Gear that is actually worth having

[cobblers]

Reet. You know how you'll be using x product or tool for a particular job, and it's a right chore, but most other people seem to be doing it the same way? Then you find the proper kit, and it makes your life a million times easier?

Maybe some snake oil that actually worked?

I've been using these for years, and can't imagine using the 3mm thick "cutting" disks most motor parts stores try and sell you. They cut body panels as if they are tin foil and work good on thicker stuff, too. I usually just buy a box of 25 for about £20 at a show occasionally. Cheaper ones are a false economy (I go for dronco). They last pretty well, we made this lot out of a bit of stainless pipe with one disk:

 

 

 

I got some of this free with some oil from 'frauds about 5 years ago. Filed it away in the garage as bullshit and got on with my life.

 

Mazda MX5 had a slight sticky tappet - on someones advice I tipped the tin in before an oil change. Drove around the block twice and PROBLEM SOLVED.

The Mk2 Golf GTi after the mazda developed a few terrible tappets that didn't go away when warm after it was stood on my drive for 3 months. I drove it round for a week sounding like a ford Ka, but then decided to try the engine flush again. Minutes later it sounded beautiful. GR8.

 

For years people have fannied about with all sorts of crap trying to attach things to other things, and failed. Until now.

This stuff is holding the top of my patio doors to the RSJ above because I couldn't be arsed drilling it. It's holding both arch trims on the car (after the previous owner seems to have tried no-nails, fibreglass, car body filler and normal silicon sealant and failed at attatching them as well as failing at not getting the stuff all over the side of the car. They are holding up well after plenty of speed bump abuse.

[HBR]

I'm with you on the discs & tiger seal, not used much engine flush stuff but it's nice to have a recomendation!

The last 1mm discs I bought were Norton BDX, £75 for 100, with a coffee mug & a grinder to use them in too! Have to agree get the Dronco or Norton ones though, tried others & they last no time!

Stuck the arch trims on my mk2 Golf GTI with tiger seal, the lip they normally screw to had been removed to fit a slightly wider tyre, been done for 4 years when I sold it & they were still good.

[Shep Shepherd]

Wynn's 'Super Charge' oil treatment is good stuff. It cured both an oil leak and a lazy tappet on TV2

[ashmicro]

Tiger Bond is bloody fabulous. When we were renovating a house a few years ago we wnt through huge amounts of the stuff.

[Lankytim]

A pint of diesel makes a good engine flush. Don't use 5 pints though

[Shep Shepherd]

A pint of diesel makes a good engine flush. Don't use 5 pints though

 

An old sage once told me that a pint of Dexron II or III works a treat, too

[stormee]

The Wynn's stuff appears to be good stuff in general, I made best results on noisy tappets in my 5-pot Passat using 'Hydraulic Lifter Fluid'!

[mattblack]

+1 on the discs, hadn't used them before I did the current bout of welding on the Sceptre. I wish I'd discovered them years ago.

[Des]

Another vote here for Tigerseal, only annoyance is that it goes off in the tube fairly soon after the seal is broken, ends up expensive for small jobs. One of the first things I used it for, or rather its predecessor Sikaflex, about 20 years ago was sticking together rubber cotton reel mounts in an old twin tub washing machine, unbelievably worked, the stuff really sticks like shit to a blanket.

Be cautious of engine flush, it's brilliant for sticky lifters but can be dangerous for extreme cases of black muck, great for cleaning a normally dirty engine but a really filthy one is too much of a challenge and can end up with lumps of minging dirty clag loosened up rather than dissolved, which then blocks the oil pickup.

The thin discs are wonderful, but grinders need respect, it's only by luck that I still have all my fingers, essential to wear gloves, not that they'll do any better than a soggy tissue to protect you, but to keep the grinder from slipping from your grip, those grinders are more dangerous than a pitbull you've just french kissed and hit in the stones.

