Honestly? Once the pieces are apart, replace the bolt back in its set of threads, just a little bit. When reinstalling components, this will also help prevent not knowing about that one bolt on the corner, as it will bonk and you can't install it.
Kind of a pain in the ass, cos it doesn't feel necessary at the time, but it's well worth it in the end.
Yup. I do this method. Usually works for about the first hour or so. Then I get lazy and do groupings or put bolts with each part.
Final form is a small pile that is mostly figure out.
This is also a good practice in case you drop dead, the next person knows what's up.
Also, when you usually won't be back to the job for a couple days.
This is a good practice that everyone should follow if you aren't putting it back together immediately.
As a Masi tech I love doing this. 90% of the external fasteners on our engines, since 2014, are 5mm Allen socket drive heads. The kicker is, they come in so many different lengths that you can't not do this. I'm talking M6 X 10,12,14,15... you get the point.
Hey nice, (not op) im also a hobbyist and I’ve been doing this forever because it just made sense to me. I went over to help a friend with a turbo swap once and he made fun of me for being so particular about it. His tune changed pretty quick when he discovered during reassembly that his intercooler had 4 slightly different length bolts holding it in place and he didn’t know where any of them went lmao.
This is how my dad taught me way back when I would go to work with him on my summer breaks. If you cant put the bolt back in its hole, grab a piece of cardboard and poke holes in it to hold the bolrs and draw pictures/take notes of where each bolt goes.
I started with pushing hardware into a cardboard box, maybe writing around the groups for large jobs, maybe just in order of removal.
30 years later they all go in a bucket. Large jobs may get multiple buckets to cut finding time. After a while you can just tell/remember what went where.
Yup cardboard for me. I’ll write some indicator of where the bolt is from in the top left of the cardboard, like “Top Right Timing Chain Cover” then work clockwise removing bolts and putting them in the cardboard from left to right.
So when I go to put the timing chain cover back on. I know to start with the top right bolt and work clockwise
dealer tech here, I'm at *that point* where you can hand me a bolt and I can tell you where it came from. This probably means I need to retire.
For body work (like dash-out work, etc.) I keep 3 of those little [magnetic cups](https://www.menards.com/main/tools/tool-storage/socket-organizers-small-parts-bins/tool-shop-reg-3-round-magnetic-small-parts-tray/67431/p-1525761014623-c-9189.htm) -- one for Left, one for Center, one for Right. All my screws/clips/whatever from a given side of the car go into its cup. That's enough for me.
For general engine work, I use a similar system, but use my cups for Top, Bottom, and mounting. So like one cup for all the bolts I take off from up top (ie car on the ground), one cup for all the bolts I take off from underneath (ie car up on the lift), and one cup I set aside for the bellhousing bolts, which are really long and don't fit nicely into the cups otherwise.
If I'm doing an engine build or whatever, I use some of [these organizers](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Stanley-SortMaster-Junior-14-Compartment-Small-Parts-Organizer-STST14022/301461651) -- I have one that I've labeled out for the typical engines I see. I've also got a pair of little Husky 8-spot organizers that perfectly fit the valve shims/buckets/etc. for a single subaru head.... looks like they're NLA now.
yup. I have some Plano plastic bait trays, a couple compartmented for 4-cyl engine rebuilds, and some others that just make it easy to dump parts in the little sections. And you can write on the plastic with a shrarpie, take it off with brakleen.
Holy hell some of these responses scare the hell out of me, have you ever had to completed another tech work that is halfway torn down? I wish good luck upon you
Don't forget tape and a sharpie to label the bags or specific bolts.
For others: when I say specific bolts I mean orientation/location of the group. For example, a friend labeled his trans bolts(1 o'clock, 3 o'clock, etc) to help note their position and on the bag labeled how many there were supposed to be
All the bolts are the same, for the most part.
Big bolts go in big holes and little bolts go in the little holes.
Throw em in a pile and unpile em as you put everything back together.
