what is the best bodgy fix you have done

[cram_it_frog]

what is the best bodgy fix you have done to get your car home


today,s cars you break down and you basically walk away and take the car to a dealership

but in the past if you broke down and if you are good a bit of creative thinking will often get you home

Im my case I was on a section of the unsealed section of the Nulibore plains between Ceduna and Eucla and I lost the plate that holds the battery in place a small metal plate

the battery was sitting upside down in the engine bay when I found it

So I got some fencing wire tied the battery into place it got me home

I have also used tisssue box carbord as a gasket to seal the thermostat that was leaking

There was a show called bush mechanics on ABC they had some ripper of bush fixes

what was your fix

[Road_Warrior]

Yeah I've used fencing wire to keep the shifter of my old Sigma in place when the thread stripped on the nylon retainer nut.

[Vesper Martini]

Travelling in the middle East in a Ford Cargo Truck, split a plastic fuel return line and it hosing Diesel out every where, Duct Tape didn't work at all, so out came the Chewing Gum. I wrapped it in the Duct tape to keep it in place. still leaked a bit but got us to where we could get it fixed

[OzJavelin]

Used a piece of wire to "fix" a broken rear shock mount on a Pontiac wagon the day I sold it ... not proud of it, but I was young and stupid(er)

[snopony]

i remember bush mechanics Not done myself , but in this town the standard for broken rear windscreens and windows seems to be tarp and duct tape. The more colourful the better. lasts till the next pink slip lol.

[lilmattie]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Yeah I've used fencing wire to keep the shifter of my old Sigma in place when the thread stripped on the nylon retainer nut.

You didn't happen to perform the same fix to my XA hardtop singlerail did you? I found fencing wire looped around the shifter holding it into slot when I pulled the gearbox out last year.

[pcman]

winch cable under the bumper and chassis onto the engine mount to hold the engine down when i snapped both engine mounts off road , made it home across Melbourne

[OzJavelin]

Mate of mine broken the throttle cable on his '54 Oval VW on the way back from Ballarat Swap meet (neat car .. '54 Oval on '69 IRS floorpan with 1600 twin-port engine).

He jammed a "tuned" stick in the throttle to keep it at approx 90km/h in 4th gear. He stopped to shortened the stick as he got closer to 60km/h zones to adjust the "idle" speed accordingly.

[cram_it_frog]

thanks some very creative people here

[Yellow_Festiva]

Was in the Sprite car club and we had a run to Goulburn during winter.

Mk1 Sprite, no heater. So I made one out of:

* Thick plastic lunch box for the heater
* Pool hose for the ducting
* Computer power supply fan for the air movement
* Speaker wire to power it
* Galant heater core from the wreckers
* That foam strip you use to stop droughts in a door to seal the whole thing up
* Few cable ties to hold it in place

Actually worked a treat!

The speedo was dodge so I actually used a push bike one that I stuck to the dash with double sided tape.

[Ross 1]

Similar with the tissue box, cornflakes box and a tube n a half gasket goo. To get a friends VH commodores head to last from Newcastle to Sydney. My friend then continued driving small trips for 3 weeks till it failed.

[Dezza]

We used a dog leash to pull the EA rad support back out when I ran up the back of another car on a cruise. Damage to both cars looked minor but on closer inspection, we realised the clutch fan was jammed up against the radiator. We hooked the dog leash (it was like seat belt material) around the rad support, and hooked the other end to the towbar of the other car, and got it pretty much spot on!

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by lilmattie

You didn't happen to perform the same fix to my XA hardtop singlerail did you? I found fencing wire looped around the shifter holding it into slot when I pulled the gearbox out last year.

Nope, just Sigmas that used the T5 gearbox with the awful nylon retaining system with the sloping thread

[mik]

Was doing a bit of foolish rally cross in a 68 2 door Corty as a young bloke, came up over a hill out in the sticks on a heavily cambered dirt road, with the car airborne it came down on the left side of the road and slid/bounced in to the drain........ Which wasn't such a bad thing, but then while doing some speed with the left wheels in a foot deep drain.... Then the drain suddenly stopped.

Bang... The left front wheel hit floor,

on the McPherson struts the stabiliser bar also holds the lower control arm/wheel in position.
The stabiliser bolts had been sheared of and the bar was bent like a banana.
So after extracting the car from the drain set about removing the seat belts and with some pretty elaborate strapping of the suspension drove the car from Euroa back to Melbourne.

[HULK_I6T]

I know of a guy who had a manual gearbox in his car that lost second gear completely.

His fix?

So he used to absolutely ring the neck out of it in first gear, way past the rev limit and then bang her into third gear where it still fell out of the torque zone. He did this everytime the car had to take off from standstill.

to hear it was priceless... arrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaa aaaaa!!!!!!!!! burrrrrrrr... he drove it like that for a few years. everyone used to look at it cringing about how hard he is revving it... and to make it worse he used to transport a big fat lady in it.

[snopony]

Originally Posted by HULK_I6T

I know of a guy who had a manual gearbox in his car that lost second gear completely.

His fix?

So he used to absolutely ring the neck out of it in first gear, way past the rev limit and then bang her into third gear where it still fell out of the torque zone. He did this everytime the car had to take off from standstill.

to hear it was priceless... arrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaa aaaaa!!!!!!!!! burrrrrrrr... he drove it like that for a few years. everyone used to look at it cringing about how hard he is revving it... and to make it worse he used to transport a big fat lady in it.

