Your most ingenious bodge....
Discussion
Lets have it... your stories or instances where you've had to make or seen .....shall we say "non-stanadard temporary repair" as parts/time/money constraints forced your hand.
Obviously these are meant to be temporary until you can arrange a proper repair but whats the longest a "bodge" has kept you or someone going.
Obviously these are meant to be temporary until you can arrange a proper repair but whats the longest a "bodge" has kept you or someone going.
Mk 1 Escort.
Broken throttle cable replaced by three shoelaces tied together with one end fixed to the carburettor passing through the bulkhead and the other end just into the drivers footwell. Operated by one of my mates lying face down in my lap holding the end of the lace and pulling and releasing for more or less power when I told him.
God knows what anybody in a passing bus or truck must have thought...
Broken throttle cable replaced by three shoelaces tied together with one end fixed to the carburettor passing through the bulkhead and the other end just into the drivers footwell. Operated by one of my mates lying face down in my lap holding the end of the lace and pulling and releasing for more or less power when I told him.
God knows what anybody in a passing bus or truck must have thought...
Jaguar steve said:
Mk 1 Escort.
Broken throttle cable replaced by three shoelaces tied together with one end fixed to the carburettor passing through the bulkhead and the other end just into the drivers footwell. Operated by one of my mates lying face down in my lap holding the end of the lace and pulling and releasing for more or less power when I told him, your honour.
Fixed that for you... Broken throttle cable replaced by three shoelaces tied together with one end fixed to the carburettor passing through the bulkhead and the other end just into the drivers footwell. Operated by one of my mates lying face down in my lap holding the end of the lace and pulling and releasing for more or less power when I told him, your honour.
Should write a book on this one ,so chapter one
Early 70,s had a moggie 1000 van which I was having increasingly difficulties filling with petrol,
Rear chassis leg that carried one of the spring hangers had rotted through causing the chassis
leg to compress the rubber filler neck restricting the flow of fuel when filling
Solution plane a piece of 3”x2” down to the internal measurement of the box section chassis and wack it in. Bolt through,cover said botch with plenty of underseal and book MOT
Kept van for a further 2years with no probs,eventually scrapped after a coming together
Not proud but different times
Chapter two to follow
Early 70,s had a moggie 1000 van which I was having increasingly difficulties filling with petrol,
Rear chassis leg that carried one of the spring hangers had rotted through causing the chassis
leg to compress the rubber filler neck restricting the flow of fuel when filling
Solution plane a piece of 3”x2” down to the internal measurement of the box section chassis and wack it in. Bolt through,cover said botch with plenty of underseal and book MOT
Kept van for a further 2years with no probs,eventually scrapped after a coming together
Not proud but different times
Chapter two to follow
Not very exciting but...
Had a wiper mechanism failure on a trip to France, the drivers side spindle came loose and kept sending the wiper arm beyond the A pillar.
Had a long drive back home, rain always seems guaranteed in northern France, so I bought the biggest wiper blade they had in Carrefour and fitted it to the passenger side, angled up the screen so it would sweep the drivers side. Worked well enough to get us 800 miles home, although the wife complained about it blocking her view
Had a wiper mechanism failure on a trip to France, the drivers side spindle came loose and kept sending the wiper arm beyond the A pillar.
Had a long drive back home, rain always seems guaranteed in northern France, so I bought the biggest wiper blade they had in Carrefour and fitted it to the passenger side, angled up the screen so it would sweep the drivers side. Worked well enough to get us 800 miles home, although the wife complained about it blocking her view
Is this a bodge?
Hole in radiator in qualifying - can't recall what caused it.
Whipped out the rad, laaid it flat, mixed up some Araldite Rapid (never be without it!) and dripped into the hole. 20 mins laters rad back in, filled it up and I was out in the first race in the PM. And it worked ever since. No doubt that pipe in the matrix is blocked but there are plenty of others!
