"RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars" (rallydarkstrike)
07/29/2017 at 12:55 • Filed to: Cleaning, Organizing
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"RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars" (rallydarkstrike)
07/29/2017 at 12:55 • Filed to: Cleaning, Organizing | 1
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Not the business kind, the interior of your car kind! :P
Disclaimer: I’m not OCD, but my car is my castle and I do like things looking relatively clean and organized so I can easily find stuff when I need it! :D
Today was a nice day so, although I didn’t clean the interior or exterior of Humdrum, I took it upon myself to organize the junk I carry around in her! :)
First up was my dashcam - I don’t want to permanently install it as I want to be able to move it from car to car if need be. It’s mounted just behind my rearview mirror just low enough that I can see the screen when I am driving, but high enough that is not blocking my vision. I didn’t want wires just dangling around, so I used a binder clip on the vent to route the wire along the dash and draped the power plug over the mirror support so all the strain of the cable’s weight wouldn’t be pulling on the plug/port on the camera.
As with anybody who has a life, I need groceries as much as the next guy. A reusable grocery bag and reusable insulated grocery bag live under my passenger seat for easy access when I need to pick stuff up from the store. Makes it nice and easy to carry in my purchases, and the insulated one keeps my frozen stuff cold until I can get it home into the freezer on hot days...it can be warm in a car with no A/C! :P
The back of my passenger seat has a mesh net for storing stuff....currently, some Burger King coupons (or other fast food coupons when I have them) live there for when I am in town and need a quick bite on the cheap. I also keep a spare bottle of 5W20 just in case and for top ups on the (very) rare case Humdrum’s 1.6L G4ED Alpha 4-banger needs a top up...it may be a crappy ecobox, but it runs like a top! I need some new spark plugs soon though...the bag contains two spare custom 3D-printed ‘Hyundai’ logo wheel caps for my summer rims, which are ‘98 Ford Escort alloys at the moment. The custom 3D-printed center caps don’t always like to stay...err...permanently attached. The mini-tripod is for when I happen to have my decent camera with me and want a quick shot of something interesting! :)
A cheap emergency kit with flashlight, gloves, crappy tire pressure gauge, emergency triangle, etc lives under the drivers’ seat for easy access when needed....though I’ve never really needed it yet, luckily!
Ah...Roadkill’s secret weapon...a bag of varied zipties lives in my passenger door storage slot. You never know when you’ll need them! Had to rescue mom’s Accent sedan (same vintage as mine) one day after a wheel liner clip gave way and a zip tie got it away from and off the wheel again...that zip tie has been there dutifully continuing to hold that liner in place for about 2 years now!
Spare gloves for the winter live in my drivers’ door pocket....along with...
A cheap hand scraper hidden in the gloves...just in case my big one were ever to break. I’ve lent this little one out to coworkers and friends on frosty mornings as well as we were all going our separate ways. The gloves around it prevent it from making rattles and clunks as I drive!
Trunk time - I try and keep it pretty empty. I just picked up a cheap organizer bag to keep things organized!
Custom 3D-printed scraper/brush holder under the parcel shelff continues to work well when my scraper isn’t needed!
The left side of my new organizer has my traction aids...a bit necessary at times in the cold Nova Scotian winters when you drive a FWD hatchback with an open diff and live on a road the Department of Transportation does not plow after big storms for several days afterward...my trim removal tools live in another bag here, plus all my spare, old factory bulbs (new brighter H4 halogens live in my headlights and my tailights are Phillips LEDs) - never hurts to have spares with you if something burns out and you don’t want a potential ticket!
The other side of the organizer holds my tow hook, and the rear mudflaps from my car that I removed for my current summer tires...the car takes 185-65/14, but the current summers are a set of 185-70/14 - slightly taller tires. The tires don’t rub, but as the mudflaps curl BACK a bit by design, the tires would’ve rubbed on the flaps, so taking the flaps off for a few months in the spring/summer fall doesn’t hurt anything! The labeled bag holds the screws and clips for the mudflaps when the time comes to put them back on...oddly, one clip was already missing when I went to remove them back in the spring...? :)
The spare tire well contains an old-but-still-serviceable spare wiper blade for the drivers side and the rear windshield, my jumper cables, and an emergency blanket, as well as 2 more emergency cones, another grocery bag, a set of disposable coveralls for when I finally get the money to get the tools to do my own work, my winter windshield cover to help me prevent a LOT of brushing and scraping on snowy mornings, and lastly my spare tire, jack and toolset.
As for the other little storage bins up front? The little center console area has two 12V sockets - most cars only have one up front, so I really like this feature! The one on the right is the power adapter for my dashcam. The one on the left is usually my 12V-socket-charged emergency LED flashlight to keep it juiced up (you’d be surprised how handy a flashlight can be while around on your various travels). When I need to, a USB charger lives in the upper DIN slot bin to charge my phone, so the flashlight sometimes comes out and that goes in! The tiny, tiny storage....slot....thing? It’s uselessly small, so no idea what to call it...that being said, it fits my mini stapler quite readily, which I use for stapling my receipts together when I get gas as I track my mileage and costs for work.
The sunglasses storage compartment contains....TADA - my prescription sunglasses (my eyesight isn’t that bad, actually...my glasses aren’t written on my license or anything)! Not surprised, are you? The rubber Dollar Store mesh/matting stuff keeps them from sliding around too much and cuts down on rattles! Also keeps the glasses from getting banged up too!
The single-DIN storage slot below my stereo has my extra package of staples, the aforementioned USB phone charger, my phone charging cable, and my spare USB wall charger for when I am somewhere but need to go inside for awhile with a dead phone. The sticker was an old, blank oil change sticker....came in handy, as the garage forgot to give me one when I had my oil changed in May. I just wrote on this one and stuck it there to remind me when my next change is due...it won’t stick to the windshield anymore, but at least here it’s easy to see to as a reminder!
The glove compartment....it’s a bit cramped...
The cigarette ash tray that would usually live in the center console is in here as I never use it. A spare pair of dollar store sunglasses for me or a passenger to use is here too in a gaudy yellow dollar store glasses sleeve. My gas receipts for work are in the pocket on the left, ALL my service records / insurance info, etc is in the document case at center, my User Manual and paint touch-up pen live here too, as well as my ‘good’ tire gauge - an ancient, high-quality analog unit I found in the basement years ago that was probably my grandfather’s. It’s not that old, but guessing 1970's or late 60's? It has US, UK and German patents listed on it and was made in Taiwan, but it works perfectly, is nice and legible, and has a handy, solid storage case!
Yup....I probably carry around a lot of stuff...but as we learned in the Boy Scouts, better to be prepared. Plus, most of this stuff doesn’t weigh much at all, so my fuel economy is still pretty decent. I regularly get around 600-620km to a 45L tank with all this stuff in here....not AMAZING, but not terrible!
Anyway, the organizing, itself, and this post gave me something to do...now I am going to go get lunch and chillax. How do you keep your stuff organized in your rides Oppo? :)
Shoop
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
07/29/2017 at 13:21 |
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I’ll have to do this kind of post with the empire of dirt that is my truck.
Bytemite
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
07/29/2017 at 16:38 |
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Holy shit...you have a TON of stuff in that car. It’s like a zombie apocalypse survival build.
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> Bytemite
07/29/2017 at 18:19 |
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It’s a lot when I list it all out, lol....some of it I would store in a garage if I had one (trim removal tools, coveralls, some of the winter stuff), but once it’s all packed away, it doesn’t really take up much usable space or weigh a lot! The single heaviest thing in there (excluding the spare tire/toolkit) is the tow strap.
But...thanks for the...compliment? :P