Been a whale of a week. Content cleaning crew in the garage all 5 days, working the first 4, calls in about detailing, about processing the contents, with the insurance company...

So after a week, this side of the sop is looking pretty empty.





But the other side of the shop, not so good! But this was expected, and I would say we are roughly on schedule.



That's the front of that bay. The back is no better. The row of "stuff" nearest the photo is content that has been inventoried, and written off, awaiting my final decision on if I want to keep and try to restore the items my self, or if they go straight to the dumpster. A slow, and painful process. Depending on what day of the week, and what section was being inventoried, the amount I "saved" varied.

Here's an example. This AC item came off of a shelf directly above the garage door, which had the worst smoke/soot damage. Several boxes of petroliana in similar condition. I didn't take the time to clean everything...Many items were simply reboxed (because the cardboard is dirty and smelly, but the contents not as bad...they will get a thorough cleaning when they come back out of the box to but placed back in the restored garage). But I needed to do a test clean on a few pieces, to see if they were worth saving.

As it came off the shelf.



After a light dry cleaning with a shop towel, then a more aggressive rubdown with a dry towel.



Then a final cleaning with some spray cleaner.



Another can half finished.



Since several test piece looked good, and went ahead and gave all of the pieces from shelves a similar treatment. Time consuming, but I did not want that acidic soot staying on the container finishes all summer until I pulled them out of storage.

If you go back up to the shot of the full side of the garage, you can see the soot stained Steelcase file cabinet. Here's the same cabinet after cleaning.



And a few form the lighter side....is that some sort of liquid sealer in that control joint? Nope...that's liquid car cover. Melted from a synthetic fiber to a liquid that flowed into the crack and cured post-fire.



I had a row of old license plates and frame above the pegboard wall. The last plate above the worst area....you can actually read the plate that was there. It's the only one that did that. Even the plate right next to it left no legible trace.



So just lots and lots of cleaning to come. But it is nice to see some visible progress being made. And I AM throwing out a LOT of stuff. Stuff I just didn't need, stuff I haven't touched or used in 20 years...get it gone, give me the money and the space. Like that sand blaster. Nice to have at times, but I haven't used it in a decade, it makes a mess when you do use it, and it takes up a ton of space. Just let 'er go.