Automotive Parts Storage / Automotive Shelving
Automotive Shelving for Parts Rooms, Service Shops & Tire Storage
Steel, boltless, bin, drawer and mobile shelving plus tire racking and vertical carousels — engineered around your part mix, drawn in CAD at no cost, and installed nationwide from Salt Lake City.
1,200 lb
Max shelf capacity (18 ga)
96″
Widest boltless bay
352
Tires per Vidir carousel
80%
Floor space a carousel frees
Storage Built Around How a Parts Room Actually Works
Automotive shelving is the foundation of a dealership parts department, an independent service shop, a tire store or a fleet maintenance facility. It also fails in a very specific way: the room fills up long before it runs out of cubic feet, because small parts are sitting in shelf openings sized for large ones and the fast movers are forty steps from the counter. Fleet shops and municipal garages have their own stocking and compliance problems — see our guide to fleet and municipal garage parts storage.
Material Handling USA specifies automotive shelving from American manufacturers — Borroughs, Penco, Hallowell and Jaken among them — in every combination a parts operation needs: open and closed steel shelving, bin shelving with sliding dividers, high-density drawers built into the shelving bays, boltless rivet shelving for heavy items, tire racking, and motorized vertical carousels where the ceiling is the only space left.
Every project includes layout design and CAD drawings at no additional cost, and we install nationwide. Call (800) 326-4403 to start with a review of what you stock and how it moves.
Types of Automotive Shelving
Six families cover a complete parts operation. Most rooms use four or five of them in the same floor plan, which is exactly what a layout drawing is for.
Closed & Open Steel ShelvingThe backbone of every parts room. Borroughs Box Edge Plus® comes in four build types — open (posts, shelves and sway braces), closed without back, closed with back, and bin type — so you can run open bays in the back of the room and closed bays where loose parts would otherwise fall through. Standard widths are 24″, 36″, 42″ and 48″ with nominal depths of 12″ through 36″.
Boltless / Rivet ShelvingRivet-Span® boltless shelving assembles by driving rivet pins into keyholed posts — no nuts, no bolts, no clips. Nominal widths run 24″ to 96″, depths 12″ to 48″ and heights 6′ to 16′, with 14-gauge posts and beams and shelf levels adjustable on 1-1/2″ centers. The right pick for bumpers, exhaust, boxed assemblies and anything you want to load from all four sides.
Bin & Small-Parts ShelvingFlexi-Bin® units turn a shallow shelf into dozens of right-sized compartments using sliding dividers with built-in label holders, so a bay can be re-divided in seconds as your part mix changes. White back panels improve picking visibility, and units run stand-alone or back-to-back in double rows.
HD Drawers in ShelvingHigh-density drawers install directly into Box Edge Plus® and Rivet-Span® bays, converting dead shelf air into fully divided drawer space for fasteners, clips, sensors and electrical parts. It is the single highest-yield upgrade for an existing parts room because the shelving stays where it is.
Wall-Line & Counter ShelvingShallow 12″ and 15″ bays along the wall behind the parts counter keep fast movers within arm’s reach of the counter person, with counter units and pass-through tops available to close the loop between the shelving line and the customer.
High-Density Mobile ShelvingMounting shelving bays on carriage rails removes all but one aisle, typically doubling the parts you hold in the same square footage. Best for slower-moving inventory, records and seasonal stock where you can trade a little pick time for a lot of space.Not sure which mix your room needs?
Lay a shelving run out yourself in the free Jaken Shelving Designer, or send us your part counts and room dimensions and we will draw the whole room — shelving, drawers, tires and racks — before you commit to anything.
Request a Quote Open the Jaken Shelving Designer Call (800) 326-4403
Automotive Shelving Specifications
Box Edge Plus® steel shelving — shelf capacity by gauge
Uniformly distributed load capacity per shelf. Gauge options run P-0 (24 ga), P-1 (22 ga), P-2 (20 ga), P-3 (18 ga); capacities are derived and validated under SMA/ANSI MH28.1 test protocols. Ask us for the capacity of any size not listed here.
