Does Garage and Storage Space Limit Your Collection?

[Guest BJM]

I have far more cars that I want to purchase and I purchase in project shape. I currently have 4 vehicles, 3 undergoing body-offs, and a 48 Cadillac I need to find space for.

I live in a small town that is tolerant of my insane hobby. I used to live in Des Moines, inner city where they would force my hand if a neighbor just said Boo.

Now, I try to show concern for my neighbors by having everything to the back, no junk in the yard, everything nicely stacked, but I am out of room. Even if I had four restored cars, I have a nice insulated 3 car garage. I could fit a maximum of 7-8 finished cars (3 inside garage, 3 in driveway, and 2 on north side of garage)

Obviously I need a place in the country. Not everyone wants this many cars (or more, in my case) but some want to 'collect' cars of a certain period, or make over several years. Many members on here have a lot of cars listed in their footers.

For others, what limits your collection? Time, physical space, resources? Are there more collectors interested in only 1-2 cars? Or are there more insane folks like me that just can't get enough? Is there any cure for wanting such a big list of cars? At what point does a person realize (like so many ebay auction content) that you have too many cars you will never get to?

Inquiring minds want to know...

[Guest Stonefish]

SPACE!!! for now...looking to move somewhere with more land to build a bigger garage!

[Ron Green]

Time and age (54) lately seem to be limiting my collection. With a 4 car, 2 car and 1 car garage and on occasion my brothers garage space is no problem. At 8 vehicles and a trailer there are way to many things to maintain let alone jam a full restoration in between things every few years. Unless I hit the lottery which will gain me plenty of play time.

[DizzyDale]

Dear Ron,I am working on my 67 Nova and the 62 Corvette is being neglected.The Corvette is a real nice driver though it seems like it ALWAYS needs something.In my mind two cars are plenty and SOMETIMES one too many.Now i will answer the question....NO.diz

[Guest BJM]

Geesh look at that collection! At least I see a lot of small cars on that list!

[Barry Wolk]

A lot of cities have less fashionable areas where commercial buildings go for $25-$50 a square foot. In the long term it's much cheaper to own than to rent. There are also tax advantages to owning.

With the housing slump these buildings are a bargain right now.

[Ron Green]

Dear Diz,

I hear you, so after much thinking I am going a different route in my collecting.

[wldavis]

WOW!! Ron, This seems to be the ultimate way to collect.

I never thought of doing it this way!

[Guest imported_MrEarl]

Jake, over the last few years, half the fun of this old car hobby for me has been the hunt and chase. The 3rd Roadmaster I bought (from somehwere in South Dakota) came with a car hauling trailer. Since then, at one point about a year ago I had amassed 17 1954,3 55 and 3 56 Buicks. The majority of them were of course parts cars. The others were "easy restores" and what I thought at the time of purchase low mileage drivers. I later determined they are all more than likely easy restores to some point of restoration. I have 15 acres and good neighbors and so far have had no problem with bringing another old Buick in the back acreage. My plan was to retire about 5 years early and set about dismantleing and selling parts from the pc's and restoring the others. Needless to say my plans for early retirement aren't working out as planned, I currently spend most of my time off baby sitting my mom, college tuition ain't getting any cheaper and it now takes 2 days to recoup from one day of crawling around working under these old cars . . Like I said, I have greatly enjoyed hauling these old Roadmasters, Centurys, Supers and Specials home along with driving and seeing the country side, most of the time with my son, meeting all kinds of interesting folks many of which have become good friends. But at 57, I have begun to see the light and realize I need to reduce the herd. It is actually becoming very depressing seeing the previously planned out projects sittig there and beginning to rust away on me. I love the 54 Buicks, and I thought I was at least being wise by being "monogomous" by not venturing out into too many other years and models. In my travels I have come across no less than 4 individuals that I feel shared your and my disease of nedanothacaritis. I saw first hand lines of cars that the owners had bought with the intention of restoring someday. Many of which I so wished I could have gotten to before they got to the poor state in which they were when he finally realized he had ran out of time. Dreams are nice, but dreams don't weld panels and sand and prime a car, dreams don't rebuild engines, dreams don't reupholster interiors...Lamar or Jake or Dale or Ron have to do that or pay someone to do that. And I don't know about you but I have about given up on this lottery BS, SOOOOO, I guess all I am trying to tell you is maybe you should pick out one or two absolute "can't live without" and pursue buying and restoring them, then if there's time left go for another. The old saying life is like a roll of toilet paper, in that the closer to the end you get, the faster it goes certainly rings true with the old car hobby.

