Today is National Pack Rat Day, a day to recognize the dreaded hoarder. If you’re into old cars, you probably a stash of parts, memorabilia, or actual vehicles somewhere. Whether it’s out of necessity for backups, reassurance for just-in-case scenarios, investment, speculation, or some kind of compulsion, you’re probably not doing the old car thing right if you don’t have a trove of treasure somewhere.
What automotive stuff do you hoard?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “Are JNC prices getting out of control?”
The overwhelming opinion seemed to be that yes, prices are getting out of control. However, the explanations for this were varied. Some of you, like JDMjunkies, said it’s the natural cycle for any model, while speedie remarked that a COVID bump might be driving up prices in the moment. Unfortunately, RX626 noted that the rise in prices has caused a wave of car theft in Japan.
The winner this week was Sam, who gave what was probably the answer most rooted in cold reality:
Well, supply and demand
As less of these cars exist because people are fulfilling their automotive fantasies, or people are slamming them into walls in the name of Dorisha, the price of them has to go up. Seeing a stock 240SX is like seeing a unicorn- it’s even hard to see an IMAGE of a stock 240SX (don’t believe me? Just look up 240SX and see how long it takes).
The price of them is going up higher than it should be because people insist on using them for their own mod projects instead of using a newer car that’s still in production.
It’s just unfortunate, and not much can be done about it. All you can do is make sure you take care of the cars you have to preserve for a future generation.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Since Daihatsu was always an obscure make in Europe, especially in the east part of the continent, part for older models are scarce. I own a ’91 Applause witch shares the engine with Feroza. The little 4×4 has a really strong following here in Poland among off-roaders.Since they don’t cuddle their cars they often break. This increases the prices of of the 1,6 HD engines. Thy are all-alloy design that’s very prone to overheating.
So I always try to store at least one spare engine in ready-to-run condition, some additional one for further service or the smaller (cheaper) 1,3 HC, some tranny’s.
Besides this heavy gear i keep the usuall stuff needed to keep an old car alive: several CV joits, wheel hubs, bearings, filters, discs, pads. Some spare lapms, mirrors, interior trim.
But the stuff i have massive stacks of are wheels. Complete wheels, bare rims, tires in various sizes. At some point i had 12 full sets of wheels for that one car and swithed them every few days. Now there are 3 cars in my household and i seriously don’t know where to store all those wheels. 😀
Just Diecast.
Car brochures, a thirty five year sickness of which I have no interest in curing!
Wow, this reminded me of something that I completely forgot about! I used to go to junkyards quite often when I was younger (late teens-early 20s) just to look around and pass the time. I used to always grab shift knobs that were in any way interesting, mostly from 80s or 90s Japanese cars.
I’d say I probably had a dozen or so from celicas, corollas, Z cars, etc… Oddly enough I used to swap them out with the stock shift knob on my 2008 Yaris if they had the same thread pitch. I believe I had a shift knob from an 84 Celica in that car for 3 or 4 years before it got really gooey on a hot and humid day.
I’m not sure what happened to my small collection of random shift knobs over the years, but thinking about it has definitely made me feel nostalgic and now I want to hit up the local yards and grab some more.
I have been collecting EVERYTHING Mitsubishi/RALLIART items since 1985. All scale diecast, magazines, pens, pins, photos/signed photos, mugs, parts from race rally cars, license plates, mechanic uniforms, race suits, books, year. Books, etc. ANYTHING related to Mitsubishi/RALLIART. In 2008, Mitsubishi Corporate sent an executive from Tokyo head office to come to my house in NJ, USA to interview me, and take photos of my garage/museum. It took 2 days.
I have saved every original part [less oil filters but including the original spark plugs and spark plug wires] that I have removed from my 411. Why? So that I could restore it to “as delivered” condition if I so desired.
I wouldn’t say I hoard much automotive stuff, but I do buy up any spare parts when I see them cheap. For example, a few years ago I bought all remaining inventory from a vendor of my favourite brake pads that went out of production. I paid less than $8 a set ($3.97ea for front or rear set)! Also bought a few dozen oil filters when another company I prefer stopped producing the specific one I liked.
Diecast. Lots and lots of diecast.
My obsession started as a teenage lust. Was 19 and shopping for my first new car. Just so happened Mazda introduced its Rx-7 that same year and it was love at first sight. Fast forward some 25 years later and my old girl lost a wiper cap. Flew off from a gust of wind I suppose. Anyhow, I had been isolated, just me and my car for all those years and in my quest to find a replacement cap, I found the Rx-7 club forums and a whole other world of other Rx-7 enthusiasts who shared my passion. It continues to bring me to other related places like this one.
Since finding a replacement cap, I started buying other spare parts, which led to another whole car, which drove the need for more parts and so on. I now own five 1st gens (god help me) and have a garage attic of related parts and spares. At least I never have to look far if I ever lose another wiper cap.
Like r100guy, I’ve been collecting car brochures for decades. As I started dabbling in car journalism and receiving invitations to auto show press conferences and new vehicle press previews, the collection grew to include mementoes such as press kits, flash drives (some of which are unexpectedly inventive) and even lanyards with carmaker logos.
Off topic but can anyone point me in the direction of more pics of that Onevia? (such as what event it was at in the picture) The levels of want are off the chart!
That would be in NorCal at Radwood in 2019.
https://japanesenostalgiccar.com/events-radwood-norcal-2019/
1:64 diecast cars!
Greetings!
Not really hoarding, but have had at least these 2 items since right after college. Worked at a local Toyota dealership for a bit. I have a MIMB console and instrument cluster panel for a 1st Generation Celica. I own one which I bought new in high school. Yes, that’s 49 years! Not quite sure when i want to install those parts. After a full blown restoration?
Also – maybe more about hoarding – car brochures from the 70s to present. Just recently sold every Car & Driver, Motor Trend and Road & Track; among others – since the 70s.
I always get M30 parts whenever they hit the junkyard. With an obscure car.. I always grab stuff. I’ve had SOO MUCH REGRET over the years of parts I dismissed or didn’t care about.
Being in the bay area, I do have access to a lot of local PnPs. So sometimes I go to one and just run through the yard. Save small stuff like bolts and screws, cup holders or even tail lights.
Even parts to cars I don’t have just for the sake of saving them.
– Digital clusters
– badges (not so much anymore)
– even JDM parts or highly sought parts. If they are not saved, they get crushed.
Car magazines ranging from import to domestic, 1950’s to current. If it has covered the types of cars/trucks that I like, and has good interesting articles, I buy them up like crazy. I also like to collect rare parts for cars that I am building or plan to build. Sometimes I may not need the part right away but if I know it will be really hard to find later, I will go ahead and pick it up.