[Station]

Wynn's engine flush is good, I always use it. Beware of no-knowledge people on internet forums who claim it does nothing.

[Negative Creep]

Halfords professional socket sets and ratchet spanners

[Jon]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Amen to that. I guess the removals company that shipped us to NZ were aware of the durability (yet cheap cost when they're on sale) of my Halfords Professional 150 piece socket set and spanners, which is why they felt the need to nick it. Just had a new set delivered courtesy of my parents forgoing 12kgs of holiday shit from their luggage when they came to visit!

[Station]

Ratchet spanners don't fare well under lengthy and hard abuse, the gears/innards seem to wear out, especially on the smaller ones (8/10)

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I recently got a set of Halfords imperial ratchet spanners cheap... £79.99 in store, or reserve online for £25. They're superb.

[Rod/b]

PlusGas. Better than anything else i've tried for releasing seized nuts'n'bolts.

[HillmanImp]

I am slightly wary of those really thin discs. I have some and use them from time to time but from looking at the scars on my fingers from using the 3mm discs I suspect I would have difficulty counting to ten if I had always used them.

[Station]

PlusGas. Better than anything else i've tried for releasing seized nuts'n'bolts.

 

Doesn't PlusGas contain mostly diesel oil? I heard it's good either way.

[dieselnutjob]

Oil filter removers:-

After years using chain wrenches and straps n things I now use a three prong one that fits on a 3/8 ratchet drive like this.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0659322060

It is about 1 thousand percent better.

Also you can use different length 3/8 extension drives depending on the car.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

The chain and strap filter wrenches are awful.

I bought oil filter pliers in disgust and they've been great.

[Richard]

I have a pair of these for oil filters.

 

[Bren]

I bought one of those nibblers that fit in an electric drill and are for cutting steel - no sparks, no burrs, just a good neat cut. It cost me about £22, I would have spent more than that on cutting discs.

 

Tiger seal is truly impressive - it can even make SD1 screens watertight.

[warren t claim]

 

Tiger seal is truly impressive - it can even make SD1 screens watertight.

 

Isn't the problem with SD1 screens caused by the fact you have to run a small electric charge around them to get them airtight?

[Angrydicky]

Fine wire wool and autosol - nothing shifts tarnish on chrome like it

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Those Boa-Constrictor rubber strap wrenches are good for oil filters as well as the caps on fluid reservoirs etc.

[Station]

This is mother of all tools, it laughs at any bolt or useless oil filter:

 

 

Does anyone not use one of these, or swear by them, they are TOOLTALLY amazing.

[Albert Ross]

For seriously stuck oil filters, these fucking ROCK!

Mine was about 30 quid, maybe 15-20 years ago, but it's totally unbeatable. As you turn the hex, there are gears within the plates that contra-rotate and the legs grip the filter in a reverse direction as you pull the spanner... Fucking ace man.

[Pillock]

It looks like some pretty nifty engineering there, proper problem solving.

 

However for £30, I'll continue to stab a screwdriver straight through the filter and spin the lot around. Can't think I ever have, or ever will removed an oil filter with the intention of reusing it!

[CreepingJesus]

It looks like some pretty nifty engineering there, proper problem solving.

 

However for £30, I'll continue to stab a screwdriver straight through the filter and spin the lot around. Can't think I ever have, or ever will removed an oil filter with the intention of reusing it!

 

I have a chain type, and a claw: but a big flat 'driver right thro' the side is the quickest way on the Mondeo. The others need access that Ford forgot to fit. And lovely ledges to remove knuckle flesh when they slip.

[dieselnutjob]

Oil filter removers:-

After years using chain wrenches and straps n things I now use a three prong one that fits on a 3/8 ratchet drive like this.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0659322060

It is about 1 thousand percent better.

Also you can use different length 3/8 extension drives depending on the car.

 

As I already said.

and a tenner not £30

[wackywacerwill]

Scaffold bar

 

Great for extenstion/leverage/stuburn part beat downs.