So I guess the answer to your question

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">At what point does a person realize that you have too many cars you will never get to </div></div> is when you start to see the cardboard roll through the paper. Anybody want to buy a rough but restorable one owner 54 Century from California named Mary Jane.

[Starfire61]

I have a 3-car garage with an apron at home, & in the past have rented several garages to store cars & a boat. None of the rental situations have been particularly satisfactory.

Last year I leased a 1500 square foot industrial unit with an office, bathroom, & my own drive-in door. That worked out very well, but I knew that in the long term the rent on such a place would kill me.

Within the last month I bit the bullet & purchased a 2400 square foot industrial condo unit about 20 minutes from home. I'm probably going to have to put the car projects on hold for a year or so to let my wallet recover, but for the long term it should be a good solution. After a sizable down payment, my monthly expenses will be on par with what I previously paid in rent.

I've had so many folks ask me about renting space that I wish I'd bought a larger unit, or perhaps two units. Unfortunately, I just don't have the resources to devote to such an undertaking right now, not unless I sold all the cars!

Chuck Tuma

Wheaton, IL

[GMPARTSMAN]

All of the above,plus time, money AND age. Like Mr. Earl said, a couple of days to recuperate at times.

After dealing with vehicle crisis issues each day at work, I really don't want to wrench on anything at night like I did twenty or thirty years ago. And in the garage at two in the morning, getting up to be at work at seven thirty gets old too.

My next project is a resto-rodding, it will take a while to get it done, estimated time of completion five or six years.

Too many of my friends have buried themselves in multiple projects at the same time, completing none of them. I too fell into this trap, but have culled the herd so to speak by getting rid of a couple of projects.

Retirement age is getting closer, maybe after that I will change my point of view when free time increases.

[Bhigdog]

I'm blessed by living in the country with no close neighbors to complain. When I did my first body off restoration to my 69 Vette all I had to work in was a 2 car garage. As the years passed and I needed more room I built a 3 bay addition to the garage. That gave me the room to do a body off on the 39 Chevy Pick up. After a few more years went by I got the hots for a heavy convertable project. Realizing I didn't have an adequate shop for the project I built a 36' X 48' shop with 12' ceiling. After finishing the 55 Buick convert I coasted for a year or so before buying the 57 Buick convert project. After finishing that I had to use the shop as a garage for one finished car. I wanted a 55 Olds project so I added a 36' X 42' addition to the shop as garage space for 4 cars. The Olds is finished and I have a 56 Chrysler under restoration in the shop now. There is room for it in the new addition but that is it. The original 2 bay garage contains my and my wifes daily drivers. The 3 bay addition contains the 69 Vette, 39 Chev, and the third bay lawn mowers etc. The new 36' X 42' shop addition contains the 2 Buicks and the Olds, with one space left for the Chrysler when finished. Build it and you will fill it. I must be insane..........Bob.

[Barry Wolk]

That would be nice to have my stuff within walking distance. If I did the math correctly you have 4,540 square feet of garage space. We only have an acre in the city but we're allowed to have a garage 25% the size of the house. I'd have to build an 18,000 square foot house to be allowed as much space as you have.

[R W Burgess]

Not insane Bob, lucky you are able to restore your own vehicles.

Wayne

[novaman]

Barry, you do like one guy did around here. He bought a house in a housing delopment and purchased the lot directly behind him, facing the next street. He built a nice two story house for his family to live in. On the "rear" piece of land, he built another "house", this one a long, one story ranch. From the other street it looks like a house complete with front door. But if you drive up the driveway at the two story house, you drive around it into a courtyard an into on of I think it was 5 garage doors. (the house was actually built u shaped but apprears from the street to be a racnh) The house will house something like 8 cars. It has a bathroom, an "apartment" kitchen, and a small room (or large closet) with a bed, all the legal requirments to be a house. I believe I have some photos somewhere. I'll see if I can find them.

