Last month in my shop in Tulsa, I fired up the old 1957 Frigidaire I've been nursing back to life for the neighbors' garage. Ten minutes in, I heard this weird hissing, then the whole back panel started steaming like a kettle. Turns out the defrost timer was stuck, which melted the drain line, which flooded the compressor compartment, and the motor locked up at 2:30 PM on a Saturday. I ended up replacing the timer and drain pan with parts from a 1962 model I found at a flea market for $14, and she's humming cold again. Has anyone else had a stuck defrost timer fry something else in the same unit, or is that just my luck?
My uncle Bob swore by spraying Easy-Off on greasy engine blocks to strip them clean. Said he'd done it for 30 years on his old Ford trucks. I tried it on a 1978 Jeep CJ5 I'm restoring. It ate through the paint and started pitting the aluminum intake manifold within 15 minutes. Had to pull the whole engine and sandblast it. Cost me $400 in extra supplies and two weekends. Anyone else get bad advice from a relative that set your project back?
I was stripping trim from a 1920s house in Detroit and got down to what I thought was bare wood. But there was this weird grey chalky layer underneath. I grabbed a lead test kit from the hardware store and sure enough it came back positive. So even if you've stripped off years of paint jobs, that original lead layer could still be hiding down there. Has anyone else run into this while sanding old woodwork?
I see so many people just sanding down to bare metal and repainting classics. I spent like 4 hours with some polishing compound and a cheap buffer from Harbor Freight on the tailgate and the original Wimbledon White came back better than I expected. Anyone else have luck keeping OG paint alive?
I was at an estate sale last June in some old guy's garage and saw a rusty clamp with a wood handle for $20. Figured it was junk but bought it anyway as a paperweight or something. After I cleaned off the crud with some wire wool, I found 'Stanley No. 55' stamped into the metal. Looked it up online and it's worth around $150 to collectors. Anyone else ever buy something that looked beat up and it ended up being the real deal?
I picked up a set of vintage chisels at an estate sale outside Portland last month and decided to treat the cracked handles with boiled linseed oil like everyone recommends online. Within 3 days the handle swelled up and actually split down the grain, making it useless. Turns out that old dry wood can soak up too much oil too fast and expand unevenly. Has anyone else had better luck with Danish oil or just straight tung oil for this sort of thing?
I was over at the old train depot in downtown Portland last weekend, they're restoring the waiting room benches from 1910. Half the team wants to keep all that dark, cracked varnish and wear marks because it tells a story, the other half wants to sand it all off and refinish like new. I'm on the fence, I've got a 1940s dresser at home where I stripped the top but left the sides original, and it feels uneven to me now. But my buddy stripped his entire 1920s library table and it looks factory fresh, not sure if that's good or bad. Which side do you fall on for furniture restoration, patina forever or bring it back to like-new condition?
Had a furnace that kept tripping the limit switch last winter. Spent three hours tearing it apart, testing everything, finally replaced the blower motor for $300. Next day I'm cleaning up and notice the old motor's shaft has a tiny bit of surface rust. Grabbed a can of WD-40 from my truck, sprayed the bearing on the new one as a test, and whaddya know - the thing was binding from friction. Could have saved myself the whole motor swap if I'd just lubed the original first. Anyone else ever made a rookie mistake that cost way more than the actual fix?
Back in April I cut out a water stain from a leaky pipe in my kitchen ceiling, patched it with some joint compound, and figured it'd dry in a couple days. Well I cut into it again last weekend to check and the middle was still damp, like wet sand. Turns out I layered it too thick and sealed the edges before the center could breathe. Now I gotta scrape it all out and redo it with thinner coats and a box fan pointed at it for a week straight. Anyone else had a patch job turn into a months long science experiment?
He saw me using 80 grit on a solid oak dining table. Said I was chewing it up for no reason. Handed me a piece of 120 grit from his truck. Told me to go slow with the grain. Took me half the time and zero swirl marks. Has anyone else gotten advice from strangers that actually worked?
I was at an antique shop out in Ellensburg last weekend and saw two old sinks side by side. One had all this character with the worn spots and slight rust coloring, the other was sandblasted and polished up like new. The shop owner said they sold the polished one for $450 and the patina one sat for 6 months. But I've also seen forums where people swear keeping the original surface makes it more authentic for farmhouse builds. Which way do you guys lean when you're bringing old cast iron back? Do you think patina adds value or just makes it look beat up?
Bought a cheap sandblaster from Harbor Freight for $400 thinking I'd save money doing my own blasting on a 67 Mustang fender. Worked fine for the first hood and one door panel. Third job it clogged so bad the nozzle cracked and the siphon tube fell apart. Spent more time unclogging than blasting. Total waste. Should have just paid a shop $300 to do it all. Anyone else get burned by cheap blasting gear?