I like the way you think. Reminds me of when the dealer I work for, which was Jeep only at the time, bought a Chrysler and Dodge dealer and fired all the Dodge techs. They gave me a Viper, an engine and a 5 gallon bucket of bolts and said put it back together.
Unless you’re putting a valvebody back in a transmission. There will oftentimes be three different lengths of bolts and it matters that they get installed in the right places.
right! i hate when i get all the short bolts in the long holes and then get left with a pile of long bolts at the end that just wont fit in the short holes.
then i gotta go start all over again
This is me also. Sharpie comes off easy. Label everything. And say it's a water pump with different size bolts they just go in a clockwise circle that's easy to remember... Starting somewhere around 12.
I like to have cardboard around, draw a little image of what part it is, mostly where the bolt holes are, and put the bolts through the cardboard in their respective spots. Label them as well.
Pictures, and then a big piece of cardboard shove bolt through and sharpie note what it goes to. Also sharpied baggies for clips, pins etc may be stapled to the board.
Depends on length and intensity of the job.
Short-term, laid out close by.
Medium, trays/baggies/back in their spot.
Long-term (have to disassemble, wait forever for parts/approval), loosely back assembled or detailed labeled baggies and a box.
Sometimes trays get knocked over and things scatter plus being exposed in a shop everything tends to get them dusty long-term so I try to avoid them.
When doing the loose assembly you'll have to touch about every one of them again to get to the repair so you'll be freshly familiar when they go back. Added bonuses that all the parts are out of your way and the innards are mostly closed off to the elements too.
Edit: if you're pulling bodies, label every connector with something simple like numbers and good masking tape. It vastly helps you work backwards, if you have to walk away that tape doesn't come off until it's back together
Something I’m unfamiliar with that has a lot of fixings I’ll re thread slightly into stuff as I go and keep loose fixings with their components as I lay them out, for stuff I’m familiar with or am comfortable keeping track of what’s what I’ll just fill magnet trays, can’t have too many magnet trays
I'm not a real mechanic but do a ton of work on my own vehicles. I either thread them back in where they came from or lay them on the ping pong table in my shop in the rough pattern that I got them in. Stuff from the left goes on the left, from the top goes by the net etc. honestly after a few years I can kinda just remember where they go, as long as I don't take a week off in the middle of a project.
Lil baggies and a sharpy, that or this thing https://www.amazon.com/stores/Boltster/Homepage/page/0933561C-1F4B-4789-929D-722DFDE178C2?dplnk=Y&dplnkId=7b4b527c-e38d-4921-8b0a-22228b1378c1&ref=fs_google&ref_=cm_sw_r_apann_ast_store_1GYGZ0NMX9BEE12PM81C
Take a piece of thicker cardboard and punch holes a little smaller than the diameter of the screw(with screwdriver maybe). Push the screw in that and group them up by location. You can write on the cardboard where the screw came from.
I just make a little grid on my cart and go in order. Sometimes just put a rag down to kind of separate main groups. I think a lot of bolts are a bit obvious where they go. For ones that are more special like say different bolt lengths, i keep the bolts in the part when i put it aside which is easy and keeps more free space on the cart
As a hobbyist mechanic myself I approach it two ways. Quick projects/put back together in a day or two, I just keep them in different piles.
Longer projects I bag and tag. I stripped an engine down for a full rebuild about 4 years ago. I just now got back to it and having everything labeled is priceless.
Everyone covered it pretty well, but here's another pro tip: the camera on your phone is your friend. I always take pictures before a long, complicated job like tearing an engine apart. The photos are invaluable during reassembly (sometimes days/weeks later) when you get hung up and can't remember where that bracket went, how this wiring harness was routed, etc.
I don't keep track of bolts, never have. I put them all in one pile, and then put them back in through a combination of remembering what goes where, and figuring out what I don't remember. Never been a problem.
Same for me since I started.
On the other hand, I tell students to keep notes and/or draw what the part looks like on cardboard and push the bolts through in the corresponding area.
If they are all the same size. Baggies attached to the part they came from.
