Tips for the weekend warrior restorer

speedy recovery Bo ! reminds me of the fact that when my lift is at about half a meter high and i step on it , to do something in the engine bay , how quick i forget that stepping back is a bit more downwards than normal ....
 
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BE CAREFUL. This place wouldn’t be the same without you (not to mention the value you have to your families).

An acquaintance fell in his garage but rather than his leg, he hit his head and passed away.

I recently fell of a ladder myself, but into a foot of supportive, dense snow. And I was smart enough to have turned OFF then chain saw before starting down. My only injury was pride when my daughter saw this from the window and gave me that “oh Dad, you are an old senile idiot,” eye roll.

As we get older we become less immortal, and need to adjust our expectations appropriately.
 
Make your own stuff.

I was two nuts short when I went to install my front bumper. ( Yes yes, insert jokes here ).

They were the special low profile head nuts with grooves to slide along the chassis rail slots. I made my own from high tensile engine nuts. Simply ground down the head to size and filed the grooves.

Those who have read Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance may recall the incidence of the special BMW handlebar shims.
 
dang said:
You guys are so worried about limits. Geez. ;)

And Erik, I bet if you posted your photos we'd look at every one of them! Are they hosted somewhere?
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Nop. they are not hosted anywhere. They are occupying space on the labtop I have from work...Which makes it easy to write my forum additions in the coffee break (which tends to get stretched on the occasion...)

Bo, I wish you a speedy recovery.
(I always think if I should have treated her better whenever the car does something like that to me :) )
 
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A couple of tips when installing brake master cylinder components:
- When re-attaching the rigid lines onto the master cylinder, it is much easier to have that MC from the brake booster. Those lines are (obviously) not very flexible so if you can move the mc around a bit to align it better with the tubes, it will make your life much easier than if it is bolted onto the booster.
- Although you obviously want to use a flared nut wrench for final tightening, most of the threading does not require it. For those tight spaces where it is a pain to remove the open end wrench, move it a quarter turn and re-insert it, I like the "notched open end wrench". These allow you to tighten a nut while leaving the wrench in place almost like a ratchet.
- Before inserting the like plastic adapters on the brake hose, soak them in brake fluid for a little bit for lubrication. Same for the grommets that go into the top of the MC.
 

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As we used to say in racing "The cheapest performance improvement in a race car is driver comfort." Same here.

- Good lighting is critical. When working inside the car, I like the Eastwood Pro Folding Underhood LED light. It has two "hooks" that allow you to quickly hang it inside the cabin for great even lighting.
- I mentioned this in another thread but it is good to compile all in one place. When working inside the car I like to use one of those camping self inflating mattresses to smooth out the many hard bits which want to poke holes into your body when you are laying down there.
 

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Electric hand vac as shown in Bo's pic above.
The DIY list is getting bigger.
My wife says she dreads the day we have to move because of the amount of stuff I have in the garage. Simple solution - we aint movin'.
 
I’ve found these reminders and the general-approach comments to me in the New Members folder immensely helpful.

Unfortunately still learning the hard way about a few. Didn’t injure myself, but tons of time & $ lost trying to extract broken bolt deep in the lower 6mm shackle sleeve. 100% caused by being too tired and distracted and not stepping back before mis-drilling guide
hole for extractor.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
JayWltrs said:
Unfortunately still learning the hard way about a few. Didn’t injure myself, but tons of time & $ lost trying to extract broken bolt deep in the lower 6mm shackle sleeve. 100% caused by being too tired and distracted and not stepping back before mis-drilling guide
hole extractor
Click to expand...

This is meager consolation but I think it is safe to say that everyone who attempts one of these restorations has gone through that rite of passage. And way more than once.

Fatigue and time pressure are often the warning signs of imminent disaster of one sort or another .
 
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