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

For installing a heavy tire such as a racing tire or truck tire. Use a shovel under the tire to lift it into place and hold it while you start 1 or 2 wheel nuts. Just lift on the handle with the tip of the shovel on the floor.

 

I always grab up old broken/replaced speakers (car or house). Tear them apart and keep the magnets. Even when welding in a whole 1/4 panel, 2 or 3 5 lb magnets will hold it in place til you get it tacked. Will also hold tools, bolts, and even the pieces of brackets that you are about to weld together.

Some nice door panel upholstery can be made by cutting the material off of the verticle part of a rear seat in a late model car. Just find 2 with the same pattern/material/color. I made some REALLY nice 2 in pleated cloth door panels with the rear seat upholstery from a 95 Grand Am!!!

 

My Dad said, always check your oil each day before you drive the car. Simple, yes, but damn good advice. Miss my Dad, he was a great mechanic, to bad I didn't follow in his footsteps. ~sololobo~

 

The only shop advice anyone ever gave me that was worth a dam was this. If you want to drill a hole in a round shaft drill a hole in a wooden 2X4, stick the shaft in the hole, and drill thru the wood and into the steel. Everything else anyone told me was useless, everything I learned came out of books or figured it out on my own.

 

Shampoo makes a great rubber lube for installing windshield rubbers, tires, grommets etc. Get some at the dollar store for a $1 buck or 2. Don't use your wife's $45 a bottle stuff you will get in trouble.

 

put murphys oil soap on the rim where the bead of the tire goes before airing up the tire. helps seal tire and prevent small leaks around the rim

 

Not sure what the outside diameter of a piece of tubing or pipe is, slip an open end wrench over it that just fits and read the size. They will also work for a quick measurement on other items.

 

If you have a fuse that pops as soon as you turn that circuit on an easy made short finder is a sealed beam headlight. Make 2 leads coming from the headlight and plug them in where the fuse goes. The headlight will stay lit as long as there is a short, as the headlight now is the load. Start disconnecting things in the circuit, when your headlight goes out, you've found the area of the short.

 

Excellent tip!!

 

When you can't reach the backside of a panel,to thread onto a bolt. run your mig wire out a few inches and tack to the nut. then feed into the tight area, and thread the bolt into the tack welded nut.

 

I was admiring a cool 34 Ford Tudor at Kalamazoo years ago, and struck up a conversation with the owner. He gave me lots of tips for using junkyard parts rather than "catalog building", but the one that I have used over and over is VW beetle wipers in an early car. They worked on my 33 Chevy, and several cars after that. The assembly is small and fits tight to the cowl. At the junk yard I try to get the switch and the "blisters" where the splined shafts come through the sheet metal as well.

 

love the headlight tip

 

I've learned so many things from so many people. WOW. I wish that I could give them all credit. I think that the most important thing i've learned, and it was a tough lesson, is to be patient. Just saying.

 

Cash is king.

 

...but, in honor of this thread, and I don't know if it's already been posted, the one trick that I really dig, is one that I learned from my pops. He taught me how to weld a nut or bolt onto a busted bolt to extract it. I thought that was pretty neat.

 

Use a long plastic tie wrap as a fish to run wire. Works great, plus you don't have to worry about shorting a connection.

 

OK, as far as "non-catalogue shopping" goes, some people think I am the king of that. I know that not all of you have access to places like this, but here we have "recycling yards". I like to use the big ones that take industrial scrap, whole cars, as well as cans and small stuff. They will sell you the stuff you want out of there by the pound, for the scrap price.

As an example, on one recent trip, for my OT el camino, they drug a 78 Monte Carlo w/a 350 in that a guy had been financing by running a meth lab, til he was caught. I scored both sets of door panels, a brand new starter (still had the paper sticker on it), a 3 month old set of headers, a 3 month old Holley 600, several switches from the dash, a cherry set of inner fender panels w/overflow and ws washer tanks, a perfect set of door sills, and ALL the attaching hardware/bolts/nuts/clips. Because the starter is so heavy, I had to pay $10.95 for all of it.

Here's a tour of the one I go to. (all the pictures have captions)

http://s1028.photobucket.com/albums/y342/goofuslives/Recycling Center/


(btw, I ended up getting a pair of 01 Grand Am bucket seats for free, cause they don't charge for cloth things!)