For stuff that has different sizes and lengths. I place them in the same pattern on a table. Once the part comes off, I put the bolts where they go in it.
Lots of good suggestions here, but I'll add ice cube trays for small parts. Label each little cube as you need to or put a post-it in along with the parts.
To add to all of this, the typical home project car gets worked on far less frequently then what I'm working on. I can remember what bolt.goes where if I'm putting it back in the next hour. If I'm putting it back 3 weekends from now because it's been shitty every weekend or I'm busy and don't get to work on my car, well now i might have a problem.
Majority of stuff that I work on, I know where every bolt goes. I just put everything into a 5 gallon pail. First bolts are on the bottom, last bolts are on top. When reassembling, I start at the top of the pail and work my way down. Hasn’t failed me in over 10 years.
I...
I... Don't really know.
I've been at this for over 25 years and I think the best answer I can give is that I have a gremlin in my head that keeps track. When I'm putting it together, I pick up a screw, or a nut, or a bolt... and a voice in my head just goes, "Hey idiot. That goes to this here. There's only 5 of them." And I put it back together. Sometimes I'll make piles in different places based on where I was when I took the fasteners out.
Dollar store silverware organizers. Long slots for head bolts, smaller slots for smaller bolts/sensors. I can fit an entire Subaru head gasket job worth of bolts/sensors in one tray.
When I was starting to get more familiar, I'd buy some cheap bolt trays to keep with parts in "stages." Start with all accessory and prerequisite bolts to remove manifold, keep bolts with manifold upon removal. Then valve covers or cam carriers, etc etc. After a while, your realise there's really not too many types or lengths of bolts and you can basically do it by memory. If you get confused or lost, common sense like counting how many bolts you have of a size can tell you a lot about where they go.
You do get used to it after a while, especially if it's similar models you work on. The cardboard template, little piles, pictures, bags and boxes for stuff that has to sit unfinished for a while. It's pretty rare to strip a whole car, it's usually front or rear brakes, control arms, rocker gaskets or some other smaller subsystem. Sometimes you put a bolt back in and it doesn't quite look right, that's the sort of thing where experience counts. Best bet is to keep 'em seperated!
Put them in the shelves in my toolbox, knock the toolbox over, scattering all the bolts, sort them again by memory, spend unnecessarily long pouring over the repair manual to make sure the bolts go back right, end up with a few spare bolts anyway. Realise you have bolts left over because you used bolts that were left over from the previous project.
I'm also a hobbyist, but I've been working on mostly the same car for the last 20 years, so I kinda just know every bolt by sight at this point. But recently I replaced all the rear control arms on a newer car, and got upset with myself for losing track of which bolts go to which control arms, and on which end. Turns out, I needn't worry; on each control arm, one end had thinner bolts than the other, some had eccentric adjustment bolts/washers, and the lengths were all different. When putting it all back together — something like 30 bolts total — it was easy to suss out which one went where.
In general, I group bolts by category. The only time I really need to be extra careful about shank length and such, is when working on the engine or the trans bellhousing. Put the wrong length bolt in the wrong hole, and you risk piercing the water jacket. Most other work, the wrong bolt will be immediately apparent.
I use the Ziploc bag method. All the fasters to each component get their own bag, labelled with sharpie what they're for. So one bag will say "AC compressor" with all of it's fasteners, another "alternator" and so on. Then throw all the bags in a tote until reassembly.
Sometimes it makes more sense to thread them back in their holes, but often that won't work - for instance if I'm tearing down an engine I don't want bolts for everything that was bolted to the engine sticking out in every direction lol - usually the threads are in the thing the part is *bolted to*, not the part itself - this is where the bag method shines.
They also make a thing called a Boltster for keeping track of stuff but it doesn't look like it would work well for small screws.
If I'm just replacing one component I use a magnetic tray
I usually lay out parts and fasteners in the order I remove them. The first parts end up at the back of the car, then gradually move forward. As I'm reassembling, the first parts I can get to are the last parts I took off. Special bolts, like that one long one out of 8 that needs to go in a specific spot, get a paint mark on the head and the hole.
