Wiring and electrical work on your car can be a mysterious and frustrating thing to troubleshoot. When repairing or restoring the wiring in a classic it is sometimes better to take a bit of modern technology to give you a piece of mind. In the 1970’s Packard Electrical created the […]
Tag: how to
How To Bend Metal With A TIG Welder
Bending metal can be pretty simple with basic hand tools if you’re doing thin materials, but once you get past sheet metal and into thicker materials over 1/8″ it can be difficult to make sharp bends in metal without extreme force. In the past heating metal with an Oxy-Acetylene torch was one of the few ways you could bend thicker materials with ordinary shop tools. This method was common when every garage had a set of torches on hand. In today’s world a gas torch is less common as most use a plasma cutter or electric welder to cut and weld metal. In this tutorial we show how you can turn your TIG welder into a heating device and bend thick gauge metals with your TIG welder at home.
5 Ways to Improve Your Restoration Project
The term “auto restoration” can mean a lot of different things to different people. There’s everything from a weekend warrior light restoration to a full “nut and bolt” restoration that will border on OCD status. There’s no right or wrong way as long as you’re happy with the vehicle in the end. We decided to list our top 5 favorite simple ways to improve the quality of your restoration.
How to Clay Bar Your Paint for A Perfect Finish.
The surface of your car should be clean before you start detailing. Obviously, you want to wash the car and get the major dirt and road debris off the car. The next step is to get the dirt and contaminants that are bonded into the clear coat off the surface. So, the first thing you should do to this panel after an initial wash is using a clay bar over the paint. What that’s going to do is pull out all the contaminants that are in the paint so that when we buff the entire panel we’re buffing the paint and not just pushing the contaminants around.
How to Remove Stubborn Stuck Screws
Breaking stuck bolts, nuts, and other hardware loose can be a headache and although there are techniques that work well on heavier bolts and nuts; these techniques don’t work as well on flathead or phillips head screws as the head can strip or get damaged a lot easier. Often times the screws are in delicate or tight areas and using heat or other aggressive methods might not be the best option. We decided to show you our favorite method for removing phillips or flathead screws quickly and easily.
How to Remove a Dent in a Plastic Bumper
In the old days removing a dent in a metal bumper was labor intensive and you need a bit of skill to get the dent out 100%. Most cars today use plastic or composite bumper covers that can get easily dented and traditional methods won’t repair them. If you want to save a dented plastic bumper you may be able to do it yourself at home with limited tools. We show the steps below.
How to Repair Rust Pin Holes Without Welding
Rust pin holes can happen on vehicles as new as a few years old in some cases. You might not have the money to pay an auto body shop to perform the repair or the tools to cut and weld a new patch panel in. But there are solutions that will give you a simple repair that can be done in your driveway. Below we show you the process for repairing rust pinholes and sealing the area up for a permanent repair.
How to make Flexible Brake Line Mounts using the Eastwood Vise Press Brake
When building a custom classic car you may want to upgrade or customize your brake system and this may require starting from scratch with how you mount and run your brake lines. There are a lot of options for off the shelf kits and parts but I’ve found that they still need modification or you need to make all new parts anyways. One such simple part are tabs for where your hard brake line meets your soft or flexible brake line. I build a lot of older Fords that never came with hydraulic brakes from the factory. This means I need to design and figure out the entire braking system when upgrading to hydraulic brakes. Something as simple as brake line tabs need to be considered. I decided to show my simple solution for brake line tabs front flexible lines on a hot rod or street rod.
Beginners guide to powder coating!!!
Powder is a process which has gain considerable popularity over the past years and for good reason. Instead of using a paint like we are all so used to, powder coating actually uses finely ground plastic to cover the part. Then once introduced to heat to cure, the plastic softens […]