How do you document your projects?

[rattlsnak]

Tim, you know my work. I guess I have a photographic memory (and it helps that I turned wrenches for 20+ years) but I rarely, if ever document anything. Just been lucky I guess. lol.

[Brian Cameron]

Pics with iphone and sometimes video for views at different angles. Often l will print out the associated PET / katalog pages for the project, Ziplocs for removed / disassembled parts, sharpie to label the bags with the PET illustration & position number. For parts too big for ziplocs, i label with PET #s on masking tape unless the part is pretty obvious like a bumper.

Bankers boxes to hold the baggies, grouped by section. Write the section(s) on the boxes. For my top end rebuild i filled about 10 or 12 bankers boxes with baggies of labelled parts, nice thing is the boxes can stack vertically for efficient storage, or go up on my overhead shelving.

For parts orders, i keep an order worksheet for each year, with tabs for larger orders and a misc tab for various onesy-twosy orders, or for services, tools and supplies. Each tab has the order date, vendor, part number, PET illustration/position, qty, unit and extended price, conversion to $CAD, and comments (eg part numbers superseded). Each order tab also has rows for shipping cost, duty and tax. I copy each order to the summary page for the year.

When parts arrive, i copy the year’s summary page (or new updates) and append to a consolidated worksheet with all orders for all years. The consolidated version has 2 additional columns, for qty used and balance remaining. When i use a part i try to remember to update the qty used on this worksheet.

This is my master inventory list which makes it easy to see if I have a part in stock, and where to find it, as sometimes one part number is used in different places. Every couple of years i do a physical inventory to verify/correct the worksheet.

It also makes it easy to see the total $$ i have invested in maintenance over the years. My wife will never, EVER see this list.

When parts come in, if not used right away I label with the PET illustration/position, and they go in a ziploc with any other parts from the same katalog page, then into a bankers box for the katalog section, eg 100 for engine, 200 for intake & exhaust etc. For some reason i seem to have a lot of electrical parts, lights etc that i haven't had time to deal with so there’s 2 boxes of group 900.

One thing i want to get around to is adding metadata for which parts were used for specific projects, eg top end rebuild, suspension overhaul, panel respray etc so i can easily summarize the project cost.

[Chuck.H]

Great question -- I have a method that works very well for me:

Before I start, I clean the shop work benches and cover them completely with brown masking paper (the medium weight stuff for painting). When I buy the roll I cut it down to the width of my benches, so it's just a matter of rolling it out and taping it down.

Now, as I disassemble, I put stuff on the paper and note WTF it is with a sharpie, right on the paper. Everything is laid out, everything goes back on when I'm done, or it's obvious.

Fast and reliable - maybe not so good for really long projects, but great for shorter ones.

Chuck.H
'89 M491 TurboLookTarga, 453k miles

[Mike Andrew]

Bag and tag for most small parts/assemblies. Bigger stuff is usually self explanatory to reassemble. Wires/hoses get tagged with a # on masking tape and their corresponding connection tagged with the same letter or number, making things fairly simple.
Some photos, especially for wire/hose routings.
My Bentley is full of notes and lots of pencil wiring diagrams for gages & switches since most do not have single connectors which would make things easy.
Records - spread sheet with parts, cost, mileage and date backed up with paper receipts in a file, Very handy for determining how long the damn window switches last, among other things. (Based on advice here years ago, the right column has never been totaled)

[tirwin]

Originally Posted by rattlsnak

Tim, you know my work. I guess I have a photographic memory (and it helps that I turned wrenches for 20+ years) but I rarely, if ever document anything. Just been lucky I guess. lol.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!

[tirwin]

Originally Posted by Brian Cameron

Pics with iphone and sometimes video for views at different angles. Often l will print out the associated PET / katalog pages for the project, Ziplocs for removed / disassembled parts, sharpie to label the bags with the PET illustration & position number. For parts too big for ziplocs, i label with PET #s on masking tape unless the part is pretty obvious like a bumper.

Really good idea to do that on disassembly! Easier to figure out if there are any questions about the PET diagram when you're taking it apart versus putting it back together.