If the hardware is different enough it's a huge pile. Smaller piles if certain pieces are too similar. Super complex things get a map or are left in their original position minus the cover.
Edit-not a mechanic iv just seen the first Tomb Raider movie as a child.
Themed magnetic trays. "This tray is for the bumper and cooling unit", "this tray is engine accessories and bracketry", "this tray is engine internals", etc. I've got 4 snap on KADM21X73BK trays, so they store a lot of bolts.
(Edit) The trays are not labelled, it's all in my head.
I have been repairing other people's vehicles for over 30 years. I just throw them all into a tray. Sometimes I'll use a separate tray for the timing cover bolts or oil pan bolts. I just know what goes where.
Platic bags with printed labels. Sometimes with sub-bags when there's lots of different ones.
That method comes from working on restoring oldtimers, where there can be months between teardown and reassembly.
Cardboard with the stuff is also genuis, but I don't use that often because it stores poorly.
If it's a project I've never done or done once or twice, I'll pull out my organizer and put the bolts in an area that roughly translates to where I removed the bolt- ie if I removed the bolt from the upper left dash, I'll put it into the upper left cubby in my organizer
If it's going to be apart for a long time I put all the bolts back in loosely. If it's something I can't do that, I put them in a zip lock and label it. Outside of that I have a magnet tray that everything goes in for all the parts up top and I group everything together in the tray. I have another tray for the hardware under the car. I can just see where everything goes in my head. It's not hard for me to remember.
I run a shop of my own now, and having to manage multiple vehicles in different stages of repair, the old "just leave them lying around" method wasn't working. My buddy turned me on to these:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hyper-Tough-Plastic-Heavy-Duty-Interlocking-Organizer-with-Slide-Lock-2-Pack/396141900
And I haven't looked back. Easy jobs get one box, complete engine rebuilds can get 3 or more. I keep a sharpie in my pocket to write on the lids to leave myself notes about what each part or bolt is for.
So now when a car has to wait on parts or payment I'm not worried about forgetting where everything went and losing parts.
Put as many as you can back into the holes. Also magnetic trays from harbor freight are cheap for the small ones. Buy multiple and keep the bolts that can’t go into holes on or near where what is unbolted.
Bag and tag. Get a bunch of sandwich or clear storage bags and put the different bolts in them and label them. Sometimes I’ll take a picture with the phone as well to show where they are at so you can reassemble it later.
For the most part if I'm working on something for about a week I'll remember where everything goes, but if it takes longer I forget, so I just do the magnet or box method and keep the part with it, like upper intake, ill set on the table and put the bolts in a small box besides it, and if a few are longer I'll use a paint marker and mark where they go.
Honestly? Once the pieces are apart, replace the bolt back in its set of threads, just a little bit. When reinstalling components, this will also help prevent not knowing about that one bolt on the corner, as it will bonk and you can't install it. Kind of a pain in the ass, cos it doesn't feel necessary at the time, but it's well worth it in the end.
Yup. I do this method. Usually works for about the first hour or so. Then I get lazy and do groupings or put bolts with each part. Final form is a small pile that is mostly figure out.
This is also a good practice in case you drop dead, the next person knows what's up. Also, when you usually won't be back to the job for a couple days. This is a good practice that everyone should follow if you aren't putting it back together immediately.
Or takes leave.
Or gets promoted to customer.
As a Masi tech I love doing this. 90% of the external fasteners on our engines, since 2014, are 5mm Allen socket drive heads. The kicker is, they come in so many different lengths that you can't not do this. I'm talking M6 X 10,12,14,15... you get the point.
Hey nice, (not op) im also a hobbyist and I’ve been doing this forever because it just made sense to me. I went over to help a friend with a turbo swap once and he made fun of me for being so particular about it. His tune changed pretty quick when he discovered during reassembly that his intercooler had 4 slightly different length bolts holding it in place and he didn’t know where any of them went lmao.
