When is a botch not a botch?
Discussion
Chaps,
One to ponder. When is a botch not a botch?
As usual, there is a story attached.
My elderly Golf (Mk2 GTi) has a number of breathers on the engine, one of which runs from the cam cover to the inlet manifold. This is rubber, and had perished - became brittle, and eventually collapsed.
So, I fixed it.
Not with a VW part (as this would be very expensive), but with a bit of hosepipe from the hose in our back garden. It was about the right diameter, although needed to be sleeved up to fit at the cam cover end, which I did with a larger bit of rubber tubing. (I cut a bit of copper pipe to fit inside the hosepipe to prevent it from collapsing at the point where it is sleeved up, and put a jubilee clip around the sleeving point to keep it together.)
And it all works very well. Neat, tidy, very functional. It does look like a bit of hosepipe on top of the engine, although were it not green with the distinctive criss-cross pattern, you wouldn't look twice at it.
But, this led me to thinking - is this a botch? Some people would look at it, and accuse me of poor engineering practices worthy only of stoning to death because I used a bit of hosepipe instead of a VW-approved moulded rubber part. Others (of a similar mindset to me) would congratulate me on a good repair costing less than 2p.
So, the question. Did I do a botch job? If so, why? If not, why not? (I would post a photo of the repair if I had a digital camera.)
What is a botch and what isn't botch?
Oli.
One to ponder. When is a botch not a botch?
As usual, there is a story attached.
My elderly Golf (Mk2 GTi) has a number of breathers on the engine, one of which runs from the cam cover to the inlet manifold. This is rubber, and had perished - became brittle, and eventually collapsed.
So, I fixed it.
Not with a VW part (as this would be very expensive), but with a bit of hosepipe from the hose in our back garden. It was about the right diameter, although needed to be sleeved up to fit at the cam cover end, which I did with a larger bit of rubber tubing. (I cut a bit of copper pipe to fit inside the hosepipe to prevent it from collapsing at the point where it is sleeved up, and put a jubilee clip around the sleeving point to keep it together.)
And it all works very well. Neat, tidy, very functional. It does look like a bit of hosepipe on top of the engine, although were it not green with the distinctive criss-cross pattern, you wouldn't look twice at it.
But, this led me to thinking - is this a botch? Some people would look at it, and accuse me of poor engineering practices worthy only of stoning to death because I used a bit of hosepipe instead of a VW-approved moulded rubber part. Others (of a similar mindset to me) would congratulate me on a good repair costing less than 2p.
So, the question. Did I do a botch job? If so, why? If not, why not? (I would post a photo of the repair if I had a digital camera.)
What is a botch and what isn't botch?
Oli.
The chap who fixed the sills on my Ford Cortina, with newspaper and oil tins - that was a bodge.
Pumping body filler into the king pin grease nipple on something or other to take up the play so it would pass an MOT - that was a bodge.
Fixing something so that it works as it did before, but not necessarily using the originl parts - that's not a bodge, that's ingenuity!
Pumping body filler into the king pin grease nipple on something or other to take up the play so it would pass an MOT - that was a bodge.
Fixing something so that it works as it did before, but not necessarily using the originl parts - that's not a bodge, that's ingenuity!
I believe the expression is a 'field repair' 
One of the best examples I can recall was when the Africar (remember that?) was being tested on some of the most atrocious roads on the planet (in Africa
), it broke a track rod end.
The local witchdoctor-cum-welder held the pieces together with his feet and welded a length of 1" angle-iron across the break. That repair lasted the rest of the trip, right back to the UK, by which time they'd forgotten about it. IIRC it later failed an MOT though I don't see why, if it was serviceable...
One of the best examples I can recall was when the Africar (remember that?) was being tested on some of the most atrocious roads on the planet (in Africa
), it broke a track rod end. The local witchdoctor-cum-welder held the pieces together with his feet and welded a length of 1" angle-iron across the break. That repair lasted the rest of the trip, right back to the UK, by which time they'd forgotten about it. IIRC it later failed an MOT though I don't see why, if it was serviceable...
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