Post your "Home-Brewed How To's" here ...

[Shane]

Never recalled seeing a post like this here ... so I thought I would start one.

Everyone has tricks, short-cuts, or other helpful things they do in the shop ... post your favorite and share with everyone. Let's make this a sort of "clearinghouse" for helpful hints and "how-to's.

Here's my first:

Jack Stands at a Glance:

Use Testor's model car paints and paint each tooth in the ratcheting mechanism of your jackstands a different color. You can set the first jackstand to the desired height & then, with only a quick glance, you know where the 2nd stand needs to be in order for whatever you are supporting to be level.

Let's hear from some of you other "Shop Rats" and some of ya'lls ideas...

[Shane]

Homemade Gaskets:

Lay your gasket material over the needed area. Then, very gently, tap around the holes and the gasket material ... concentrating on the holes. You will soon begin to see the outline of the hole, continue tapping (still very gently) ... soon the gasket material will give way. Presto! Instant Gasket!

This will also work when needing to transfer a hole layout from one peice to another.

[Shane]

Kool Karb Linkage:

Like the looks of polished stainless steel linkage? But don't wanna pay thru the nose? Try this.

Buy yourself a couple of small spherical rod ends (also called heim joints) from your local industrial supply house or online. Then you will need some small diameter "all-thread", matching jam nuts, and some stainless steel tubing that will fit OVER the all-thread.

Cut the "all-thread" to desired length and adjust hiem joints and jam nuts. Then measure the distance between the jam nuts, cut stainless steel tubing to desired length ... test fit ... if all is as desired, then polish the tubing with Mother's or some other type of polish. Re-install tubing and snug jam nuts.

Instant Kool Linkage!

[Shane]

Shims - door alignment:

Go to Home Depot, Lowe's, Menard's, etc ... and purchase a couple packs of the wooden, wedge-shaped shims. The ones that capenters use when aligning window sills and doors.

Especially useful when fitting "gaps" in doors, fenders, hoods, etc. on our old trucks.

Cheap and can also be used as paint stir sticks when done!

[Shane]

Plastic Lense Polish:

To remove small scratches from plastic lenses (turn signal, tail light, dash, etc ...) use Wenol in the BLUE tube (finer grit).

Use a soft all cotton cloth and buff by hand ... DON"T do this with a mechanical buffer or pedestal style buffer ... they tend to spin too fast and introduce too much heat into the lense ... resulting in melted plastic.

[Shane]

TEMPORARY fix for stripped bolts:

If you ever find yourself stranded because of a stripped bolt here is a quick fix
DISCLAIMER:TEMPORARY fix until you can replace the bolt.

Remove the bolt and flatten one side of the threads with a hammer, wrench, or anything else that you can use to hit the threads in one small section. It will work much like a self-tapping screw and will usually get you home.

NEVER use on a bolt/thread that is Load Bearing, such as bolts in the suspension or driveline, but works great on things such as alternator bolts, carburetor studs, or other accessories hung with threaded fasteners.

BONUS: Makes ya look extra-smart & cool in front of friends if you use this one when THEY are stranded.

[Shane]

Drill Depth Gage:

Some folks use tape as a mark on their drill bit when drilling to a specific depth ... only problem is when the drill spins so fast that you can't stop it before going too deep.

Try this ... use a peice of scrap tubing that will fit over the needed drill bit and cut to length as to allow the drill bit to only go the needed depth. Especially helpful when drilling in double-walled panels (doors, interior roof, etc.) and you don't want the drill to go too deep and damage the outside surface of the panel.

[Shane]

Cheap "V" Block

If you ever need to butt-weld two peices of tubing together,end to end ... but don't have a "V" block or specialized clamp that will hold the two peices of tubing in alignment ... try this.

Get yourself a small peice of angle iron ... lay the two peices (assuming they are the same size) in the angle ... tack weld ... rotate ... tack weld ... rotate ... etc.