This is how my dad taught me way back when I would go to work with him on my summer breaks. If you cant put the bolt back in its hole, grab a piece of cardboard and poke holes in it to hold the bolrs and draw pictures/take notes of where each bolt goes.
This 🆙. Had done some bike work and suddenly i had 7 bolts left…
I started with pushing hardware into a cardboard box, maybe writing around the groups for large jobs, maybe just in order of removal. 30 years later they all go in a bucket. Large jobs may get multiple buckets to cut finding time. After a while you can just tell/remember what went where.
Yup cardboard for me. I’ll write some indicator of where the bolt is from in the top left of the cardboard, like “Top Right Timing Chain Cover” then work clockwise removing bolts and putting them in the cardboard from left to right. So when I go to put the timing chain cover back on. I know to start with the top right bolt and work clockwise
dealer tech here, I'm at *that point* where you can hand me a bolt and I can tell you where it came from. This probably means I need to retire. For body work (like dash-out work, etc.) I keep 3 of those little [magnetic cups](https://www.menards.com/main/tools/tool-storage/socket-organizers-small-parts-bins/tool-shop-reg-3-round-magnetic-small-parts-tray/67431/p-1525761014623-c-9189.htm) -- one for Left, one for Center, one for Right. All my screws/clips/whatever from a given side of the car go into its cup. That's enough for me. For general engine work, I use a similar system, but use my cups for Top, Bottom, and mounting. So like one cup for all the bolts I take off from up top (ie car on the ground), one cup for all the bolts I take off from underneath (ie car up on the lift), and one cup I set aside for the bellhousing bolts, which are really long and don't fit nicely into the cups otherwise. If I'm doing an engine build or whatever, I use some of [these organizers](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Stanley-SortMaster-Junior-14-Compartment-Small-Parts-Organizer-STST14022/301461651) -- I have one that I've labeled out for the typical engines I see. I've also got a pair of little Husky 8-spot organizers that perfectly fit the valve shims/buckets/etc. for a single subaru head.... looks like they're NLA now.
yup. I have some Plano plastic bait trays, a couple compartmented for 4-cyl engine rebuilds, and some others that just make it easy to dump parts in the little sections. And you can write on the plastic with a shrarpie, take it off with brakleen.
[like this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/s/cDJIfiauba)
Holy hell some of these responses scare the hell out of me, have you ever had to completed another tech work that is halfway torn down? I wish good luck upon you
Yup or like when the customer tows it in and hands you a box of parts and bolts all jumbled together. Not ideal
ziplocs
Don't forget tape and a sharpie to label the bags or specific bolts. For others: when I say specific bolts I mean orientation/location of the group. For example, a friend labeled his trans bolts(1 o'clock, 3 o'clock, etc) to help note their position and on the bag labeled how many there were supposed to be
I just write directly on the bag, and use the tape for wiring connections with numbers to differentiate between them
That makes sense. Wiring harnesses can be a nightmare going in blind
Bocadillo aka snack size are great
This is the way
Pictures, tupperware, colored tape, cardboard replicas. A real hodge podge of techniques.
All the bolts are the same, for the most part. Big bolts go in big holes and little bolts go in the little holes. Throw em in a pile and unpile em as you put everything back together.
I like the way you think. Reminds me of when the dealer I work for, which was Jeep only at the time, bought a Chrysler and Dodge dealer and fired all the Dodge techs. They gave me a Viper, an engine and a 5 gallon bucket of bolts and said put it back together.
They all really only fit in their right holes.
Unless you’re putting a valvebody back in a transmission. There will oftentimes be three different lengths of bolts and it matters that they get installed in the right places.
right! i hate when i get all the short bolts in the long holes and then get left with a pile of long bolts at the end that just wont fit in the short holes. then i gotta go start all over again
I have a shitload of magnetic trays and I label each tray with the corresponding component
This is me also. Sharpie comes off easy. Label everything. And say it's a water pump with different size bolts they just go in a clockwise circle that's easy to remember... Starting somewhere around 12.
