Handy Gadgets

[Big G]

I thought I might start this thread so members can post about handy products that they have discovered that might be useful to others. 

So i would like to kick it off with a little something I bought online. Ever since the Princess has been rollaing the speedo in her KE55 has been dodgy. It starts at 40 and bounces all over the place.  I bought a digital heads up display speedo from kogan. I found it late one night cruisin the internet. It was $39 delivered. It just plugs into the cigarette lighter and it works off a satellite gps signal. It sits on the dash and reflects up on the windscreen and it works like a champion. Day or night. I have checked it against my gps and against other speedos and it is pretty accurate. So if u have a dodgy speedo or the wrong rims and tyres this could be tha answer to your speedo woes. Highly recommended.

Happy Rollaing

[Banjo]

Hi Graeme,

                   I've had one of those for a while now. Gets rotated around my cars. The useful thing about mine, it can alarm you, if you hit a speed limit (like 80 klm/hr) so you don't get caught driving around the city, where speed limits are constantly changing.  There is a strip of road near my place that changes 5 times in about 1 kilometre. Does yours alarm ?

Cheers Banjo

[Big G]

To be honest I only plugged it in as the Princess was about to leave for work. I need to revisit the instructions to check out its functions. It serves its purpose as the speedo is dodge and she is rolling on 15s so the speedo will be inacurate anyway. 

Edited May 19, 2019 by Big G

[ke70dave]

40bucks eh. not bad at all. I'm still not sure how i feel about kogan. 

 

[Big G]

I am sure there other brands out there it was more the concept of it. All I know is that it saved me having to change the instrument cluster for another 39 year old instrument cluster.

[Big G]

So here is another gadget that popped up in the Aldi catalog a plastic welder. don't know how effective it will be but for the price its probably worth a crack. No pun intended. On sale Saturday 6 july.

[Big G]

[parrot]

Golden boy son on L plates and I had a leisurely drive around Melbourne’s outer east including a run up Mt Dandenong for an introduction to windy narrow roads, post cricket training today. He is a self taught cricket bat repair wiz , and does some amazing work.

Downside number 1 is my garage and everything in it is permanently covered in shavings and saw dust. Not conducive to working on cars.....

Downside number two is whenever I go to Bunnings, he invariably needs yet another softback sanding pad, glue or power tool of some description.  Not sure how much profit he makes, but of course dad is a ready supply of funds for consumables. Currently he is thinking about an industrial band saw for handle repairs, and as he finishes school this year will lose access to the woodwork room.  So we found ourselves at Sydney Tools and Total tools on the way home.  A first time for me and I had a ball perusing the aisles  and came out with a mini Japanese made screwdriver for confined spaces, and a couple of ratchet flex spanners.  Not sure of the quality of the latter, but one day they will prove themselves indispensable on an under dash, or deep in engine bay task.

Of course I launched yet again into the joys of Saturday mornings in the 70’s spent with my dad wandering around W L Ryan and Co in Elizabeth St Melbourne which was a wonderland of tools, assorted automotive electrical products and stuff you could never have imagined existed to fix machinery. “Yes dad, you’ve told me this story before”. God I miss that place.   

Later when I was older, I got into the habit of building my toolbox at Ryan’s by buying one tool with each pay.  

I think we will check the industrial auctions for a bandsaw, but meanwhile my tool collection continues to grow.  

And one day that 12 mm ratchet flex spanner will save the day