Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

When wrenching on chrome or painted nuts, bolts or screws, use a small piece of vinyl between it and the wrench or driver tip, to keep from marring the surface. Use that thin clear vinyl from store packaging (bed sheets,curtains, etc.).

Save the stuffing paper, that your box of parts is packed with to keep things from moving around during shipment. Un-crumple it, smooth it out, fold it up and stash it. I keep mine under a corner of some carpet in my shop to keep it flat. Use it for masking overspray and setting up a clean area on the work bench for rebuilding carbs or anything that needs a clean space.

Used dryer sheets make good filters for stuff you want to strain into or out of a container. By folding the sheet or by using more that one, you can regulate how fine or course you want the filter to be. A new sheet stashed under the seat will make your heap smell nice.

Keep glue and sealants in the shop fridge to keep them usable for a much longer period than if stored on the shelf. Put them inside zip lock bags to keep them from stinking up the brewskies.

Save your plastic jars and use them to store nuts, bolts and smaller stuff. Sort and arrange them by size so their easy to see what's in them. When you need something, dump the jar onto a shop rag to sort through and get what you need. When done, use the rag to funnel the goodies back into the jar.

 

When you cut the bottom out of an A gastank leave about 1" plus a $0.25 piece size tab every 8" front and back...
drill a 1/4" hole through the tabs...
later you can suspend the wiring harness, radio or heater with they and a few wire ties...
sorry can't find the pix...

 

duct tape the battery powered LED "light" that you would wear like a headband "up side down" onto the chin of your self darkening welding helmet...
the extra light is great, it also helps stop rewelding because of the weld's shadow from your drop light not lining up...

 

When I was young and dumb I used to drink at a local bar that had stamped metal ashtrays. The thing was his dog liked to bite thru them. Whenever a drunk would get a little too loud, he would pick up an ashtray and ask if he should let the dog in. Rarely did he have to open the back door for the dog. I once had a cop ask me why they never had to respond to that bar, I told him the dog ate the evidence.

 

My wife works in a nursing home, she always comes home with a pocket full of latex gloves. One of her favorite toys is the magnet on a stick. Just a couple of weeks ago I had the idea to stick a glove on the magnet, as you can imagine, it worked very well. That’s just my little add on to your great suggestion.

 

I like to use Stax plastic potato chip cans to store hardware and parts in. I have about a 15 year collection of them, the lid can be written on with a Sharpie and you.can stand them up in a box or milk crate nicely. Very handy for restorations, especially if you like to seperate things out as much as I do. Need the door latch hardware? Grab the can. Need the window regulator hardware? Grab that can. Hinge to cowl bolts? Grab that can. Much simpler than some container labeled "doors".

 

Here's a tip. I put one of these rubber chair leg bumpers on the handle of my floor jack in case the handle should fall down and scratch a nearby car. I had to scratch my car first before I thought of it.

 

I have used it successfully many times. I have it setup outside, so cant/don't use it in the winter time. Large plastic tub, standard battery charger, WASHING SODA and time...

 

A couple things I have found is to get the sacrificial anode as close to the piece being de-rusted without touch it. Also, make sure the part is fully suspended with nothing touching it or it touching the sides of the container.

 

Cheap 1" paint brushes. Great for cleaning cracks and crevasses. You can cut the bristles for whatever stiffness you need.

 

Yup, I have a dedicated Rubbermaid container, on a plywood skid with castors. The anode is set up as a cage around the outside of the tub. Works like a damn. I'll often leave something large, and/or really rusty a couple of days or more. Shutting it off occasionally for a bit to avoid killing the battery charger.

 

Good idea.
My rubbish bin sits under my drill press, so all filings fall straight into it. - never have to sweep up a mess !

 

and old toothbrushes...

 

Used dryer sheets make good filters

so do coffee filters and old nylons

 

When reconditioning old leather seats, use the Lexol that you buy at the tack shop, not the licensed crap that you buy at the auto parts store.

 

Copper sheetmetal, copper nail and a broom stick handle. Backing for sheetmetal welding.

 

Car Show trick: if you run out of tire dressing, Ivory liquid kitchen soap will do the same thing....until you hit a puddle..

 

Great thread.
I use an old drywall mud bucket to store my electrical cords.. Cut a hole in the bottom and feed the plug end out with enough cord to reach your receptacle. I can get up to 200 feet of cord in a standard sized bucket. It will hang from a hook in the rafter if you want to keep it off the floor. Even my wife can't tangle the cord.

 

Oxalic acid is really good at removing rust, totally organic, present in Rhubarb , mainly in the leaves which you don't eat because of this. A really old trick was to shred rhubarb leaves into a container add boiling water and the component that needed de-rusting and leave overnight, then rinse off, I used this method to salvage many old tools over the years.

 

I don't buy the police advice to use lights. Back in the 70s I talked to a guy who said he drove around looking for things to steal. If the place was dark at night he kept going. Said he didn't want trip over something in the dark and break a leg. He only stole from places that were well lit.

 

Here’s some more trash can tech. Hang your dust pan from your can. I used a welding rod, 7018 I believe

 

When I was building my new carport, I was having trouble with carpenter bees boring into the western red cedar on the house. I took a couple of flesh colored plastic bags, filled them with paper and other bags, and hung them off the edge of the house. In about three days, no more bees or wasps. Apparently they think the bags are hornet nests and won’t come around anymore because supposedly hornets eat them. I can’t claim credit for this idea as I stole it off of Facebook. It worked for me even though I was skeptical of it. Haven’t seen any hornets trying to make a home in them, either, guess they don’t like the plastic either!

 

When painting hubs you can mask off the wheel studs with cut off fingers from an old pair of latex gloves. Brand New, just learnt that today on an 8 lug 3/4 ton pickup

 

If you like the narrowed '37 truck grill look, buy a roll of 5/16" or 3/8" steel brake line, it is already bowed, easier to make match the grill's bow... I chop and narrow the grill about 3" and leave the top and bottom few teeth there as they are harder to fit... take the b/l pieces and roll them over a tire the right diameter to get a starting bow... they will bow more in the center and flatten as they approach the top and bottom … tack in a center strip to keep the bow right...
should work on about any horizontal tooth grill.... maybe even a vertical tooth grill ?

 

Another one is using a Chore Boy for taking surface rust off of metal. The pad is bronze wool instead of steel and doesn't damage the surface. I use them on cars, chrome steelies, and even guns( it doesn't take the bluing off).

 

I use scrap copper pipe, flatten with a BFH and bend/shape for whatever task I'm working on. I've got a bunch of sizes and shape profiles.

 

Last, but not least, tire siping. When I was a teenager in Omaha, we had an old guy up in north Omaha that used to sipe tires for better performance. He also put white walls on black wall tires and even did some red lines for my split window. https://www.lesschwab.com/article/performance-tire-siping.html

 

A new sharp and clean flat razor blade, Spray Way window cleaner and A light touch will clean almost anything off without damaging the surface. Use plenty of the cleaner as a lubricant and don’t get into a hurry.


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If you get a sore neck while laying on the floor under your vehicle you can fill a 2 litre plastic pop bootle
with warm or cool water (depending on the season) to support your neck, works for me.

 

Be nice to your Neighbors and they will often ignore that painting, grinding or open header blast you do on occasion. I live in the country with pretty tolerant people around but still try to be courteous and help them when I can.


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