DIY Life

Let's visit the topic of vehicular fuel economy. It's not realistic to believe that the cost of a gallon of gas is going to markedly decrease, given the politics and economics of the world's available supply of petroleum. This feature won't cover alternative fuels, hybrids, water or compressed air cars; we'll hit common sense stuff you can do to stretch your mileage. Admittedly, some of the items are not in the "gee whiz" category, but every little bit helps, right?

Francesca Clark, in her excellent post, covered a number of tips; I'd like to explore a couple of those in depth and add several more that are (perhaps) off-beat or not generally considered when thinking about saving fuel in your daily drive.

But first, the gallery!

Engine-cooking is totally new to me, but apparently a tradition dating back to the first cars. I don't actually plan on testing this out, but I'll point you to the instructions and if you do give it a go let me know. With extraordinarily high gas prices it does make sense to double the use you get from running your car.

If you're just driving to work, get your breakfast sandwich hot and ready by the time you get to work. If you're heading out on a longer road trip you can make a roast complete with potato and veggie sides. Make sure you match the meal to the trip. Running your car any longer than you need to for the drive is a real waste since it puts out unnecessary emissions and is probably your most expensive way to cook.

If you're interested in this wacky approach to cooking, you'll need to wrap the food in tinfoil, and follow conventional oven cooking instructions. I can't help but feel that this isn't sanitary, though the food is never actually exposed to the engine. If you're interested in trying a carbecue of your own, check out these instructions (make sure you read the warnings on this one). Here are some things you might want to try, and their cooking times in miles:

• Shrimp: 30-50 miles
• Trout or Salmon: 60-100 miles
• Chicken breasts: 60 miles at 65 mph
• Chicken wings: 140-200 miles
• Pork tenderloin: 250 miles
• Sliced, peeled potatoes: 55 miles

So, next time you're headed out to a dinner party and you're asked to bring an appetizer, maybe you can throw some wings on your engine and they'll be hot and ready when you arrive.

As example of just how far do-it-yourself thinking can go, here's an inspiring story which I picked up from AutoblogGreen about an electric Volkswagen Super Beetle and the Alaskan teen who is bringing it to completion. Started as a response to a school project which challenged students to come up with creative solutions to our global climate challenges, Bart Grabman's electric Beetle has served the young fellow as a priceless tutor in the realms of product development, prototype and assembly process. In a story reported by By Erin Britton, McClatchy Newspapers, via TuscaloosaNews.com, Grabman stated, "It's been an interesting experience trying to figure it out ... I'm not done with it, so I'm still learning a lot."

I recently ran across a tool concept as I was "window shopping" new things on the tool market. What I found is a beauty of an adjustable wrench manufactured by Irwin Industrial Tools.( Not the wrench pictured).

I don't know if an adjustable wrench with a lever for adjustment rather than the old screw mechanism is a totally new idea but I can sure guarantee you that I have never seen the concept executed as nicely as this tool appears to be.

This lifetime guaranteed wrench is two times faster to adjust than the standard screw mechanism adjustable wrench the manufacturer claims. It would seem that the secret is in how the lever mechanism releases the jaw with one lever action and leaves it free to be adjusted. The wrench head has graduated markings to indicate the size of the jaw opening and the manufacturer states that the internal jaw slide is grooved.

These ergonomically focused wrenches start at a length of 6" with a girth of 7/8" and range all the way to a 12" model with a girth of 1-1/2". It was reported in one review that the wrenches start in price at about $20.

A recent poll that I looked into surveyed opinions about the need for various insurance policies. The survey showed that over 80% of the poll respondents feel that insurance is necessary to some degree. What the poll didn't address was how we feel about paying those nasty insurance premiums.

I want to address the high cost of auto insurance premiums and give you some solid suggestions on how to lower your annual cost of auto insurance by possibly hundreds of dollars. What it all comes down to is how much money you want to save and how serious you are about doing that. Some of my suggestions may require you to change some of your attitudes about your automobile and your driving strategy altogether but when the times are getting tougher and the dollars are getting shorter, it's time to take a serious look at how you do some things.

Electric cars are gaining in popularity. Whle many people are not running out to invest in a new car, they are interested in ways to convert their current vehicle to something more environmentally friendly. I didn't know that you could do this sort of thing yourself, but there is a whole community of people doing it. DIY Electric Car Forums is a great place to learn about the benefits, and process of converting your own car from gas to electric. Forum users are actively discussing the conversion process and the necessary materials to do that. Part manufacturers and dealers participate on the forum, answering questions and relaying information about their parts.

While this forum is only a month old, there is a good supply of information and it would be a great place to learn form. Users are quickly pulling together resources to share with each other. Alternatively, if you have done a conversion or know something about electric cars, take a look through the questions and share some of your expertise. People have posted detailed instructions for each part of the conversion in their wiki and the feeds are also an excellent resource.

All right, many women can change a flat tire. But I will admit it right now, I am not one of them. I am somewhat embarrassed to confess this, but it's true. I found myself dwelling on this thought this morning as I sat on the side of a busy highway dialing my brother's cell phone number so that he could come help me out of a flat tire situation. Well, to be honest it was a blow out. I had somehow hit an invisible, very sharp piece of concrete and blown out my tire. As soon as I heard that awful thud, I had two simultaneous thoughts: one was about the safety of my 14 year-old son who was riding with me the other was the fact that at the age of 36 I still haven't the foggiest idea of how to change a flat tire.

