Interesting car modifications

[colnerov]

Hi, Many years ago we bought an MOT failure Arrow series Hillman Minx from a guy when he'd got fed up with the car keep wanting work each year. On checking the sills it turned out they were solid wood after the owner, a carpenter, had planed it up and screwed it in some years previously.

Colin

 

[Tinbasherdan]

have done a few get me home bodges whilst green laning including straightening a bent defender steering bar with a large rock like a caveman, and bodging some stud iron into a caliper on a disco after the pins rattled out and the pads fell out hadnt had it long and had (wrongly it seems) assumed because i had bought it off the owner of a landy 'specialist' it would be at least somewhat roadworthy

 

[zeppelin builder]

I have to admit to doing a bit of in-field bodgery to get me home once.
I was on my way back from Weymouth in my Hillman Avenger with a carful of mates when the clutch cable decided to pull its way through the bulkhead.
I calmly pulled over, got a pair of mole grips out of the boot, pulled the cable back through the bulkhead and locked the grips round it to stop it going back through.
I sold the car about 6 months later with the mole grips still on the cable.

mate did same bodge and forgot all about them ,girlfriend was driving in traffic when
ping mole grips sprung off and she rear ended a new xr3i

 

[mcostello]

Had a friend with a jeep, the frame rusted in half, so He jacked it up level and spliced it back together with a 4x4. I asked Him if He thought the job would last and He said it would as He used a treated 4x4.

 

[premmington]

Two worst "keep me going" bodges I have ever done were...

1. I had a manual Merc that was leaking from the clutch master cylinder - on the way back from holiday the only thing I had in the boot to top it up with - was 5ltrs of engine oil. This worked... Lucky enuf the leak was down the outside of the fire wall - not into the foot well.

2. I cut a rear seat belts out of my wifes Astra once to - tow it home - after the cambelt broke (car was scrap anyway).

 

[KemppiFrog]

Friend bought a Mini pickup (this was a while back..) brakes only worked on one corner, so he jacks it up and observes that the rear brakes had a bit of clear plastic tube connecting them, where the original had rusted out behind the subframe. He was shocked, I tell you, the bodger could have at least used braded.

 

[rtbcomp]

...
1. I had a manual Merc that was leaking from the clutch master cylinder - on the way back from holiday the only thing I had in the boot to top it up with - was 5ltrs of engine oil. This worked... Lucky enuf the leak was down the outside of the fire wall - not into the foot well.

...

I remember watching a documentary that followed an RAC patrol around, they were called out to a car with failed brakes. On investigation they found washing-up liquid in the master cylinder.

 

[earthman]

Great thread this,...using a seat belt as a tow rope, I wouldn't have thought of that. Lol

 

[slim_boy_fat]

On investigation they found washing-up liquid in the master cylinder.

Isn't that in common usage in Cuba, where stuff is hugely expensive or impossible to source? Iirc they mix it with something else.

 

[wookie]

Isn't that in common usage in Cuba, where stuff is hugely expensive or impossible to source? Iirc they mix it with something else.

I remember watching some program where they were trying to get Fidel Castro's car running again, I remember it was mainly shampoo and alcohol and possibly some other ingredients they used. It was either Palin or maybe Clarkson ?

 

[dobbslc]

Saw a programme years ago on Bougainville island where they run the (Toyota obviously) trucks on coconut oil, very little money and harsh trade restrictions means they have very little to work with.
Some ingenious lash up's but serious fighting going on

 

[colnerov]

I remember watching some program where they were trying to get Fidel Castro's car running again, I remember it was mainly shampoo and alcohol and possibly some other ingredients they used. It was either Palin or maybe Clarkson ?

Hi, Are you thinking of the actor David Soul's mission to help restore Earnest Hemmingway's '55 Chrysler Newyorker in Cuba? Which because of American sanctions over Cuba he has to obtain the parts, which are available and reasonably priced, in the states and then ship them over to the UK and then out to Cuba. They have to go through 4 or 5 hands to lose the paper trail and this all adds to the expense, although people involved in this are generous and helpful it is complicated and time consuming.

Colin

 

[wookie]

Hi, Are you thinking of the actor David Soul's mission to help restore Earnest Hemmingway's '55 Chrysler Newyorker in Cuba?

Nah, found in on youtube, it was an episode of Clarkson's Motorworld where they got Che Guevara's chevy going again until it caught on fire, and the recipe for brake fluid was Alcohol, brown sugar and some shampoo

 

[Cobbler]

this was a common bodge in the war years when the ford Flathead V8s blew a piston non was available
so they removed the back two pistons and rods to make them a V6 and block off the holes off in the bores with blocks of wood oak i believe worked best

Someone I knew of bought a Ford Zephur or Zodiac from the auctions, it was running on 5 cylinders. He found a wood plug in no6 plug hole, so took it out & fitted a sparking plug. Started it up, still ran on five for a few seconds & a loud bang & blew the sump off. There was no piston or rod in it!

 

[rtbcomp]

When they removed a rod & piston they clamped a weight to the big end journal to retain balance and stop the oil escaping.

 

[Farside]

When they removed a rod & piston they clamped a weight to the big end journal to retain balance and stop the oil escaping.

A weight? How posh.
A Jubilee clip and a wrap of Coke tin was all they got in the Glasgow car auctions.
Relatedly:
A mates' 6-pot Zephyr had a hole in a piston, which caused the oil filler cap to leave the rocker cover with enough force to ricochet off the underside of the lifted bonnet and whiz out of the door at ear height.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

A Jubilee clip and a wrap of Coke tin was all they got in the Glasgow car auctions.

Hence the phrase "Never buy a car from a Weegie"

 

[magnet]

I once blew the exhaust on my datsun sunny after a low gear slog up sutton bank. I fixed it with a swiss army knife and a pop can i found at the side of the road .The wire for binding was lying loose in the car. It got me the 80 odd miles home.