Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

If your touching up stuff around your shop/garage AND have a refrigerator you're in luck!
Don't wash out those paint brushes when using latex paint........put'em in a plastic bag and pop'em in the frigidaire until next time.
Take'm back out and let'um get to room temp and your ready to paint again.
I hate cleaning brushes!!
6sally6

 

Calk Saver
Say that five times fast

 

Oil Filter removal . If you can a lick at the steel retaining ring the can is crimped on to , use a screwdriver or a chisel and hammer loosen the ring and it will spin off by hand . It sounds tough but give it a try you will be amazed . Some you can get to some God can not get to .

 

A thin coating of oil on the rubber gasket of a new oil filter before it is installed will make the filter removal much easier next time. If the old filter is that hard to remove, someone did not coat the rubber gasket before the filter was installed.

 

A timing light can work like an engine analyzer. Hooking it up on each plug wire can determine if all cylinders are firing. The flashing light should show a steady flash if all is okay. A double flash can mean a plug wire is getting a bleed over from another plug wire.

 

Finding TDC take a New Years noise maker the kind that rolls out with the feather on the end. Push it into the plug hole jog the motor so when you hear the Blattttt and see the feather your close jog by hand now to the tdc mark. This is kind of fun too especially if you have a kid watch the noise maker for you.


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Too cool



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From an old carny, those noise makers are called 'blowouts'.

Carry on

 

Thanks for that info! I thought "blowouts" were a nasty and unfortunate dietary situation...

 

Or the same as for working in a garden.


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I'll offer two things:
1. Several have mentioned safety precautions for bench grinders/wire brushes. I have a friend who got a serious eye injury from a wire brush, and it made me realize that even when the machine has just been turned off and is winding down, it can still throw a wire at ya. It's gotten so even with eye protection, I never stand with my face directly in line with the brush while using it, and if I'm walking by one rotating at all for any reason, I shield my face on that side with my hand. Made a habit of it.
2. A little off topic on the leaf blowers, but cordless or not, they can be used for blowing the lint out of a dryer vent. The air discharge diameter is pretty close to the vent connection in your house. You can seal it up well enough with duct tape to hold for a few minutes. Turn it on, go outside, and see all the crap that come out of the vent. You just dodged a potential housefire. I do this once a year.

 

GASKETS -
Years back, I bought a chinky $4 set of gasket punches to make my own paper gaskets - usually quicker than I can wash-up, lock-up, drive to the store. HUGE timesaver! If a new part comes with gaskets, I'll use them for a template to make a couple spares. Easy to pack along on a road trip too!

Pre-fit long cork gaskets, as used for a oil pan or push-rod or valve cover. Somtimes the bolt holes won't quite line-up if it's old, has shrunk. Soak it in the bathtub with warm water, about the same temp as you would shower with for a 1/2 hour - it will come back to size. On oil pan rail gaskets, NOTE how the tabs fit into the recess on the rear main cap, where it meets the rubber seal - I've had to trim in this spot on a 235 Chevy... could be others. Don't forget a generous dab of sealer in this spot, after gluing down the cork pan rail gaskets, before installing the rubber seals - I like Permatex #2 here. On my last 235, I checked the pan to the block for trueness, using a flap from a oil filter box as a no/go gauge - about .020" thick to locate the high spots, tap them down. Best 40 minutes I spent with a hammer and a scrap of strap iron, as the rails got bent some during removal, but no leaks!

I LIKE brush-on Permatex sealer - cork gasket to block, both surfaces for oil pans, cork gasket to tin for valve and other covers, light grease on oppsite side. Glue gasket to part ( water pumps, fuel pumps, etc ) Easy to clean up what squeezes out, easy part removal and cleaning years down the road!

Cheap SILVER ALUMINUM spray paint works as good on copper head gaskets as the fancy $10 stuff, and will get used more often! I avoid copper-jacket head gaskets whenever I can - thicker than composition gaskets, decreases comression, and EXPENSIVE!

I got snake-bit once on a composition head gasket - oil leak, 10 minutes after adding oil through the valve cover, before firing the engine, 235 build. Didn't seal around a push-rod opening! Off came the head, added a thin coating of #2 around ALL the openings oil or water could pass through, both sides of the gasket. It worked. Now, I do this on EVERY composition head gasket I install for GP!

I've reused exhaust manifold gaskets with a liberal coating of Hi-Temp silicon sealer on both sides - just to see if it would work... IT DID!

 

Always put parts and tools completely on the work bench. Anything left hanging a fraction off the edge will hit the floor the second you walk away.