[Paul Dobbin]

We thought if we had a five car garage we would have room for #1 A finished Car #2. Two stalls for doing another

car #3 Two stalls for daily drivers.

Now we have 7 cars and no room to work. We have to leave a new daily driver outside and rent a space for a finished antique and another warehouse for the motorhome. The other 3 finished antiques stay in the barn/shop. So I have to pass on all the good deals that come along.

Now we bought acreage in NC and will leave Paradise in Florida for space to build a bigger barn/shop and a new house with a museum basement.

Anybody interested in a 5 car garage in Florida with an attached pool home?

[old gto]

<span style="color: #3333FF">Add another response for "Time, and age"...my wife & I have sold 2 cars and 3 trucks in the last few years because we don`t have time to build them all. We have a 1000 sq ft garage crammed FULL with the 4 remaining cars. I`d still like to sell one, and buy a different one. And it`s not just cars....we also collect & restore old Coke machines and gas pumps.

So I would not call it insanity, but I also don`t think there`s a cure for it either! </span>

[Dandy Dave]

Better to have one or two good drivers than a yard full of junkers.

The problem up here is the high taxes. Even if you can afford to build a lot of people won't because the rate is so high.

Dave!

[MCHinson]

I'm OK on space right now. Money is what limits me. I recently had three antique autos and my wife's daily driver Tahoe (which is really my tow vehicle) in our 4 car garage. I also have an enclosed trailer that could be used to hold another vehicle if needed. The detatched garage is almost as large as the original size of my house. We expanded the house a little, but the garage is still about as big as I can get on our property and I have no plans to move. The funny thing is that right now, I just have one antique automobile, as it worked out that I sold two others in the recent past. So, right now, I don't need more space, I need more cars. I could park my company car and my son's minivan in the garage right now if I wanted to, but instead I am sort of looking for another antique to buy in the near future.

[R W Burgess]

.........<span style="color: #CC0000"><span style="font-weight: bold">GARAGE FOR RENT!

...........APPLY WITHIN!</span></span>

[Guest Skyking]

When I moved back from Florida I bought a double lot in the neighborhood where I grew up, two streets from my father. It was the last vacant lots availible in this nice area. On the double lot was an oversized 2 car garage with a full walk-up loft. I built a new raised ranched with another two car garage on that. Now at that time I had only three cars counting my 2 daily drivers. Now I have five. The beauty of owning Metropolitans is you can fit more in the spaces you have. I keep the Buick & the Mets in the garage in the rear and my 2 daily drivers in the house garage. Both are heated. I don't like keeping cars out and I swore if I moved back to New England I would <span style="font-weight: bold">never</span> scrape windows again......

[MarkV]

Well, I would have many more cars if I had the money for upkeep and the garage space, I drive my grandmother crazy with my cars that are in her driveway!

[1935Packard]

I used to live in the city and rent garages in the suburbs for my cars, but it became a huge hassle; every year or so I needed to find new garages. I ended up moving to the burbs to get a huge two-car garage of my own. Garage space is definitely a factor making it harder to get more cars; now I need to find more garages to rent, and my cars tend to be pretty big.

[rocketraider]

I bit the bullet last year and built a 36x50 pole barn at the homeplace, with 16x50 storage loft. Even accounting for size of Oldsmobiles, I figure I can get 6 or 7 cars in it by keeping the workbenches and tools all on one wall.

Here in town I have the typical 1/4 acre city lot. There's space for a 2-car garage in back, but accessing the back yard was the problem. Rental garages are scarce here at any price and I ended up renting 10x30 storage units for the nicest three cars- not cheap. I could have built a garage and had it half paid for, for what I've paid in storage rent the last few years. But- wasn't sure what I was going to do with the folks' place, and knew having a construction crew around would agitate my Mama, so I waited.

