WINTER TROUBLES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 124, 11 May 1935, Page 13

WINTER TROUBLES

Protection for the Car ADVICE TO THE AMATEUR Winter with its cold and wet sets up rust and other troubles. To protect the ear against them proceed as follows: — (1) Have the car carefully cleaned and polished. Rub off-the rust spots with line grade glass paper, and, after carefully wiping away the dirt, fill in the bare spots with enamel. Do not, if possible, increase the area of the affected part. For black parts, such as the mudguards, cyclo enamel will suffice. Write to the car’s agont, who will give you his recommendation for the coloured body parts. The edges and undersides of the mudguards, and tho rims of the wheels are the parts which are must likely to require attention. (2) Have the chassis parts thoroughly oiled and greased, for an injection of lubricant forces out the dust accumulated during the summer, and makes an effective seal against wet. Many service stations are equipped to spray oil, and, if asked to do so, they will agree to spray the road springs and the underside of the chassis with engine oil that has been discarded when the lubricant has been changed. In so doing they may cure a number of squeaks. An over-liberal application, however, means that much dirt will adhere.

(3) Any body bolts, such as the large-headed ones used on the mudguards, that are loose cause the forma tiou of rust. Make sure that all arc tight. (4) Oil the door hinges and then put the merest smear of grease on thu striker plates of the door locks. If any plates are discovered on the door framing where the movement of the door has worn the enamel off, smear a little grease on the part to protect it from wet.

(5) After polishing the bright parts rub them over with a clean rag which has had some light machine oil sprinkled on it. The unseen oily film is a great preventive of rust. (6) Drain the cooling system and flush it out. Put in the requisite quantity of anti-freezing solution and add clean water until the level is an inch below the top of the vent pipe. Avoid using more water as this will obviously lead to loss of some of tl4 anti-freez-ing mixture.

(7) After rubbing the radiator bright parts over with an oily rag fit a radiator muff if necessary.

(8) Examine the tyres carefully for cuts and embedded stones. Pick out the stones und examine the nature of the cut that they have caused in the rubber. Any cut that penetrates the rubber and allows water to reach the easing should be stopped, as water rots the casing. Small cuts can be cleaned out with benzine or petrol, and then sealed against wet by squeezing rubber solution into them. The larger cuts must bo filled with tyre stopping. As the methods of applying the stopping vary widely with the different makes, read the instructions given on the package before use.

(9) All brake cables should be cleaned with petrol and coated with grease, especially where they enter conduits or run over pulleys. (10) If the battery is in a metal container lift it Ont, and after removing the rust with emery cloth give the container a coat of paint, as the acid fumes that arise from the battery are very corrosive.

(11) It is not unlikely that during the year some of the wooden frame members in the body will have shrunk a little, leaving the bolts that hold the body to the chassis loose. Examine these and tighten them if necessary. (12) Should any nut that you wish to remove in making your adjustments have become so firmly rusted to its bolt that jt cannot be moved, squirt penetrating oil on the exposed portion of the thread, and leave it overnight to soak in. This usually loosens the rust.

(13) Storage in a cold and damp garage is more conducive to the formation of rust than anything else. Proper ventilation is, therefore, desirable, and a garage stove is well worth its cost. (14) If the car is likely to be out of commission for more than a week at a time remember to inflate the tyres to their recommended pressure before leaving the car. See also that no tyre is standing in an oil pool. If the cooling system has not anti-freezing mixture in it drain off the -water. Once a week it is desirable to start the engine and let it turn over at a sufficiently brisk speed for the dynamo to be charging, for five or six minutes. This distributes the oil all over the mechanism and prevents the formation of rust inside the engine.