Hey people,

This tuesday I was at the gas station, filling up my car when I saw that the retaining post for my windshield wiper worked itself loose and left the car. Fortunately I had a sheet metal screw and used it to replace the retaining post. And it will stay like that until I can find the money to replace the windsheild wiper.

Now this incedent reminded me of the many many half assed, get me to the next five miles, kind of repairs that I have done with cars over the years. I've repaired a lower radiator with electrical tape. I've repaired a hole in my tire by actually shoving a nail in there (hey I had a flat, the spare was flat, and I didn't have AAA at the time). I've dolphin clipped an O2 sensor. I've cut the belt on a frozen power steering pump (seperate from the alternator belt fortunately) with a hammer and a screwdriver. And a whole host of other things that I don't remember at the moment.

I know I'm not the only one who has had to make a really strange repair in a pinch, so I ask what is the most half assed (or strangest) repair you've ever had to do to a car.

Regards,
CMF

Heh... well, when my A/C broke, I just whipped out my knife, cut the belt, and went on my way.

That's about all I have, pretty lame huh?

Well... when i found out my headgasket had a crack in it and was leaking oil, my half ass repair didnt even involve my hands. All I did was say "Eh, Ill keep oil in it." Crazy thing is, it doesnst leak oil now....?

I didn't do any that I can think of this second but back in the day a friend was putting neon lights on his Lumina. :laugh: He took Walmart neon blubs and went to ace hardware and found clear tube to slide them into to make them waterproof. He electrical taped the ends together and when we hooked it up I told him to ground the other end. So whats he do? He strips off about 15 inches of insulation on the wire and wraps it around his exhaust :laugh: Damn those were the days!

my entire car is a half assed job. swapped engine and wiring harness out, never finished putting dash back together. wires hanging out everywhere. exhaust is being held up by a coat hanger and a couple of the actual rubber muffler hangers, no muffler on it yet.

i did put engine in it correctly with all the bolts and mounts. wired everything up correctly. all hoses to there proper places and everything mounted where it should be.

long as it runs i really dont care how it looks.

I was driving around with a friend of mine once and my radiator hose blew in my old car and I was out in the middle of nowhere so I pulled out an old rag that I had in my car and tied it around the hose over the leak and all i needed then was some water, lucky for me I was next to the Erie Canal when this happend so I searched the ditch for a soda bottle and kept running back and fourth from my car to the canal to fill up my radiator It worked great.

Back when I had stock IC piping, a hole in the rubber piece of the pipe finally decided to open enough for me to notice on my way to the drag strip... Limped to the nearest gas station, stole a thin ass rubber coupler off of the gas stations drainage gutter and ducktaped it to the IC pipe so that I could limp home.. Ugh, should have called TripleAAA but i used them too much that month. Was the most ghetto repair I've ever done, needless to say, it gave me a reason to upgrade.

well i am not much for half assed repairs but my buddy who is sitting here w/ me is the king and i mean THE KING his current vehicle which is his winter vehicle of 2 years is a 1986 bronco II named cpl stiffy. well for starters the bi*** is camo and has little if any exhaust. it is quite possiblly the loudest vehicle i have ever ridden in. ok now for the half assed stuff

1: when my friend backed into it w/ his avenger a piece of puddy aprox 1' x 1' fell out of the fender.

2: well the cv joints went out on the rear drive shaft (yes they have cv b/c supposedly they were at too great of an angle for u) so yeah we went down to the donor car in the yard a ranger and hacked off the drive shaft which has u joints shortened it and slapped that bi*** on. it has a home made light bar on top and one night while drunken cruizing chasing possums we lost as light cover so tonight actually he cut off a pair of sox and put htem on and spray painted them black

4: ok now on to his 83 jeep cherokee hte rear bumper was held on by lamp cord, the floor was covered w/ plastic signs so u couldnt see the road whle driving, it used 2 quarts of USED motor oil a week used a paper clip as a fuse for the parking lights (dont use for stereo amps by the way burns like hell taking it out) the tires went flat all the time so he just kept a 5 gal air tank in the back to fill them up after school until he finally bought a used tire for 10 bux that had 3 plugs in it

5: on to the 83 ford ranger also camo and named sgt. woody, the roll bar was held on with wire, a wheel fell off so he took one lug off each wheel and dorve it like that for some good time, after hitting a tree he found a bra in the garbage and used it to cover the massive dent. while trying to back up his drive way with ihs door open it cought a bank and wouldnt close so he used a piece of rope and tied it around the cab while driving this lasted about 2 days, the battery tie down was a bunjee cord starped to frame and inner fender. it had the wrong wireing harness in it so when u turned the high beams on the turnsignal would come on and when u hit the turnsignal the shift light came on. the door panels started to fall apart so he used black and red duck tape, and i quote "made it look all fancy and shit cutting out the center pieces and stuff". the grill was in aprox. 12 pieces using only fiberglass, duct tape, and zip ties to reconstruct the grill so it would pass inspection.

6: 83 vw rabbit gti, the motor mount broke so him and his dad used a chain and welded it fast to frame and the motor, one day b4 school the chain broke in the middle of the street out front and it was stuck in park and it was a 5spd haha. after hitting a fence post and breaking out the window instead of replacing the window he put a piece of lexan on the glove box and mounted the cd player in there w/ a lock so no one could steal it. after hitting a deer and smashing the part of the radiator where the overflow hose came in he used copper pipe and jb weld to fix it. the tires were the wrong size so when goin into turns everyone in the car had to lean to to keep the tires from rubbing the fenders.

im tired of typing and im sure ure tired of hearing about it so ill leave it there ahha pics are coming soon ill prolly post them in that "my buddies car thread"


fatty

the day before yesterday i noticed i had a torn front cv shaft, yesterday was a DSM meet, ordered a new boot but it wouldnt be here till monday..

refilled the cv boot with grease, whipped out some krazyglue and duct tape.

