Unorthodox methods?

I was thinking of my Dad the other day. Rip. He was a mechanic throughout the fifties and sixties before teaching mechanics in a High School in the seventies.
He never taught anything unorthodox as teacher but at home I always remembering him boiling Carburetors in a pot of water for hours before rebuilding them. He said it won't hurt any o-rings and cleans out the passages good. Not sure if this was the norm back then.
It kind of gave me an idea of other people's unorthodox methods.
Watcha got?