Worst was a car I bought to restore. Discovered that the DPO had dealt with rusted-through wings where they joined the sills by pouring in hot bitumen! It sets remarkably hard, can be smoothed down and will take a coat of paint. But I found out, burning off old underseal next to the sill. Bitumen catches fire when it melts and drips, burning, onto your naked skin like napalm.
John
Hole in radiator in qualifying - can't recall what caused it.
Whipped out the rad, laaid it flat, mixed up some Araldite Rapid (never be without it!) and dripped into the hole. 20 mins laters rad back in, filled it up and I was out in the first race in the PM. And it worked ever since. No doubt that pipe in the matrix is blocked but there are plenty of others!
Worst was a car I bought to restore. Discovered that the DPO had dealt with rusted-through wings where they joined the sills by pouring in hot bitumen! It sets remarkably hard, can be smoothed down and will take a coat of paint. But I found out, burning off old underseal next to the sill. Bitumen catches fire when it melts and drips, burning, onto your naked skin like napalm.
John
Jaguar steve said:
Mk 1 Escort.
Broken throttle cable replaced by three shoelaces tied together with one end fixed to the carburettor passing through the bulkhead and the other end just into the drivers footwell. Operated by one of my mates lying face down in my lap holding the end of the lace and pulling and releasing for more or less power when I told him.
God knows what anybody in a passing bus or truck must have thought...
Seems you were caught on camera Broken throttle cable replaced by three shoelaces tied together with one end fixed to the carburettor passing through the bulkhead and the other end just into the drivers footwell. Operated by one of my mates lying face down in my lap holding the end of the lace and pulling and releasing for more or less power when I told him.
God knows what anybody in a passing bus or truck must have thought...
Not my bodge, but many moons ago;
Blasting down the motorway, in the rain, shotgun in a Series 1 RS Turbo, not exactly hanging about & this old wreck of a Cortina quite surprisingly pulled up beside us in the fast lane looking for a bit of fun, RST driver is about plant the go pedal, but suddenly shouts WTF.
The two comedians in the Cortina didn't have working wipers, but the driver & passenger each had a bit of string tied to there respective wiper, fed in their slightly open windows & were alternately pulling to keep the wipers going back & forth. All this & still up for a challenge they were guaranteed to loose - pure quality.
Blasting down the motorway, in the rain, shotgun in a Series 1 RS Turbo, not exactly hanging about & this old wreck of a Cortina quite surprisingly pulled up beside us in the fast lane looking for a bit of fun, RST driver is about plant the go pedal, but suddenly shouts WTF.
The two comedians in the Cortina didn't have working wipers, but the driver & passenger each had a bit of string tied to there respective wiper, fed in their slightly open windows & were alternately pulling to keep the wipers going back & forth. All this & still up for a challenge they were guaranteed to loose - pure quality.
When I was about fourteen I had an old 200cc Triumph Tiger Cub field bike I paid about £6.00 for. One day the throttle cable snapped at the bottom of a large valley miles from anywhere, and there would be absolutely no chance of getting it back home, even with three adults pushing, so I wrapped the broken cable around my right elbow and operated the throttle by bending my arm slowly, it was a bit hit and miss, but eventually climbed the long dirt track until I got back to the road and then pushed the bike home along the pavement.
Heading home from Silverstone in a Clio that I'd fitted motorbike throttle bodies and a megasquirt ECU to. The silicon hose joiners that were woefully inadequate peeled off. We rolled into the next service station and assessed what could be done. The hoses refused to be rejoined to the inlet manifold that I'd fabricated so we scoured the garage to see what was available. Gaffer tape and a bungee were all that we could find and so this happened
That's a bungee cord holding the bodies as tight against the hoses as we could make it. Fortunately we had a laptop in the car with us and were able to richen the mixture up enough to account for the many airleaks and drove that home 120 miles up the M6!
Al
That's a bungee cord holding the bodies as tight against the hoses as we could make it. Fortunately we had a laptop in the car with us and were able to richen the mixture up enough to account for the many airleaks and drove that home 120 miles up the M6!
Al
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