A question about large car collections

Not a problem I'm ever likely to experience, but even pondering another vehicle for myself raised some of these questions. 

Presuming climate-controlled storage, and 10 or more fully functional and road/track-worthy vehicles, how much work is required to keep them in top shape?

There would still be concerns of soft parts(rubber, gaskets, etc.) drying out from lack of use, other things getting gummed up from residual fluids, periodic oil changes regardless of use, etc. correct?

Disregarding the expenses involved, what type of maintenance programs & schedules are implemented to ensure the vehicles remain in top condition?

Umm...

In my case (7 cars) not enough of any of it.....

My dad has a friend that has a decent collection - probably in the 150-200 range.  They're all in a climate-controlled facility and it's all American from 1903ish through 1984.

He's got a couple guys that work for him to keep the cars in running shape and to do some basic work on the cars that come in.  I don't think they're doing full restorations there, but he's got a couple lifts and a fairly equipped workshop to be able to deal with most mechanical things.  My understanding is that they drive most every car for a little bit each year.  Some of the cars go to parades and things like that, others get driven just for fun, and some are just driven down the driveway and back.  It's not backbreaking work as best as I can tell, but they stay fairly busy.  I don't know what the oil change schedules are, but if anything doesn't run right during it's regular exercise they will get it on the lift and get it fixed. 

For the vast majority of large car collections owners, it requires a huge up front investment in Denial. This Denial level needs to be constantly upgraded as the collection grows.

Pete

One of my plans for the shop is a white board on one wall with a service schedule for the fleet.  Hopefully that along with my regular budget spreadsheet where I track mileage and fuel fill-ups will allow me to not let deferred service get out of hand.  Something like this is definitely why I don't plan on the fleet getting above 6 or so (also because that is all I realistically have parking for).

In reply to Ian F :

If I want to be that organized, I go to work. If the hobby becomes work, something has to go until it is just spontaneous fun again.

Pete

In reply to NOHOME :

My denial may have reached professional status.

NOHOME said:

For the vast majority of large car collections owners, it requires a huge up front investment in Denial. This Denial level needs to be constantly upgraded as the collection grows.

 

Pete

Can confirm. Denial and Neglect are powerful tools wielded by the large car collection owner.

In reply to NOHOME :

My work life is so disorganized and not within my control that I desperately want my home life to be calming. A neat and organized home is calming. Right now both are a total mess and it beats me down.  That is probably the biggest lesson I learned from my ex-, who is a neurotic neat-freak.  While it drove me nuts at times, it was also very nice to go to a house or garage without crap everywhere. I'd love to have the feeling again when opening my front door.

We take care of three collectors at the moment, two collections of about 10 cars each and one of about 20 cars. Mostly full classics, exotics and 50's collectible cars. We also restore cars for those clients. 

It's a full time all three guys in the shop and we need another guy.

A few years ago we bought a collection of about 50 cars, pre-war full classics and 50's stuff that had been owned by one person for about 15 years and received only enough maintenance to get the particular car that was needed, running and driving for that day.

All 50 of those have required significant work to make them reliable again. Lot rot kills brake systems, cooling systems, tires, etc. Anything with leather, rubber or reactive metals will deteriorate significantly without regular use.

We have about 20 cars in shop inventory that are in heated, dry storage. About once a month someone goes to fill up tires and mop up various fluid leaks.

I used to have about 6 cars personally and when I realised one year that all I had done for the whole year was manage them and not drive them at all, I decided to downsize. Now I have three motorcycles and a daily driver.

In reply to Ian F :

....it was also very nice to go to a house or garage without crap everywhere.

my philosophy ..once it becomes "crap", I flush it. I am a deliberately unorganized  and somewhat irresponsible person. I cope by also being a minimalist.

Don't happen to need an MGB GT do you?

Pete

10ish cars?

I would think you'd have to drive them until the tires got warm (meaning street tires, not track day tires.)  In that time the drivetrain would get to operating temp, suspension would get enough flex, and all other systems would get a workout.

Once every two months at a maximum? Although aim for every month if possible.  

That would be my starting goal, from there you'd have to adjust to suit.  And once you started breaking stuff at the track that schedule would start to break down.  It would probably be a constantly fluid thing.

hobiercr said:

In reply to NOHOME :

My denial may have reached professional status.

"May have" - LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

So what's worse? 10 nice cars you try to keep nice or 5 cars that need many hours of work to even be drivers? Asking for a friend.

In reply to Daylan C :

Split the difference.

It's the only way

NOHOME said:

my philosophy ..once it becomes "crap", I flush it. I am a deliberately unorganized  and somewhat irresponsible person. I cope by also being a minimalist.

