100 Garage Tips

Now, some of these may seem common sense but a little bit of reading could honestly save you a whole-lotta headache.

100 Garage Tips!


1. Wear eye protection:
a) Every time you use a power tool.
b) Every time you use a hammer.
c) Every time you're using a tap or other brittle, hardened tool. They can, and do, shatter.
d) Every time you're under a vehicle. Falling dirt and debris can go anywhere.
e) Any time you're in the shop and you think that there might be some small chance that something could break, spin off, or fall and end up in your face.

2. Ear protection is a good idea as well. Ever used an air chisel or air hammer?

3. Filling the void in a set of diagonal cutters with silicone will keep small bits of wire or zip ties from being flung across your truck or garage. Split the silicone with a razor once it sets.

4. Grinding the face of a pair of diagonal cutters flush will allow you to remove welded-on studs and trim wire ties without any tag ends.

5. Paint or mark with colored tape the stops on your jack stands with different colors or with numbers so that you can easily level your truck once you jack it up.

6. Add about two feet of pipe insulation to the bottom of your jack handle. It will prevent the handle from denting the rockers or roll pan and it costs less then $2.

7. To start a nut at an awkward angle, put a loop of tape, sticky side out, in the socket. It will stay in place until you get it threaded.

8. If you've got even less room to work with, use a ratcheting wrench and use tape to secure the nut. It will come unstuck once it gets threaded on.

9. When you're taking something apart, take photos of the process. Digital cameras are cheap, and digital photos are free, so when it comes time to put your truck back together you'll know what it looked like when you started so you don't end up with "extra parts".

10. Along the same lines, bag all of your fasteners in zip-closed sandwich bags and label them with a permanent marker. If you've got the photos and all the fasteners, you'll have a much easier time re-assembling your truck, even if it's several months later.

11. Before using a hole saw to cut a large-diameter hole, cut a small hole near the outer edge for the metal chips to fall through, it will speed up the cutting.

12. Drilling two extra holes close to the pilot hole will also allow you to grip the piece and remove it from the hole saw once your cut is finished.

13. Snap-On and Blue Point both have magnetic can/bottle holders that will stick to your toolbox and hold a can of WD-40 or PB Blaster at the ready. Or, use it on the dash or door panel of your beater old truck to give you a place to hold your drink. Pop it off at a show and your old interior looks stock.

14. A 12-point socket will fit onto the square shaft of a tap so you can chase threads easier than with the T-handle.

15. Lay a large piece of cardboard, or better yet, carpet, underneath your truck if you're working under the hood. Any dropped tools or parts can be retrieved by sliding the cardboard or carpet out, rather than climbing underneath. Carpet will also help keep those dropped parts from rolling away.

16. Carry a spare serpentine belt! This is especially important if your truck has an aftermarket supercharger with an odd-sized belt and it decides to spit three of the eight ribs, wrapping them around the harmonic balancer so badly that you have to cut them off with your pocketknife. It's much cheaper than a tow. Guess how we know about this one?

Two ways to spot where a misfire is happening:

17. Use a spray bottle to wet the exhaust manifold near each exhaust port. The firing cylinders will quickly vaporize the water.

18. Clip a timing light to the spark plug wire to help diagnose if the problem is a bad wire or distributor terminal. The dead plug wire won't fire the timing light.

19. New trucks don't have long plug wires, but if your older truck has a misfire coming from the plug wire arcing to a short, you can find it quickly by just turning off the lights in the garage and running the engine in the dark, making the arc easy to spot.

20. Use anti-seize compound on all of your stainless steel fasteners and any time different types of metal are threaded together, like spark plugs into aluminum heads.

21. It sounds wrong, but if you first tighten a bolt or lug nut slightly it can break the rusty bonds that hold it in place.

22. If you've got a bolt that won't come loose, heat the exposed part with a torch and then touch a wax candle to the threads. The thermal shock of heating and cooling should break the rusty bond and draw the wax in to lubricate the threads.

23. If the fastener happens to be a Phillips screwdriver, a dab of valve grinding compound will help the bit grip the recess.

