Maybe shouldn't be chatting about this but something happened the other day that sums up me and my best mate a treat................ So you don't have the right tools to do something. Beg, borrow etc from friends but when your all broke and far from the pros with a garage full of everything , no expensive tools, what do you do? I wanted a new longer shifter so go to the local metal scrappy and see whats kicking around. Luckily i ended up with what i wanted for the price of a cheap coffee. Very happy with my bit of cheap metal i went home, measured up length , bends etc, made a pattern and the shifter starts to look like a possibilty, start to get excited. One problem though, how will i bend it? I don't have a decent vice(yes i know, cheap), no heat so what happens? Sitting on the kerb, getting some fresh air, pissed that i can't do what i want, i spied a drain, mmm maybe thats the vice i dont have. So a quick call to my best mate, explain my idea and drive over as i know he has 6 foot of scaffolding pole. Like a pair of idiots we find the nearest drain, insert said steel rod, grab my pattern, slide pole over rod and hang off it until you have the correct bend. Curtains twitching, once done, we run off like a pair of 13 years olds. Get back , crack a beer open and laugh about how cheap we are, how well it's turned out and wonder what other cheapskates do to get a job done. So cheapskates, home builders, non-pro shops what the worst/best you've done to get a job done when you don't have the tools and equipment? We're still laughing at the folks that walked past and thought we were stealing drains for scrap and the curtains twitching whilst we stood there killing ourseleves laughing and hardly able to stand , let alone finish the job. Please don't tell me we are alone in this type of thing, i don't believe it more a minute. Dan
I used a garden spade, a piece of tube and the back doorstep as a bead breaker. Until I broke Dad's back door step. Whoops. Mart. PS Hi Dan.
Drive another car over tire to break beads, lol, ether and a bic to reseat them.... made my own press brake from heavy angle iron, and bigass piano hinge. -rick
made a transmission tunnel 1/2 a '73 Chevy PU hood, pry bar and a car ran car onto hood, bend as needed, repeat....
Give me a lever and a strong place to stand and I'll move the world. When I was done quoting Archimedes, I used the search function... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=235784&highlight=homemade+tools http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=185116&highlight=homemade+tools
Oh crap.............US site, whole world around us Mart turns up, all of 3 km away from me and knows exactly what and who i'm on about. FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mart hope alls good, see you at HRD's if your going. Felt cheap before, feel cheaper now, sorry Mart, oh the shame
"all I need to build a car is a rock and a pointy stick." I like it... If your rock is good enough you can can even start with a blunt stick and sharpen it! Rarely had the "right" tool. - Fake it, make it or break it. That's what torches, hammers and welders are for . I expect most of us have "re-purposed" something. I have so many stories I don't know where to start.
I used a huge turnbuckle for a tower guild cable as a spring stretcher for the rear spring on a 40 Ford. My buddy dropped it off one day. I said what will I ever use that for? then a few weeks later we couldn't get the shackles to hook up.... I still have it but I haven't needed it since.
One of the branches on the sugar maple in front of my parents' house made a fine engine hoist for many years.
Not a tool but... Computer cases (metal ones, obviously) are great for patch panels. Most are heavier than 20 gauge. Full tower / server computers are usually bigger. This is ROUGH.. VERY rough. It's a starting point. But notice the piece of paper stuck to the inside. It's the main-board (motherboard) specs from the computer. Recycle is another word for cheap.
Yesterday, I broke of a drill bit in a rusted bolt, another rusted bolt an easy out snapped in it. After some hours trying to drill them out, I took a hammer and punch and went at it. So now there out, and I am happy. Going to weld some nuts to the inside of the door and its fixed. So there is almost nothing a hammer wont do. That is usually my choice tool. When putting together my front end, I couldnt get the springs in because of the spreader and no engine. So I loaded a bunch of 45lb plates on the frame and got me low enough to get the bolt in. So it pays to be a powerlifter with allot of extra weight laying around
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