glass cutting, not enough room, refining the collection, and other collectors issues lol!!!

so, as my 1:18 collection is growing and space has become an issue, I spent this morning with my display trying to work out how i'm going to have room in future for more as they come out (two ottos plus two more irish in pipeline).... I was looking at more bertby wall cabinets for my main collection, but this would mean removing all models, then bringing down existing cabinets, resiting them and adding new ones....problems with this include the hassles, potential breakages/injury lol, and especially the cost of getting two new cabinets from the mainland to N.I......
 
so at this point I looked at my vat-man collection and began deciding which ones I could sacrifice, and which ones I would integrate to my main collection....leaving room in my detolf for future irish conversions....... problems with this include losing some of aris display which I am kinda attached to as it includes some conversions, plus having to sacrifice several from my main collection..... 

next option, sacrifice nothing and buy more detolfs for future irish additions.......problems with this include cost, plus potential hospital bills and divorce settlement fees when wifey sees them!!!  

so, bright idea came along, I need only 6 shelves for 18 vatman cars, and I have a wee space under aris picture on the wall between my two special detolfs.... so what if I buy another defolf, but cut it down so that it sits under his picture, and put his collection in that? leaves me with a free detolf for future additions....
 
so to get to the point (I wish you would, I hear you cry!!) i'll need to cut down the four glass sections of my detolf, plus the vertical rails....anyone have any advice/hints/suggestions on cutting glass panels? is it do-able? should I attempt it? do I need special tools? am I mad? lol!!  

all comments welcome, excuse the ramble but I know this is where we can come to get these thoughts into the open and off our chests!

You should sell a couple, that would solve all your problems mate   

oh i am m8, i am........ but i,m lookin down the line a bit.......
and what would i sell........? oh right, now i remember who i'm taking to................... lol!!!  

Mark (beaney) posted a link before on how to put extra shelves in the detolf.

I feel for ya I'm in the same position. Only my Mrs will properly remove my balls so I have to sell
What I'm trying to do is keep the rarer ones ie ottos and TSMs Autoarts (and aquire some  Dave)
I'll carry on getting ottos and high end rallies but stop my incessant ebay buying activity.

I once got into severe financial schtuck buying model cars and have taken nearly 2 yrs to pay off a massive credit card bill. So I'm always mindful that I have a bit of a Ahem problem when it comes to collecting  .

As far as collecting goes I've turned my attention to rally books, Rallycourse, Slideshow and Face to Face books. This is less expensive takes up less room and I've convinced myself to only buy very cheap and not using debt to fund it.

I think Detolfs are toughened glass which is a bit trixsy. You could try a glazing firm to see if they can cut the glass?

thanks for input lads...appreciated....

dave, both my detolfs have maximum extra shelves m8, I remember telling mark how to fix them with wee pipe-clamps....24 1:18's on 8 shelves is the safe limit for each one...

jusali, yeah m8 it would be easy to go mad at this hobby, maybe its good that wifey keeps us controlled lol!! glad you're sorted out wth the debts m8, well done.... i also like you, am constantly refining the collection, sacrificing the more common, cheaper or less interesting ones...
must ask my glazier contact if its something I could tackle or must he do it....cheers m8

Billy, buy a billy
serious, change your cabinets with the Ikea Billy ones mate. thats what I have for my collection..... I can squeeze 7 models in a shelve. and I have 12 shelves in one billy, and I believe I can squeeze one more shelve in the cabinet...
so, lets say 7 models x 12 shelves = 84 models in a cabinet. not that bad

Billy. When i had my large cabinet i had some shelves made by a local window merchant. They did say to me that they can cut any glass to size and the prices were pretty good to. Worth a try.

If you do sell any wee ones i get 1st dibs as i sold you them originally  

    Gaz  

hi omer, thanks m8, yeah the 'Billy' ones replaced the Bertby model that I have............very similar, and same size roughly, I have 7 bertbys with 12 models in each one, so the billys would hold exactly the same 84..... I can continue refining the main collection as new ones come out, I can replace some focus', escorts or scoobies, but the problem is my othwer two collections, ie irish and vat-man stuff..... a cut-down detolf would solve the problem, holding my ari collection and freeing up 6 shelves, plus it would fit in perfectly between the two full-size detolfs....I like this idea so that's why I need advice on glass-cutting.....  
cheers for input m8

chris lol!!!!  

if/when I ever sell my wee mantas, you and 'yer man' can fight over them lol!!

No contest there then. I WIN  

well that was easy............ 

I had 48 extra shelves made for my Ikea display cabinets (yes, thats not a mistype) by my local glazier in 4mm toughened glass (30cm x 16cm) ground edges at £5 a shelf. Not cheap compared to more cabinets but the good lady had veto'd more cabinets so that was my only option. Very cramped in there now but as i only collect 1/43s i can squeeze them in and still have room for about 5 more years of aquisitions. Cutting toughened glass is easy for a glazier but does require the right tools and a bit of prior experience.

thanks paul, sounds like its gonna have to be a professional cutting job.............. 

I know what a real mate would do? Who's daily drive is a manta. There is only one place them wee ones belong.... You got my address.  

man, you're persistent, i'll give you that...........  

 yeah mate

Hey Billy, you have my address to send the big ones here. I will even display them for you free of charge.  

hi mal, well of course that was my first preference m8, but shipping was just too dear......................