24. Even if you don't have access to air tools, an impact driver can break tough screws loose. They turn the impact from a hammer into twisting force and sell for less than $25.

25. Use the Phillips recess to center a left-handed drill bit and drill progressively larger holes until all that's left are the threads. Often, just the action of drilling the bolt will cause it to break free and back out.

26. On any raised-head Phillips fastener, a whack from a hammer can collapse the top to allow you to seat a new bit into the now-smaller opening.

27. We're big fans of Meguiar's car care products, but there are several brands we know we'll get good results from. Watch what the guys use at a truck show to detail their awesome paint jobs. Odds are it's from Meguiar's, Turtle Wax, Mother's, or Eagle One. Everyone has their preference, but it generally helps to cough up the dough for the good stuff.

28. MIG weld a nut, as centered as possible, onto the remnants of a broken bolt, quench the still-hot bolt with a damp towel, and back it out. Again, the rapid heating and cooling often breaks the bonds of rust.

29. As usual, having the right tool can help. Craftsman sells extractor kits for under $20 that can save you lots of time.

30. The same goes for stripped bolt heads. These saved us a lot of time on 40-year-old rusted bolts.

31. When wrapping electrical tape onto a splice where space is tight, like under a dash, or anywhere a full roll of tape won't fit, make several wraps around the shank of a small screwdriver. You'll be able to reach into much smaller spaces.

32. An extra-long zip tie works great for pulling wires behind your dash or headliner for stereo work. You can find 3-foot-long versions in packs of 50 for about $25. We're sure you'll figure out a use for the rest of them. If not, specialty electric suppliers sell them individually.

33. "Hole mount wire wraps" have a built-in collar that let you mount them to any surface with a screw or bolt. You could run air compressor wiring the length of your frame and keep everything neat and secure for only a few dollars.

34. If you've got a need for a unique molded radiator hose due to an engine swap or a custom radiator, check out gatespowerpro.com. They've got illustrations of several hoses that can help you narrow your search before you drive all over town.

35. Fine sandpaper works great to restore windshield wiper blades that have a little oxidation on them. If your wipers are chattering across your windshield, a few passes might make the difference you need.

36. Dental floss and fishing line work well for cutting through the adhesive on emblems and trim when de-badging your truck.

Magnets:

37. If you replace your factory speakers with a nice aftermarket replacement, you'll have some giant magnets that are great for keeping a commonly used tool handy or for keeping fasteners nearby when doing a repair.

38. Place the magnet in a heavy plastic bag and use it to pick up metal filings and scrap off your bench. Pull the magnet out and the shavings will drop off into the trash.

39. Press small, cylindrical magnets into 1/4-inch bars of aluminum or wood and you can use them as soft jaws for your bench vise when clamping fragile items.

40. Magnetize your screwdrivers to help them hold onto fasteners while you're starting them.

41. A drinking straw and some epoxy can be substituted for a broken plastic stud on old interior trim. Tape the straw where the broken stud used to be, cut it to the required length, and fill with two-part epoxy. The epoxy will hold onto threads, but drill a pilot hole first, and go easy on the torque.

42. When you're installing carpet in your truck, lay the carpet in the sun so it can warm up. It will help it contour to your floorboards.

43. Heat spray-paint cans under a hot faucet. Warm paint flows out better and won't splatter on its way out of the nozzle.

44. Here's one we have trouble following: Follow the directions on the can when spray painting. Thin coats are the way to go for a good-looking paint job with no runs. This goes for primer too.

45. Don't use newspaper for masking paper; it won't work. Again, trust us on this one.

46. Use aluminum foil for masking odd-shaped parts. It fits to contours and won't blow loose.

47. Bolt the part you need to paint in an engine stand if you've got one. You can paint the part and rotate it to get the under side without touching the fresh paint.

48. Keep any extra body panels from your truck to use as patch panels when filling stake pockets or shaving door handles. The metal will be the same gauge, making welding easier.

49. Trace a line around door hinges prior to removing them. When you reinstall the door you'll save time aligning panels.

