[poncho-mike]

Over the years, I took apart a number of cars and ended up with quite an assortment of what my wife refers to as junk. I often would pull a set of heads off of a block, put the blocks on a shelf, and putting starters, alternators, distributors, etc on a shelf or in a box. At the time, I had a lot of storage at my parent's place, so I had somewhere to store my overflow. Unfortunately, I'm not real organized, so I'm now trying to consolidate and sell off what I don't need.

Is there demand for things like original water pump and crankshaft pulleys? Accessory brackets? Factory flex fan blades? I have boxes of things like hood latch cables that aren't labeled, so I have no idea what they are out of.

I'm sure some of you have been in this situation? What did you do?

Mike

[Flynbye]

It’s an illness... I understand completely. I still have parts in my childhood home that is now my brothers. Fun to go through and tell stories with a beer or two.

Please do not throw away, offer up to the masses first.

[Scarebird]

Pulleys and brackets may have parts numbers, I would save. 2bbl small valve press in heads? no so much.

[Tellyshavilli]

Originally Posted by poncho-mike

Over the years, I took apart a number of cars and ended up with quite an assortment of what my wife refers to as junk. I often would pull a set of heads off of a block, put the blocks on a shelf, and putting starters, alternators, distributors, etc on a shelf or in a box. At the time, I had a lot of storage at my parent's place, so I had somewhere to store my overflow. Unfortunately, I'm not real organized, so I'm now trying to consolidate and sell off what I don't need.

Is there demand for things like original water pump and crankshaft pulleys? Accessory brackets? Factory flex fan blades? I have boxes of things like hood latch cables that aren't labeled, so I have no idea what they are out of.

I'm sure some of you have been in this situation? What did you do?

Mike

Well hardest part is like you said that’s getting organized and you have to identify almost everything you have and label it ,then some research on values ,but it is getting to where almost everything has some value especially hi Performance factory stuff

[indymanjoe]

Same boat here as well. Hate to toss what someone may need. My car is done except for paint and body, Mechanically rock solid. I would love to get rid of all the stuff I have but the time to monitor the add and set up shipping etc. unless its a rare part just doesn't seem to be a big payoff. I did sell all my 72 GTO fenders etc.. to a guy I know who will use them pretty cheap. The stuff you mentioned is valuable as people lose stuff or its bent etc..I have water pump cores and pulleys as well and would love to see someone use them. I also don't want to stick my wife and kids with a pile of stuff if I go on to the great race track in the sky LOL Not knowing what ya have is going to be a pain to decide what to keep etc..Good luck! if ya find a good method let me know. One thing I enjoy is giving stuff to the younger people working to fix an old Pontiac up.

[76TA462]

Things are a changing. But, I wouldn’t toss the parts, they are getting harder to find. I would try to find a home for them otherwise they are lost forever. That said, over the decades I collected an assortment of second gen F-Body parts during iterations of the work I did or had done on my TA. With limited space I now only have original parts from my own car (heads, intake, tranny, console etc etc etc). As I started unloading the other parts, various 6X and 4X heads, iron intakes, Q-Jets, brackets etc., at first I could sell them to people who would use them. In more recent years I had to effectively give some things away but at least I knew where they were going. But more recently it is hard to find homes for the lesser items, and I suspect if I could give away some of the stuff I might get head faked by people who would use them for metal scrap. I will not unload the original parts to my car, but fact is, I will never convert the car back to original. I have no idea why I hang onto them. Anyway, just throwing out some thoughts on my parts journey. PS – Building an original is a great idea for specific applications, and these old parts come into play there, but less and less “seem” to be doing that.

[DaleO]

And then it happens, get rid of something and suddenly you need it next week! I'm running into the same problem with tractors now. Getting this all under control now is on my mind so my wife doesn't need to. How about your tools? Someone will make like a bandit there. I also think about the kids inheriting some cars but that isn't too promising. Sigh.

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by Scarebird

Pulleys and brackets may have parts numbers, I would save. 2bbl small valve press in heads? no so much.

