Worst bodge you have seen

[GTIR]

I worked at a Peugeot dealer in Harpenden in the early 90's. (They specialised in motorhomes, Lion Motors or something.)

Anyway. I did the head gasket on a car but used the wrong bolt for the short side of the engine. Screwed it clean through the block. They just bogged it with instant metal.

[redstu]

Snowboy said:

Gilhooligan said:

I guy on my college course jubilee clipped a couple of beer cans round a rusted part of his exhaust. It actually held for a couple of months too!

A mate of mine used a beans can, 2 jubilee clips and a bit of milliput on his spitfire exhaust as a bodge.
It passed three MOT's and was still on there when we lost touch.

The cat on my car is currently on the "wrong way round", the weld broke at the flexi joint in front of it, So I turned it around and jammed the longer section from the back of the cat into the good bit of the flexi and used a tube clamp to make up for the reduced length.

It gets fixed properly within a few days though as the other end of the flexi joint is now broken.

It lasted about four months though and allowed me to get a better price on the new downpipe and cat.


It doesn't really compare with some of the bodges on here though, must try harder!

[V8RX7]

An MX5 which had holes in the middle of the sills patched with newspaper and filler - I was impressed that the doors still opened and shut.

A chassis plate literally stuck over the top of the original one using filler so it was raised about 10mm more than the surrounding metal.

A Jag PAS rack "repaired" by a seller using rubber washers instead of copper so they just lasted the buyers journey home.

[stevesingo]

Hired a Focus in Split Croatia for a drive to Zagreb. 10mins out of split I could smell oil, but gave it the usual, can't be my car shrug!

30 mins later, out of the traffic, I could still smell it so decided to pull over to check.

No Oil Filler Cap!!!

I took a look around and saw some fly tipped garbage amongst which I found a nappy bag, still full, and a sponge mattress. Nappy bag dissected, stuffed with sponge and rammed in to the hole where the oil cap should be.

Got me all the way to Zagreb, although explaining to the hire company guy why there was a nappy bag stuffed in to the engine...

[mph1977]

Gilhooligan said:

I guy on my college course jubilee clipped a couple of beer cans round a rusted part of his exhaust. It actually held for a couple of months too!

ever seen a commerically produced exhaust repair kit ?

[Acepaint]

I remember someone bolting a sheet of 3/4" plywood to the boot floor of an Hillman Avenger Estate to fix the ripples in the previously rear ended boot floor.
And then liberally covering the underside of the floor with underseal.......and saying to prospective buyers that the wood was there to protect the floor from heavy loads......it was only about 4 months old at the time!

[Acepaint]

I remember someone bolting a sheet of 3/4" plywood to the boot floor of an Hillman Avenger Estate to fix the ripples in the previously rear ended boot floor.
And then liberally covering the underside of the floor with underseal.......and saying to prospective buyers that the wood was there to protect the floor from heavy loads......it was only about 4 months old at the time!

[rswift]

Ok,

These are not all car related, but I think it fits the spirit of the piece

http://nedhardy.com/2010/09/23/who-says-rednecks-a...

[dalzo]

Dad had an old escort van than he got for a couple of hundred quid when I was younger, the back door cable snapped and he put it in the garage to get fixed, when he got it back there was a length of washing line running the length of the van so my dad could reach behind him and open it from the front seat.

He didn't fix the back door handle either

[J4CKO]

SOme good ones on here

http://failblog.cheezburger.com/tag/there-i-fixed-...

[Davie]

Ahhh, my thread is here...

Best 'bodge' to date was fitting the front mounted intercooler to my Cavalier. Fitted it up then used a series of random pipes and hoses including a Mondeo coolant hose, some random 90deg bend from a 406 and a few sections of that black plastic drain pipe from B&Q. The intercooler, well it was liberated from a smashed Vauxhall Movano and was cable tied in place. The pipes were stuck together with Araldite.

Now, in my defence this was indended purely for mocking up so I could then ask a local fabicator to replicate the intricate (?) pipework in stainless and I'd then get a suitable intercooler to match. Thing is, in true Kerbside Motors fashion I ran out of time and neeeded the car for work come Monday. I couldn't revert back to the standard setup and pipes as they'd be sacrificed already (poor planning on my behalf) So, I figured if I drove it like a nun to work and back, I'd be fine. How they mocked.

