Bodges that you've done....

[catsinthewelder]

That Kawasaki bodge sounds a little familiar, a friend of my flatmate chucked my 400 bandit down the road on its alternator case and broke it. When it became clear that he wasn't going to sort it himself I pulled the remains off to take to the bike breakers to try and match it (unlikely) and found that it had been previously repaired with araldite. Figuring that if it worked before, I glued it back with the same, dab of filler and sanding then a coat of satin black. The bike was nicked not long after so I never got the chance to find out how long it lasted.

 

My best get you home bodge was using a spare seatbelt mounting bolt that happened to be in the glovebox to replace the sump plug that had fallen out of the VW bus. 2 miles to the garage on 1 litre of spare oil that I was carrying plus about half a litre that I managed to catch in a plastic container then a top up for the trip home. In similar fashion a trip last week to MOT the same vehicle ended up with me wiring the throttle open on one carb after the linkage vanished. She still passed and I found the linkage a couple of days later buried in the tinware.

[forddeliveryboy]

I once had a 2CV that snapped a shock absorber mounting. The shocker dropped onto the road, making pretty sparks. I sacrificed some speaker cable to hold the shocker off the ground and continued my journey.

 

That would be one of those 'popular' (read cheapest) chassis from W Yorkshire, would it? 2CVs never drive right on those - but some owners seem to think that saving £100 on the most important part is money well saved. I'll say no more.

 

My dad once drove a couple of hours in an Austin Seven with his trouser belt holding the propshaft up when the bearing let go. My current bodge is a 5 inch water filter housing acting as fuel filter in the Gfol diseasel, strapped to some cable or other with a few cable ties. MoT next week, waiting for the raised eyebrows...

[Father Ted]

Sikkaflex bond and lead flashing "welded" patches to inner wings.

FTW!

[Futuramic]

Not too many really. One was the already mentioned cut radiator hose in my first days of mechanicking. The end was all mangled and hard to fit so I just cut a bit off; moved the Jubilee clip and fixed it back together. No problems at all.

 

In the grand days of the Ginetta I dinked the centre exhaust box on a speed bump. This pulled it out of the downpipe section somewhat, opened a gap, and voila! No silencing. I couldn't drive the car in that state but the Pinto sounded awesome like it. I revved it manfully a few times; the net effect of which shook the two exhaust sections back into alignment. The pressure of the clamps did the rest and my exhaust was fixed. The back box was held on with electrical flex. Did the job too.

 

Now for the best. Not really a bodge but driving at 70 on the A12 I lost the sidelights on my Volvo 740 (back when I owned it). I put this down to a regular fuse problem so had to bodge. I possessed a spare; but was lacking in time so changed down to fourth to move the gear lever out of the way and dismantled the lower dashboard bit with my left hand. I steered with my right and did the whole process by feel. I managed to extract the fuse tray; select a new blade type and install it. I put it all back too. At 60 mph!

[Station]

A hose blew on NYE in London and I bodged it back together with random shite I found and bought from a 24 hour kwik e mart and I used my own piss to top the coolant up. It didn't need it, it just felt right to do so at the time, I was feeling a bit Bear Grylls after all that ingenious bodging of mine.

[Rod/b]

Best i've seen was a few guys in an old Bluebird who overheated after someone nicked their rad cap. After it cooled down they topped it up with red wine, wedged an old campagne cork in the top of the rad and then wired it down with the twisty wire from the champers. Lasted another 800 odd mile like that.

[Craig the Princess]

Best i've seen was a few guys in an old Bluebird who overheated after someone nicked their rad cap. After it cooled down they topped it up with red wine, wedged an old campagne cork in the top of the rad and then wired it down with the twisty wire from the champers. Lasted another 800 odd mile like that.

 

 

We did a simliar thing an an Allegro in Spain after I snapped the plastic cooling plug off. It held down to Casablanca and back and then from Malaga to Kent in 2 days.

 

Uploaded with Craig the Princess

 

 

Uploaded with Craig the Princess

 

In the same allegro, we once used a sill carpet screw to block an oil pressure switch that failed, spilling oil everywhere at a German petrol station in the middle of the night. That held round the nurburgring and home too.

 

By Craig the Princess

 

By Craig the Princess

 

By Craig the Princess

[Rod/b]

I wired the washer pump directly onto the horn with some old speaker wire in my old Audi coupe after i snapped the wiper stalk off. It had a 1 inch self tapper screwed into the stump of the stalk which was secure enough to switch the wipers on but not operate the washers. That would'nt normally have mattered but i was going up the M42 after a shitload of rain and the wipers weren't clearing the shite on their own. Got me from Bicester to the NEC and back though.

 

Not a heroic bodge but a bodge nonetheless!

[KruJoe]

Yesterday, on the Rover 214, at my sister's house after fighting with the alternator:

 

 

 

It is the top vent pipe to the expansion tank. Self tappers to get me home:

 

 

After sleeping on it and cursing myself all day... EUREKA!

 

 

Bent nail in soldering iron to widen out the hole.

 

 

Pipe cleaner to pull it through.

 

 

Luckily, the problem isn't far from the main top hose, so we can go in that way.

 

 

After a bit of a fiddle, out she comes. I pulled the pipe cleaner back out of the big hole...

 

 

All back together, filled up and so far (fingers crossed), no leaks!

 

 

[Alexg]

A hose blew on NYE in London and I bodged it back together with random shite I found and bought from a 24 hour kwik e mart and I used my own piss to top the coolant up. It didn't need it, it just felt right to do so at the time, I was feeling a bit Bear Grylls after all that ingenious bodging of mine.

 

AWESOME !

[Shep Shepherd]

Yesterday, on the Rover 214, at my sister's house after fighting with the alternator:

 

That could almost be an official Rover repair!