Wow!
First of all welcome Ed! Second, I wonder if he didn't keep records somewhere of all his collection, might save you months of work. Thirdly, other than a huge collector, if you guys have the time, selling them individually would be ideal unless a collector pops up who's into the same thing. It always seems that when a stockpile of cool stuff pops up, that there are issues to be dealt with like family members, and will's and stuff. I'm sorry for you daughter's loss of a father in law. I think it's great that she will keep a 409 for herself! Those are getting hard to find, and costly! Good luck to you guys with the hard work ahead, I think payment for such efforts might be a corvette engine or a second 409!