I broke 3 f the 4 bolts holding in my drivers side headlight so i used zipties
I also used zipties to hold the bumper up in the fender wall after breaking all those bolts as well... hey at least now I can get my front bumper off in a matter of minutes.

yesterday while putting my O2 housing back on, tried dropping the turbo and one of the bolts wouldn't come out... then it wouldn't screw back in.. well, my friend had the nifty idea to cut a wall hook in half and slide it under the bolt and torque it down as much as possible... works for now til i can get that damn bolt off.

while attempting to remove my rear windshield wiper and noticing that i had the wrong wiper to replace it with, it broke on me and i super glue it back on there.


and duct tape tends to be my best friend.

my apexi dunk started hanging off, so i took my belt off and wrapped it around so itll hold just for a couple more miles.. then, a couple days later, i got a thick rope and helped my belt keep it up.. i coulda gone to the muffler shop and got it welded for free.. after a while the pipping gave up and my muffler fell off.. i stopped the car, backed up, picked my muffler up and put it in my trunk and went home-open muffler..

When I swapped out my 02 sensor, I also swapped o2 housings with a ported 2g one that was in my garage. Well, All but 2 bolts broke off in the turbine housing. I didn't have any decent turbine housing to swap it with nor could I afford the down time of taking it and drilling out the broken studs out of the housing. So tighted down the 2 that were still good, then put a c-clamp where the one of the bolts would have gone. Thankfully it doesn't leak, and its holding good and tight which I means I can wait until I can afford to fix it correctly. It does look pretty ghetto rigged, but hey, do what you can with what you got, for the time being, no?

pianoman said:

When I swapped out my 02 sensor, I also swapped o2 housings with a ported 2g one that was in my garage. Well, All but 2 bolts broke off in the turbine housing. I didn't have any decent turbine housing to swap it with nor could I afford the down time of taking it and drilling out the broken studs out of the housing. So tighted down the 2 that were still good, then put a c-clamp where the one of the bolts would have gone. Thankfully it doesn't leak, and its holding good and tight which I means I can wait until I can afford to fix it correctly. It does look pretty ghetto rigged, but hey, do what you can with what you got, for the time being, no?

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My friend in his 91 gsx has the exact same thing done.

only a few things i can think of
1. when i did my talon conversion, i didnt want to make brackets for hte middle. so i drilled holes and used heavy duty zipties to bring the middle in tight.
2. When i hit a mustang in texas (which is why i got a 97 fornt end instead of the 95 liek i had) i lost the bolt to hold in the hop of my headlight, so i used a zip tie.
3. I had a motor mount break when i first got the car, the oil pump belt snapped, i whipped out a belt i had in the back of the car, and got home great.

thats about it. im not too shoddy.

oh yeah, and i ran open downpipe for a month while i was saving up for an N1

I once used the black electrical tape on my upper radiator hose to cover a small hole/crack.

Mike1992 said:

My friend in his 91 gsx has the exact same thing done.

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i have 2.5 bolts holding on my 02 housing

Let's see, I have taped intercooler pipes for now, a zip tied/two bolt front bumper cover that comes off in a snap, a passenger side headlight with one zip tie, and wires holding it in, and a flashlight on my cluster, because I shorted out the dimmer switch, and cannot afford a used one at the junkyard.

Game Over said:

Let's see, I have taped intercooler pipes for now, a zip tied/two bolt front bumper cover that comes off in a snap, a passenger side headlight with one zip tie, and wires holding it in, and a flashlight on my cluster, because I shorted out the dimmer switch, and cannot afford a used one at the junkyard.

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do you have deep pockets?

dont know if this counts.......I was watching Myth Busters

and they cracked an egg into the radiator when it had small holes in it and was leaking. Within 20 seconds somehow the egg clogged the holes up until the next place to change the radiator.

Thats a cheap fix.......so keep an egg or two in your car always.

the current exhaust I am build for my car.
granted yes it is all 3" 304 stainless, but it was originally built for a 89 conquest that I got rid of, but kept the exhaust. So now I am hacking it up and chop welding it togeather to fit the TSi.
BTW, I just about got the rear of it done. Muffler to the I pipe.

leet said:

Heh... well, when my A/C broke, I just whipped out my knife, cut the belt, and went on my way.

That's about all I have, pretty lame huh?

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you aint the only one

Two days after I got my TSI, my BOV sprung apart (2g), so me and my dad McGuivered it with some metal clips and a hose clamp
DAMN THOSE 2G BOVS!!!
Heres a pic enjoy

Well, today I was putting my 1g 7 bolt back together and most of the upper part of the tb cover was broke all to hell. Instead of spending $100 on a new one, I hacked the top part off at the water pump and installed it. Then I hacked another 6 bolt spare cover I had and used the upper part. Now I have a 3 piece tb cover and it will work fine. I will have a replacement by the time I replace the tb again, I hope.

Most rigged fix Ive ever done was the $3 oil drain fix with heater hose and worm clamps, worked like a champ till my headgasket went and everything went down the drain.