Bumper Sticker On Cars
Author John Wellington explains: During election time, which is upon us, I always enjoy seeing the political bumper stickers that people actually permanently stick onto their vehicles. Have you ever tried to remove a bumper sticker? It isn’t easy. Anyway, my opinion on who to vote for isn’t going to be changed by how many bumper stickers I see for each candidate. I have never been on my way to vote and still up in the air about who I want to cast my vote for, seen a bumper sticker with someone’s name on it and said, “That’s who I’ll vote for.” Perhaps some people do make their decisions that way, but I definitely don’t. I love seeing the vehicles with the political bumper stickers after the election is over. Even if they lost, they need to drive around with the bumper sticker that basically now says Loser on it.

Restore Your Own Classic Car - Finding Your Future Hot Rod
If you don’t already have your project car this article will help you decide on a good car to start with. I love restoring and modifying cars because to me it is an art, it is an extension of yourself. You can do whatever you want to do with the car because you are the only one who has to like it. That being said, I will provide you with incite on the restoration process from the beginning to the end from my years of experience. My first piece of advice is to pick a brand or make of car such as Ford,Chevy,Dodge etc. There is allot of brand loyalty out there so I am sure you already have something in mind. For your first project you should stick to the major brands because parts will be much easier to come by. Don’t set your sites too high, lets face it, we all want a Hemicuda or a Shelby but you just aren’t going to find those “hot ticket” cars on the side of the road for a cheap price. You should also have an idea of the type of build you want to do, such as a muscle car, hot rod, or a 50’s cruiser because this will narrow the year and type of car you will be looking for. You don’t have to have a definite plan yet but have an idea. Once you have an idea of what you are looking for the next step is……to start looking! It sounds easy enough, but, where should you look? A good place to start are your local car clubs, someone is always looking to get rid of something. Also try your local restoration shops their technicians always have a line on some of the best restorable cars, especially if you offer a finders fee. Don’t forget to check your local paper classified adds, auto trader, Ebay, and one of the most successful things I have found, take a ride in the country! you would be surprised how many people have old cars sitting in their fields, especially old farmers. I went horseback riding with my wife a few years ago at a farm in New Jersey and the farmer had five or six late 60’s broncos in one of his fields. Once you find something you are interested in here is what you should do, Get the VIN (vehicle identification number) and make sure the owner has the title because if it can’t be titled again there is no sense wasting your time. If there is no VIN for the car just walk away. You can find many different sites on the Internet that will help you de-code the VIN number and that will tell you allot of good information such as the original color and motor size, body type, where it was made and what it is. I suggest you decode this information before you buy the car because many people have been scammed this way. It is just a good way to make sure everything is legit. As you look the car over it is a good idea to take pictures and make a list of what you see. Write down the options the car has (power windows,seats,air conditioning), What size motor is in the car? Look at the rust on the body, how bad is it? fenders,quarter panels, deck lids can be replaced so what you are most interested in is the rocker panels (The small section of body under the doors) if the car does not have a full frame under it the rockers are a structural support. also bring an ordinary refrigerator magnet and go around the car to see where there is allot of filler. Take in the overall condition of the car, is it sunk up to the door in the ground or is it sitting on inflated tires. Ask the owner as many questions as you can think of, remember the only stupid question is the one that is not asked. Ask is the motor runs, is it seized up? When was it last driven? Why was it parked? Was it stored outside or in a barn or garage? you will find a better car if it was parked on a hard surface like concrete rather than a dirt floor. Does the owner know any history about the car like where it was originally purchased or who the original owners were, every car has a history and the more you know about it the more you will enjoy the car. Always get under the car and check out the under carriage, make sure the frame is not rotted away, there will be surface rust but you do not want to see large holes in the frame. Look at the suspension and where it mounts to the car, make sure the mounts are still good and that the suspension isn’t going to rip through the floor when you tow it home. Look at the floor pans from under the car and from inside the car, you are going to find holes but just make sure that the structural parts of the floor are solid, like the transmission tunnel and the inner rocker panels. I don’t stress motors too much just because there are so many after market parts and ready to run “crate” engines available. So if you aren’t looking to keep it 100% original there are a lot of options. The only thing left to do is buy it! If you are not sure if you are getting a good price you can check the blue book value on the car or call up the local car club for that make of car and they should be able to help you decide if you are getting a good deal. If you follow this advice you should be able to find a good, restorable car to work with. Ready …..Set……Go hunt for your future hot rod, have fun and good luck. next time I will cover how to plan your project.

20 plus years in automobile repair and restoration, expert in metal shaping and fabrication. I started loving cars when I was 14 or so, my first car was a 1968 Barracuda that I still have today. I am a certified inspection and emissions mechanicand I worked for one of the top restoration shops on the east coast until we had differences that made me decide to go out on my own. I am in the beginning stages of starting my own restoration business. I also do Photography and marketing for classic cars to get them into some of the top magazines. my work has been in Hot Rod,legendary Ford and many other publications. I have been a part of some one of a kind restorations as well as mesuem restorations. I stand behind my work 100% and try to offer a top quality restoration with out the top end price. Feel free to contact me with any questions. My web sites are not up yet but they are almost complete so look for them in the near future don't crush….Restore Dave Kite - Restoration Specialist

Restore Your Own Classic Car - Disassembly

So you read the first two articles and are chomping at the bit to get started, well then lets go! Ok there are a few ways you can go about this, but for the sake of the normal guy attempting this for the first time we will assume there are no “specialty” tools like a rotisserie or any other big equipment. Here are a few things you want to have handy: A digital camera (any camera will work but now-a-days a digital camera makes things easier).