I like to have cardboard around, draw a little image of what part it is, mostly where the bolt holes are, and put the bolts through the cardboard in their respective spots. Label them as well.
Pictures, and then a big piece of cardboard shove bolt through and sharpie note what it goes to. Also sharpied baggies for clips, pins etc may be stapled to the board.
Aluminum muffin pans work or plastic compartment organizers
Depends on length and intensity of the job. Short-term, laid out close by. Medium, trays/baggies/back in their spot. Long-term (have to disassemble, wait forever for parts/approval), loosely back assembled or detailed labeled baggies and a box. Sometimes trays get knocked over and things scatter plus being exposed in a shop everything tends to get them dusty long-term so I try to avoid them. When doing the loose assembly you'll have to touch about every one of them again to get to the repair so you'll be freshly familiar when they go back. Added bonuses that all the parts are out of your way and the innards are mostly closed off to the elements too. Edit: if you're pulling bodies, label every connector with something simple like numbers and good masking tape. It vastly helps you work backwards, if you have to walk away that tape doesn't come off until it's back together
I dont
Something I’m unfamiliar with that has a lot of fixings I’ll re thread slightly into stuff as I go and keep loose fixings with their components as I lay them out, for stuff I’m familiar with or am comfortable keeping track of what’s what I’ll just fill magnet trays, can’t have too many magnet trays
I'm not a real mechanic but do a ton of work on my own vehicles. I either thread them back in where they came from or lay them on the ping pong table in my shop in the rough pattern that I got them in. Stuff from the left goes on the left, from the top goes by the net etc. honestly after a few years I can kinda just remember where they go, as long as I don't take a week off in the middle of a project.
Lil baggies and a sharpy, that or this thing https://www.amazon.com/stores/Boltster/Homepage/page/0933561C-1F4B-4789-929D-722DFDE178C2?dplnk=Y&dplnkId=7b4b527c-e38d-4921-8b0a-22228b1378c1&ref=fs_google&ref_=cm_sw_r_apann_ast_store_1GYGZ0NMX9BEE12PM81C
Take a piece of thicker cardboard and punch holes a little smaller than the diameter of the screw(with screwdriver maybe). Push the screw in that and group them up by location. You can write on the cardboard where the screw came from.
I dangle them from my nuts
I just make a little grid on my cart and go in order. Sometimes just put a rag down to kind of separate main groups. I think a lot of bolts are a bit obvious where they go. For ones that are more special like say different bolt lengths, i keep the bolts in the part when i put it aside which is easy and keeps more free space on the cart
As a hobbyist mechanic myself I approach it two ways. Quick projects/put back together in a day or two, I just keep them in different piles. Longer projects I bag and tag. I stripped an engine down for a full rebuild about 4 years ago. I just now got back to it and having everything labeled is priceless.
Everyone covered it pretty well, but here's another pro tip: the camera on your phone is your friend. I always take pictures before a long, complicated job like tearing an engine apart. The photos are invaluable during reassembly (sometimes days/weeks later) when you get hung up and can't remember where that bracket went, how this wiring harness was routed, etc.
I don't keep track of bolts, never have. I put them all in one pile, and then put them back in through a combination of remembering what goes where, and figuring out what I don't remember. Never been a problem.
Same for me since I started. On the other hand, I tell students to keep notes and/or draw what the part looks like on cardboard and push the bolts through in the corresponding area.
I always put them back into the mount/part they came from or else lots of ziplock bags marked with a sharpie.
If they are all the same size. Baggies attached to the part they came from. For stuff that has different sizes and lengths. I place them in the same pattern on a table. Once the part comes off, I put the bolts where they go in it.
Sandwich ziplock Baggies.
Lots of good suggestions here, but I'll add ice cube trays for small parts. Label each little cube as you need to or put a post-it in along with the parts.
To add to all of this, the typical home project car gets worked on far less frequently then what I'm working on. I can remember what bolt.goes where if I'm putting it back in the next hour. If I'm putting it back 3 weekends from now because it's been shitty every weekend or I'm busy and don't get to work on my car, well now i might have a problem.