 

Need to start a small screw in a tight place? Stick it thru a small strip of cardboard to hold it in place while you turn it. This works just as well for hammering small brads/nails too, unless you just like inflating your fingers.

 

when i was putting my 265 in my 50 shoebox using the speedway adapter to stock tranny, i drove the pilot bushing in flush with the flywheel, suppose to leave it sticking out 5/8 of an inch. Called my "can do anything" buddy "professor" Keck. he says no big deal , comes over , turns a bolt down to the ID of the bushing, packes it with grease, uses the bolt he turn down and drives it into the bushing. Hydralics the bushing right out.............amazing............

 

I just started a thread on the allmetalshaping .com site about tool and metal shaping type stuff but I have some HAMB related stuff also .One day my Brother-in law calls in desperation and says hes got 5 hrs into replacing front shocks on his GM rear drive whatever and needs my help .This isnt fair as I was a auto tech and had replaced countless of these . So I went to my tool box and took out the longest extention (30") with a 9/16 deep socket . Now if you push down so the socket stays on the nut and just push and pull back and forth rapidly it will break right off as this did . Wow talk about a dumb look .Anyway you are usally taking these off because they are shot so no harm .


Next one I shared on the other site and deals with Shearing metal on a sqaring shear . You mark the line you are going to shear and on each cut line you take a pair of tin snips either Rt. or Lft. that will leave a small cut that will leave a slight bend downward at the line . Now put it in the shear past the blade and pull it back to the blade where it will stop at the cut line . Works great when you have a sheet that is too long to be able to check your sight line visually .

 

here's one i wish i'd never been shown: i was sweating my ass off trying to score a pair of FE exhaust manifolds for my '63 Galaxie, trying like a sumbitch not to bust any studs OR the manifolds.... this guy walks over, says "heya boy lemme show you the way" and tightens the studs so the snap off.... WTF asshole? maybe i didn't want those heads TODAY but now they're either shit or fodder for a machine shop to remove those fucking studs.....

sometimes tricks and tips from old codgers are pure shit.....

 

see what I mean?

http://s1028.photobucket.com/albums/y342/goofuslives/door panel fix/

 

Can't get a manual transmission into the pilot bushing? you know that last 1/2 inch?

Have someone step on the clutch pedal while you push, works every time.

 

I was told many years ago to always to keep my hands clean.

 

I got banned for life from my local carwash for washing off engines...

 

I had an old tech show me how to use short peices of vacuum line stuffed between the plug wire and the distributor cap, start the engine, then you can use a test light to ground to short one cylinder at a time until you find the one that is missing. he called it the poor mans oscilliscope. Works great!

 

When I was a poor college student with my corvette I have now, yep, nearly 40 years ago, my rear spindle bearing started squealing...lots of $$$ to fix that. My mechanic, who is 85 now, said I know where the bearing is in the housing, I can drill and tap and then put grease into the bearing which is why it is going bad...I said okay, when he finished drilling the spindle housing, he said $5.00...I said without hesitation...okay here is $10.00...lets go ahead and do the other side...yep...40 years later...the original QUIET spindle bearings...last time I checked years ago...it was $800.00 per side to replace them.

 

I had one of them junk gears in my 84 c20 and I thought I threw a rod!

 

Welding tips
When you are welding on an easy job, horizonal, good light, practice using your left hand. Some day you may need that experience for a diffulcult job.
Also practice welding with a mirror for a blind spot.
Bruce

Works good
Lasts long time

 

After assembling engine find old, to be thrown away distributor and remove it's shaft. Place shaft into oil pump drive, and other end into drill. That way you get oil everywhere it should be, before starting the engine.

Use plastic inner "wire" from old automatic antenna and drive it through door frame, jamb or something. Then use it as a guide for cables you wanted to stick through that.

Replacing valve springs on an engine? Use old spark plug and weld quick disconnect type air supply fitting to it. That way you can plug your air compressor to work

Do not take your phone to garage.

When driving old car with an auto trans always have front part of spare drive shaft. In emergency you can remove drive shaft and stick that spare part into transmission to not lose oil and to tow your car safely home.

All the above are figured out by me

Also someone mentioned keeping all old parts until you end your work on something. That is very helpful.