I bought a little gadget this week that arrived in a little cardboard box. Hmm, that’s not going to last very long I thought. Enter a roll of the ever useful duct tape! I figured the box could be reinforced by simply wrapping the outside with tough duct tape in a minute or two. I didn’t try to make it pretty, I just wanted it to be strong enough to protect the little plastic tool inside, since it might end up rattling around in my glove box in the car. …
Using a tin can, some exhaust repair paste and rivets. Our sixteen year old classic Saab 900 blew a small hole in its exhaust, which turned in to a large hole after I poked around! The metal surrounding the hole was surprisingly solid after I scraped away the flaky rusty bits. So I thought I’d have a go at repairing it rather than replacing the whole exhaust section (very expensive). First I jacked up the car and placed an axle stand underneath a strong part of the body. Talking about safety, …
Easy to build raised beds or planters out of old pallets. Thought I’d have some fun with the photos I took of the recent planter build at my house… Just need to work out how to add music! Read the full article here.. raised beds. Stay well Ian
Easily grow your own vegetables in these quick to build raised beds. Raised beds make gardening easy, plus using free wood from old pallets means they’re very trendy and cheap to build too. Many companies only reuse the standard Euro pallet and non standard ones pose a disposal problem. Mine were from the USA and were made from rustic looking, hardwood timber. Simply ask around or look for them piled up outside business in your area. Most places are happy to get rid of them! Now for the worst part! Taking …
Properly Cleaning Paintwork is a Four Step Process… If your car is a few years old, run a wet, soapy hand over the paintwork, especially below the door bump strips….. it’s almost certain your paintwork will feel rough, even if you wash and polish it regularly. A clay bar treatment will fix all of that, (if you’ve never heard of clay bars before, look at the clay bars over at amazon.co.uk and read the reviews) … OK, ready? Then lets get started… Tar, tiny metal particles and other debris become embedded in …
With a pair of needle nose pliers We all like to keep leftover paint after a painting project for those ‘just in case’ moments and touch-ups; the problem is that years might pass before you need them again. This often means lids that have ‘welded’ themselves on tight with dried paint, (especially if you didn’t wipe away the paint from the lid/rim before closing it and you forgot to turn the tin upside down). Levering around the edge with a screwdriver just mangles the lids edges, leaving nothing to lever …
Using a small grinder or disc cutter. Occasionally a brake disc gets so rusted in place that it will not come free using normal methods. A ten year old Honda CRV came into the household this week that was riding on it’s original brake discs, yup, ten years old! They were incredibly rusty and corroded. I tried the usual methods to try and dislodge them based on 25 years of doing this kind of stuff. Gentle (and not so gentle) tapping around the brake disc edge with a soft face hammer. …