And now I'm in my 50s, with little time to devote to the cars, and at a stage in my life when I need to start thinking about thinning the herd instead of expanding it. But there's still a couple cars I want to own before my time is done.

[Jim Bollman]

I started off with a shop/barn 50% bigger than the house. Up till this Winter the daily drivers have always stayed out (wife's is in car port) but decided I wanted the new to me tow vehicle to be inside since it was in such nice shape underneath. Since I also didn't want to leave the slide in camper and open trailer out for the Winter I stacked them and rented a spot for the Winter. First time in 25+ years that I had to rent space. Not sure if I will add another building or continue renting. Since it isn't secured storage it is only $200 for 6 months so it is hard to justify building other than the connivence since it is stored till Spring no matter what (other campers and boats around it).

I have fluctuated between 3 and 5 collector cars (currently 3) but like Skyking I collect mostly small cars and they stack in pretty tight. I have decided to limit myself to one large vehicle for comfort trips and rotate that out of the collection as I find something I like better. The 2 Crosleys I have now are keepers and I'm thinking that I should add one more. Of course I have added a couple of old tractors over the years so they take space to. I keep telling my wife I'm trying to be good, if I build it will probably just be a 3 sided shed to give some protection for the trailer and camper.

I know many of you use an enclosed trailer for extra car storage. Is there a down side to that? I have a neighbor that has a small building for a shop and keeps adding trailers when he needs more space, he is up to 3. No real-estate tax and if you decide to move you are already mostly packed.

[R Walling]

My problem is not where to store them as so much what to do with them after I finish them.

I have two registered now and would like to drive others, but how many can you justify registering in order to drive them only 3 or 4 times a year?

In Ma., I used to be able to throw my repair plate on anything and go for a ride as I fancied. The Tax people didn’t like that, so now the plate can be used only for business, what a bummer!

I guess I’ll have to get a dealers plate!

[ex98thdrill]

Bryan, I'll be the first to tell you that you will most likely never have too much space. Right now I have a pickup and a motorcycle sitting in my 2 car garage, and three in my basement. My father has got one in his two car garage, 6 cars in his basement, 15 cars in our 100x50ft barn, one in our car trailer, one in my dad's garage in Florida and one in the AACA Museum.

Meanwhile all of our daily drivers still sit outside due to lack of space.

Jim as to your car trailer question, we've put cars in our trailer after Hershey, left them in there all winter long and when spring time rolls around had no dust, dirt or cobwebs on the vehicle. Being in the trailer, there's not moisture problems because the car is off of the ground.

[Guest lanceyboy]

My problem is that everytime I feel I have enough cars/trucks to keep me occupied another one of my friends or customers calls me up to ask me if I'm interested in their fathers/grandfathers old so and so . Just this month I aquired a 1936 Ford 3 window coupe from a friend of mine whose grandfather bought it new. This gem has a documented 20k miles on it ....how do you say no. My shop is 1100 sq ft. My wife kept saying no to more garages.I convinced her that if I make the house 22 feet longer I could get a 2 car garage under and she could the large family room above it that she always wanted.When do you start was her answer. The really nice thing that I did for myself was to put radiant heat in the slab of my garage. I can now take a nap under my Ford pickup if need be ...just kidding. Well its good to know that there are others out there with the same disease..

Lance Scharf

1938 Dodge D8

1946 Dodge wc Pickup

1952 Ford F1 Pickup

1936 Ford 3 W Coupe

1931 Auburn 8 98A

1 very understanding wife

[michaelmis]

http://carcoon.com/

I have an outdoor version of the carcoon. It is the best outdoor solution I have seen/used.

Mine is completly exposed at the moment, rain, 40Celcius heat, but have also used it under a carport.

[ex98thdrill]

Due to the tax rates, our next step will be to start buying 4-post Backyard Buddies, setting them up in our shop and start stacking 'em. No more buildings, no more cars.

[35gene]

I have my 35 chevy and a 54 ford p u and room for 1948 angila if and when I find a nice one then on more room and then maybe add on to the garage.???