You shouldn't have but it worked

[Fatherof3]

Wanted to see what repairs or modifications that you have done that shouldn't have worked but did.

I'm glad that we look out for each others safety or at the least the innocent by standers but sometimes it seems like the wealth of information on the internet has turned everybody into an aerospace engineer and we over analyze everything and have forgot that sometimes "Good enough" is good enough.

I'm from a place and time where the private farmer didn't have or maybe even know about a MIG, TIG, plasma cutter, CNC machine etc. They had an arc welder, an oxy acetylene set with cutting torch, a bench grinder and a whole lot of bailing wire. But what they had the most was seed that needed put in the ground and a crop that needed harvested and they didn't let someone more educated stop them when something broke down (Did I just write a country song?).

I once paid someone to weld a pot metal part and they bragged how good it was that I brought to them as no one else around could weld it. Well it didn't work and I thought "Hey I can do it wrong for free" and welded it myself and it never failed. Also have a project in the back of my head that I want to try a process called cold welding for cast iron on but don't tell NASA.

So let hear your stories:

Thanks

[In The Ten Ring]

That time I used toliet paper rolls as a jack stand...

I'm kidding. I haven't done enough to my truck to do anything really silly yet.

[Fatherof3]

Originally Posted by In The Ten Ring

That time I used toliet paper rolls as a jack stand...

I'm kidding. I haven't done enough to my truck to do anything really silly yet.

"I used toliet paper rolls as a jack stand..." Boeing has a coating you could put on them and they would work great

[desertnick69]

Originally Posted by Fatherof3

"I used toliet paper rolls as a jack stand..." Boeing has a coating you could put on them and they would work great

Maybe that's way I do not fly?

[Fatherof3]

Originally Posted by desertnick69

Maybe that's way I do not fly?

Living in the Seattle area you meet a lot of Boeing employees but come to think of it I have never met one on a flight

Just saying

[Matt Cramer]

My dad and I patched several rust holes in the floorboards of my Dodge Dart using cotton flannel rags soaked in epoxy. Not a "correct" rust repair, but it's held up for 17 years.

[c20pickup]

this will be a cool thread once it gets rolling!

when i was plumbing my fuel pump i didnt have the correct fittings, so i took a fitting with the correct treads on one end and quite a bit larger threads on the other end. well i wanted to drive the truck that night, so i went to the grinder and ground down the threads on the large end enough to make it small enough to fit inside the fuel hose. probably wasnt the safest way to do it, but it didnt leak.

it was fixed correctly later when i bought the correct fitting

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Fatherof3

Wanted to see what repairs or modifications that you have done that shouldn't have worked but did.

I don't think I've ever had that happen...

(lol)

Usually it should have worked and didn't

or

Shouldn't have worked and didn't....

If something comes to mind I'll post it up.

K

[Keith Seymore]

That didn't take long...



Tire with a slow leak: the foamy tire sealer is only supposed to work on a small pinhole in the tread area, not if the leak is in the shoulder of the tread and certainly not with a bead leak.

But - I was able to seal up a bead leak with that stuff, which held up for quite some time.

K

[67ChevyRedneck]

I plead the 5th.

[BMERDOC]

When I first got the old Dude chuggin' around the block it started developing a miss. I found the cause and asked myself how I could fix it without pulling the old boat anchor apart and sending it to the machine shop. Then I remembered what the old guys did before screw in studs. It hasn't missed a beat since. Here is that story...

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=478290

[jdw]

I once had a '77 280z that kept blowing the fuel pump relay. I ran a wire from the fuse box to a householdlight switch and back to the pump. Just had to flip that switch before I turned the key. Ran great.

[69chevytrucker]

20 years ago i had a 79 camaro rally sport and of course being a broke young fella went to pick my gf up from high school when my car was on empty long story short ran out of gas got my dad to bring gas can pour gas in tank didnt keep any for the carb ,car wouldnt start so gf had hair spray in one of those plastic pump bottles so i poured it down the carb a few time and she fired right up thank god for the 80's and girls with lots of hair spray lol

[Fatherof3]

Originally Posted by 69chevytrucker

20 years ago i had a 79 camaro rally sport and of course being a broke young fella went to pick my gf up from high school when my car was on empty long story short ran out of gas got my dad to bring gas can pour gas in tank didnt keep any for the carb ,car wouldnt start so gf had hair spray in one of those plastic pump bottles so i poured it down the carb a few time and she fired right up thank god for the 80's and girls with lots of hair spray lol

Using hair spray to start it -

[Mr Chevorlet]

Two things that i can recall, on my tractor exhaust manifold was pitted and ate down real bad on one end, and gaskets would not seal it so i welded it up with my wire feed welder and has been holding for 5 years.It was cast metal.
And the second one was my daughter kept taking her van to a shop about every three months because of speed sensors 3 times she didnt have the cash to pull the trans to find out the real problem of why they were going out. so i pulled the one she was having trouble with and the sensor was wore off from it rubbing inside the transmission so i pick up a new one and was told not to shim it because it was made to fit. and not to put a washer on it to shim it out. I did any way and that has been two years ago and still going. Now watch it will screw up now.

[MARKDTN]

Tried to cut a 2x4 once with an Acetelyne torch. It didn't work.

