What makes a hash like SHA1 resistant to collisions? I have been reading about SHA1 and SHA256 and how they actually hash a string of text to a unique hashed message. But what I dont understand is what makes them resistant to collisions. 

Whats the best way to find a hash collision?
What makes a hash algorithm resistant to collisions?
If we find 1 collision because it has to be caused by a particular input, cant we just discount that SHA result as a possible candidate for a problematic hash and assume most other results will be fine?
Collisions will always happen because of the infinite sized input space and finite sized output space (the pigeonhole principle). So the goal is that collisions can not be found in any less time then simply trying random inputs until a collision is found - it's not possible to have a compressing hash function where collisions do not exist, they must exist and so we have to settle for making them hard to find instead.


  What makes a hash algorithm resistant to collisions?


The first thing is actually the padding of the message. If this is not done, collisions are usually trivial to produce.

The output of the function for any input should be unpredictable. Any degree of predictability in the output can be used to search for collisions faster then brute force. 

In the worst case, the hash is completely linear and collisions can be computed from a simple expression. 

In the best case, the value of any particular bit in the hash output cannot be guessed with probability better then 50%. 

The exact, specific, best way to produce a hash function that produces unpredictable outputs doesn't really have an exact answer. There are a variety of ways to attempt to predict the output of the function, such as linear and differential cryptanalysis for example. Hash functions are designed with these kinds of attacks in mind.

Ideally the authors of the function would determine what the best possible attack is, then simply configure the function parameters to be large enough to where the attack does not apply anymore. While it is hard to know what the best possible attack is, with the right design strategy you can ensure a high level of resistance against the known classes of attacks. 


  What is the best way to find a hash collision


This depends on the particular hash function in question.


If it is a non-cryptographic hash, there may exist a simple expression that will allow you to calculate collisions outright with no search effort required. 
If it is SHA1 you are curious about, then you would want to read about the recent attacks on SHA1
If it is some other hash function, then you would need to locate some pre-existing research that analyzes it (or perform such analysis yourself if it is a construction of your own).



  If we find 1 collision because it has to be caused by a particular input, cant we just discount that SHA result as a possible candidate for a problematic hash and assume most other results will be fine?


It's not really clear what you are asking: It sounds like you are testing some other hash function and wondering if, despite finding a collision, it's safe to "assume" it's not broken somehow and other collisions can't be found. 

If that is the case, then no, it is not safe (or reasonable) to make that assumption. If the hash is padded correctly and has an sufficiently large output size, then you should never witness a collision for it. If you do, then other collisions will probably follow eventually (attacks get better, not worse).