1961 Ford F500 project.

[MattA]

Might help to have the paint at room temp before painting?

[JSinMO]

Thanks guys, great tips! I should have mentioned this will be a rattle can paint job. I think a conglomeration of your ideas should make this work.
I’ll keep the paint in the house, and once I’m done cleaning the rims up I could put them in the basement to get them to a good temp. This all depends on the weather of course but a sunny day in the 30sF and my shop heater should get the temp inside into the 60s. I could paint in the shop but I prefer to do it outside, it doesn’t take long for the paint fumes to become intolerable. I do have a roll of clear plastic sheeting so a makeshift tent is doable. I may even get fancy and duct some warm air into it from the shop!

Eugen the price for that socket set here was a little painful too! But once I started pricing out pieces individually, getting the set was cheaper. I was surprised that Harbor Freight had a lifetime warranty as well so even though it is lower quality it made sense to get it.

Thanks again guys, I appreciate it!

[Eugen]

I promised to post a pic. I think this should show that if I got this result without warming up anything you should get better results with the good tips from the guys.

[propane1]

Nothing wrong with that paint job Eugen.

Noel

[DavidBarkey]

interesting idea.

[Eugen]

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interesting idea.

Interesting idea. It's all about getting the force to the spot you needed. Good leverage!

[JSinMO]

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interesting idea.

That would be a great idea to keep with the truck for roadside trouble. I used a jack-stand as a cradle for the wrench and adjusted the height to get mine loose.

[DavidBarkey]

Thought it was a neat idea . Like the jack stand idea too. Working in an automotive shop most of my life my go to was always an impact gun and blue flame spanner for the "stuck" ones .

[JSinMO]

Thought it was a neat idea . Like the jack stand idea too. Working in an automotive shop most of my life my go to was always an impact gun and blue flame spanner for the "stuck" ones .

I see a lot of guys using cordless ratchets and impacts a lot. I’m sure it’s more efficient, especially if you’re trying to make a living. My air impact doesn’t have the guts to move the big stuff!
I’ve been very cautious about using heat on lug nuts for years. My dad had a 1969 Chevy single axel dump truck. He heated the lugs up to get them off. Once everything was back together he had a full load going down the highway and every lug either backed off or broke. The duels on the passenger side came off and passed in the median! All we could figure is he got them to hot and took the temper out of them. I do know know that was a hefty tow bill!
That’s been probably close to 40 years ago and it still makes me nervous putting heat on lug nuts!

I found this wrench in the RV. It fits the lugs. But of course it’s broke. Pretty much useless like this. I don’t have the missing pieces. I was thinking about trying to fix it but it might be a fool’s errand.

[Eugen]

If you think there's a chance to fix it, why not? Maybe not for the heavy duty stuff but it could still be useful.

As for power tools, I look at it as a time saver. Once my wife convinced me to bring back the cheep no name drill plus impact kit and buy a Milwaukee set. Over time I added a mid-torque 1/2" drive impact, and a ratchet, and a few batteries. The impact can make the difference between a 1/2 day trying to get a bolt off, or a few minutes. This would happen on the car, when sometimes there was no good leverage for power. Not to talk about the frustration when that bolt just doesn't come off. The ratchet is really useful too. You know when you have a lot of bolts to undo, or do? A few seconds per bolt with the power ratchet, instead of half a minute or more. This ratchet I use a lot! No way I want to go back to doing everything manually. Just my preference.