Wednesday, October 28, 2009

How to Get Your Classic Car into Great Shape for a Parade

Every city has its own parade. And in a parade, cars are mandatory. When you have a parade to participate with your own classic or antique car, these are the things you will need to know.

First, pay attention to the theme. Parades usually have themes. As a member of the parade, your car will also have to embrace the theme. Do not deviate from the theme or just participate without decorating your car. This will make your participation become pointless. Why would you participate in a parade if you do not make your car agree with the theme?

There are three ways to make you blend into the theme. You can decorate your car with a look that just suit the theme, play a music that describe or give reference to the theme, and post a sign or banner that shows words or picture that refers to the theme. These will make the crowd love your car and even have your car as their favorite in the parade.

To make the crowd even merrier, have candy or trinkets tossed around from your car. Adults love parade, but children definitely love it more. It can be guaranteed that there will be lots of children around watching the parade. Make their day by throwing away candy and see the smiling faces as the result.

The second thing to consider is the weather. Do not force your car to participate if it will not be able to stand the cold. You will have much trouble later on if it turns out that your car cannot make it. If your car is convertible, make sure you have all things necessary to deal with the weather such as blankets or jackets.

If the weather forecast predicts that it is going to rain, make sure you have made adjustments for your decoration. Rain water will most likely wipe away the glue used to attach some of your decorations, and some paints will be swept away by the rain. So make sure you use the particular paint and glue for your decoration.

The third thing to do is to always have emergency phone numbers programmed in your cell phone. Call the parade organizers to check if there are any changes in the plan. The numbers will also be useful if you face some troubles during the parade.

Before you join a parade, there are things to check too. First, check the route first. Do not participate in a parade with the field your car cannot handle. Classic and antique cars are sensitive, so pay attention to the route of the parade before you decide to join in. Second, check all the parts of your car and make sure that they are working in the best condition. Do not go into a condition where you have to pull up your car in the middle of the parade. That will not be a great thing to watch. Last thing, check that you have brought all the things you need. The poster, signs, giveaways, blankets for cold weather, etc.

If you have done all the things above, it means that you are ready to participate in your parade. Be the great participant and enjoy the parade fully!

Friday, October 23, 2009

How to deal with chips in your car paint

Nobody likes the paint chips in his/her car. The chips make the car looks old and ugly. Fresh and flawless paint is the dream of every car owner.

There are many things that cause chips in cars. It can be caused by a small bump in the parking lot or flying small rocks when you are driving on the rocky the road. Here is a method to deal with the chips in your car paint in the easiest way.

First thing is to know whether the chip in your car is just a nick in the paint surface or it comes with a dent. You also need to know if the chip has stayed long enough and rusts have been developed there. If that is the case, then it will need a more advanced treatment than the method that will be explained here. Please be informed that the method will take quite a long time to carry out and involve painting process.

Below is the list of the things needed to do the repair:

  • Sand paper - wet or dry
  • Metal Glaze – get the best glaze of metal to fix paint chips.
  • A Paint Match – have the paint that matched your car color.
  • Masking Tape & Paper - and possibly plastic sheeting.
  • A Paint Spray Gun
  • Paint Reducer
  • Paint Hardener
  • Mixing Cups
  • Razor Blades
  • Metal Prep Cleaner
  • Lint Free Paper Towels
  • Fine Grit Scotch Bright

After completing the items above, now we are ready to start the process.

First, cover the area around the chip with sand. Make it around 2 inches and use 220 grit wet sand paper around the chip. Now mix up the metal glaze with a line of hardener to make it harden faster. You can put the metal glaze on a cardboard and mix it there.

After the mixing is ready, use a razor blade to take and put the metal glaze on the chip. When it is already dry, use 220 grit sand paper to smooth it and then finish it with 440 grit wet sand paper.

Clean the area and mask the area you don't want to paint. Use prep cleaner or scotch bright. Never paint to the mask line since the line will not be out of your paint forever. You can also back mask to make the painting easier. Put the tape down, pull the edges closest to your work then fold it back gently. Hang your paper off on the fold back.

Now you can start the painting. Remember, if it involves a big chip, have a primer to get the best result. Sand your primer with 400 grit once it is dry and re-mask it again.