[profe56]

One day my car carburetor float had a hole and full of gasoline after emptying it keep capped it with Kola Loka (crazy glue) had to drive from Los Angeles to San diego, ran for few miles.

[slomotion]

I used an automotive floor jack to rip up kitchen sub-flooring in our kitchen overhaul.....I can't find the pic of that, but did find one using my engine hoist to pull fence posts.

[wreckedchevy]

just got my capri put back together and the lower rad hose has touching the power steering pulley and cut a hole in it and I really wanted to go cruising that night so I jb welded the hole and ended up driving it that way for years

[slowcpe]

3 stories come to mind:

Back in high school, 1994 I think, my buddy had a '68 Nova. We went to leave somewhere and the shifter linkage broke. We used the wire out if a notebook to fix it. Was suppose to be a temp fix but don't think he ever changed it.

I once used a circular saw to cut a hole in drywall. Actually worked quite well.

I went to pull the trans out of my Mustang once. Well a buddy of mine had used loctite on the driveshaft bolts and I couldn't get them off without an impact. The wheels kept spinning. I ended up using a breaker bar at a 45 deg angle to the ground and dropped the floor jack real quick .

[yuccales]

Was about three miles from camp when the 69 broke it's only fan belt. My tool box had everything BUT an extra belt. Had my chains in a bag. I took one of the rubber adjusters, took off the five hooks, stretched that big ol rubber band around the crank and water pump pulleys and off I went. It stayed on, truck never got hot!

[AirSpeed]

I once woke up to a flat tire at a friends house, I had no spare so I jacked up my truck, took out the valve stem core and poured a can of Carnation condensed milk into the tire, waited a couple hours and aired up the tire. Found a decent sized hole that quickly plugged up with curdled milk. Worked so well I drove on it for a few months before it started leaking again.
On Thanksgiving a few years ago my wife was making her world famous mashed potatoes when her mixer took a crap, I love her potatoes so I had to think of something quick! Went down to my shop and grabbed my cordless drill, stuck one of the beaters in the chuck and handed it to my wife, it actually mixed better than the mixer. She actually used it a few more times before we got a new mixer.

[virginiaslim]

usually the things I do that I shouldnt fail miserably.

but I did once see on a show a guy had a cut spark plug wire and he used a wet tree branch as a replacement. Apparently the current will travel thru the wet wood.

oh just remembered, I had a push rod wear on the head and the rocker slipped off the valve. I fashioned a guide plate out of scrap I had in the back of the truck. Worked for all of 5 miles before the thin metal was destroyed. So I made a few more and stacked them up. Of course the stud wasn't able to hold it steady so by the time I made it home there was some loud clanking of the shin metal flopping around.

[magwakeenercew2jh]

Originally Posted by virginiaslim

....but I did once see on a show a guy had a cut spark plug wire and he used a wet tree branch as a replacement. Apparently the current will travel thru the wet wood.

Now *that's* Flintstonian!

[magwakeenercew2jh]

My third car was a '52 Chevy 2-door Deluxe (with doorposts).

Looked like this one (I stole from the web and then P-Shopped) when I was done dumping ALL my money from work as a laborer the summer between HS graduation and college.

My parents were pissed because every check from a real-man's salary went into painting it, brand new interior from the dash to the package tray, floor to headliner, in either gloss
black lacquer, carpet, or black naugahyde. Big steel wheels, reversed (a new thing back then) and painted white... with blackwalls.

Three on the tree was solid....but the IL6 smoked...so off to a place we used to have around the States called Automotive Engineering (this was 1964)...I think it was just a franchise
rip off for local shops to hang out a sign and get the benefit of national advertising and price fixing.

So, I dumped four weeks salary into a rebuild. at Automotive Engineering on Fourth and Lincoln in San Rafael, Ca.

It made two full trips to University of Nevada, Reno from my family home in Novato. I was really dumb. My parking off campus netted a ticket every day of the week.
Which I happily threw in the glove box.

I lived off campus, too. At a rooming house full of non-students, miscreants, people "taking the cure" (waiting out the six-week residency required for a divorce),
working stiffs, drunken grandmothers, and gamblers out on their luck.

Third trip from home, I was dropping off a friend at Sac State on the way back to Reno and an Automotively Un-Engineered piston and rod went bye-bye.
Of course, they laughed at a seventeen-year-old's trying to collect on their sheety guarantee.

I took the bus the rest of the way "home" to Reno.

Two brothers, Dept. of Nevada Transportation road workers that had lived for over two years at my Reno home, Scotty's Guest House, offered to tow the Chevy to Reno from Sacramento
for gas money. On the trip back to the flop house, the younger brother and I discussed a sale to him...and agreed to a price of $375. About an average month's salary for a real person back then.

He gave me $75 to bind the deal with the rest coming the next day. I gave him the pink slip. I forgot about the tickets. Back then, the tickets went with the car...but I wasn't thinking
about that. It was only paper to me.

The next morning, they were both gone. So was the car. Poof!!!!! Thin air.

I heard, some years later, that they ran away to Redding, CA. Somehow, I felt avenged for my $300 loss. No way he was going to re-register that car in California without paying some
big bucks in back ticket fees.

And, that car taught me:

1)... to never dump too much money into something that could go south...
Oops! Check that! I didn't learn that! RAT proves that point;

2) No money, no pink slip;

3) Trust only with verification. At least when it comes to material stuff.