Wasn't a Ghost Gum XD Ghia by chance...... lol

[Dezza]

My Dad had a good one on his 89' Rodeo. The gearbox crossmember rusted out and the gearbox dropped (made it very hard to get 2nd, 4th and reverse, with the gearstick jammed against the back of the console), so he ran a chain around the chassis rails to hold the back of the gearbox up! It was like this for about a year before he finally sent it to the wreckers.

[1TUFFUTE]

Blew out my front tyre on my 250 2strokr motorcross bike out trail riding. Jammed it full of grass and mush and kept on the rear wheel most of the way back to the trailers

Actually had to stop and remove a couple of very dangerous broken front spokes from the impact aswell!

[whitesoarer]

Gasket goo and a piece of cardboard wrapper from said tube of gasket goo, to fix an inlet manifold gasket leak on a VP Commy

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by HULK_I6T

I know of a guy who had a manual gearbox in his car that lost second gear completely.

His fix?

So he used to absolutely ring the neck out of it in first gear, way past the rev limit and then bang her into third gear where it still fell out of the torque zone. He did this everytime the car had to take off from standstill.

to hear it was priceless... arrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaa aaaaa!!!!!!!!! burrrrrrrr... he drove it like that for a few years. everyone used to look at it cringing about how hard he is revving it... and to make it worse he used to transport a big fat lady in it.

Seen the exact thing in an Aurion. Engine revving out to redline to get the car rolling forward, and a painful chirp and jolt as the car rolled forward to 40kph and returned to redline repeatedly on and off as it cruised along. Can't to this day work out what the dude or the car was doing. Aurions are all auto aren't they? Maybe the guy just liked the sound of the engine at redline and the jolt of it going into gear, or really hated the car and was trying to break it...

[cram_it_frog]

I have seen the great egg trick a mates radiator started to leak in a number of places out back of Kalgoorlie it was going to be replaced so in goes 6 or 7 eggs and all this white cooked egg stuff started to fill the leaks


leaks all fixed but cooling system needed a good clean out after words but it was cheaper than a tow home

[TUF_302]

I own a early 90s Nissan, cable ties fix everything lol!

[MattSAU2XR8]

Years ago I had one of the early (240k) shape skylines with twin SU carbs that were worn out, air leaks at the butterfly pivots, so choke was ineffective and it wouldn't start on cold days.

So I had a small barbeque gas bottle in the cabin with a garden hose feeding down the aircleaner snout to richen it up for easy starting.

Saved me once when it ran out of fuel, managed to get it to start and then RUN for a few kms on straight gas (tap wide open) to get to work, which was a petrol station where I could fill it up. Very impressed with myself that morning :-)

[projoe]

A backfire would have made life interesting or explosive lol

[stevepet]

Bloody legend.

Originally Posted by MattSAU2XR8

Years ago I had one of the early (240k) shape skylines with twin SU carbs that were worn out, air leaks at the butterfly pivots, so choke was ineffective and it wouldn't start on cold days.

So I had a small barbeque gas bottle in the cabin with a garden hose feeding down the aircleaner snout to richen it up for easy starting.

Saved me once when it ran out of fuel, managed to get it to start and then RUN for a few kms on straight gas (tap wide open) to get to work, which was a petrol station where I could fill it up. Very impressed with myself that morning :-)

[stevepet]

Once had a 67 Corona the shovel nose model not a bad car. Anyway exhaust had rusted through in one place. So i got ban empty can of Chum dog food fed the dog cut the bottom off the can. Cut the can lenghtways then wrapped it around the exhaust ten used two big hose clamps to secure it. Lasted for two years until I sold the car.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Had a really old Kawasaki bike of around 50 or 60cc with curved bars and a 3sp auto.

Made a rear mud flap out of the side of 6l motor oil bottle.

Cut it real neat too. If I didn't tell ya you would have never known.

[Captain Stubing]

I had an '80 Hilux that had a Range Rover V8 fitted. Had a week up at Fraser Island, when the fuel pump broke and started filling the sump with fuel.
I ended up tying a jerry can to the headboard, and gravity fed fuel straight to the carby.

It also started missing in the ignition system, found a crack inside the dizzy, so scraped out the carbon or whatever was there with a broken shell.

Good thing too, as when we left all loaded up for the trip home, with a mate in a similar but standard Hilux saying how he was going to have to tow me home... he spat a timing chain out the side of his motor. I towed him all the way back to the mainland, where we organised a trailer.

At least I got to drive mine all the way home!

[323Turbo]

1967 valiant, me at 19 years old doing some bush bashing out in the North West Pilbara region of WA - miles from anywhere, 1am.

the accelerator cable breaks, the only tool i have is a set of pliers - no problem, I detached the bonnet release cable from the bonnet latch and attach it to the carby linkage - awesome hand throttle action!
that lasted until the bonnet cable knob bracket came off in the car and needed 2 hands to operate - no problem, i gave it to my mate in the back seat and he worked the throttle :-)

[ebxr8240]

Used sunlight soap on hole in petrol tank...
Pepper in radiator to stop a leak..
ATF as brake fluid when in outback !
Stocking used as fan belt ..
Stainless steel fishing trace as throttle cable ..