Recently when channeling my Ford Model A I wanted to use Grade 8 fasteners for all of the body mounts instead of just tapping threads into the frame or inserting rivnuts that could fail over time. First of all the 1/4″ wall of the tubing wasn’t really thick enough to […]
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Protect the Underside of your Off-Road Vehicle- The Coatings you need.
Keeping the underside of your car protected is more important than you may think; even on your daily driver. Most “rotted out” vehicles you see started rusting in the underbelly of the car or truck. These are the areas that weren’t protected properly from the factory or had a poor coating that broke down from year-round driving. On 4×4 and Off-Road vehicles the risk of road salt isn’t as bad as the damage caused by driving over “stuff” (that’s the fun of it right?). Your factory coatings aren’t going to hold up to the rock chips, brush, etc dragging under your vehicle. The truth is, no coating can withstand some of the extreme conditions seen when rock crawling or off-roading. Think about it, if it damages the metal, NO coating is going to be able to withstand that sort of impact. But there are some coatings, or combinations of coatings that can hold up better than others. I put together a list of a few of my favorites below.
How Much Paint Do You Need to Paint a Car?
There is no way to know exactly how much paint you need to paint every car, but there are basic guidelines. Of course the bigger the car, truck or van is the more paint you will need, and if you are spraying a basecoat/clearcoat you will need both components. One good way to make a more accurate estimate…
How to Make A Free Tuck Shrinking Fork
You may not realize it, but many of our Eastwood tools are dreamt up and prototyped the same way you build things at home. We have a problem or see a need for a tool to help do a job right and we build something ourselves. I recently needed to shrink the edge of a panel that was on a vehicle and I couldn’t get a shrinker stretcher on it to shrink. An alternative method is to “Tuck-Shrink” the area and use a hammer and dolly to shrink the metal into itself. I decided to make my own homemade tuck shrink tool from some old tools for free I had laying around and show you the process.
Hands on Cars Episode 1- How to Inspect and Evaluate a Project Car
The first episode of Hand on Cars, from Eastwood and Kevin Tetz, body work expert, paint wizard and all around car guy. In the first episode Kevin takes you through the process of inspecting a prospective project car before buying it. The car in question? One of the nearly quarter million 1978 Camaros Chevy built, but this one is a Z28 which makes it one of only about 50,000.
Complex Rust Patch Panel Made Easy
At times rust repair can be ultra simple; cut the old rust out, cut a square of fresh metal and weld it in. But those repairs aren’t usually as frequent as we’d like. Rust seems to like to creep into a curved area or into a body line that takes more care to repair. I recently decided to tackle a large rusty area of the rear portion of the floor on Project Pile House.
How to Channel A Ford Model A
Back in the late 1940’s-1960’s it was pretty easy to distinguish if a hot rod in a magazine was built on the east coast or on the west. One of the big differences is how the profile and stance of the car differed. An “east coast hot rod” was easily identifiable by its low ride height and body channeled pretty hard over the chassis without chopping or lowering the roof. It seems as the years went on guys were channeling and lowering their cars more and more until there was almost no ground clearance and no headroom from the raised floor.
How To Retrofit Modern Gauges in Your Classic
A retro looking dash for a 60’s Chevy truck will cost you about $400+, that’s a lot to spend on just the dash. Depending on your gauge layout there is another affordable option that will not only retain a classic original look, it will also allow the use of modern gauges. In this article I’ll show you how to retrofit modern gauges into an original cluster by only making a few minor modifications to the factory hardware.
How to Keep Metal from Warping While Bead Rolling
If you have a bead roller, and you try to add a wide or deep bead to a thin piece of metal; or multiple beads to the same piece, you will find the metal starts to deform. You may get perfect beads in the piece you are working on, but it suddenly looks like a metal potato chip. That is because the bead roller does not necessarily stretch the metal as it presses beads into it. If you have an English wheel you can fix this problem before you begin. This problem is especially bad when rolling beads that don’t go all the way to the edge, or rolling different length beads in the same panel. Follow along as we show you a simple way to keep your panel straight when bead rolling.