I spent 14 hours straight Saturday trying to extract a rusted body mount bolt. Broke two extractor bits and a drill bit before I gave up and just cut the whole mount off with a grinder. Anyone else ever just abandon the "proper" way and go full demolition on a stuck bolt?
Left it on a 78 Grand Prix bumper for 30 minutes and it etched the chrome like crazy. Anyone else wreck a part experimenting with these internet hacks?
Bought a gallon of that fancy rust converter from a specialty auto shop in Portland. After three coats and waiting a week, the rust on my '79 F-150 fender was still flaking off. Anyone else have better luck with just using vinegar and a wire wheel?
I threw a rusty Dana 44 cover from my 79 CJ7 into a drum of water with some baking soda and hooked up a battery charger like the YouTube guys say. Came back 8 hours later and the water was literally brown sludge, the cover had more pitting than before, and the garage smelled like a dead swamp in July. Anyone else have that electrolysis setup backfire on them this bad?
I spent six months tracking down a '78 F-150 that was supposedly sitting in a barn near Des Moines. The guy sent me photos that looked solid, just surface rust on the cab corners. Got there at 8 AM last Saturday and the frame had a crack clean through near the rear spring hanger, plus the floors were Swiss cheese under some carpet he'd laid down. I walked away after driving six hours, but on the way home I stopped at a junkyard in Joliet and found a '77 with a good frame for $400. That cracked frame made me realize I'd rather start with a rotted body on a straight frame than the other way around. Has anyone else had a deal sour on them and found a better path because of it?
My buddy Dave stopped by my garage in Cleveland last week to check out my '78 Ford F-150 I've been piecing back together. I was complaining about how I'd gone through two alternators in six months and thought I was just unlucky with parts. Dave looked at my battery cables and said 'you got corrosion hiding under that tape, man.' I peeled it back and sure enough there was green crust all the way down to the terminal ends. He told me that bad connections make the alternator work twice as hard to keep the system charged, like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in it. I cleaned everything up with a wire brush and some baking soda water mix, put in new crimped ends, and the truck's been starting perfect for three days now. Has anyone else lost parts to something as simple as dirty battery connections before you figured it out?
I was fighting with a 78 Cutlass door card that had those brittle plastic clips. Tried using a heat gun on low for about 30 seconds before prying and three of them popped right out in one piece... where the other seven all snapped like twigs. Has anyone else tried pre-warming the clips or is there a better way?
Overheard a guy at the auto parts shop say he uses the same filler on his truck as his drywall. Tried it on a rust hole in my '79 Cutlass to save $12. Spent the next Saturday sanding it back off because it crumbled under the primer. Has anyone else found a budget brand that actually holds up on body panels?