50. There's no use sliding dirt around on your truck, buy a wash bucket with grating at the bottom, or cut one out of a plastic door mat to fit the bucket you normally use. This will let the grit fall to the bottom of the bucket and stay there.

51. Even better, have a bucket for your car wash and another bucket with clean water just for rinsing. The grate at the bottom will still keep the gritty particles from staying suspended in the water.

52. Your car should be cool when you wash it, and not just the surface. Let your car cool down before you give any hot parts, like the brake rotors, an icy bath that could cause warping.

53. Before washing your car, remove your watch, belt, jewelry, or anything that might cause scratches. The same goes for wrenching under the hood, since rivets on jeans can easily scratch paint.

54. A lint roller or good 'ol duct tape works well to remove pet hair from upholstery that a vacuum won't get. If you've got cloth seats on an '07-newer Silverado you'll now what we mean.

55. Microfiber towels come in several colors. Keep them separated by task to keep your paint from being contaminated by brake dust, etc.

56. Another microfiber tip: Wash separately and with only a little bit of liquid detergent. Cotton fibers and soap powder can collect in them and defeat the purpose of using a microfiber.

57. Bend a 1/8 stainless steel rod into a safety-pin shape to hold a set of combination wrenches. It will keep them in order and it's got enough spring to stay closed but still open up easily when you need to get to your tools.

58. Keep the part of the packaging for your fan belt, air filter, oil filter, etc. that has the part number and tape them under the lid of your toolbox or put them into a business card holder or binder. It will keep you from flipping through the books at the auto parts store.

59. Of course you should have a fire extinguisher in your garage that can handle all types of fire, but mounting an extra one on your welding cart will mean there's always one near where the sparks are flying.

60. JB Weld would probably work better, but if your buddy ever tears his oil pan on a curb in a Costco parking lot, bubble gum and duct tape will help you keep oil in the pan long enough to drive 8 miles. We've done it.

61. When you're working on a Super Duty or Ram with the hood up, the grille is up too, so put a heavy sheet of cardboard to cover the intercooler/condenser/radiator and keep fins from getting smashed flat when leaning over the core support.

62. To start a nut in an awkward position, drop the nut onto a screwdriver along with the necessary washers. Touch the screwdriver to the bolt and slide the washer and bolt on and get it started

63. Allen wrenches can work on Torx fasteners in a pinch, and vise versa.

64. No Dykem around when you need to mark some metal? A Sharpie or other permanent marker works well for marking metal and giving contrast to your scribe marks.

65. Toothpaste works great for getting solvent odors off your skin.

66. Have a "Plan B" for getting into your shaved truck if your battery dies. A cable running through the door into the engine compartment is an option, but only if you've got a way to unlock your hood from the outside.

67. Tailgates are easy to remove, which makes them easy to steal. A hose clamp over the open end of your tailgate's hinge will triple the time it takes to remove your tailgate. It's not much, but it can't hurt.

68. Nobody likes sanding intricate contours and tight recesses. Spray-on paint stripper is worth its weight in sandpaper. Just spray it on, give it time to work, scrape off the blistered paint, and neutralize with fresh water.

69. Finding the right fastener is easy if you're organized. From bins, to drawers, to jars, keeping nuts and fasteners sorted is worth the time spent sorting. Tackle boxes even have customizable dividers, and are great for adhesives, wire ties, and more.

70. Torque your wheels on in a star-shapped pattern and re-torque them after about 100 miles.

71. Got a funky smell in your truck that won't go away? Lay a 10- or 15-pound bag of charcoal briquettes flat on the carpet or seats and open it by cutting an "X" in the bag to expose the charcoal to air. The charcoal will absorb the nasty smells safely.

72. Hot glue isn't just for arts and crafts. Higher-melt glue is actually really tough stuff, but you won't find the right gun at a craft store. Use super glue or a clamp to hold the piece you're working on and apply the hot glue. It will be set in seconds, unlike epoxy, which takes hours.

73. Steel wool gets into areas sandpaper can't. Use it to give aluminum parts a low-gloss, brushed look.

74. On a budget? Paint your truck using factory colors, you can get the colors matched easily if it's not a custom color.