Don't forget to get the settings right on your spray gun. Put three coats of paint and wait for at least 15 minutes after each coat. If you use a base coat clear coat paint, use the clear coat next and wait 15 minutes between each coat.

Do not rush the process to get the maximum result. Be patient and do the process accordingly or you may fail the whole effort.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Restore Your Classic Car : Bring Back the Good Old Days

People always love to remember how they were in the good old days. One of the ways to remember the memories are by restoring the old cars. The memory of how people hang out with their friends when they are young can be brought back by the cars.

Yet it is quite tricky to have an old car in your garage. Time changes and there will be many things to fix. Simple tools such as wrenches and sockets will not be enough. However, the struggle and sacrifice made by people in doing car restoration usually pays off.

Classic cars will give their owners the pride and a sense of accomplishment because it is so unique and stand out among all the cars in the road. The car will get the attention of most people when it is pulled up into the parking lot. Classic cars are always special, and therefore many people love to restore and drive them.

Why people always restore classic cars can be understood if we are looking back to the 1960's and 1970's era when people had their first cars. A person will always remember his/her first car. With me, it was a 1969 Z/28 Camaro, a muscle car that I truly love.

I remember hanging out in the boulevard one Saturday night. It was a place where I was behind the wheel, racing my car with other racing cars. The fun and joy that the car generated would not be able to be created by today cars like Honda or Toyota.

Now I am desperately looking for a 1969 Z/28 to buy just for the old time sakes. I want to feel it, taste it, and drive it to bring back old good memories when I was still driving it. I believe there are many people who also feel the way I do, longing for the very car that will bring them to the memories of the past.

This is the reason why people do car restoration. There are lots and lots memories with classic cars. It will bring back the old days when car made someone feel important. The moment when he took his first date with the car. All the memories that scattered along the way to present time. And for that reason, car restoration will never die.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Tips For Buying a Classic Car - Part 2

When you have made your mind to buy a certain classic car and settle with the price, take a good look at the car before you hand over the money. Check all the details, especially the weak areas you already noted in your list. Check the engine, does it make noises? Is it overheating? Are there parts over worn? You can also bring a friend who knows a lot about cars with you.

When you are done with the car physically, move on to the paperwork of the car. If one or some parts of the cars have been professionally built in the past, the paperwork must have shown it since most owner keep all the receipts. Make sure that the car registration document is up to date and the numbers of the engine and chassis all match.

If the car passes all the checking, now you can hand out the money and bring the car home. Now that it is in your possession, treat it with utmost care and pay lots of attention to it. Have fun and drive safe!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Tips For Buying a Classic Car - Part 1

Classic cars are special. They require special treatment and sometimes lots of repair. The standard is so high, that even the brand new ones will require much energy, effort, and money to maintain. Since many of us cannot afford to meet these standards, we just settle with something a bit under the line.

Before you make yourself a classic car owner, consider a few things. You have to have the ability in working on cars and a space to restore it, unless you already allocate a great sum of money in your account to be spent in the local garage nearby. You will be the mechanic of your classic car. When you do, please remember that it is always safer to store your car under cover.

Do research also about your target car before you buy it. Do not buy anything that you will regret in the future. Find as many information as you can. Compare the current price to the car's condition. Contact your local classic car club to get information from those who are already expert on it. The information from a practical collector is always more useful than any information you can get in the internet.

Note that there are models of cars which can be easily rusty from inside out. One example is Morris Minor, which looks very fair and respectable from the outside but can be rusty in the inside. Consider also whether the replacement parts are easy to get. Even though there are markets which specialize in selling classic car parts, some models are just very rare so that no replacement parts can be found anywhere. In this case, then the only way to get the parts is by asking a professional to have the parts specially made for you.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Basic Tips for Increasing Horsepower to Your 1965 Ford Galaixe 500 XL - Part 2

Also be wary of too-good-to-be-true gimmicks like "performance chips." Modern engines are controlled by later computers which check a expansive range of scheme inputs through several uncalled-for systems. You're not likely to get back a fragment on whichever of these computers which can be replaced except you're an electronics engineer. Trying to fool the central processing unit with a "magic" fragment you found online isn't ready to labor. Sorry.

