Ponge, and the art of motorcar maintenance

[wedg1e]

So there I was at Cadwell Park, replete of rum and smelly of cigar, pondering how in knoberations I was going to get home.

Y'see, my Wedge had taken it upon itself to tickle my 'why bloody not' gland by throwing (well, throwing is a bit harsh: hoying (a northern term) is maybe more apposite here) what might be described as a wobbler.

It all began late Friday night when, with typical Wedg1e foresight and planning, I decided to leave it till the last second to check the car over. All the levels were OK so I set off, first stop Tesco for urgent supplies. By the time I'd got there the car was overheating and the PAS had packed in as the belts were soaked in coolant.

I stocked up and decided to see if the car would settle down. After a couple of miles the gauge read normally and I made Cadwell without further ado.
On Saturday I went into Louth, a place where the word 'urgency' has never been heard, looking for food, suntan cream and fuel. Oh, and beer :D

I failed to locate the suntan cream but found that the overheating was back. It transpired that the swan-neck cap seal had split, presumably when I checked the coolant level :rolleyes:. If it isn't broken, don't fix it. I tried Graham Walden but all he could rustle up was some carbon-fibre and titanium thing that he'd knocked-up in his shed for the racing Tuscan. It was 10 microns too small, bloody typical ;)

Anyway, to the point of the tale: one of the other wedge guys (name escapes me, it's made up from letters of the alphabet though...) ventured the proposition "Why not find some ponge and snot it up for now".

Ponge. I pondered ponge for some time, long after the rum had worn off - in fact I was driving through sleepy Lincolnshire hamlets shouting "Ponge!" with gay abandon to wizened folk in their deckchairs, who I'd just woken with the cackling of a V8 on over-run.
Ponge. It reminded me of 'bodge', a word that I'm convinced only entered the English language in the late 70's/ early 80's.

Bodge, you see, was a brand name for cellulose car body filler. Commonly used to hide the join line where you've just made one Sierra Cosworth from two, or to blend in ridiculous body kits to rusting hulks.
The word for a hurried, cheapskate repair used to be 'botch', as in Leslie Ash's lips or Paul Daniels' hairdo.
Then along came 'Bodge' filler, and since so many cars were 'Bodged' back then, the word stuck.

So, is it time to apply reverse logic, and introduce a do-all sealant called 'Ponge'?

I'd carry a tube/ roll/ bucketful in my TVR, just in case....

[Mr E]

There are tears running down my face over here.

I think I've just named my next cat.

[up-the-dubs]

Wedg1e, You are indeed an artist.

Although I'd question your maintenence skills

But, do you know what, I think ponge might just stick.


Worst pun ever

>> Edited by up-the-dubs on Tuesday 19th July 01:10

[LongQ]

I seem to recall bodge as a word in current usage back in the late 60's but the etymology could be correct.

If the leaky component is vaguely accessible and 'pipe' like that very stretchy black tape type stuff that you can wrap around anything can work very well. iirc it's even better when wrapped around something that gets hot. That reminds me that my usual emergency roll is not in the car at the moment. A job for tomorrow.

I also fixed a split cooling system hose on a Transit with some duct tape once a long, long time ago. As I recall it worked well enough that we never got around to changing the hose.

I like the idea of ponge though. Where can you get it?

[Pigeon]

Mr E said:

There are tears running down my face over here. I think I've just named my next cat.

It would be more amusingly confusing if you followed the convention I use of calling all kinds of gooey substances "doggie"...

The derivation is, I believe, Isopon P38 = "hairy doggie" from the glass fibre content, but it is a versatile term for other varieties of useful sludge. You can doggie up a leaking exhaust, you apply doggie to ensure good thermal contact between a semiconductor and a heatsink, you can attach skirting boards with doggie, you can put doggie in the gap between the bath and the wall, you smear plumbing fittings with doggie before assembly to ensure a watertight joint...

[Fatboy]

LongQ said:

I also fixed a split cooling system hose on a Transit with some duct tape once a long, long time ago. As I recall it worked well enough that we never got around to changing the hose.

There's almost nothing that can't be fixed with Duct Tape

[Wedg1e]

beano500 said:

Not sure about the derivations though. In any household I've been in we've always called in the experts for diy jobs, a well-known partnership that is capable of turning their hand to almost anything.....Messrs Bodgett & Scarper

It could, of course, date back to the days when it may have been 'Botchit and Scarper'...