Posts in DIY
Headlight Restoration

 

Need to Know:

  1. Headlight restoration works on cloudy, discoloured headlights.
  2. Headlight restoration is an easy, one-hour job.
  3. You can do headlight restoration in the driveway at home, with essentially no tools or training. All you need for headlight restoration is a $30 self-contained kit, some masking tape, and elbow grease.
  4. To restore your headlights you don’t need to remove them from the car (we just did that for the video above).
  5. Headlight restoration could save you thousands (think: old European prestige car). It will certainly save you hundreds of dollars compared with the price of two replacement headlamps, even on a basic car.

Here's the detail on restoring those cloudy headlights:

Read More
video, DIYJohn Cadogancar, diy, headlamp, headlight, light, money, repair, restoration, saveComment
Car under Water? Here's what you do
Car under Water? Here's what you do

Car crashes into rivers and dams are common enough. So are floodwaters. Here's what you do if it all goes horribly wrong on the road and when you look out the window, all you see is water.

Crashes that involve submerging have a higher death rate than head-on collisions. You might think this will never happen to you, after all, we live in the driest continent on earth. The 28-year-old Queensland mother whose car plunged into the Mulgrave River yesterday with her 10-month-old baby on board probably thought so, too. Luckily she was able to escape with the baby because, luckily, the car was not fully submerged.

Read More
DIY, safetyJohn Cadogancar, water, emergency, car sinking, car under water, escape, drownComment
Car on Fire? Here's what you do
Car on Fire? Here's what you do

The fact is that cars are jam-packed with flammable liquids and parts. Petrol and oil, for example, burn fiercely. Upholstery and most plastics burn readily, too. In addition, car batteries manufacture hydrogen gas (flammable) and also spray sulphuric acid all over the place should they explode. The vehicle's electrical system is a godd (or is that bad?) source of ignition. In any case it is a powerful one.

In many countries the most common cause of vehicle fires is arson (ie they are intentional). Another common cause is unwittingly introducing static electricity into the refuelling process. You can read about preventing refuelling fires by clicking the link to our story on that. Crashing and mechanical malfunction are also common causes of car fires.

Let's assume, however, you don't intentionally burn your car down. Let's assume you're not refuelling. Let's assume you're driving along and your car catches fire. (Often this is only visible in the rear-view mirrors because you're leaving the smoke behind you as the car cuts into the air in front.) What do you do?

Read More
DIY, video, safetyJohn Cadogancar, fire, car catches fire, car on fire, car fireComment
Safety when you get underneath the car

Never get under a car supported only by a jack … & other weighty issues

Plenty of jobs – for example replacing the brake pads – involve jacking up one corner, or one end, of the car. You can do that with the standard jack that comes with the car, or an aftermarket jack like a trolley jack that’ll achieve the same result (bit of the car up in the air) quicker.

Read More
DIYJohn Cadogancar jack, underneath a car, getting under a car, mechanic, axle standsComment