Tips and How-To

Wrench Tips #33: Old Tires Suck! by Dave Coleman There are a lot of goofy, semi-nonsensical numbers in the tire business, but if you're a tire-scrounging cheapass like me, this one…

MotoIQ Garage Fabrication: Introduction to Fab By Steve Rockwood There comes a time in every car nut's life where no one sells that much-needed part and it must be fabricated from raw…

   Wrench Tips #32: Precision for Pennies by Dave Coleman   This tip comes to you, in a roundabout way, from Alex Vendler, creater of the MetroGnome, mastermind of the…

  Wrench Tips #31: Cast Aluminum in a Can by Dave Coleman   Strangely enough, this wrench tip is one I learned from owning this bike: I bought the bike…

Wrench Tip #29:  Pulling a dent with a suction cup.  by Alex Vendler   It's happened to all of us.  You park your car and head to your destination only…

Wrench Tip #30: Finding Oil Leaks Using Fluorescent Goo by Dave Coleman   Finding the origin of an oil leak can be a pain in the ass. By the time…

Wrench Tips #28: Quality German Hose Clamps for CHEAP by Dave Coleman I've been struggling lately to find a source of high quality hose clamps while plumbing the three fuel…

 Wrench Tips #27      Restoring Plastic is (Sometimes) Easy! by Dave Coleman I failed freshman chemistry, so let me be right up front here and point out that I…

Wrench Tips #26: Back Purge Your TIG Welds The Cheap Way by Dave Coleman When you're welding tubing, the backside of your weld (inside the tube) is still exposed to…

  Wrench Tips #25: How to Clean Up That Nasty Butyl Tape Vapor Barrier Goo  by Dave Coleman It's worse than Aunt Jemima's. That nasty butyl tape goo that's used…

Wrench Tips – Tip #24: Silicone Hoses for Adults by Dave Coleman   There comes a time in every car dork’s life when you no longer want your engine bay…

Wrench Tips # 23: Tube Fabrication Tips By Mike Kojima When hanging out at Costa Gialamas’ shop Gialamas Technical Innovations, we picked up on some really good ideas that Costa…

 Wrench Tips Tip #21: Always Use Lube by Dave Coleman   This seems simple, but so many people get it wrong. If you're drilling or cutting metal, you should ALWAYS…

Wrench Tips Tip #20: Tape Your Nuts by Dave Coleman   If you’ve never had to start a bolt that was out of reach, you’ve probably never owned a wrench.…

Wrench Tips Tip #19: Get a Straight Cut on a Hose by Dave Coleman If you’re the kind of guy who buys things that fit, or builds things from kits,…

 Wrench Tips – Tip #18: Cut a Slit to Tweak a Tube Sometimes the tubes just don’t end up where you want them to. I’ve scratch-built a single-digit number of…

 Wrench Tips – Tip #17: Election Day Ductwork by Dave Coleman Yea, that’s right, all the Frankenmiata‘s raidator ductwork is made from free coroplast. Only this free coroplast came from…

Wrench Tips #22 Making a Clean Splice by Dave Coleman Splicing two wires together is the most basic of wiring tasks, and yet most people seem to do a crappy…

Wrench Tips – Tip #16: Cutting Rubber Bushings by Dave Coleman You might find this hard to believe, but from time to time, I try to put together things that…

 Wrench Tips – Tip #15: Grip Dip For Your Screw Tip Say you’re trying to remove the air filter from a Hayabusa air box so you can figure out how…

Wrench Tips – Tip #14: Put Your Studs to Work Haven’t seen a wrench tip in a while? That’s mostly because moving my garage has meant no wrenching lately. No…

Wrench Tips – Tip #13: Painting around brake lines I used to think masking brake lines with tape was the only way to paint around them. This inevitably sucks not only…

Wrench Tips – Tip #12: Spark Plug Hose I’m sure this has happened to all of you. You know when you dig a classic Miata show car out of the…

Wrench Tips – Tip #11: Welding – It's Not Just For Metal This tip comes courtesy of MotoIQ nerd and fellow LeMons racer John Walker. I haven't actually tried this yet,…

Wrench Tips – Tip #10: Bust a Nut How many times have you jacked up the front of you car to work on the suspension only to realize you forgot…

Wrench Tips – Tip #9: Color Code Your Tools Grabbing a tool from your toolbox (or off the floor) is kind of like shifting gears when you drive. It's a…

Wrench Tips Tip #8: The 1-Page Service Manual Oops, 2 days late… What a hangover! Wrench time is for working, not for reading. Nothing breaks your mechanical rhythm like wasting…

Wrench Tips Tip #7: The Box-End Breaker Bar This tip is from MotoIQ reader Jeremy Fiel, though I, too have used this simple trick many times. If you're using a…

Wrench Tips Tip #6: Re-Using Copper Washers Its not that I'm cheap… Ok, let me re-phrase that. Its not JUST that I'm cheap, it's that I'm lazy and don't plan well.…

Wrench Tips Tip #5: Retracting Pistons the Easy Way Changing brake pads is 15 minutes of simpleness. Step1: Pull the old pads out. Step 2: Push the pistons back in. Step…