Don't happen to need an MGB GT do you?

Pete

No... I need another car in my life like a hole in the head.  The only car I could possibly see myself getting would be another classic Mini.  Which may or may not replace the 2006 MINI.  

I am not a minimalist.  I would like to be sometimes, but it's just not how I'm wired. I'm a pack-rat.  And while my ability to actually get ride of stuff keeps me from being a full-on hoader, the line does feel blurred at times.  Of course, right now the main problem is when I'm home for maybe 3 days at a time it's difficult to make progress on purging stuff.

This reminds me that I haven't driven my back up beater or race car in a few months, and those are just 3rd and 4th cars.

i had a friend  in Germany that had a had a good collection of cars , he would loan them out to trade shows at Frankfurt Messe , 

But everytime I went there they were pulling gas tanks,  cleaning carbs and changing batteries to get then road worthy , 

I have been told AV gas is good to keep in the tank as its long lasting , 

Drive them  once a month  and most of these problems do not happen.

I manage mine by rotating them through DD status on a roughly weekly basis. Sometimes I'll drive one car for 2 weeks straight and sometimes I'll drive 3 or 4 to work in the same week.

If a problem pops up while driving one, I'll just drive a different one until I have time to work on it. This system is not perfect. I currently have only 3 or 4 that I'm comfortable with using for DD and they all have at least one past due maintenance item or minor repair needed. My goal is to fix up and sell 3 this year and use those funds to finish fixing the rest and getting caught up on deferred maintenance. 

If you are doing it yourself, and you get a big enough collection that you want to keep running, you will be spending most of you time just on maintenance and upkeep.

Carbed cars are the biggest issue.  You either need to figure out some sort of carb drain system (like motorcycles) or use AvGas (which I had in my Ghia for many years, with no issues).

In reply to ShawnG :

Wow I just presumed you guys kept busy with the restorations, I had no idea that "fleet maintenance" kept you so busy. Though it's also somewhat reassuring to know that it really does take that much work to keep them all in good condition.  

JesseWolfe said:

This reminds me that I haven't driven my back up beater or race car in a few months, and those are just 3rd and 4th cars.

That's sort of what prompted this post. I realized that last year I didn't drive the Miata at all from Fathers Day until September(too hot out), and it's been parked since before the Challenge last October until now. The main reason I haven't driven it since then? I'd have to move the van out of the way to get it out...

I do love the car though & know I'd miss it if I sold it. I can't really think of anything I'd want to replace it with either. 

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Fleet maintenance is kind of funny for us.

One guy never drives his cars but we go out occasionally to clean them, move them for pictures or for events in his garage so we do very little on his cars.

Another guy drives the wheels off his cars, not gently either, it's like Mr. Toad's wild ride at times. He consumes most of our maintenance time because we usually rotate cars in and out of his garage. We drop off whatever we just finished and pick up whatever he has worn out or broken and get it fixed. The good thing is, he's actually wearing things out instead of things just sitting and rotting so he's actually getting his money's worth out of them.

We provide a complete service. We will research, purchase, pick up, restore and deliver. If a customer wants to be totally hands-off, we can provide that for him. Just pick up the phone, tell us what you want and we will make it show up in your garage.

We have 6; 3 daily drivers (one for each of us), tow vehicle and two race cars.

What I've found as the sole mechanic is that this seems to be capacity. I've spaced out the oil changes etc. so I'm never doing more than one in a month. I've tried to keep the tire buying with 6 month gaps but a flat will undo that (one car is AWD).

For me two race cars is for sure the max; race fuel does last longer but I still run the carbs dry, battery tenders go a long way to cutting down the work load.

A lot of planning goes into what events I'm going to run; for instance if I'm at a track day with the Datsun on a Saturday I skip going to autocross with the F500 on Sunday.

On the F500 I won't do a track event within two weeks of an autocross, this prevents me from racing one weekend, then switching the set up the next weekend and then autocrossing the week end after that. I find 3 weekends in a row of car stuff to be draining / taking the fun out of it.

As the summer months are our off season (cause it's hot enough to melt the sun) that is my differed maintenance catch up time. The jobs that need doing come first followed by any upgrades. If the upgrades can't be done before the summer is over they get pushed to the following summer. 

Examples; I need to organize the interior of my camper van but I have the parts to repair and install the larger motor for the Datsun, as well as a more powerful engine for the F500 ready to install. If I get the van done then I'll move on to the Datsun then the F500. I need to have a couple things made up for the F500 for the change so that's why it's in line after the Datsun.

In reply to ShawnG :

God, it must be nice to be able to afford that.