Today my brother happened to be available to bail me out of my jam, but there will be other times when I won't be so lucky. When we got home from our adventure, I promptly looked up directions on how to change a flat tire. My sibling said he will teach me how to do it, but I printed out the directions and slipped them in my glove box. Tomorrow we are going to have tire changing lessons, but today I have to go replace the old tire and the rim it rode in on.

I schooled and trained to be a cop. As a matter of fact I spent a couple years certified as a humane officer, although I never took the job. Suffice it to say that I've talked with more cops than the average person has and I've probably known more cops than I really needed to. One of the things that I learned was that, given the right circumstances, almost every cop lets a speeding motorist "skate the rap" now and then.

There is a somewhat prescribed course of action which will help "put you in the drivers seat" when it comes to escaping the wrath of the ticket writing cop and the traffic court judge. The very first thing you must do is immediately accept that you have done wrong.

If a cop flags your plates and turns on those lovely colored strobes on top of his car, speeding or not, you're caught. They are right and you are wrong. Yeah it sucks, but that's life. Signal your departure from the traffic lane, ease to the shoulder nice and smooth, stop your car like a good citizen and shut off your engine.

Are you tired of getting into a 150 degree vehicle after a long day at work? Are you sick of grabbing your sun glasses off your vehicle console only to have them melt into your nose when you put them on? Have those vinyl burns on the backs of your thighs healed up yet? There's a simple solution to vehicle interior overheat that will take you about 10 minutes to make and the chances are that you already have what you need to make it right at your finger tips. It's simple, cheap and easy to store when not in use.

Ready, set, paint your station wagon. Pimp your ride, however you like to say it. Seriously, is it even worth it to attempt to do that which only professionals have done? You be the judge, but we say of course! It is always at least worth a try. Well, I suppose your car isn't something you want to ruin, cause it isn't like you can just get a new one from the hardware store. Statracing has an excellent and quite thorough tutorial with photos on how to pimp your own ride with a brand new paint job.

Painting your vehicle can be a big undertaking, when you are doing it all yourself. There are many things you need to take into account before doing this job, but fortunately, it looks like this Statracing tutorial has it all. They even include how to mix paint, test pattern, painting technique, and other details. I must say the finished product is quite impressive.

Recently I was at the store while listening to my brother yack at me from the other end of the cell phone. What he was saying made absolutely no sense to me. He was asking me to buy the various items he needed to change the oil in his car. There was the wrench type thing, the oil filter and then the oil. The wrench was easy enough to locate. Then the filter took some detective work; there are different types for mileage, best performance and the like. But when it came to the oil I was flummoxed. There were different brands, different weights and then some appeared to be real while others were synthetic. I asked him over the phone which kind was best whereupon he faltered and finally told me it was something that just couldn't be explained over the phone. My suspicion was that he didn't really know the difference but that he wasn't going to admit such a thing to his little sister.

After I got home I looked up some facts about motor oil. I learned far more than I ever thought possible on the subject. For example, synthetic oils actually have more staying power than traditional oils. They are manufactured to withstand stresses that regular oils cannot take. Synthetic oils do not foam when they reach higher temperatures. Engines are able to run cooler with a synthetic oil in them. These oils are more expensive than their traditional counterparts, but if you figure in not having to change your oil as often and better gas mileage for your car, the cost is well worth it.

I suppose it all might have been a bit much for my brother to explain to me while I was standing in a daze in the automotive aisle. But it is some helpful information to have for the next time I take my car in for an oil change. What about you? Do you have any oil knowledge? If so, please share it with us.

Depending on who you ask, the future of car fuel is going to be either hydrogen, electric, or biodiesel. Each technology has its pros and cons (and when you're talking about lowering our dependency on petroleum-based fuels, the pros always outweigh the cons), but from a strictly DIY point-of-view, biodiesel takes the cake.

For those of you who might not know, biodiesel is a fuel made primarily from biological sources - it's "biodegradable, non-toxic, and typically produces about 60% less net carbon dioxide emissions than petroleum-based diesel." The best thing about biodiesel, however, is its accessibility and DIY-ability. If you have a car with a diesel engine, you can easily whip up a batch of biodiesel in your backyard, and be driving down the highway on a french-fry-scented cloud of eco-friendliness in no time.

The Sherwin-Williams Co. and the The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have announced the recall of Thermo-Tec Hi-Heat Coating aerosol cans. They have even gone so far as to request that consumers not even handle the cans.

These cans can over pressurize and explode causing serious injury. There have been reports of serious injury, including a broken jaw and a shattered eye socket.

Thermo-Tec Hi-Heat aerosol coating is used to color and protect Thermo-Tec automotive exhaust wrap. These cans were sold at automotive supply stores from August 2005 to June 2007.

If you have one of the recalled aerosol cans please contact Sherwin-Williams at 888-304-3769 between 7:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. CT Monday through Friday or between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. CT Saturday, or visit the Sherwin-Williams Web site.

The cans are so hazardous that a representative will be sent to your home to retrieve the can from you. They do not want these cans handled by consumers at all. You will then be sent a $15 check after the can is retrieved.

According to Sherwin-Williams the contact number in the CSPC press release is incorrect. They have the corrected number on their site and I have that number here as well (above). There is a picture of the recalled product in the press release.