Viola! Aligned perfect every time!

[COBALT]

When putting on new radiator hoses you have to worry about getting the old ones off, and trying to cram the new ones on without damanging both the radiator and the new hose.

A. To take the old hoses off remove the hose clamps and use a construction knife, and make a 3" cut from the edge of the hose past the flange on the radiator. Take a small screwdriver and open the cut so you can get your fingers in. Unpeal the hose from the flange.

B. To put the new ones on get some water soluble lubricant (Don't laugh - KY Jelly works awesome). Put some in the end of each hose, and on the connections (radiator flanges, thermostat housing, and water pump), and simply slip them on. They'll go right on without any problems, and you can twist the hose in any direction to get the right placement with no problems. As the water soluble lube heats up it will dry and not cause problems with the rubber.

[COBALT]

Use NAPA brake cleaner out of the spray can, and spray some on a small piece of scotch brite (a sheet of the nylon scrubbing material you can get at any GOOD parts store - NAPA has boxes of it), and rub the surface of whatever you're cleaning. It will dissolve sealant, rubber, paint, oil, grease or anything else coating metal. Wear gloves (it dries out your skin and cause damage if you're not careful). The brake cleaner will also dissolve the Scotch brite over time, so use an extra shot of brake cleaner on a clean rag, and rub off your surface once you're done scrubbing it. The surface will literally be squeaky clean with no residue.

Ideal for cleaning mating surfaces on heads, intakes, engine blocks, transmission pan flanges, front-end parts that will be re-used, old corroded electrical connections, etc. It will evaporate faster than most cleaners, and won't cause a hazard like gasoline. It also evaporates with no left-over residue. I use the stuff by the case.

[Shane]

Rivet Removal:

When trying to remove rivets from things such as your frame, this one comes in real handy.

Take your Dremel Tool or a thin cut-off blade in your die grinder and make an "X" across the top of the rivet. Then proceed to "whup the snot" out of the rivet with your hammer and chisel ... makes decapitating the little buggers much easier.

[Shane]

Cotter Pin Removal:

Stick a pair of needle-nosed pliers thru the "loop" on the end of the cotter pin and then tap the pliers with a hammer. Sounds simple & like common sense ... but I never thought of this until an "old fart" told me about it. Works everytime.

[Shane]

Poor Man's Come-Along"

Use your ratcheting tie-downs when you need to gently persuade something into moving, but don't have a come-along handy ... works great!

[Shane]

Chuck Key Keeper:

How many times have you gone to the drill press and couldn't find the chuck key. Buy yourself a long spring ... much like what is used on screen doors ... very springy. Bolt one end to the drill press and then tape your chuck key handle until it fits snugly in the other end of the spring.

DISCLAIMER: NEVER leave chuck key in chuck when finished ... next person may come along and not see the chuck key in the chuck and then cut the drill press on ... instant flying projectile!

[COBALT]

I figured this one out last fall when I rebuilt my front/back suspension and I didn't have a sand blaster. After soaking the spring overnight in degreaser dry it off with a rag, and place it in a vice so that it's laying horizontal. Don't put the whole coil in, just hold it by the steel run at one end.

Get a drill extension 1-2' in length, and get three steel brushes:

1. A wire disk - coarse.
2. A wire cone; one coarse, one fine

Without the extension use the cone coarse brush and clean the outside of the coil in a circular motion working your way from one end of the coil to the other ignoring the inside. Switch to the disk, and the extension, and clean the inside of the coil ignoring the space in between the runs of the coil.

Now here's the fun part. Switch back to the wire cone, but don't connect it to the extension. Put the cone inside the coil first, and then connect the extension to it sliding the extension in between the runs in the coil. Start at one end with the extension between the runs of the coil, and turn the drill in a circle around the coil following the runs from one end to the other. Make sure to change the angle so you get both one side of the previous coil, and the other side of the next coil. This will reach the missing dirty places the other two approaches missed.

