OP's mention of his dad brought immediate memories to mind. Helping my high school friend with his first "car" (a 1949 Ford Business Coupe)...a real beater..****sted, needed almost everything...three on the tree with overdrive. Anyway..the clutch went out, got some parts and a new(er) pressure plate but danged if we could get those bolts out to drop that old tranny.

Car jacked up in my folks back yard, along comes pop, crawls under, takes a look and says "go get me a coke". No cans in those days, just the classic bottles, go get pop a cold one figuring he's thirsty, forget a bottle opener. Pop crawls out from under, puts the bottle top against the old rusty bumper, wham's down and bingo...top pops off. Neat trick #1 learned.

Shakes it up, thumb over the top, crawls back under and sprays the daylights out of those rusty old bolts. Maybe a half hour later, takes a breaker bar & socket, crawls back under and every bolt came loose. Wow...Neat trick # 2 learned that day.

Don't know how you would do this with modern day cans, but the pressurization and whatever chemicals are in coke (original formula only folks) sure saved the day on an old 49 Ford Tudor.

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Charlie B
SWCA#3083, SWHF#570