All theory and wishful thinking aside, the road to increased power begins with making your intake and exhaust systems more efficient. Replace your air filter with a high-pitched performance, washable detachment. You don't state to good buy a brand honor cold air intake scheme if you don't require to. Replacing the filter is all but as capable! And consider replacing the factory exhaust with an aftermarket scheme while you're by it in lieu of even more power and with the aim of sporty sound. Work your way backwards, replacing restrictive domestic animals intake and exhaust components until you've reached the engine from either stop. At this peak, you'll be set to consider the more later modifications.

With the intake and the exhaust addressed, you'll be by the peak someplace you state to decide specifically how much of an investment of stretch and finances you craving this project to happen to. One the lone pass, you may well remove the intake manifold and the head (note: V-engines will state two heads) to state system labor ended, perhaps install a scenery of aftermarket camshafts, and complete a incline of proven airflow improvements internally. Or you can consider forms of mandatory induction such as the supercharger or its more regular cousin, the turbocharger.

Both the turbo and supercharger are proven methods of greatly increasing the power output of an engine. These policy force more air into the incineration chamber (while bigger fuel injectors add more fuel to match it) in order to generate exponentially more powerful explosions. Just like with balloons, the more air you force in near, the louder the bang. While a supercharger is a compressor twisted by a belt attached to the engine by all era, a turbocharger uses the exhaust chatter to spin the compressor. There are remuneration to both method of mandatory induction, so deft inquiries ought to be ended into both if you craving to consider making power on a bigger amount as this.

The more powerful the car, the more expensive the project will happen to, but nothing valuable was still released or painless, was it? Never stop thinking about the basics: The efficient spring of air and fuel into and exhaust old hat of the engine results in more power. Modify accordingly. Keep in mind with the aim of power is nothing lacking control, so a little power modifications combined with a well thought-out (and much more by a long way installed) suspension scheme and a really capable scenery of tires will fail your car with the aim of sporty feeling all the stretch - not specifically once you mash the chatter pedal to the floor. If you earnestly evaluate your goals in lieu of the car once it's complete, your goals will attend to steer you and you towards the the largest part rewarding experience.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Basic Tips for Increasing Horsepower to Your 1965 Ford Galaixe 500 XL - Part 1

Nearly every person finds themselves in need a speck more revealed of their car from clock to clock. There's to facilitate drag battle down the freeway on-ramp or, at times a speck more nerve-wracking, the two-lane highway pass while you can visit to facilitate on-coming truck on the horizon. For whatever purpose, you've befit used to your car's power and it certainly couldn't hurt to partake of a little more on tap while you need it.

Before you cause happening modifying your car, be absolutely it's in tip top condition! A undemanding tune-up can bring a lethargic car back to life, given that improved performance, but moreover increased fuel nation and overall reliability. Start with a clean slate; if not used for your own safety and convenience down the road, in order to realize the major gains from a few modification you run.

The basic pronounce of making more power is undemanding squeeze more air and fuel into the ignition chamber. All inside ignition engines get air and fuel into the chamber, compress it, and blow up it. The follow-on explosion forces the pistons back down the cylinder, which rotates the crankshaft, and that.. Increasing air and fuel be required to be through right. To add more air and not match to facilitate air with more fuel or associate versa can spell failure. So the trick is making absolutely you cause both more air AND fuel into the ignition chamber.

Next, don't be swayed by regular myths re how privileged octane fuel will give out you more power. Just the opposite, really! Higher octane fuel is more hardy to detonation! That's respectable. It in reality takes MORE energy to put a match to privileged octane fuel. Now, this isn't to say to facilitate you must swallow the lowest grade of fuel, either. Barring extensive modifications, you need individual run the least grade of fuel specified by the manufacturer. Running lesser than recommended octane can end result in harm, while running more octane than vital results in cheap engine efficiency and a lighter wallet.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

How to Get Your AC Cobra 427 Ready For Winter - Part 2

6) Winter Wiper Blades
- Change your wiper blades pro a covered array. These wiper blades produce a defensive wrapper to shields the frame and hinges from snow and ice, allowing
It to keep constant e-mail with the windshield. Also, the arms and pins will not crack as by far as solitary to is exposed to the cold.

