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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[AirSpeed]

Just thought of another, back in high school my friends and I cruised out in the woods to drink a few beers that we paid a bum to buy for us (we weren't 21, I know, I was bad!) anyway we wanted to light up a, uh, umm a cigarette, yea sure a cigarette! no one had a lighter or matches and we were to lazy to rub sticks together so we poured a little gas into a beer can bottom and held the spark plug hooked to a chainsaw near the gas, a couple of pulls and voila! We were able to get that "cig" lit up and the day was saved!

[Wizo]

One of the first engines in my truck was at 250 straight six-cylinder. one day coming home from work I noticed the old gal is getting hot and squeaking like hell. so I popped the hood take a look and got a nose full of burnt rubber smoke. well after a few minutes I finally discovered that on the main crankshaft pulley was just spinning on the inner part. I guess the rubber part got tired and dried out and wasn't holding the press fit anymore. puzzled on what to do I knew I needed to do something because if I just kept driving it was going to fall off on the road. that would suck. so I pulled out a bunch of loose sheet metal screws from my toolbox and then began to screw them in between the two pulley halves. after I got enough of them in to hold I was able to drive my tired ass home for the day.
Another problem I had once was a broken valve spring. being young at the time I didn't have a lot of tools for money. so I was wondering how my going to keep this valve in place without it falling into the cylinder. the idea I came up was about 30 feet of one quarter inch nylon string. I managed to feed it all into the spark plug hole with one end wrapped around a screwdriver so it wouldn't all fall in. then I crank the crankshaft around until the whole mess was smashed up against the bottom of the head, has anybody ever tried to compress a valve spring without a valve spring compression tool? Try it sometime you will be amazed how hard it is. anyway I got my valve spring replace, valve keepers back in, pull the string back out and was back on the road. keep on trucking dudes

[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.

[Wizo]

say um air speed;are you sure it was a sig? just wondering

[96Indyram]

My Grandpa had a tierod fall off a old 78 chevy truck once. It just was wore out and the shaft/ball was still in the spindle and the cup was still on the steering linkage.
He pushes it back together and wraps a black rubber bungi cord around it to hold it together. He ran it like that for years around the farm and down the country roads.