AS THE WHEEL TURNS

BY ROGER BEAUCHAMP, PRESIDENT

Well, we have another month in the books. We finished our August Drive and Dine with a cruise to Canton for lunch at the Salty Mule. Tasty seafood from clams to fish tacos and great conversations.

This was on the Tuesday, after a few of the group cruised down to Appalachian Gun for their Saturday cruise in. The weather was questionable, but we gave it a try. Once south of Jasper, some light misty rain popped up, just enough to make us fire up the wipers.  We made our $5 donation and parked on the grass with the other cruisers. We spent some time shopping and viewing cars, but the weather did not seem to be improving, so a vote was taken to depart the show and move to Duncan Donuts in Jasper for some hot coffee and snacks.

September is coming up, and this is a great time to start enjoying the cooler days with some fun car cruising events. It is nice to have the cooler temperatures on the way. On a hot day a parking lot is not the most pleasant place to be.

Our last event for August was our Cars and Coffee at Burger King. It's always cool and dry with a tasty breakfast and great conversations. I hope to see ya there at the Ellijay Burger King 9am. Last Saturday of every month.

Roger

5 Tips for Putting a Disassembled Project into Storage

By Kyle Smith

(reprinted by permission of Hagerty Media

Distractions are a fact of life. They are sneaky things that conspire to steal our time, focus, and finances from the project we want to be working on and redirect them to other parts of life that are not necessarily bad, but also not nearly as fun, interesting, or cool as making project progress. It means that sometimes we know a project car is going to sit for the foreseeable future, whether we want it to or not.

There’s nothing wrong with putting a project off to the side, but coming back to something that was disassembled over a year ago and has been scattered around the garage at least three different times can be truly problematic. Lost parts, missing hardware, and the grime that seems to land on everything that sits for more than a few days in a garage will conspire to make your project a grimy puzzle that no one wants to figure out. To avoid that outcome, follow these tips to pickle your project, and you’ll be able to pick up right where you left off—easily.

Label all the things

There are the things we know we are supposed to do, and the things we actually do. I’m as guilty as anyone for taking something apart and scattering it across my workbench with little regard to keeping the parts and pieces in a place where they can be easily identified. Mixing up a bunch of parts in a cardboard box is technically organizing them, but memory is fallible, and the ability to identify specific parts on sight is a skill that fades the further we get from the time something was disassembled.

Instead, take the time to positively label everything. Yes, even the obvious stuff. Large paper hang tags pair well with plastic bags to be able to write down all of the pertinent information: What each part is, what it might need to be ready to assemble, and if there are any other parts that need to be kept with it.

Clean

While this is technically adding work to a project that you’ve already decided you don’t have the time to work on, the whole concept here is that doing a small amount of “extra” work now will save time, money, and frustration when it comes time to pick this project back up in a few weeks, months, or possibly even years. Putting clean parts into storage is stacking the deck in your favor in a big way: Most human minds are much more likely to be excited about a pile of clean parts compared to a greasy mess. It’ll be easier to find motivation to restart your project if the parts are already clean, and more than anything, being clean and dry will help…

Prevent corrosion

Rust and other corrosion are the bane of any vintage car enthusiast. Chemical reactions constantly conspire to slowly reduce our charming machines into piles of FeO2 or flakes of aluminum on the floor. Even when in storage, the rust monster is plotting to attack your project.

To combat this, take the time to ensure everything is dry prior to storing, and also take a minute to use fogging oil or something similar to coat parts and pieces to help prevent rust from taking hold. Be careful using cardboard boxes or other materials that will absorb and hold moisture, creating a breeding ground for rust. A plastic bin with some desiccant packets tossed in is a good start, but be sure to check and swap out those packets when they become moisture-laden and stop working.

Consider assembling

In my time building projects in a home garage, it has become clear that often the easiest way to store complex projects is loosely assembled. Though the individual parts are quite small, keeping those small bits organized and labeled can require more time, effort, and space than just quickly reassembling things. This also ensures that everything goes back together while you still remember the process and exact position of any items that might be forgotten. If something is reassembled loosely, be sure to label things appropriately. A piece of painter’s tape over the ignition switch denoting a lack of oil in the engine or not-yet-ready-to-drive bits of steering gear will ensure a restoration project does not turn into an unplanned destruction project.

Location, location, location

There are many great places to store a project that is currently in pieces. There are even more terrible places to put the same project: On the floor in a corner where it can’t be seen and left to become infested with spiders. Under that one spot where the roof leaks a tiny amount. Projects are like gremlins; best stored in a cool, dry place and never fed after dark.

It’s best to find a spot to store things where they will not get messed with or “contaminated” with parts from other tasks. Keeping the bits and pieces of each project from mixing will make picking back up where you left off a little easier and also ensure that the cleaning work you did before putting things away was not done in vein. Sure, you will still have to touch things up when it’s time to restart your project, but a quick wipe down is radically different than starting with rust removal—again.