Whats the best "trick" or tech tip a mentor showed you?

If removing a nice gapped Hood, trunk, door on good hinges; Drill pilot hole & set screw into a spot from hinge to part. Then, when replacing, someone guides screws into the pilot holes before final hinge bolts attached, & alignment should be very close to pre-removal.


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Works for me. Used this mixture a lot.

 

Maybe not a good idea on a nice hot rod, but when I was on the line and I had to remove the hood, I would take my scribe and outline the hinge on the hood. Then when I put it back, just put the hood back inside the lines. Saved time and on the line time was money!








Bones

 

Don"t talk about my ex G.F.like that!!!....Oh wait she was hefty lefty ,tiny righty,....and a little off balance.....her name was Eileen.

 

hahaahahah like politicians!

 

Hello,

My brother had his own way to do things. But, for the sake of a hot rod build, we bought a nice big chrome Sun Tachometer for our 1940 Willys Coupe build. Our friend had one on his hot rod coupe dash and most everyone we knew that raced, had one on the dash or column. So, it was told to us that the tach was good thing to have.

A nice big shiny chrome Sun Tachometer was now sitting on the dash of the Willys Coupe. What for? was my brother’s question. He said it was nice to know how many rpms the SBC motor was turning while we drove around or was idling in the backyard. But, it served no actual purpose other than what others were telling us, that it shows shift points for the SBC motor set up.

It did show where the rpms were for the shifts, but as we found out, who has time to look at the tach if you are concentrating on getting a quick start and looking down the street or dragstrip? At night, it lights up and in the darkened cab, makes itself known. But, when the action gets to a point starting, there are so many things one has to remember. The key was to sharpen the hearing of the motor as it winds out to a peak level. The shift, then look ahead at what is going around the coupe/sedan.

There were two camps coming out of Reath Automotive. One was “watch the tach for shift points and since they are preset, it should be at peak performance.” The other camp was, “LISTEN for the motor revving up to that peak moment and then shift.” It takes practice as part of the whole “get ready to race” list and now that was my brother’s goal. We both practiced those listening skills for the peak and never once blew anything up during our practice runs. It was a learned thing and made us concentrate on getting faster starts with the lights and or the arm drop.

Jnaki

When I got the 58 Impala, the same situation was in place. My brother did not want to drill holes in the red dash to mount any tachometer. He never had a tach, the whole time he raced the Impala. He got very good at listening for the peak, before shifting.

When the Impala was now my car, at the insistence of my friends with their shiny tachometers on their dashboards, I found a small black tach that would fit nicely under the lip of the dash, over to the right side of the speedometer. It covered the 120 mph mark, but at the drags, the 120 needle was pegged at the start and was useless.
Green arrow placement, out of normal driving front road vision.

The small tach had a nice built-in light and was a nice looking additional accessory. When I got the C&O Stick Hydro installed, the tach was virtually useless when the power came on in drive. Getting the good quick start was the main thing as I knew the modified motor would hold up to 95% of the other hot rods.

So, anxiety and clear thoughts of winning in a straight line was the only thing necessary. In the time of the 58 Impala ownership, the tach was not used other than as a custom accessory. It was a one-of-a-kind small tach for our cruising show, without holes in/on the dash. YRMV

Thanks to my older and sometimes wiser, brother… My drag racing sense improved, I got better at getting good starts, shifting and keeping a straight line with plenty of traction and no tire slippages. When the C&O Stick Hydro came into play, it was all there, just step on the gas with lightning speed for super fast off the starting line motion. The saying "Keep you eyes on the prize" comes in very handy in that time period of excitement. The tach? What tach?

 

When I was ten or so and was putting my first engine on my bicycle my father suggested
getting a nut welded on the engine plate to move the engine ahead to tension the belt/chain.
Sound advice and hey we all started somewhere.