Tech Tips

I would like to thank Fixer for giving me the opportunity to post here,it is an honor and I hope to have more to come later on. I am also greatly looking forward to picking Gordons mind on a few things as I love old iron and use to ride motorcycles as a crazy youngster.
I hope I can relay some time saving tips from my side as I use to work flat rate as a mechanic, which is piece work. The quicker you got done, the more money you could make.So I have a few things up my sleeve and hope you can benefit from my experiences.


Anyone who has ever done any amount of wrenching will immediately grimace whenever this topic is broached;
Gasket removal.
Who hasn't spent a few hours scraping and cursing a particularly stubborn gasket?
One that has been stuck on a piece for say, 25 years or more?
Oh yeah, been there.
I have seen some nasty hand wounds from guys who tried using a gasket scraper the wrong way,to tell the truth I have a couple of scars myself.
Well, I am here to make your day.
I first ran into the original version of these little wonder discs back in the mid nineties. Perhaps you have seen them.
3M calls them Roloc surface preparation discs.They come in different diameters and different degrees of coarseness. They twist onto a collet you put in a 90 degree die grinder.
Instead of an hour of scraping, you can do a water pump gasket in two minutes.
They are awesome for large gaskets and can be used for rust removal, paint removal (to a point)
heck, I even used one once to put a quick edge on my knife!
Care should be used, eye protection is a must, gloves, possibly dust protection.
You do not want any of the resulting dust to get inside an engine, it is literally sandpaper
particles getting into your bearings etc.Care must also be taken when using on aluminum parts as it will quickly eat into the gasket surface if you are not paying attention.
Here is a link to the 3M site, there are other brands out there.
I will say ,once you try these you will be glad you did.

http://www.tcpglobal.com/3m/3m101-4.aspx