April 28, 2021

Keep your old brackets to save your project!

As we go through the process of building cars, and being around people who build cars, lots of stuff gets thrown IN THE BIN. But sometimes we shouldn't throw everything out - old bolts and brackets from different project cars can come in massively handy as the lads found out IN THEIR LATEST EPISODE.

MOOG needed a way to mount the radiator in the front of their B16A-swap EK Civic but the top bracket was missing in the pile of parts that came with their abandoned project purchase. Luckily the lads keep a huge bucket of left-over bolts, nuts and brackets from old cars and Marty had hung onto this top radiator bracket for a Gen 1 Subaru Liberty/Legacy.

With some quick and easy drilling, bashing and massaging MOOG had modified the Subaru bracket to work on the nose of their 1998 Honda, and the new alloy radiator was ready to have its hoses connected and to be filled with sweet anti-freeze coolant.

While you might not think you'd ever work on a particular car ever again, you never know when you need to mount a set of driving lights, or an electric power steering pump, or hundreds of other random maaad mods, and these brackets could be perfect for a use you'd never imagined, with just a little work.

After eye-balling the problem for 5minutes, MOOG only needed to use basic hand tools to transform the bracket into a shape that would work in the Honda's nose.

Possibly one of the most useful tools in a garage is a good vice which can not only hold brackets while you modify them, but also be used to flatten them if you need something straightened out.

Yaris Hilton, the long-gone but never-forgotten $169 turbocharged Corolla-powered nugget Yaris, also saved the day by donating several bolts for the Honda, including one holding the header to the B16A VTEC engine and a couple holding the crank trigger bracket on, too. Having a bin (or a cheap old tool box) full of spare bolts, nuts and washers will 100% come in far handier than you could ever imagine when it comes to getting your project on the road, and it is far cheaper than buying new fasteners every time you want to fit a part.