Zomby Woof
01-30-2006, 08:34 PM
I figured out a way to roll up those tiny little hose clamps smoothly for radiator hoses. It's always been rather frustrating trying to roll those things into a circle to fit over the radiator hose. It's still not an easy task but it helps. I use a 1/16 dia music wire. It must be a stiff wire because if you use something like drill rod or coat hangar wire it will bend. Come to think of it, you can probably use a drill bit because it is hardened steel too. Perhaps a little smaller than 1/16" dia may work even better. Anyway what I do is place the hose clamp on a stiff piece of foam rubber. What I used it the balck foam sanding block that comes with those emery cloth polishing kits from LMG Enterprises. I place the hose clam near a corner pointing it towards the corner. Then lay the music wire (or drill bit) on it and perpendicular to it. Press down and roll it back and forth. The clamp will start to curl around it. Now you have to watch because its tricky to get it perfectly straight as it curls around back on itself. So with a fine tweezers you have to adjust it to keep it straight. Just keep pressing down and rolling back and forth and it will eventually get to a small enough diameter to fit over the radiator hose. In fact ot was still just a tad loose over the hose but it was the smallest I could get it. Then I just applied Future to it to bond it to the hose. And that's it. That was how I did it on my Sox & Marting GTX.