| Shelf size (W × D) | P-0 (24 ga) | P-1 (22 ga) | P-2 (20 ga) | P-3 (18 ga) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36″ × 18″ | 400 lb | 600 lb | 800 lb | 1,200 lb |
| 42″ × 18″ | — | — | 600 lb | 1,000 lb |
| 48″ × 18″ | 210 lb | 400 lb | 500 lb | 800 lb |
| 24″ × 24″ | — | 600 lb | — | — |
| 36″ × 24″ | 460 lb | 600 lb | 800 lb | 1,200 lb |
| 42″ × 24″ | — | — | 600 lb | 1,000 lb |
Sizes and build types
| Attribute | Box Edge Plus® steel shelving | Rivet-Span® boltless shelving |
|---|---|---|
| Nominal widths | 24″, 36″, 42″, 48″ | 24″ to 96″ (24, 30, 32, 36, 42, 48, 60, 69, 72, 84, 96″) |
| Nominal depths | 12″, 15″, 18″, 24″, 30″, 32″, 36″ | 12″ to 48″ |
| Nominal heights | Standard 87″ units plus high-rise and multi-level builds with post splicers | 6′, 7′, 8′, 10′, 12′, 14′, 15′, 16′ |
| Frame steel | Beaded, angle or high-rise posts; four shelf gauges P-0 to P-3 | 14-gauge posts and beams; levels adjust on 1-1/2″ centers |
| Build types | Open, closed without back, closed with back, bin type | Open four-sided access, single or back-to-back rows |
| Accessories | Dividers, bin fronts, drawers, counters, perforated end panels, multi-level systems | Steel, particle board (5/8″) or wire decking; low-profile, angle, channel and Z beams |
| Assembly | Clip-in shelves, bolted frame components | Tool-free — rivet pins drive into keyholed posts |
Watch the depth, not just the footprint
A 36″-deep bay looks like more storage than a 15″-deep bay, and for boxed assemblies it is. For small parts it is usually worse: the back half becomes a place parts go to be forgotten. In a mixed parts room the winning pattern is shallow bays with dividers or drawers at the counter, deeper bays behind them, and racks for the bulky items along the receiving wall.
Tire Storage: Racks, Wall Systems and Carousels
Tires are the highest-volume, lowest-density item in the building. How you store them decides how much room is left for everything else.
Static Tire RacksAngle-beam tire racks keep tires from rolling off the shelf and assemble quickly in 2-, 3- and 4-level runs along a wall or back-to-back down the middle of a room. Lowest cost per tire position and no power required — the default for shops storing a few hundred tires.
Wall & Cart Storage for Wheel AssembliesMounted wheel-and-tire assemblies are heavy, expensive and easy to curb. Wall-mounted racks keep seasonal sets off the floor, while mobile tire carts stage the next four assemblies at the bay instead of sending a tech back to the tire room twice per vehicle.
Vidir Tire CarouselsA motorized vertical carousel uses the overhead space a static rack wastes. A single standard Vidir Tire Carousel stores up to 352 tires, accommodates tires up to 44″ in standard models, holds them with or without rims, and saves up to 80% of the floor space the same inventory would otherwise occupy.
When a Tire Carousel Pays For Itself
Static racking is cheap per position but expensive per square foot. Once a shop is storing seasonal sets, tagged customer tires or several hundred units of inventory, the floor is the constraint — and a motorized carousel is the only way to buy space you already own overhead. Vidir’s tire carousel stores up to 352 tires in a single standard unit, accepts tires up to 44″ in standard models with or without rims, and reclaims up to 80% of the floor space that inventory would occupy on racks.
The second benefit is ergonomic: the carousel indexes the requested carrier down to the operator, so nobody is lifting a tire off an overhead level or dragging it out of a stack. Model the footprint and capacity yourself in our Automated Vertical Storage Designer, or read the full breakdown of automated tire storage.
Sizing tire storage for your shop?
Tell us how many tires you hold at peak, whether they are mounted, and your ceiling height. We will compare racking against a carousel on floor space, positions and picking time before you spend anything.
Request a Quote Open the Vertical Storage Designer Call (800) 326-4403
Small Parts: Bins, Dividers and High-Density Drawers
The counter wall is where a parts room is won or lost. Most of the transactions in a day involve a few hundred SKUs — filters, wipers, bulbs, belts, fasteners, clips, sensors, gaskets, seals and O-rings — and every one of them is small enough that an open 24″-deep shelf wastes most of the space it takes up.
Two products fix that. Bin shelving with sliding dividers (Flexi-Bin®) breaks a shallow shelf into right-sized compartments with built-in label holders, and it can be re-divided by hand when your part mix changes — no tools, no re-buy. High-density drawers go a step further: they install into existing Box Edge Plus® or Rivet-Span® bays and can be ordered as a complete outfitted assembly under a single part number, drawer, slide, handle and label holder included.
Sliding-Divider Bin ShelvingShallow shelves plus sliding dividers and label holders. Compartments resize by hand, white back panels keep the pick face readable, and units run stand-alone or back-to-back. The standard answer for filters, rotors, belts and packaged parts.