16,000 miles and about a year later and having done nigh on 270bhp at 15PSi on the rollers and a quarter mile day, I finally decided I should get them made up in stainless. How my B&Q dervived modifications lasted so long is beyond me and the realms of physics. As for Coke cans for the exhaust, cable ties everywhere, expoxy resin... that was the law back in my early days of driving. To be fair, my current car has a bit of flattened Kite Kat tin epoxy resin'd to the centre section and a Laguna diesel front pipe grafted in place.

Good old barn door engineering, can't beat it!

[munroman]

I once burst the plastic plug on the top of a radiator on a Sunday evening, had work the next day.

Found Dad's potato planting dibber was the perfect size and the wood was soft enough to cut it's own thread, a quick trim with a handsaw and it lasted weeks until I felt I had better fix it properly.

[zippyprorider]

I used a Bungy cord from a mates high vis jacket to hold the indicator light in on my old elise lol

[Digby]

I once had various bits stolen from a car which included the gearknob.For a laugh and for quickness and because it hurt my hand to change gear without a knob, I stuck a small jacket potato on it.

[trackerjack]

GC8 said:

It doesnt bear thinking about. Almost certainly fked, but hopefully patched rather than simply ignored.

Naturally I expected the "whats it like under the sill covers" comments.

The answer is that looking through the vents there has been welding done and it looks like a proper job instead of the usual garage pigeon poo and underseal. However they will come off cos I dont like them and I reckon 944's look better without.

The car is heaps better than the many that I have driven.

Loving the bodges.
Especially liked the caravan wheel strapped on to a corner!

[silverfoxcc]

Back in the good old days ( mid 60's) the normal replacement fuse was a piece of 6 inch nail cut to length
Windscreen wipers on a ford (vacuum) shagged, cord tied in a loop to each and operated by the passenger, not my car in both instances


Then nothing of note until 8 years ago not so much a bodge....
The problem
front calipers seizing on, well going from free to Christ there's smoke from the front...got it down to a fine art, wheel off. screwdriver prised pads back, and off i went, until the next time, it was that intermittent that the local mech coouldnt find what was wrong,each time everything worked.MOT OK etc However,after the latest autobrake episode, i decided that enough was enough and rather than get a seal replacement kit i would drive to my nearest GSF ( heathrow) to get a new caliper and be done with it. So off i trundled along the A329 via A30. However then it happened, braking for a bend,just where the Monkey pub is ( was seven stars in another life i think) No brakes AT ALL
justkept hitting the brake like Keith Moon on speed. handbrake got the speed doen and me round.
So needed a new master cylinder then!!!not a caliper
So off to Heathrow reading the A30 like a hawk and gauging lights and braking. Mrs Fox was really going dolallay at this so i said, i would come home via the M3!
Well there is the hard shoulder to get onto in case of a problem and less chance of a quck stop, although that was way out of the question, but the excuse was ready!!!. so thats what i did no problems, best drive i have ever done in road obs.

Oh also got a new handbrake cable and handbrake shoes,just in case!! And boy we they needed, cable steched to buggery and shoes worh down to the metal.
All back ok in a couple of hours.

[Chlamydia]

The can bodged onto the exhaust was a standard fix in the 80's, I'm pretty sure everyone I knew had exhausts repaired like that. There was even a preferred can to use but I can't remember which one it was

[black and green]

My old 2.8i Capri lost it's 5th gear whilst I was trying to sell it. As 5th was the only gear that was knackered (it popped out of 5th but the rest were ok) I fitted a 4 speed gearknob from a scrapper. Not proud of myself, but it was a long time ago.

[Slow]

black and green said:

My old 2.8i Capri lost it's 5th gear whilst I was trying to sell it. As 5th was the only gear that was knackered (it popped out of 5th but the rest were ok) I fitted a 4 speed gearknob from a scrapper. Not proud of myself, but it was a long time ago.

fking brilliant.

[Pistom]

black and green said:

My old 2.8i Capri lost it's 5th gear whilst I was trying to sell it. As 5th was the only gear that was knackered (it popped out of 5th but the rest were ok) I fitted a 4 speed gearknob from a scrapper. Not proud of myself, but it was a long time ago.

Not proud???? You deserve a fking trophy!!!

I'm loving this thread. Bodges make life far more interesting. My OCD in car maintenance means that other that get me home bodges which don't really count as bodges if they do get you home, the nearest I've got to a bodge is using pattern parts.

Keep em coming.