This. I consolidated all of my 2 car garage and storage room full of 2 decades of parts recently. Carbs and 1 set of pulleys were all saved and boxed up. If it was an original cylinder head or a 4bbl intake manifold, it was saved and donated to a friend of mine who has more room. Same with all 400 & 455 blocks and cranks. If it was a 2bbl intake manifold or a 2bbl carb or used pistons\rods or old valley pans and original date code water pumps, it all got scrapped. Old electrical harnesses of questionable origins, any critical pins\plugs were cut off and saved and the rest tossed. Big car body parts were saved (fenders, core supports, etc) and went off to my friend as well as donations. Crusty trunk lids, etc all got tossed in the scrap bin. No one wanted to come to E. TN, they wanted it shipped, and everyone wanted pictures at all angles and prices and I just didn't have the energy or time categorize and price everything or the space to ship everything to people, just enough time to build my last car and get it shipped to storage.

And I don't feel guilty at all. It's so much less junk I haven't used, I'm free of it. Most of what I had no one wanted.

[76TA462]

Some of it also makes great work shop art defacto storage.

[poncho-mike]

I've already gone through this once. My mom and dad rented a couple of mobile homes in the late 60s through the late 80s. When dad got tired of being a landlord, he let the mobile homes sit and I filled them up with car parts. Around the same time, I was buying all the 455 & 428 big cars I could find for the motors. I ended up with a lot of sheet metal for 67 - 74 big cars. My dad passed in 2010 and mom passed in 2013, and I lost all of my storage when the estate was settled. I tried to sell some of the big car stuff, but it didn't sell well, and she lived three hours away. I finally hauled it all to the scrap yard and sold it by the pound. I've felt bad doing that ever since, since the sheet metal was so nice. But it wasn't worth the paying rent somewhere to store it, so it had to go. I also had a lot of 350 and 400 2-barrel engines that got hauled away too.

Is there any demand for date coded flex fans? 4-barrel single snorkel air cleaners? Non-posi 2.73 A-body rears?

Mike

[turbo69bird]

I’d say post pictures and see what people can help identify. Someone needs it that’s for sure .even if you have it away at least someone is using it.

Of someone needs it they probably know what it looks like and from
There you can look closer

[Half-Inch Stud]

Got a real thin herd due to moving South and back North;

No rear axles, just a bucket of Posi parts.
2 Transmissions, 1-case, and enough internals for 3 builds, was > 10.
1 Sw-Pithc conv.
1 spare 455, dis assembled. on a real engine stand.
3- intakes.
2-carbs
1-full wire harness, some partials, clean GM wire scrap for lugs.

2-PS boxes, 2-int reg alts,
Small stash of knobs, interior pieces, emblems.
2-1970 Caddy auto-scan Stereos.
1- engine hoist, and a set of mounted slicks.

NO BODY PARTS. NO Lawn Art.


I need to find stuff to store

[bird72]

A couple years ago I got rid of many boxes of non rare parts. I was buried in the cr@p after parting a couple cars. In the 5 years since, I had to purchase one 20 buck part I had let go, I gained may shelves of storage. When I realized I was keeping "just in case" parts for parts I already had on car and wouldn't break stuff, I realized it was dumb. And unless you have no life, selling and shipping hundreds of 5 to 20 buck items is my idea of torture.

['ol Pinion head]

Originally Posted by poncho-mike

...
Is there demand for things like original water pump and crankshaft pulleys? Accessory brackets? Factory flex fan blades? I have boxes of things like hood latch cables that aren't labeled, so I have no idea what they are out of.

I'm sure some of you have been in this situation? What did you do?

Mike

Ship out quite a few nice original engine brackets & pulleys here, always have. Crank pulleys... best to go through & examine them, if they're common 2 groove crank pulleys like the '71+ 481038, they'd better be straight & a nice & clean/ unpittted in the grooves pulley, otherwise they are chunkers. Crank pulleys like "846"'s, if they're nice & straight with just a few pits, they'll clean up fine. Typically will run out of certain applications like original '846"s, then will come across a few more.

factory Pontiac 5 blade flex fans, typically sell 2 or 3 a year. have 8-10 more. Comes down to condition, if a factory flex fan blade is torn up by the steel support, the fans is basically low value or scrap pile material. certain date ranges I am looking for even if blades are damaged as I can replace blades.