Modular Drawer CabinetsFull-extension drawers with adjustable partitions and dividers, sized so a technician sees the entire contents of the drawer at once. Ideal for fasteners, electrical parts and anything you count.
Fluids, Chemicals & ConsumablesHeavier lower levels for cases of oil, coolant and washer fluid, closed backs and sides where spills or drips are a concern, and enough clearance to move a case without unloading the shelf above it.- Put the top-selling few hundred SKUs within a few steps of the counter
- Use 12″–15″ depths with dividers for small packaged parts
- Convert dead shelf air to HD drawers before you buy more shelving
- Give VIN-tagged special orders their own labeled run
- Keep the heaviest items on the lowest levels
- Label the pick face, not the box — labels survive, boxes do not
Bulky and Heavy Parts: Purpose-Built Racks
Sheet metal, bumpers, batteries, exhaust and palletized stock do not belong on a general-purpose shelf. Each of these rack types exists because a parts room kept damaging — or losing — a specific class of part.
| Rack type | Construction and behavior | What it stores |
|---|---|---|
| Tire rack | Angle-beam levels that stop tires rolling forward; 2–4 levels, wall or back-to-back | Tires and tire/wheel assemblies |
| Battery rack | Corrosion-resistant finish with angled mesh decks that gravity-feed the next battery forward — no rollers to seize | Batteries, core returns |
| Sheet metal rack | 14-gauge steel frame, open and accessible from any side | Hoods, fenders, doors, quarter panels |
| Bumper rack | Low-cost, fast-assembly frames that hold bumpers on edge and off the floor | Bumpers, fascias, ground effects |
| Selective pallet rack | Beam-and-upright rack with a pick face on every position | Palletized bulk stock, oil drums, boxed assemblies |
| Cantilever rack | Arms with no front column so long stock loads and unloads from the side | Exhaust pipe, tubing, trim, moldings |
Pallet Rack Behind the Shelving Line
Most parts operations of any size end up with two storage tiers: shelving for the pick face and pallet rack for reserve stock, bulk oil, tires in cartons and slow-moving assemblies. Selective pallet rack gives forklift access to every position, while denser configurations trade selectivity for capacity where you hold many pallets of the same part.
The two tiers have to be laid out together: aisle widths are driven by the equipment that serves the rack, not by the shelving. See our pallet rack systems for beam, upright and decking options, or bring us the whole room and we will draw both tiers at once.
How We Design an Automotive Parts Room
Shelving is the easy part. The value is in the sequence: what you stock, how fast it moves, and where a person has to walk to get it. See our full Automotive Parts Room Design service for the complete process.
Inventory and velocity review
We start with what you actually stock and how often it moves — SKU counts, physical sizes, weights and pick frequency — because that mix, not the room, decides how much drawer, bin, shelf and rack you need.
Layout and CAD drawings
You get a drawn layout showing bay-by-bay placement, aisle widths, counter access, tire storage and the workflow path between them. Drawings and design work are included at no additional cost.
Product and gauge specification
Shelf gauge, depth, level count, drawer sizes and rack types are specified against real capacities — Borroughs shelf capacities are derived and validated under SMA/ANSI MH28.1 test protocols.
Installation and phased cutover
Our crews install around your open hours and phase the cutover bay by bay so the parts counter keeps running while the room is rebuilt. Nationwide installation, headquartered in Salt Lake City.
The Four Rules That Decide Whether a Parts Room Feels Fast
Velocity beats category. Grouping parts by system is intuitive and slow. Put fast movers at the counter regardless of what they are, and keep the categorized runs for everything else.
Special orders get their own address. A VIN-tagged part shelved into general stock is a part you will buy twice. A dedicated, labeled special-order run — ideally in sight of the counter — ends that.
Match the opening to the part. Drawers and dividers for anything you could hold in one hand; shelves for boxes; racks for panels, bumpers and tires.
Design for the next five years. Adjustable shelving, add-on bays and divider systems mean an inventory change is a re-label, not a re-buy. Read the full dealership parts room design guide for worked layouts.