Use the fine cone to finish it off, wipe it down with cleaner, to get off all residue, let dry, and you're ready to coat/paint.

[Shane]

Poor Man's Caliper

Use the OPEN end of your open end/box end wrenches as a caliper or thickness gage. Use as a GO / NO-GO gage ... start big and then go down until the wrench won't fit over what ever it is that you are trying to measure ... go back up on wrench size and you should be "in the ballpark" of whatever size you are looking for. Use it to size the thickness of metal plate, the O.D. (outside diameter) of tubing, or for setting certain size "gaps."

[O'l Buck]

For heads that have been on an engine for a long time and are stuck in place, Make a set of T handles out of some ready rod (allthread) that will screw into your rocker stud mounts. This will give enough leverage to rock the head and pop it loose. I've also used a cut off flat screwdriver and drive it in between the head and the block to break the "seal".

[O'l Buck]

They make expensive dollies that you can set your car or truck on to be able to stuff it tightly into a corner, but a floor jack works just as well and can be used for more than one thing. Just jack up one end and put it where you want it, then do the same with the other until the vehicle is stored out of your way.

[O'l Buck]

If you don't have a die grinder and the semi-expensive sandpaper hole cleaning attatchments, use a drill and a roll pin. You take a piece of emery cloth, insert it in the slot of the pin, wrap it in the opposite direction of rotation (so it don't come unwrapped), put the pin in the drill and clean up your flanges so the U-joints fit nice again.

[1969 GMC]

The vent window on my GMC would rattle and whistle at about 45+ mph. The little catch mechanism was loose and wouldn't get a proper seal for the window. This noise gets irritating on a long road trip with no radio. I could probably fix this, but I am cheap, sooo I jammed a penny and a nickel in there. It works, and since Ohio has 6% sales tax, it will come in very handy if I ever have to buy something that costs a dollar and I don't have any change on me.

[TROYLV]

ever have a bolt head or nut with rounded corners? try the next size metric socket/wrench if it is american. use american if its metric. this has saved me many times on rusted bolts and nuts.

[Jackal2k9]

removing/swapping carbs often? spray down the gasket with wd-40 before installing. It's wet so it softens and seal better but oily so it wont stick so bad and you get to save gaskets.

Changing jets in your holley often? Don't let the gas pour out everywhere. Pull one bottom bolt on the bowl first and drain it into a paint can lid.

Headers always leak? Coat a set of gaskets with hi temp red rtv and let them dry overnight. Install them and have no leaks almost ever.

Can't adjust that carb just right? Set the idle as low as you can get it. Hook up a vacuum guage on full vacuum (not distributor vac.). Adjust the mixture screws very slowly all the way in and all the way until you see the vacuum climb to its highest point. Adjust them both to highest vacuum then keeping that vacuum level in mind go for the smoothest, lowest idle mixture position. If idle picks up while vacuum is at peak, adjust fast idle back down to lowest point. If all the rest sounds too tricky, highest vacuum is usually optimum tune. You will have to turn your fast idle up afterwards to meet requirements for alternator, a/c, etc. (~800rpms)

[Shane]

Good Stuff Guys! Thanks for adding to the post.

Let's keep keep adding to it ... nothing like learning something new to make our time in the shop more fun.

[crazy longhorn]

For the backyard guys rebuilding turbo hydros, you dont need any special tools. an empty case is good for align/tork on the pump.....just assemble it loosely, & drop it upside down in the case. Then use feeler guages to "center" the 2 halves& tork to specs. Also rings cut out of margerine bowls make a nice tool for installing lip seals. Have fun, crazyL

[1969 GMC]

I always carry a big old poncho folded up under my seat. It's very useful, can go under truck & not get dirty, can wear if its raining out, also can be used as a bag, tarp, stretcher, etc. as needed.


Also, carry a spare key in your wallet. Trust me on this one. Not a tech tip but it can be useful.