Hoarding stock parts that were upgraded?

I'm currently trying to decide whether I want to squirrel away OEM parts that I've replaced such as the skids (splash guards) and planned upgrades such suspension, bumpers etc despite how much of a pain storing them would be opposed to just selling them.

My assumption is in the event my vehicle were totaled, I wouldn't be compensated in any manner for the expensive aftermarket parts, but I couldn't just strip these components off to put on another Tacoma, I'd have to put something in their place.
Alternatively I could just buy the vehicle back but I've heard that whole process is a pain, not including the cost, delay and caveats of having the vehicle repaired and recertified.

This fear is primarily driven by there's been a ton of uninsured, reckless drivers in my area as of late with nil to zero enforcement.

 

there's no great answer here. it really comes down to where you, your finances, and your storage/housing stuff is at.

i try to keep stock parts and modify purchased parts instead, so that if something goes wrong with my modifications, or something comes up that i need to sell, i can return the vehicle to stock, and recover all the parts i modified. but that said, the last vehicle i sold, i sold with the modified parts because it wasn't worth dealing with returning to stock and trying to sell the parts separately.

but then, i had a car that got totaled out, 3 months after purchase, 2 months after i changed the entire sound system. i gutted all the equipment i installed, right down to the wire, and left all the factory gear lying in the passenger footwell. it was replaced with an identical model, so everything got used again. insurance really just requires the vehicle to be complete, not assembled completely.

but also, when it comes to exterior parts, depending on how the vehicle is damaged, the likelihood of recovering modified parts can be slim to none as well, so saving parts in that case can be entirely useless.

modifying vehicles is almost always a losing game financially-speaking.

 

My thought is that in the event of having to sell, having all the original parts on hand might help resale value vs. having only the modified vehicle to sell. It could also help make a better impression of having been more meticulous about the truck as well (at least that is how I would see it if I was looking at a modded vehicle... Someone with all the original parts seems more likely to have taken better care of it than the guy who just drops it off at their local offroad shop and hands them their credit card).

Another benefit is having something to fall back upon should one of your upgraded parts fail and you need something to temporarily replace it (shocks, for example).

But as mentioned, having a space available to accumulate all these parts is important. Things like the original plastic front bumper cover can be bulky.

 

I was told to try and keep all stock parts just in case. It's helped a few times. Most of the time I sell something and think I can just buy it used for cheap it's never available when I need it. LOL

 

Depending if you leased or bought ... another person posted that a leased Tacoma due for return had been heavily modified (lifted, tires, etc). That person kept few if any of the OEM parts. Not sure how the "lease return" ended up going with or without buying replacement OEM parts.

Just a thought.