Choosing the Right Automotive Shelving System
Start from the part, not from the product catalog.
| What you are storing | What we normally specify | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Fasteners, clips, sensors, O-rings | Modular drawer cabinets or HD drawers in shelving | Fully divided drawer space stores far more small SKUs per square foot than an open shelf, and nothing migrates between compartments |
| Filters, wipers, bulbs, belts, small boxed parts | Bin shelving with sliding dividers (Flexi-Bin®) | Compartments resize in seconds; label holders keep the pick face readable from the aisle |
| Medium boxed parts, fluids, cases | Box Edge Plus® steel shelving, 18″–24″ deep | Adjustable clip shelves and 400–1,200 lb shelf capacities depending on gauge |
| Heavy or bulky parts, tires stacked in cartons | Rivet-Span® boltless shelving | Four-sided access, 14-gauge posts and beams, widths to 96″ and heights to 16′ |
| Palletized reserve stock | Selective pallet rack | Forklift access to every pallet position |
| Tires in volume | Tire racks, or a Vidir tire carousel | A carousel reclaims up to 80% of the floor area static racking occupies and brings tires to the operator |
| Slow-moving inventory and records | High-density mobile shelving | Eliminates all but one aisle; roughly doubles capacity in the same footprint |
Send us your parts list and room dimensions
We will come back with a drawn layout, the specific shelving, drawer and rack products to buy, and an installed price. Design and CAD drawings are included at no additional cost.
Where Automotive Shelving Goes to Work
Dealership Parts DepartmentsBin shelving and HD drawers on the counter wall for fast movers, deeper bays behind them for medium parts, and a dedicated tagged run for VIN-specific special orders so a customer’s part is never buried.
Independent Repair ShopsA compact mix of steel shelving, bin storage and workbenches with drawers, sized so one person can run the parts side of the shop without leaving the bay area for long.
Tire & Quick-Lube ShopsTire racking or a vertical carousel plus shallow bin shelving for filters, wipers, bulbs and fluids — the SKUs that get sold at the counter in the same five minutes as the service.
Fleet, Municipal & Military ShopsHeavier bays for brake, suspension and drivetrain components, drawer units for controlled small parts, and mobile shelving where a fleet shop has to hold two decades of part numbers in one room.
Parts Warehouses & DistributionLong boltless and steel shelving runs for pick faces, pallet rack above and behind for reserve stock, and multi-level shelving systems where the building height allows a second picking floor.
Body Shops & Detail BaysCabinets and enclosed shelving for paint, consumables and abrasives, plus open racks for hoods, fenders and bumpers that must be stored damage-free while the vehicle is apart.Keeping Automotive Shelving Safe and Usable
Shelving in a service environment takes abuse that office shelving never sees: oil, coolant, grease, dropped rotors, pallet jacks and hand trucks. Four habits keep a system serviceable for decades.
- Clean shelves and drawer faces with a mild detergent so oil and grease do not sit on the powder coat
- Inspect posts, beams, rivet connections and drawer slides for impact damage and deflection — repair or replace immediately rather than de-rating a damaged bay in your head
- Keep loads distributed across the shelf; published capacities assume a uniformly distributed load
- Re-label as the part mix changes, and re-check that the heaviest items are still on the lowest levels
- Guard the corners of runs exposed to hand trucks, pallet jacks and forklift traffic
- Use the full height of the room before you add footprint — taller bays, multi-level systems or a vertical carousel
Shop Shelving Kits Online
Buy select items directly from our online store, or request a quote for volume, custom sizes and freight-rated orders.
Automotive Shelving FAQs
What type of shelving is best for an automotive parts department?
How much weight can automotive parts shelving hold?
Is boltless shelving or bolted steel shelving better for auto parts?
How many tires can a vertical tire carousel store?
Do drawers really store more small parts than shelves?
What shelf depth should I use in a parts room?
Can a shelving system support a second level or a mezzanine?
How do I lay out a parts room so techs are not waiting?
Is automotive shelving made in the USA?
How do I maintain automotive shelving?
Related Products & Resources
Automotive Parts StorageComplete parts storage systems — shelving, drawers, racks and vertical storage — specified around your inventory.
Automotive Parts Room DesignLayout and workflow engineering for dealership parts rooms, with CAD drawings included.
Flexi-Bin® ShelvingSliding-divider bin shelving with label holders for small and medium parts at the counter.
Rivet-Span® Boltless ShelvingTool-free rivet shelving in widths to 96″ and heights to 16′ for heavy and bulky parts.
Automotive Modular DrawersModular drawer cabinets and HD drawers in shelving for fasteners, clips and electrical parts.
Tire Storage SystemsStatic tire racking, wall racks, carts and motorized tire carousels compared.Shop Online at MaterialHandling-USA.com
Need bins, shelf dividers, labels or shop supplies you can buy online today? Our e-commerce store stocks storage and material handling products with published pricing.
Rebuild Your Parts Room With the Right Shelving
Send us your part counts, room dimensions and tire volume. You will get a CAD layout, the exact shelving, drawer and rack specification, and an installed price — design included at no additional cost.
Manufacturer detail: Borroughs automotive shelving — Box Edge Plus® parts room shelving, 400 lb high-density parts drawers and service bay workstations, with Salt Lake City, Denver, Phoenix and Boise service pages.