[1project2many]

That's very cool. It actually looks relatively clean and easy to go through. And it looks like many of the parts are tagged which is so important when working through old parts. It's hard to figure out what to sell and what to toss. Fuel pumps are a great example. Unless the pump is made of unobtanium, most of the old pumps aren't going to last in an area that uses fuel blended with ethanol and the restorers today know not to buy the old parts. Generators and starters OTOH are usually worth the price. Old rebuilds usually had bushings and brushes made of virgin metals instead of recycled alloys and they often last longer than today's rebuilds. Parts like steering linkage and shocks, imo, sometimes sell better if they are boxed together as a "kit" and sold at fire sale prices. And FWIW Ebay's fees are crazy high these days so it's best to list old parts on multiple sites.

There's a guy near me, or likely was a guy near me, that had a place like that. He spent years buying inventory out of parts stores that were being changed from one brand to another. Everything was cataloged and stored away and he was the only guy who knew where it was. He had only two light bulbs inside the front of his store, a mechanical cash register, used handwritten slips from one of the old parts stores he'd bought out, and the phone on the wall dated back to the '60s. Nothing electronic anywhere. I bought complete rebuild kits with original leather boots for the trunion joints (early Mopar U-Joint) in my '36 Plymouth for $46. This was over the phone and the parts were mailed up. Oh, please don't send the check until you inspect the parts. I'm sure you won't steal them. I bought a walker muffler with a three digit part number and a two digit part no Walker tailpipe for my car for $55. Internet sellers are asking $400. I bought vintage carburetor kits which came with a lot of time spent explaining how to bring the gaskets back to life (use vegetable oil on paper gaskets, never water) for $15 ea. Actually, I probably couldn't have put the car on the road without his help.

But the coolest part was this: 35 years before as a kid I'd dragged a'28 Chevy out of the woods to try and build my first car. I needed a fuel pump but back then I had no idea what year this old Chevy was. Being pre-internet it was tougher to find old parts but I'd heard about this guy and started asking around until I got a phone number. I called and he told me that yes, he probably had a pump but there were a couple different styles and it would be hard to get the right one without knowing the exact year or having one to match up. So I did a bunch of odd jobs around the neighborhood to raise the $25 for a new pump then asked my father to drive down and get the pump for me. My father has spent most of his life in sales and knows little about cars. He didn't want to carry a dirty old pump so I made a very detailed drawing of the pump including the pump flange, the gasket, and the pump lever. Years later when I first called for the Plymouth parts I started to mention that I'd once sent my father down for a pump for a '28 Chevy when I was a kid and this old buck asked, "Are you the young man that sent the drawing instead of the pump?" I was blown away. It took me over a year to actually get down to his store to meet him but I was rewarded with a tour through a treasure trove like the one you've got out there. Both the inventory and the gentleman who owned were amazing in their own right. Together it was a great experience.

Are you planning to go back?