Small parts and hardware organizers like these can be purchased from various sources. Photos by author.
If you've read my blogs over the past few years, you know that some of them deal with my organizational efforts in the garage to ease the process of completing the multiple smaller projects required to get one of my cars up and running again. Here's a list of some that were previously posted:
Is it too soon to talk about winter projects?—Restoration and modification tasks.
What happens when mini-projects grow?—Identify and work with "project creep." One secret to successfully navigating project creep is to know where to draw the line.
Five quick, easy, low-buck (some are free) garage tips that can make working on your car a bit easier— Organizing supplies using a clear-pocket over-the-door shoe organizer. Use a wide-angle trucker accessory rearview mirror for seeing in tight spaces. Have multiple small tool boxes for specific tasks to make use of redundant tools in your collection. Date the bottom of your paint and cleaner cans and containers, so you know which ones to use up first before they get too old to work properly. Use lock-together anti-fatigue foam flooring tiles to make it more comfortable to lie on the floor under the car when the creeper won't fit.
A very simple organizational/motivational trick for working on your car— Storing the parts in cardboard boxes in the trunk of your project car and working out of them to help chart the progress, while keeping things organized.
50+ Easy 1-hour-or-less mini-project ideas to fight winter doldrums—Self-explanatory.
Breaking the seal on a long-term project—Resuming work on a long dormant buildup.
10+ parts and task management list tips to help with your project—Creating "Parts Have/Parts Needed," "Parts to Reinstall," and "To Do—It's Done" lists or any combination of these or anything else that you deem significant to help keep your buildup organized.
Raiding the kitchen and bathroom cabinets for no-buck and low-buck garage helpers—Old pots and pans, plastic storage containers and jars, toothbrushes and even a cast-away blow-dryer can be useful in the garage.
14 Tips for Buying Vintage Car Parts Online—Self-explanatory.
For this blog, I'm going to discuss "project boxes." Most of us have used zip-lock bags for decades for keeping parts and fasteners organized and clean and dry. And I put them in cardboard boxes that relate to where in the car the parts go. However, I always end up having to rifle through a box full of zip-lock bags to gather all the small items when it comes time to clean, restore or install them. Since most projects take more than one day, each time I rejoin the fray, I again have to sift through the remaining bags. Invariably, through the course of the installation, something will be missing that I should have known about or something else still needs attention before I can install it.
The bins can be removed or rearranged easily to house the small parts of various projects. This one happens to be for interior parts. Here, two large bins were removed and a medium bin was borrowed from the smaller organizer to accommodate a larger part.
Using a project box like those shown in this blog for the smaller parts and fasteners, with a glance I can determine in seconds if I have everything I need and what condition it's in. If there are items I already know I don't have, I can leave a bin empty with a note in it to remind me that I still need to get that part or fastener.
The reason I call them project boxes instead of storage boxes or organizers, which is what they are usually named and marketed as, is because I'm not talking about using them for long term storage—even though you certainly can if you choose to. Rather, I'm using them specifically to hold all the small parts and hardware for when I'm preparing to clean and restore them and/or actually put something back together again. Being able to determine what I have, have quick access to it and know with a quick look whether or not I already installed it has saved me much more time than it took to load the parts into the little bins.
Small peel-and-stick notes can be used to identify what's in the bin if necessary or used as a reminder for what additional parts or fasteners are needed to go along with the one that's already in the bin.
When the bins are empty because I've finished that project, I can decide what the next one is and reload the same box or boxes with those parts.
The boxes shown in this blog were purchased from Harbor Freight, but ones like them can be purchased from myriad sources. You may find other boxes with even more desirable features, but here are the ones that make these boxes practical for the small parts for my projects.
- You can see through the tops when they are closed for easy parts identification.
- They have multiple removable bins, so they can be used outside the box to hold items near where you are installing them
- Since the bins are not attached to the inside of the box, they can be rearranged inside of it as needed
- The bins are various sizes to accommodate dissimilar sized items
- The bright yellow bin color makes them less likely to get lost when they are not in the box
- There's a two-latch top to keep the parts inside and a handle to make the unit easily transportable
- The top has guides in it to secure each bin so they don't rattle or allow the small items to migrate from one bin to another when the unit is closed and held vertically by its handle.
- Any number of bins can simply be removed to allow a larger part to fit in the box and the guides in the top will still keep the remaining bins in their proper places.
- Everything washable and reusable.
- The smaller 15-bin box cost $3.99 and the large one $8.99 on sale. The sales do happen frequently at Harbor Freight.
from Hemmings Daily – News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/22Xq6Do
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