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

Seems like a waste of bacon grease.

 

Really simple - words of wisdom from my dad.
when you take a wheel off a car, slide it under the frame - even if it is on jackstands. Can't hurt but can save your life.

 

The most basic one I use every time with a threaded fastener....spin it backwards slowly til you feel it drop a bit and your threads will be perfectly aligned, then spin it forward. Always turn it backwards first and you won't have stripped threads.

 

I hate seeing guys fumble with distributors on modern engines to adjust timing when starting a fresh engine.

100% guaranteed way to start that fresh engine on the first twist of the key:

1) make sure the #1 cylinder is on the compression stroke. Either put a finger over the spark plug hole while rotating the engine by hand, or watch the rocker arms. When the intake rocker goes down you're sucking in air, then the rocker closes and you're comin back up on the compression stroke.

2) as the piston is coming up to TDC on the compression stroke STOP rotating the engine when the timing marks line up to the timing you want to run. On my small block Fords 10 degreees works great.

3) put a sparkplug in the end of the #1 sparkplug wire and ground the plug to the engine.

4) now you can drop your distributor in place with the rotor pointing to #1 terminal. keep in mind the rotor will spin just a bit as it drops into place.

5) get some power to the coil, either with the key on or with a jumper wire from the (+) terminal of the battery.

6) slowly rotate the distributor back and forth til you see a spark, then tighten down the distributor at the point where the spark occurs.

The timing should be 99% dead-on, and if you've filled the carb bowl(s) with fuel it should only take a couple pumps or small squirts of gas to get the engine to fire.

 

Never leave the shop for at least an hour after cutting with a torch or doing any welding.

 

EASTWOODS sells a heat sink putty

 

My Uncle HamBone Lived next door to us, was always working on old cars in the 60's and 70's from the 40's and 50's and got me involved tinkering with cars. He knew where every tool was in his garage. I was working on my car and had only a few small hand tools, and the ones I did have were not in the best condition so when I needed a tool I would go ask to borrow the tool and he always said okay. One time I didn't return the tool when finished,so when he needed it and it wasn't there he wasn't very happy. Next time I needed a tool and went to borrow it I told him i would return it when finished and treat it like my own. He stopped me right then and told me not to treat like it was mine that these tools was his damn tools. I learned a good lesson that day and from then on respected others people and my own tools. This is only one of the many tips he taught me. I now have tools that Iv'e owned for 30 plus years.

Thanks, Ross Gould

Build it
Race it
Wear it out
Repete

 

This is one I need to follow! thanks

 

This is exactly how my dad showed me more than 45 years ago. It will start right away, no screwing with the distributor and timing it by ear. When you get the cam broken in and put a light on it it will usually be dead nuts on the correct timing or (in my experience), never more than one degree out.

 

MAKE SURE TO SPIN THE DRILL BIT WITH YOUR FINGERS NOT A POWER DRILL!!!!!! I saw the results at work when an apprentice was given this advice and not told to spin the bit MANUALLY

 

when installing a fuel pump on a small block chevy smear axle grease on the pump rod and insert in the block. this will keep the rod from dropping out while you install the pump. the grease will disolve in the oil

 

Yep this is the hot damn sure fire method never fails no guessing.

 

I remember watching Boyd Coddington's crew trying to start one of their projects and just laughing out loud...even my wife knew they were screwing it up

 

when using gasket punches, set your material on the end of a block of wood, not the side. the end grain is softer and will allow the punch to cut through the gasket nicely and you won't damage the cutting edge of the punch.

if you need to fill a hole from an emblem or trim, an easy way is to insert a nail in the hole from the back side, it mostly fills the hole with metal, then just weld it and grind.

and for those of us that need to shovel snow... stick your metal shovel in the woodstove door for a minute to warm it up, then melt some old candles on it. the snow just slides right off.

and to quote an old timer I knew... "that'll come in handy, whenever ya use it!"

 

Put a condom in the spark plug hole and fill it up with air to hold the valves up. Balloons work too, but you need the thick ones so they don't pop. Plus you always look cooler buying condoms rather than balloons.

 

Tight is tight and too tight is broken.

 

If you need to borrow the same tool twice it's time to buy one. The best tip ever though is to keep all your tools clean and organized. And nothing is so easy that it can't be done wrong, so pay attention to what you're doing and what you've done.

 

Back to the sharply cut wire ties. Grab the wire tie with linesman's pliers even with where it passes through the locking end. It will twist off below the end of the lock.

Whenever someone smashes a finger at work it is always suggested to go home and
soak it in cider.

 

cures many ills.

 

I thought it was soak yourself with hard cider?

 

we know the copper or brass backer trick for filling holes and we all remove paint before welding but, don't forget to run a drill bit into the hole to get any rust or paint off the inside edge. makes for a cleaner weld.

 

Adjusting sagging car doors to fit better, wihtout doing damage, using a 2X4.

Thanks Henry Bond.

 

And how to use pop rivets very effectively with stop signs. Thanks Big Willy McNabb.RIP

 

i've seen a Ford repair manual from way back (30's or 40's) that illustrates how to do this. seems quirky, but it works.

 

Lil' fire and candle wax!!!!

Mark

 

I seem to always find Phillips heads screws that will not come out. If I can get to the sides of the head I attach vise grips to it, usually the head is hidden on the sides though. I use a center punch and small hammer. Position the center punch on the side of the head and tap in a counter-clockwise direction. This usually will loosen it so I can use a regular Phillips head screwdriver to get it out the rest of the way. I usually find these stubborn screws on the switch housings and float bowls of motorcycles.

 

another one for phillips head screws , dip the screwdriver in valve grinding paste to give it some grip

for allen /hex socket bolt heads that are starting to round , take a dot punch and and hit it on each side of the hex , with some luck it will close it up enough to make the tool hold

 

Old rubber parts are like new when they are washed with old Jean clothes in the washing machine at 60 degrees. Cracks go away like this, of course not.

 

It already sort of came up, but to do the final block sanding you take TWO paint sticks, tape them together, then wrap a whole sheet of wet-or-dry sandpaper around it.
It's a lot easier to hold onto than one stick, but the two flex just enough to follow gradual body curves.
My dad was a bit of a hack but his cars were always straight as an arrow when he painted them, no matter how much bondo he put in them. This is how he did it. Personally I laugh at the schmancy tools Eastwood sells to accomplish the same thing. Maybe for a full-time body shop they're worth it, but for someone who paints a car once every couple years the "two sticks and a bit of tape" block works fantastic!

 

If like me you only have the weekends to work on the car and things seem to be progressing very slowly, take photo's at the end of each session.
This way you'll notice the progress as you look back through your older photo's.

If you come across a problem with the project, take a photo and set it as your desktop picture on your pc. This way you'll be reminded about it every day until the next 'garage day' and you'll have more time to solve the problem and might even come up with a better solution than you originally thought of.