The Tips and Tricks thread

[EldarO]

Cut and polish is the only thing i can find to remove permanent marker from knob jockeys grafitti on your car.
CRC/RP7 and Degreaser fade it somewhat but dont remove what has "soaked" in

on this note, never polish/cut and polish your car in direct sunlight.

also, if you do a fair bit of work, invest in a compressor + rattle gun, my lord does it make life easier!

Eldar.O.

[Ben Wilson]

A couple I thought of while I was doing them today:

1 - Wrap electrical tape around a 1/4" drive socket to make a small roll, it's great when you are working inside an engine bay.

2 - When trying to find a vacuum leak, block off the pipe to the air filter and feed compressed air (around 5psi) to an inlet hose, the vacuum leak should be pretty easy to find then.

[takai]

If you are after an even smaller roll, then you can use a glass/tubular fuse holder. That idea was shamelessly stolen from an autoelec who installed the cruise control on my AE92

[BradW]

If you are after an even smaller roll, then you can use a glass/tubular fuse holder. That idea was shamelessly stolen from an autoelec who installed the cruise control on my AE92

Or you could use the probe on your test light unless you have one of those little brass ones. Once you have enough tape rolled up just slide it off the test light and tape away. Another way is to roll the tape back onto itself so the sticky side faces out. You then just roll it around whatever you are taping up.

[Ben Wilson]

If you are after an even smaller roll, then you can use a glass/tubular fuse holder. That idea was shamelessly stolen from an autoelec who installed the cruise control on my AE92

Ah yes, but then you can't use the cool "power screwdriver with a socket on the end of it" tape installer - Yes, you do wind up using more tape, but it's amusing

[takai]

Ah true, and it does make it easier to wind on too.

[cri_ag]

when removing spark-plugs from hard to reach places ie. twincam toyota spark-plug valeys, and your plug socket's little bit of rubber inside that holds the plug in the socket has worn out,
get a ~25mm piece of vacume tube and push it over a medium - large philips head screwdriver leave about 10mm of tube not pushed on and with that you can push it over your sparkplug head and easily remove it, or reinstall with a much reduced risk of crossthreading.

[scrote]

adding small amount of metho to your petrol clears up any water deposits cos mixes with both petrol and water.

going over a permanent marker with a whiteboard marker helps to remove it

[Squid]

BMW Dot 4 Brake fluid looks remarkably like carlton cold. I reccomend looking for a different container to bleed your fluid into!

(Not I don't normally drink cold, but it was free!)

[lumpy]

Cut and polish is the only thing i can find to remove permanent marker from knob jockeys grafitti on your car.
CRC/RP7 and Degreaser fade it somewhat but dont remove what has "soaked" in

A lot of hardcore permanent markers use xylene as the carrier solvent. This may help remove the marker BUT Xylene will dissolve most acrylic lacquers, so don't try it on cars painted in acrylic (another good reason not to use acrylics - they are much more sensitive to solvents than 2-pack or enamels).

For the amatuer spray painters, after cleaning your gun with the recommended thinners, run some "brush and roller cleaner" (usually a mixture of methanol and dichloromethane) through the gun. This removes any paint deposits left and keeps the gun free from clogging/stuttering down the track. Just don't breathe the vapour!

[Steve-AE86]

who said anything about this only being about when you're working on the car?

if you act like a mechanic for a crust, subscribe to 'Zoom', 'HPI', 'Performance Build-ups', or the like, and you can use it as a tax write-off

"furtherment of knowledge of your industry" says my tax accountant

[mc68]

BMW Dot 4 Brake fluid looks remarkably like carlton cold. I reccomend looking for a different container to bleed your fluid into!

(Not I don't normally drink cold, but it was free!)

find a container that says "POISON" stamper on the side, always

[takai]

If you are using braided oil or fuel lines, basically any which arnt terminated with a solid connection, and you keep getting pricked by the sharp ends then just get some heatshrink and put it over the end. Make sure you have a bit of overlap on the end of the heatshrink. Itll look a lot neater in the end, and you wont have so many peforations on your hands.

*note again that this doesnt work for "hard terminated" lines such as banjo lines etc but rather push on fittings*

[jeffro ra28]

If you are using braided oil or fuel lines, basically any which arnt terminated with a solid connection, and you keep getting pricked by the sharp ends then just get some heatshrink and put it over the end. Make sure you have a bit of overlap on the end of the heatshrink. Itll look a lot neater in the end, and you wont have so many peforations on your hands.

*note again that this doesnt work for "hard terminated" lines such as banjo lines etc but rather push on fittings*

On this note, If your making the lines from scratch you wont need the heatshrink if your cutting the lines with a drop saw. Be sure to tightly wrap where it is to be cut with masking tape tho.

[takai]

No, that is true, a dropsaw does a good work of keeping it from fraying. Until you take it on and off a few times, after which you are back at square 1. Its even worse when you are using the Speedflow stuff which doesnt come in 6mm, but rather comes in 5.8mm, which frays the braid basically as soon as you get it over the locking ridges.
Even though i dropsaw my lines i still heatshrink them for the next few times i want to take them off.