Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

I use a '70s under seat, "seat belt" buzzer as my tester...
I can look at the contacts in question and not have to look away to see the test light... just listen...
my 3rd one, the other 2 were so handy that "buddies" had to borrow it, with time I forget who I lent it to and it used to be so easy to find they felt I would just make another... gone !

 

Had a buddy who had a big grease board on his garage wall and he wrote the name, date and what people borrowed from him.

 

"5 minute build" shelf brackets from scrap 2 x 4's. Sturdy as hell and cheap! You can make a set of 3 or 4 in 10 minutes or so. A 18 ga Brad nailer or crown stapler, drywall screws and some titebond. Pre-drill screw holes to keep from splitting the wood. Good to go! I stained these to add character.

 

Totally Awesome...a $1.00 in the trigger sprayer at the Family Dollar. It will turn your whitewalls white again and your black walls black without giving them that goofy Armor All, ugly Tire Black sheen
The trigger bottle is worth a buck and cleans a lot of other things too...

 

If your welding in your garage don't store tires in the same space, it degradates the rubber.

 

When chopping a model A, slide a long piece of the right size brake line with one end cut off down through both halves of all 3 hinges instead of the pins...
It helps align the hinges / posts for rewelding...
.
this one is not my idea,
but a buddy uses broken, welded or bent running board brackets mounting them upside down as shelving brackets in his garage...

 

My tip,
Don't adjust them running..Don't use any foil.

 

I use model A bumper to body braces on '30-'31 closed car firewalls,
as front body to frame mounts...
drill out the rivet and 1 brace makes 2 mounts...
.hard to see but they are welded to the lower front of the firewall and bolt to the frame...

 

try to keep your space clean and orginized. things go better when you have room to work and clean space to do it.

 

Old refrigerators make good dry places to store welding rods and wire. Doesn’t have to be a large full sized one, you can use an apartment sized one if you are short on room.

 

Cheap pans either aluminum or plastic from Dollar tree work great to lay a carb part that is too big to go in the gallon can of carb cleaner and the little basket. find one just big enough and deep enough to put the part in set the part in and pour the carb cleaner in the pan. Lift the part out with pliers and rinse off and pour the cleaner back in the can.

Make use of the O'Reilly's and Autozone tool loan programs for those odd tools you only use once in a several year time frame.
Keep a binder going on each project you have with note pages and page savers. Write down the parts you bought for the project when you put them away so you don't have a brain fart and buy them again when you see them on sale.

The heavier file cabinets with 4 or 5 drawers that you find at the Habit store on a regular basis make great parts storage cabinets for projects. They also work great for storing and organizing tools that come in their own cases that don't fit in the tool box like tap an die sets and the larger tube bender sets. Usually around 20 bucks for the good ones.

Every time my decides her stainless baking tray with the 1/2 lip on it is getting too stained up to use I snag the old one when she buys a new one. Same with the HD muffin tin she thew out with a dozen or so cubbies in it. The trays are great to have under a carb on the bench when you take them apart or put them together as the little pieces don't roll off and the mess is a lot easier to clean up when you have the carb apart and in the cleaner.

 

Just don’t leave an open pan of it with parts soaking in the garage, everything else around it will rust.





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When adding model A splash aprons and running boards I use about 6" long bolts dropped through the mounting bolt holes, lets you lift the body and not lose mounting block alignment, then replace them with the correct bolts when all is in the right spot...
This also worked great when aligning the wooden mounting blocks while I was mounting a fenderless coupe body on an A frame...
this could help line up about anything ...

 

You got that right!!!!

 

My simple trick that took me 40 years of working on cars to figure out . Clean up at the end of the day, put away all the tools and vacuum the floor( better than sweeping it) I used to wait to clean up until the job was done, it could be weeks or months before I cleaned up. what a mess I can’t work like that now.

 

Open your tool boxes and take pictures of all of your tools, the boxes and all the stuff hanging on the walls & ceilings. I learned that the hard way after my garage got robbed. You think you will remember what you have but it will be 5 years down the road and you'll be looking for a tool and ....Crap forgot about it ! It makes dealing with your insurance company a lot easier too

 

I super glue washers to nuts to get them into hard to reach places

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Lots of great tips here. Thanks. Snowman

 

That’s what the back yard is for!

 

When I built my garage and had the electrical inspector out he indicated he needed to go, I said I would open the house for him but he said no, he would just go out back. He was over 90, guess he did not want to walk 100 feet to the house. He also did not inspect the upstairs as he did not want to climb the stairs. He died about 6 months later.

 

Cleaned the paint on this old Chevy with Softscrub from the wife's kitchen.

 

glue screws to a screwdriver tip in awkward places. can't get a nut on a bolt in a tight place, glue the nut to your finger tip and screw the bolt into the nut or tack weld a piece of metal or wire to the nut. I always use nylock nuts on fenders etc, neverseize all bolts under the car. Don't have a lock nut put a dab of RTV on the threads after tightening. they won't loosen but can be removed.

 

LOL...I do the same thing with a Styrofoam cup

 

It’s a man’s God given right to piss outside!


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The world is my urinal (as long as my wife doesn't see me)
One of the benefits to living in the country when you're old.

 

Just in case of emergency, I painted a square area on my garage wall where I hang my fire extinguisher Hunter Orange so that even if a stranger unfamiliar with where I keep it can quickly grab an extinguisher by seeing the brightly neon orange area marked "Fire extinguisher".

 

When you can't reach the far end of the nut or bolt, saw a screwdriver slot into the end of the bolt, with thin masking tape a piece of wire onto the end of the slotted bolt... gently feed the wire through, careful when you get to the bolt, feed it through the hole, jam it with a flat screwdriver.... carefully peel off the tape, slide on the flat and lock washers, start the nut, run it in as far as you can, use the screwdriver to hold the bolt and tighten the nut...

 

Wait.....OA REMOVES rust from from rusty parts but makes non-rusty parts rusty??!!!

WTF? I followed the link and was impressed with how the bicycles looked less the rust but with the original paint and decals. I just don't see how it can do that but make something else rusty?

 

I don't know where that came from. I've done it in the garage and left it out when I was done in case I wanted to do some more parts. Never had a problem with rust in adjoining items. The gentlemen on the Collectors Antique Bicycle Exchange (CABE) use this process all the time and no one has ever mentioned to be cautious concerning rust on surrounding items. It's an organic item found in food, spinach, rhubarb etc. bee keepers use it and it's also found in honey. Another collectors forum, such as collectible cans and such are quite familiar with it and have never read about that caution. Maybe the poster can expound on it.

 

My tip to add: Prior to wiring under the dash, paint it all white under there so when you ever have to work on the wiring as soon as you turn on a light to see what your doing everything is well lit and easy to work on, has worked out well for me.