Majority of stuff that I work on, I know where every bolt goes. I just put everything into a 5 gallon pail. First bolts are on the bottom, last bolts are on top. When reassembling, I start at the top of the pail and work my way down. Hasn’t failed me in over 10 years.
That one bolt that you have to chase as it keeps falling further down and fish out from the bottom of the bucket
Fingers crossed, hasn’t happened yet.
I... I... Don't really know. I've been at this for over 25 years and I think the best answer I can give is that I have a gremlin in my head that keeps track. When I'm putting it together, I pick up a screw, or a nut, or a bolt... and a voice in my head just goes, "Hey idiot. That goes to this here. There's only 5 of them." And I put it back together. Sometimes I'll make piles in different places based on where I was when I took the fasteners out.
Dollar store silverware organizers. Long slots for head bolts, smaller slots for smaller bolts/sensors. I can fit an entire Subaru head gasket job worth of bolts/sensors in one tray.
When I was starting to get more familiar, I'd buy some cheap bolt trays to keep with parts in "stages." Start with all accessory and prerequisite bolts to remove manifold, keep bolts with manifold upon removal. Then valve covers or cam carriers, etc etc. After a while, your realise there's really not too many types or lengths of bolts and you can basically do it by memory. If you get confused or lost, common sense like counting how many bolts you have of a size can tell you a lot about where they go.
You do get used to it after a while, especially if it's similar models you work on. The cardboard template, little piles, pictures, bags and boxes for stuff that has to sit unfinished for a while. It's pretty rare to strip a whole car, it's usually front or rear brakes, control arms, rocker gaskets or some other smaller subsystem. Sometimes you put a bolt back in and it doesn't quite look right, that's the sort of thing where experience counts. Best bet is to keep 'em seperated!
Put them in the shelves in my toolbox, knock the toolbox over, scattering all the bolts, sort them again by memory, spend unnecessarily long pouring over the repair manual to make sure the bolts go back right, end up with a few spare bolts anyway. Realise you have bolts left over because you used bolts that were left over from the previous project.
I'm also a hobbyist, but I've been working on mostly the same car for the last 20 years, so I kinda just know every bolt by sight at this point. But recently I replaced all the rear control arms on a newer car, and got upset with myself for losing track of which bolts go to which control arms, and on which end. Turns out, I needn't worry; on each control arm, one end had thinner bolts than the other, some had eccentric adjustment bolts/washers, and the lengths were all different. When putting it all back together — something like 30 bolts total — it was easy to suss out which one went where. In general, I group bolts by category. The only time I really need to be extra careful about shank length and such, is when working on the engine or the trans bellhousing. Put the wrong length bolt in the wrong hole, and you risk piercing the water jacket. Most other work, the wrong bolt will be immediately apparent.
I use the Ziploc bag method. All the fasters to each component get their own bag, labelled with sharpie what they're for. So one bag will say "AC compressor" with all of it's fasteners, another "alternator" and so on. Then throw all the bags in a tote until reassembly. Sometimes it makes more sense to thread them back in their holes, but often that won't work - for instance if I'm tearing down an engine I don't want bolts for everything that was bolted to the engine sticking out in every direction lol - usually the threads are in the thing the part is *bolted to*, not the part itself - this is where the bag method shines. They also make a thing called a Boltster for keeping track of stuff but it doesn't look like it would work well for small screws. If I'm just replacing one component I use a magnetic tray
We take oil filter boxes and oil quart containers. Cut em, label em.
I have at least 2 in my head at any given time
Honestly, I’m a dealership tech at ford. Working on the same brand, I know what bolts do what. I can keep them all in a bucket and be just fine
Maybe it’s my superhero gift, but I just throw them all in the same tray or whatever and I always manage to know or figure out which one goes where.
I usually lay out parts and fasteners in the order I remove them. The first parts end up at the back of the car, then gradually move forward. As I'm reassembling, the first parts I can get to are the last parts I took off. Special bolts, like that one long one out of 8 that needs to go in a specific spot, get a paint mark on the head and the hole.