Originally Posted by Brian Cameron

Bankers boxes to hold the baggies, grouped by section. Write the section(s) on the boxes. For my top end rebuild i filled about 10 or 12 bankers boxes with baggies of labelled parts, nice thing is the boxes can stack vertically for efficient storage, or go up on my overhead shelving.

Really like the idea of sorting stuff by PET category. I have a growing collection of parts and right now it's random stuff in random boxes.

Originally Posted by Brian Cameron

For parts orders, i keep an order worksheet for each year, with tabs for larger orders and a misc tab for various onesy-twosy orders, or for services, tools and supplies. Each tab has the order date, vendor, part number, PET illustration/position, qty, unit and extended price, conversion to $CAD, and comments (eg part numbers superseded). Each order tab also has rows for shipping cost, duty and tax. I copy each order to the summary page for the year.

Wow. Impressive.

Originally Posted by Brian Cameron

When parts arrive, i copy the year’s summary page (or new updates) and append to a consolidated worksheet with all orders for all years. The consolidated version has 2 additional columns, for qty used and balance remaining. When i use a part i try to remember to update the qty used on this worksheet.

This is my master inventory list which makes it easy to see if I have a part in stock, and where to find it, as sometimes one part number is used in different places. Every couple of years i do a physical inventory to verify/correct the worksheet.

Originally Posted by Brian Cameron

It also makes it easy to see the total $$ i have invested in maintenance over the years. My wife will never, EVER see this list.

Originally Posted by Brian Cameron

When parts come in, if not used right away I label with the PET illustration/position, and they go in a ziploc with any other parts from the same katalog page, then into a bankers box for the katalog section, eg 100 for engine, 200 for intake & exhaust etc. For some reason i seem to have a lot of electrical parts, lights etc that i haven't had time to deal with so there’s 2 boxes of group 900.

One thing i want to get around to is adding metadata for which parts were used for specific projects, eg top end rebuild, suspension overhaul, panel respray etc so i can easily summarize the project cost.

Again,

[tirwin]

Originally Posted by Chuck.H

Great question -- I have a method that works very well for me:

Before I start, I clean the shop work benches and cover them completely with brown masking paper (the medium weight stuff for painting). When I buy the roll I cut it down to the width of my benches, so it's just a matter of rolling it out and taping it down.

Now, as I disassemble, I put stuff on the paper and note WTF it is with a sharpie, right on the paper. Everything is laid out, everything goes back on when I'm done, or it's obvious.

Fast and reliable - maybe not so good for really long projects, but great for shorter ones.

Chuck.H
'89 M491 TurboLookTarga, 453k miles

That is a flipping awesome idea!!!

[tirwin]

Originally Posted by Mike Andrew

Bag and tag for most small parts/assemblies. Bigger stuff is usually self explanatory to reassemble. Wires/hoses get tagged with a # on masking tape and their corresponding connection tagged with the same letter or number, making things fairly simple.
Some photos, especially for wire/hose routings.
My Bentley is full of notes and lots of pencil wiring diagrams for gages & switches since most do not have single connectors which would make things easy.
Records - spread sheet with parts, cost, mileage and date backed up with paper receipts in a file, Very handy for determining how long the damn window switches last, among other things. (Based on advice here years ago, the right column has never been totaled)

I like it. I have encountered problems though where I tag a bunch of wires and then the tags get ripped off in the process of moving stuff around. Happened to me when I was wiring in an ATO fuse block. Had two red wires on the back side of the panel that I got backwards and caused some pain getting everything wired back correctly.

Speaking of the Bentley, we've all seen people post about the errors in the Bentley. It would be great if there was an organized list of them someplace -- by page number for instance.

[Quasimoto]

Originally Posted by rattlsnak

Tim, you know my work. I guess I have a photographic memory (and it helps that I turned wrenches for 20+ years) but I rarely, if ever document anything. Just been lucky I guess. lol.

Lucky indeed. I used to be like this with all things mechanical at work and play. Literally photographic memory, sometimes over the span of months or years.

Unfortunately as I have gotten older, that has given way and I find myself having to document things a bit... :/

[tirwin]

Originally Posted by Quasimoto

Lucky indeed. I used to be like this with all things mechanical at work and play. Literally photographic memory, sometimes over the span of months or years.

Unfortunately as I have gotten older, that has given way and I find myself having to document things a bit... :/