7) Headlamps
Check your headlamps in all settings - running light, headlights and hi beams (also fog lamps if you produce them) to ensure to they are shining brightly. Replace burnt outmoded bulbs the minute to evade certification from the supervise, not exactly to winterize your vehicle!
Crank Angle Sensor

8) Brakes
Have your brakes examined. During the winter, it is very widespread pro defensive driving techniques to be used, and your brakes need to be in pleasant working condition to evade collisions and road obstacles. Take your vehicle in to produce the brakes misrepresented if you perform not know how to complete this by hand.

9) Undercoating
Undercoating is the attention of a bony waxy/oily solution to inhibits the beginning of decay from salt, hose and other particles. It is not as widespread in this day and age with newer vehicles, as metal parts are made of more durable resources and rust-proofed next to the factory. For big vehicles with a bundle of road wear, an attention of the first coat spray next to a certified dealer will continue the life of your vehicle's undercarriage. This is not a mandatory step pro all drivers, just folks with vehicles to might produce suspect issues with wear and tear.

10) Keep an emergency kit in the trunk
Participating in the event your vehicle breaks down or is involved in an accident, you ought to keep an emergency kit in the trunk along with your give up tire, jack and tools. The kit ought to contain:
- Blankets
- Boots
- Gloves + hat to covers ears
- an ice scraper
- a small scoop
- a flashlight
- sand or kitty litter

These items are central if you produce to dig your vehicle outmoded of a snowbank or ditch, the clothing will save from harm you somewhat from the elements, and the sand/kitty litter can be used pro traction on ice. Fund litter contains magnesium oxide which wicks up hose much like salt. A combination of both ought to provide exactly an adequate amount of traction to assist the trapped vehicle in retrieval a number of into view or reverse movement.

There are 10 tips to preparing your car pro the winter months. If you get the primary investment on a number of of the items on this keep a record, you will be better equipped pro the following day. It is not demanding to winterize your car or truck if you simply take the spell and effort. The paramount day might be the a good number perform, but apiece ensuing day will be easier and part of your routine to ensure your safety in the winter season.

Monday, October 5, 2009

How to Get Your AC Cobra 427 Ready For Winter - Part 1

Preparing your vehicle in favor of the onslaught of winter may well seem like a daunting task. Don't lose hope - at this time are approximately quick, reasonably priced and unadorned solutions to winterize your vehicle. Whether you are a veteran of the cold weather or it is your main while experiencing the season as a car landlord, these tips will equip you with the crucial items you'll need to outlast the deep freeze.

1) Oil Change and Fluid check
If you assert not brought your vehicle in in favor of servicing in the keep going 2-3 months in advance the snow cascade, this is the preeminent while to achieve it. Have your grease untouched, your transmission fluid checked, your coolant flushed and replaced, and pressurize somebody into positive you add winter unambiguous windshield washer fluid to your reservoir. The winter unambiguous fluids contain take away hose down and assert a hand down freezing item.

2) Service the battery
- If your car is a a small number of years old, you may well lack to assert the battery checked in favor of its charge level. The terminals will need to be cleaned and its hose down levels topped up. You may well assert to restore the battery if its levels are too low and achieve not assert an adequate amount cranking power to start as the heat dips. This is an essential step to winterize your car or truck.

3) Have a building block warmer installed.
If your vehicle does not assert a building block warmer, this is a sound investment you necessity consider. A building block warmer warms the heat of your coolant liquid, and in the past it circulates, will warmhearted up your vehicle earlier in the lead preparatory. If you already assert a building block warmer installed, pressurize somebody into positive so as to it is working by the book by having it tested by a garage in favor of current depict.

4) Have Winter tires position on your vehicle
A majority of vehicles arrive with 'all season' radials, but they are quite ineffective in deep snow and icy conditions. Invest in a hard of winter tires which assert an aggressive tread and assert a anticyclone traction rating on ice. They may well be more costly, but your costs be supposed to not take precedent finished your safety. This is a different eminent step to winterize your vehicle.

5) Tire Pressure
Winter tires are softer than regular all season radials, and in the winter the tire pressure is hand down to create more ascend with the ground, and due to the air being cooler. Make positive so as to the tire pressure is correct as the winter hard of tires are installed on your vehicle. Overfilling will consequence in alignment issues and added wear.