Chris Pollitt is an award-winning automotive word-wrangler, editor of the website Not 2 Grand and a keen collector of crappy old cars.
We all love working on our cars, that’s why were here on this little corner of the internet, right? There’s nothing better than getting busy with the tools and turning that job around that you’ve been trying to get to for months.
But here’s the thing; the garage is a place full of distractions and often, a special kind of organised chaos.
So how do you make the most of your tinkering time? By following these five tips, of course!
01 Order, order!
You might quietly snort at the sight of a perfectly in order tool board or tool cabinet, but the truth is, organised tools work. Go into any professional garage and you’ll soon learn that every tool cabinet in the place is in order. This saves time, it saves frustration and it means that if something is lost, you know when it happened. You don’t discover its absence three months later while rustling through a tool bag. Plus, it looks good, and who doesn’t love showing off their tools?
02 Read up
Going to take on a job tomorrow? Then why not read up on it today. You don’t want to be thumbing through one of our manuals while your car is in bits.
Read up first, without the distraction of trying to actually, physically do the job at the same time.
It prepares you, you’ll get a bit of insight and when you do jump on the tools, it will all seem less daunting. And let’s face it, our guides don’t leave a single nut unturned, so we’ve got you covered.
03 Set goals
Get a whiteboard, make your other half check on you, set a reminder on your phone, whatever works. Just make sure you stick to what you set about doing. If you don’t, you’re just going to end up with a load of half-completed jobs, most of which you’ve forgotten how to put back together.
Going to change the pads? Then do that in its entirety before moving onto the next job. The other jobs aren’t going to go away. They’ll be there waiting for you when you’re done with what you set out to do.
04 Lube up
If you’re going to have to undo rusty nuts and bolts, it won’t hurt to pop in the garage the night before and give them a coating of penetrating oil.
This gives it all night to soak in, and then when you do start working on your car, you won’t spend your precious time fighting stubborn, corroded-on nuts. It’s just clever thinking, that’s all.
05 Bag it
Buy some small bags, or a few trays, whatever you may need. And when you’re going spanners deep into a big job, put the nuts, bolts, screws, washers, split-pins and anything you may remove in them.
Mark them up clearly and obviously, and then when it comes time to build everything back up, you’ll be laughing.
It’ll all be clear, it’ll all make sense and with any luck, by the time you’re done, you won’t have one ‘spare’ nut left, leaving you confused as to where it should go.