10DN, 10SI, & 27SI Pontiac original Muscle era alts, have multiple dozen nested 5 to a hd box. Have sold many more & still get quite a few requests. Have all of them IDed with dates on a master list. Traded a 71 442 application open frame alt last week. Sell a few, sometimes 7-8 Alts each year, prefer to sell them properly restored, but occasionally ship one out as a nice core. Certain #'s & date ranges bring a fairly decent amt, 10 SIs that are low value I typically get rid of to a local auto electric builder. Example: '75-76 application 10SI Pontiac app alts I never get requests for. Am sure somewhere there are folks actually restoring '76 455 50th Ann T/A's & 76 SJ GP's, etc, but a ton of "restorers" of Pontiacs from these low water performance years typically throw together cars with parts store alts.

original casting wp's... value depends on casting number, date code range, & condition. Have 7 or 8 dozen original casting cores & a few that have been freshly rebuilt (traditionally strong date range sellers). For a while last year, I ran out of mid '72 & later full impeller design cast impellers. Once I reloaded on some nothing casting date water pumps with correct impellers, was able to rebuild half a dozen more late '72-early 74 & '77-78 pumps that required that design of impeller.

Feel free & give me a buzz, Mike, if you need more pertinent info on cores to hang on to.

[fiedlerh]

I agree with 'ol Pinion head.
Some restorers want correct date-coded parts. Others don't care or are unaware most parts have a date code.
I'm in the same boat. Bins of parts from 68-74 that I want to unload. Not sure what to restore or sell as-is. Might have to get into the ebay game again.

[agator]

I parted a few 68/69 GTO in early to mid 80's and stored the parts at my mother's until she sold her house 6 years ago. I didn't mess with them for a while and I was renting a storage locker and my 2 car garage barely had a path thru it. The main reason for selling parts was to get rid of the storage unit and regain use of my garage.
There are some great resources to help with what part fits which model and date codes. I don't mind the research, appreciated the money and enjoyed meeting other people interested in GTOs..
It can be a pain but it's nice when you help keep a car on the road or help someone get closer to getting a restoration done.

[unclescratch]

Sold my '65 GTO 2-years ago. Been selling the leftover stuff slowly. Finally sold everything, and I mean 'everything' (that I valued @$2700.00) for $1700.00 to a fine gentleman over this very forum. It was time for grandpa to move on.... So relieved that my accumulation did not go to the dumpster, I am so at ease with it all now.

[1965gp]

I may sell items of value, but little cheap items I will give to my friend that has a shop. I donate old parts and if I need something small I don’t have (factory bolts, bracket, etc.) he usually lets me pull it off one of his cars for free.

People expect to pay a fair price from him, they are used to paying shipping from him. He has several GM projects/repairs going on at once and sometimes they just need something that looks factory and works- they don’t care if it is off of a 77 2bbl car.

I’ve found shipping to be a hurdle. Tried to sell parts on this site several times for people to bail when I told them how much shipping would be. I’m not even charging for time or the box- just shipping charges.

As far as local Craigslist is concerned- for a $100 or less it’s not worth me driving to meet someone or letting them see my garage. Especially when a lot of times they don’t show up

[Half-Inch Stud]

Ahem,
Joined a local car club. Was a Seller at their swap meet, and like nobody sold much of anything. A few lessons to be learned there.

Biggest is we will do well at Pontiac-specific swap meets. Racetrack swap meets also did me well.

[carbking]

Two important questions:

(1) How understanding is your wife?

AND

(2) Depending on your age, how do you want your kids to remember you?

PS: my children are helping me "downsize" while they can use my knowledge of what stuff is.

Jon