (as is my nature). Now that I'm in my own garage that is much, much smaller, I'm constantly trying to keep things organized so I'll have room to move and find things.

cmcgregor wrote: My problem is I always assume I'll be reassembling whatever I'm taking apart just as soon as I'm done taking out the last bolt.

For better or worse, experience has taught me otherwise, so even if I think I'll be working on something tomorrow, I'll make every attempt to keep things organized as I work. For example, at the end of the night, all tools are cleaned and go back into the box. I've had too many "tomorrows" turn into "next month"... or longer...

Ian F wrote: For example, at the end of the night, all tools are cleaned and go back into the box.

Hell, the moment I spend more than 20 seconds looking for a particular tool I declare tool cleanup time and everything goes back in the box. This is usually about every 10-15 minutes. :)

i'm always forgetting where i keep putting my oil filters. at one point in time i had 6 because i'd need 1 lose it, go buy 2 and lose the extra 1.

next worse missing part are bolts for specific jobs, put them in a bag then the bag gets miss placed... ugh.

Ian F wrote: It was easy for me to be sloppy in my ex's garage since it is so big. Only her being a neurotic neat-freak kept me from turning it into a huge cluttered mess (as is my nature). Now that I'm in my own garage that is much, much smaller, I'm constantly trying to keep things organized so I'll have room to move and find things.

This is FUNNY! I have a 40x40 old pole barn.. insulated, concrete floors, lift, ect.. Nice big shop...

If the darn thing was 30x30 I think I would actaully have more room to work.. I have the same tendency towards clutter.. Oh sure just dump this right here so I HAVE to clean/sort it before starting anything else.. It gets pushed to the side and squeezed by for months.. There is NEVER more then required space on the floor no matter what. No matter the project it ALWAYS fills whatever space is avaible.

I am seriously considering building a smaller building (next to this one, keeping the old for use for storage/warehouse for a business of mine) for these exact reasons.. I think I would have more space with a smaller space.

Oh yeah.. and I just dumped several bucket fulls of bolts into the last run to the scrapper.. When it started taking less time to drive to the store to buy what I needed... all over a 2 bucks worth of bolts.. and less mess/Frustration.. Done.. Yet somehow the space is still full..