One thing we all do, is go for the cheaper part off eBay. It gets here, and no gasket. Thus was the case with my clutch slave cylinder today.

I keep a stock of fuel pump gasket material, $10 for a few feet. It's thicker, it can handle almost any chemical, and it's cheap.

So I made a gasket. Going out of town this weekend and need the car working.

The piston got in the way of my gasket making process, so I used my old slave and ripped the piston out. I laid the slave cylinder face down on the gasket material, and drew a line around it.



Cut it out with scissors slightly larger, it will get trimmed to fit.

I placed the slave back on the cut gasket and got out my sharpie. Drop it through the bolt holes and try to mark center. Not the most important for accuracy here.

Remove the slave and center the bolt on the dot. Cut around with an razor knife. No need to go all the way through, just mark it and remove the bolt and then cut free hand. The break away blade type razor is the most sharp, and always start with a fresh edge.



Put the gasket on the slave and push the bolts through. Trim up any material that gets pushed up.



Now clean up your outside edge with the knife. Use the slave as an edge. Don't cut too close like I did, leave a lip if sections will end up thin.


Now do the large hole for the piston. The pic shows my old slave with the gasket and bolts, and the new to highlight what your trimming for. Take your small ball-pine hammer and use the round side. Tap around that round edge with the hammer and crease the gasket.



Eventually it will start to perforate and tear. You should be able to lift it out.





It should be noted that the hammer is the most effective method for cutting any holes. However sometimes the knife is better. Like making the outside edge larger and not having such a slim piece of gasket material.

And it's done.




That outside edge is way too thin, but this isn't actually sealing anything. No oil or water to escape. As well, it's my own car so I'm gonna run it.

You can make pretty detailed gaskets with this hammer method, but if it's difficult to reach or important I buy one. I made an oil filter housing gasket as they sent me the wrong one, but I will replace it next oil change.

A good trick to know when you are in a pinch. Some old timers make all their own gaskets. Leftover from the days before we had machines to do it for us.




Long term build thread:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=362300