tips & tricks

Great Tips and ideas guys. keep em coming.
Another tip for cooling a drill bit down is to use wax as a lubricant.

You retired guys must have lots of time to come up with this stuff. Must be nice.:canada:
 
We've all had to deal with hard to remove nuts and bolts. Try this trick. Heat up the offending bolt or nut (with a propane torch) and then apply some candle wax to it. The heat will melt the wax and pull it into the threads. Let it sit for a few minutes and it should come apart far easier now.

As always, consider safety and parts damage when using a torch.

:canada:
 
It's not that us retired guys have time to come up with this stuff, it's that we've just been around for a long, long, long time and picked up all the little tricks on the way. You hear about the tricks of the trade, no matter the trade. Throw in a lot of years of experience and what do you get.......a retired old gray haired fart with a head full of tricks. It's the tricks that you pick up over the years that make the trade easy. I'm not a professional drywaller and am joint filling about 33 sheets of drywall. I would appreciate some joint filling tips/tricks. Pros would do a whole subdivision quicker than I am doing the garage......but it will get done, at retiree speed. :D
 
:eek: drywall mud, lord almighty i hate that stuff . here's my tip keith,works for me. cover every thing with pine. i'd rather have 4 or 5 root canals without freezing than do 30 seconds of mudding. they should make convicts do it, crime rate would drop big time. but i guess they would deem that cruel and unusual punishment.
 
keith is right on the money about picking things up over the years and making a task go quicker. people have accused me of being efficient but i tell them,no, i'm just basically lazy. :D
 
Come on Doug, it isn't all that bad. Come on over and I will show you some tips on doing the mudding. I'll even let you help. ;) I've already laid up over 30kg of the stuff. Do I qualify as a convict? Some days the old body feels like I've had a root canal job or something.
 
Back to the subject of tips. By the time the three studs in the exhaust manifold are needing replacing, they are well rusted in place. Heat the manifold, off the car, to a cherry red around the stud with a torch. A set of vice grips will spin the stud right out with very little effort. Just let the manifold air cool and you are in business. Run a tap in to clean the rust out of the threads and you are good to go.
 
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working on your engine with the carb off ? don't like stuffing rags down the plenum ? get a sacrificial nylon cutting board or something similar about 1/4" thick. using a carb base gasket as a template you can make a block-off plate. they can be made for other spots as well - distributor, thermostat, etc. :seeya:
 
Starting a project that requires removing a number of small parts and plenty of nuts, bolts, clips, hoses, etc.?

Pull out your trusty camera and photograph everything from several angles BEFORE taking it all apart. As you disassemble, place the parts in clear ziploc-type bags and toss a piece of paper in with a written description of what the part is. Reassembly will go far smoother.

If you're involved in a major car restoration, devote entire shelves to similar or related parts, to help keep things orderly and under control.

Keep all parts, no matter how bad they are, until you have a correct replacement in hand. In fact, if you have the room, keep old parts until the new ones are installed and have proven to function correctly. The older these project cars get, the harder it may be to source some replacement parts and you may have to restore the original parts.

During disassembly, if you take the time to clean, check and test each part, it will prepare the way for an orderly reassembly. It will also give you much more time to source replacement parts as you disassemble rather than trying to find everything at the end of the disassembly stage.

How do I know this stuff? Once you've spent 4-1/2 years on a complete rebuild project, you learn a few things. ;)
 
You all know about the danger of spilling DOT3, DOT4 OR DOT5.1 brake fluid on your car's paint.

But, in the alternative, what a great paint remover for parts. :D

P.S. None of the above are compatible with DOT5 silicone brake fluid.
 
gettin' some air

need more versatility with your air lines in the garage/shop ? approach it like you would a plumbing project. run copper 1/2" along the walls and add " tee's " where ever you would like a fitting. use plumbing fittings mated to qwik couplers at the tee's. point them toward the floor. use a short length of rubber air hose to connect to the compressor. you can now have air where you want it without tripping over lines all over the shop. very handy by the parts washer and garage door. :seeya:
 
well, after initially wondering if this thread would be a bust with nobody looking. i see this morning it passed the 1000 views mark. guess people were interested !!! :canada:
 
Sick of the mess when dropping the oil filter? It sure can be a pain.

Loosen the oil filter to where you can spin it off by hand. Then, using a plastic bag, cover the filter by holding the plastic bag up against the block. Continue turning the filter by hand, through the bag, and let the bag catch all that black gooey stuff.

Tada!
 
For even less mess, I crack the filter loose then punch a hole in the bottom of it so it will drain out before removal. The bag trick still applies just a little less oil to deal with.
 

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