[aidos]

I lived with my girlfriend's parents many years ago and at the time her father was building a Morris Minor 1000 and a Triumph Bonneville bike (in his spare time). The final results were showroom condition vehicles; absolute works of art. I was fortunate enough to be there for most of the duration of the projects.

I learnt _a lot_ about how vehicles work from those days. It was fascinating working on machines like that from first principals. Every single thing was stripped down and rebuilt from several dead vehicles. Even every last washer was cleaned up and reused.

One of my main take aways was actually his approach to working on the projects. Every day he would complete at least one thing on each project. Sometimes it was as small making a phone call, or as large as fitting the engine into the chassis.

It might have taken a couple of years but he got there in the end.

[dceddia]

That sounds like an amazing feat from a productivity/finishing projects standpoint, but I'd be really interested to hear about the organization process for a thing like that. I'm sure one can't rely on memory alone to remember which tiny washer goes with each widget. For a smaller project, I'd sort the screws into cups or something. But for an entire bike? Huh.

[bronson]

It's not like every washer needs to be removed simultaneously. Just rebuild each component one by one.

That said, it's still amazing work. When some friends built a Lemons car (nowhere near as exacting), I was surprised to find that probably 75% of our time and communication was inventory management and organization. You think you're going to be welding and spinning nuts? No, you're going to be heading back to the store for more acetone and Sterilite boxes while your friend spends hours sorting parts looking for the !#$*@ headlight switch.

[aidos]

I think he just knew his way around so well that it wasn't an issue. He had a compartmentalised box in his workshop where he put all the bits. The other thing is that the various washers and bolts are of standard sizes.

After 35 years of working full time fixing motor vehicles I guess you have a pretty clear picture of how everything comes apart and goes back together again.

After he'd reconstructed the engine we were about to hoist it in the car and I asked how he was sure it was to work. He said that because he'd put every last part in himself (after reconditioning them) he could guarantee it to be correct. To humour me he fired it up while it was still on the ground, started without any problem.