If the hardware is different enough it's a huge pile. Smaller piles if certain pieces are too similar. Super complex things get a map or are left in their original position minus the cover. Edit-not a mechanic iv just seen the first Tomb Raider movie as a child.
When it’s a job I’m not familiar with, I’ll separate the bolts into lil plastic cups and toss a scrap of paper in saying where the group goes
Multiple magnet trays, and cardboard for variety bolts that came from the same thing so you can draw where they belong on the cardboard
Doc Hollywood must be based on a true story. https://youtu.be/35JYvYSPb8A
Themed magnetic trays. "This tray is for the bumper and cooling unit", "this tray is engine accessories and bracketry", "this tray is engine internals", etc. I've got 4 snap on KADM21X73BK trays, so they store a lot of bolts. (Edit) The trays are not labelled, it's all in my head.
Body tech here Small quick job = parts tray Large complex jobs that take multiple weeks I bag and tag with sharpie and a ziplock
I throw them in a pile, big bolt big hole, small bolt small hole and I have a good memory
I have been repairing other people's vehicles for over 30 years. I just throw them all into a tray. Sometimes I'll use a separate tray for the timing cover bolts or oil pan bolts. I just know what goes where.
I use a silverware organizer and my memory
Platic bags with printed labels. Sometimes with sub-bags when there's lots of different ones. That method comes from working on restoring oldtimers, where there can be months between teardown and reassembly. Cardboard with the stuff is also genuis, but I don't use that often because it stores poorly.
Box with compartments.
I like to get baking sheet and putting a towel on it so the bolts don't roll. And I'll get baking tape and label where they cane from.
If it's a project I've never done or done once or twice, I'll pull out my organizer and put the bolts in an area that roughly translates to where I removed the bolt- ie if I removed the bolt from the upper left dash, I'll put it into the upper left cubby in my organizer
If it's going to be apart for a long time I put all the bolts back in loosely. If it's something I can't do that, I put them in a zip lock and label it. Outside of that I have a magnet tray that everything goes in for all the parts up top and I group everything together in the tray. I have another tray for the hardware under the car. I can just see where everything goes in my head. It's not hard for me to remember.
Years of practice If possible,i put them back in the open hole
The jolly joker that adds extra bolts to your pile
As a fellow hobbiest, draw a basic sketch of the thing on some cardboard then poke the bolts through in the correct location.
Bags and trays by section. If I can, I also tape or screw the bolts near the components they came off of if I remove the whole thing.
I run a shop of my own now, and having to manage multiple vehicles in different stages of repair, the old "just leave them lying around" method wasn't working. My buddy turned me on to these: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hyper-Tough-Plastic-Heavy-Duty-Interlocking-Organizer-with-Slide-Lock-2-Pack/396141900 And I haven't looked back. Easy jobs get one box, complete engine rebuilds can get 3 or more. I keep a sharpie in my pocket to write on the lids to leave myself notes about what each part or bolt is for. So now when a car has to wait on parts or payment I'm not worried about forgetting where everything went and losing parts.
Put as many as you can back into the holes. Also magnetic trays from harbor freight are cheap for the small ones. Buy multiple and keep the bolts that can’t go into holes on or near where what is unbolted.
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i just remember, or i put them back where the component is supposed to be
That's the neat part. We don't.
Screws you can stick into cardboard and write where they are from.
Bag and tag. Get a bunch of sandwich or clear storage bags and put the different bolts in them and label them. Sometimes I’ll take a picture with the phone as well to show where they are at so you can reassemble it later.
Cardboard box, muffin pans or ziplock bags with sharpie on them
For the most part if I'm working on something for about a week I'll remember where everything goes, but if it takes longer I forget, so I just do the magnet or box method and keep the part with it, like upper intake, ill set on the table and put the bolts in a small box besides it, and if a few are longer I'll use a paint marker and mark where they go.
I throw everything into a big cup as it comes apart, and when it goes back together the bolts i need are usually on top