You will want to have a good supply of zip lock sandwich bags and large 1 gallon zip lock bags, get about 1 thousand sharpies (permanent markers) because if you are like me you will loose 999 of them! Also get a bunch price tags with string or wire on them (Staples or office depot has them). Now that you have all the things you will need for documentation and labeling of parts lets get to work. Get the camera out and take about a billion pictures, you are going to want pictures of any damage, also the frame and underside of the car, the interior the motor and any thing else you can think of.

Make sure you get pictures of all the gaps, door gaps, hood gaps, and trunk gaps. The camera is going to be your best friend through out the entire restoration. There are going to be lots of things you are not going to remember so take lots of pictures as you disassemble, not to mention that all the pictures you take will make a nice picture album for the shows. Get yourself some plastic pry tools for taking the chrome trim off. Be careful when prying the trim up because you don’t want to bend it all up. Once you have the trim off you can move onto the interior, remove the door panels, seats, carpet, headliner, kick panels, and any other panels or parts on the inside. Most interior panels are held in by clips so take out any screws and then, with a plastic prying tool pop the panels off. Once the interior is out you can remove the glass but be careful if you are planning on re-using the windows.

Make sure you cut through the gasket completely so the window will come out easy. Pull the dash out and all the instrument gauges. You can test most of the gauges on the bench once they are out. The fuel gauge is just a gauge that reads resistance so if you have a sending unit you can wire it to the gauge and move the floater up and down to see if the gauge moves. When replacing the sending unit make sure the resistance is in the range that your gauge is set up to read. Volts or Amps gauges you can test with an external power supply that you can pick up at radio shack.

Temperature gauges can be tested by putting the sensor in a pot of boiling water. These tests will ensure the gauge works but will not tell you if they are accurate. Now it is time to remove the motor and transmission. Disconnect all wires, sensors and linkage and label every thing. Drain all fluids. Now you can get ready to hook up the engine hoist. You can take the carb off and use a lifting plate (available at summit or jegs) or you can use a few grade 8 bolts one in the front of one head and one in the back of the other head. Take up the slack in the chain. Unbolt motor and transmission mounts and again make sure all wires and coolant lines are disconnected. The radiator and anything else in the front of the motor should be removed. Pull the motor and transmission out of the car. At this time remove the drive shaft. Leave the front suspension and the rear suspension in tact so you can move the car around. Now you can remove the doors, hood, and deck (trunk) lid.

Now you should have a shell of a car and a ton of parts that are all labeled and photographed. As you take parts off the car decide weather you will reuse them or replace them, if you are going to replace them do not get rid of the original part until the new part is in place. The reason for this is that after market parts are not always a perfect fit so at least you will have something to compare it to.

If you are going to reuse the parts it is best to clean them up, blast them, paint them or whatever else they need as you disassemble them. This is also a good time to take the motor apart or take it to be rebuilt and same with the transmission.

Next time we will look into different ways of stripping the car and what you should do about repairing the metal that is rotten. Now get to work tearing that rusted monster apart and remember you can not take too many pictures or make too many drawings of how things go together.

I like to keep a “diary or log” of what I take apart and how it came apart, this way I can reverse the process to put it back together. So good luck and above all:..have fun.

20 plus years in automobile repair and restoration, expert in metal shaping and fabrication. I started loving cars when I was 14 or so, my first car was a 1968 Barracuda that I still have today. I am a certified inspection and emissions mechanicand I worked for one of the top restoration shops on the east coast until we had differences that made me decide to go out on my own. I am in the beginning stages of starting my own restoration business. I also do Photography and marketing for classic cars to get them into some of the top magazines. my work has been in Hot Rod,legendary Ford and many other publications. I have been a part of some one of a kind restorations as well as mesuem restorations. I stand behind my work 100% and try to offer a top quality restoration with out the top end price. Feel free to contact me with any questions. My web sites are not up yet but they are almost complete so look for them in the near future don't crush….Restore Dave Kite - Restoration Specialist

Pros and Cons of a Diesel Generator
Author John Stafford explains: Many individuals ask the question of why it is beneficial to install a diesel generator as opposed to a gasoline or propane generator. There are several reasons for opting for a diesel generator but there are some that will argue that the benefits do not outweigh the negatives.

Safety requirements for a Diesel Generator
Author John Stafford explains: There are many requirements to meet when considering the safety of your generator. These do not always involve consideration for personal safety but measures to protect the generator itself. If your generator is a permanent installation it is important that a safety feature such as an automatic shutdown device be installed. This will protect from several malfunctions.

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