75. Use Liquid Electrical Tape instead of shrink wrap or tape when you can, it won't unravel and it's air and water tight.

76. When block-sanding your truck, use the longest sanding block possible for large panels, it will keep the panels from becoming wavy.

77. A guide coat, a light mist of black spray paint, will help you quickly find low spots when sanding body panels.

78. Fast Orange hand cleaner also gets grease off parts if you don't want to mess with solvents.

79. A short length of 3/8-inch hose will help you thread spark plugs into difficult spots. You'll gain extra reach and you won't be able to cross-thread the plug because you'll only have a little bit of turning force.

80. Another spark plug tip: check the gap before installing them, as they are usually close out of the box, but it's not a sure thing. A spark plug gapper like this one costs about $1 at the counter of most parts stores

81. Factory assembly manuals are one of of the most complete resources you can find for your truck. Swap meets are great places to find them, or there's always eBay.

82. For sanding inside curves, try wrapping sandpaper around a paint roller. Smaller radius? Try a deep socket, each socket has a slightly different diameter.

83. PB Blaster has dozens of uses besides freeing up rusty fasteners. Pry up the edge of a stuck radiator hose and give it a shot of PB, give it a few hours to work its way around and the hose will be unstuck.

84. A thick rubber band, doubled up, will keep an old socket universal joint from being too loose.

85. Have somewhere to be? Rub lotion into your hands before you get them dirty under the hood and they will come clean a lot easier. Don't use too much or parts will slip loose.

86. If you can't get a wrench on a nut inside a tight area, like inside a C-channel frame, weld a bar onto it and let it rotate into the frame to stop it from turning.

87. Super glue a fastener to your screwdriver if it keeps falling off before you get it started. The glue dries quickly, but metal isn't porous enough to form a strong bond and it will break free when you apply torque.

88. Plan on heading to a swap meet to pick up some Chevy engine parts, or need to identify parts you've already got? Check out mortec.com. They list casting numbers for blocks, heads and cranks, and have bore and stroke combos for factory and common stroker applications.

89. Labeling your toolbox lets someone helping you in the garage find tools quickly. You can use a label printer from an office supply store, or use magnets like these from zcalz.com that are easy to rearrange.

90. If you've got a label maker, label any wires you run on your truck, it will make diagnosing any problems much easier.

91. Always remove the negative terminal on a battery first, to prevent sparks. Likewise, always mount the positive terminal first when installing a battery. We've never seen a battery explode, and we don't want to.

92. Soft brass brake line fittings are easy to round off if you aren't using a flare-nut wrench. Use the right tool and you can get everything tight without damage.

93. Find all of the flathead screws you have in your garage. Now throw them away. You'll thank us.

94. Plastic trim tools keep you from gouging interior panels on newer trucks. They're not too expensive and they come in several shapes.

95. To measure backspacing, all you need is the wheel in question, a straight edge, and a tape measure. Measure perpendicularly from the straight edge of the wheel to the mounting surface, that's the backspacing. Offset is 1/2 of the wheel width minus the backspacing. If the backspace is less than 1/2 the wheel width, the offset is positive, meaning more than 1/2 of the wheel sticks out past the mounting surface.

96. Mother's Powerball might just be the greatest thing since sliced bread. They restored a set of aluminum wheels we thought were destined for a professional polisher. Don't use too much compound though, it goes a lot farther than you'd think.

97. When was the last time you replaced your air filter or cleaned your serviceable air filter? Yeah, that's what we thought.

98. Larger versions of silica gel desiccants that you see packaged in shoes and electronics can be bought in rechargeable metal packs for under $10. Keep a couple in your toolbox to prevent rust and recharge them by drying them in your oven.

99. Keep this magazine alongside your many leather-bound books, in your study that smells of rich mahogany. Some day, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, you'll need one of these tips and you'll be upset if you can't find it.

100. If you build your own sub box that you plan to wrap in carpet or vinyl, let the top, bottom, front, and back all overlap the sides, leaving them slightly recessed. When you're gluing your chosen upholstery on the box you can accurately cut into the corner to remove the excess before covering the ends in one piece that hides the cut ends.