 

Here's another use for my left over led lights. I zip tied one to a fairly long wood strip for an under vehicle work light. Works far better than it looks. I'm in the process of working on the interior and have one zip tied to the top as a work light also, works great.

 

A while back I discovered AN washers, they are easy to find on line, not so much at the local hardware store. They have a smaller ID than most standard washers and a much smaller OD. They are great for intakes because they fit the tight curves nicely. I use ‘em all over on engines now.

 

I discovered AN washers many years ago for my race cars. I use them everywhere on my hot rods, unless it's in sheet metal. Then it's fender washers. I very seldom use a standard washer. The AN washers make a much neater job.

 

Agree on the AN washers, way neater for many applications. I really like the LED light tie-wrapped to a chunk of wood idea, it's real good illumination under a vehicle right here you need it and if it gets busted it 's not gonna blow up like the old light bulb in a trouble light. I'd probably attach it to a bit wider piece of wood, just for more "slide around " stability. Good thread, great ideas throughout.

 

Ditto on the AN washers. Same with these rubber bonded washers. Come galvanized, aluminum, stainless. Work great if your using flat washers do hold something from sliding. I used these on my windshield slides on my Mod A to help hold the adjustment. Works great


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I've done something similar but with the cheap 12v led tape lights. A long wire and alligator clips to hook up to the battery. Got one long one taped to a board similar as yours, but also got 1 that is only 3 leds long (minimum cut length) and glued to a small strip magnet. It's great for working under the dash - simply stick it a piece of metal and fish the wire so it's out of the way. A lot better that a bulky trouble light (and it's does burn ya if you touch it!!!!)

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While we are on the topic of lights....In the days before I had heat in my garage I would use a couple of halogen lamps to knock the chill off my work area, especially tools. I have even used them to allow me to spray bomb parts that would otherwise need to wait til Spring, 15 minutes under the halogen lamps, shoot some color and 15 min later take them inside somewhere to cure.

 

Wanted to double check my timing tab marks today. Knock the center out of a spark plug, cut the finger off a neoprene glove. Also tells you if you're 180 off, won't inflate on the overlap.

 

Yeh, AN washers aren't found at most big box stores but that doesn't stop me from asking the new guy anyway, always get that "Bambi in the headlights" look.

 

A trick I used to do back in the day with incandescent light bulbs, was to place a bearing, I was going to install, on one. Leave it there for 10/15 minutes, it will be the perfect temperature for expansion to make it easier to drive on ! Worked for me!







Bones

 

Here is my fly-by-night method of patterning weird patch panels. This is the trunk of my Hudson. I got a roll of white craft paper, and laid a hunk of it into the area I am going to need to reproduce. Then I used my dirty fingers to make a rubbing of the area that will need to be made. That gets all my dimensioning done in one fell swoop.

Mox




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I'd imagine you could get a carpenters pencil and get graphite from that to make things pop more

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Needed to locate and drill a blind drip rail hole yesterday. Put some clay on the body, pushed the already drilled rail in position, voila. Many ways to do this but it worked.

 

^ Good tip!
I needed to mount something under the dash edge on my truck. Due to not having enough room and being at an odd angle, wasn't able to clamp it into position to locate the mounting holes. I used one of these paint pens to dab some paint on the end of the mounting bolts, inserted them into the bracket I was mounting and marked the locations of the holes I needed to drill....worked like a champ! This particular paint pen isn't a liquid, it's more like a paste that is easy to glob onto the end of the bolt/s for transferring the marks.

 

So in California at least, we have these 'environmentally approved' gas jugs with little 4 inch long spouts. There is no vent hole, you have to either hold a lever or press the spout in to pour fuel, the replacement air goes back up the spout. Takes about 3 hours to pour in 5 gallons.

I try to be as environmentally friendly as I can but these things are terrible, I spill much more fuel trying to get it in my old cars, tractors and other implements than before they came along.

Last month, looking for something in my hose bin, I came across an old flex hose, probably from a vacuum cleaner. Perfect fit, JB welded to my gas and diesel jugs, drilled and tapped a vent hole, voila. Fill them up right through the hose. Won't fit in new cars with the small openings of course.

 

I had one of those. The spring loaded, push down on it kind. It did, indeed, suck. Spilled more than it poured. Locally, Menards has the solution. CA Menards may not, but Amazon does.

https://www.amazon.com/EZ-Pour-Gas-Can-Replacement-Spout/dp/B06WRRXG1X

Mine has been retrofitted. As a bonus, I had another can with a broken spout, so that one got fixed and returned to service too.




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Ahhhh, the Al Gore gas can.