My cat-back system (which was supposed to be highly rust resistant) rusted through south of the muffler. It was a single inlet dual outlet muffler with 2.5" output. It rusted through at a joint / mounting location but the pipes were actually fine on either side.

I figured a pair of those wide strap style stainless exhaust clamps and I'd be good to go. Unfortunately, they wouldn't tighten up on the pipes I took a couple of soup cans, cut them open, wrapped them around the pipes, then put the clamps on it. Tightened right up!

We call it "minority engineering."

 

A friend of mine had a 91 E350 motorhome, I don't recall the make right now, but anyway they hid the house battery relay back in behind the brake booster, actually to the left of the booster on the firewall....

 

A guy that I used to work with always had trouble with his truck battery going dead after an hour or so of being parked. He couldn't find out what was draining the battery so he cut off his positive terminal cable right before it connected to the battery and wired it with an extension cord, so he could unplug it easy. He had it like that for over a year and never had any problems.

 

Car came in the shop one time, kid had an amp under the pass seat. Power and ground run straight to the battery.... 14/2 romex with a single pole switch on the pass floor to turn it off and on. Ran it out the door and then under the hood, on the ouside of the car. Only in West Virginia... I mean West BYGOD Virginia.

 

Our last 90 Ford econoline had a small problem with the actuator broken so the PO put a bar and bolts on and you pushed that to start it I liked it so much we kept it on our 86 we have the same problem just use vise grips.
On our 86 we wanted to fix the wood grain trim around the dash and all so cut about 1x1 inch square pieces of flat metal and screwed it together using it as a washer works great still. Used short framing screws to install our map pockets on it. Our behind seat speaker boxes would rattle and fall around so we took some of the rope like stuff that is used to pack together a bunch of 2x4s at home depot and such and screwed it on the cab and put it through it and screwed the other side works great.

Our B2 had the windshield broken along the middle so in order to keep it from cracking till we can afford a new windshield we put a thin piece of silver duct tape along it on both sides and it still is there works great officer thought it was a split window B2.

My 2 favorites: the wipers were bad on the B2 so we took a bag of rags and wrapped them around the wipers one a time and swapped them out till we got to the auto parts store and changed it.
On the 86 the wiper motor failed while raining so took the wiper arms off and every time it got hard to see we wipped it clear again by hand did it till we got home and I put the new wiper motor in.
I probably have more but can't think of them right now.
Trav

 

our 04 350 diesel's coolant catch tank sprung a leak about 200 miles away from home a 1x1 patch of gaffers tape held the pressure for the trip home and didn't leak a bit

 

Neighbor of mine didnt have any windshield wipers, saw him going down the road in the rain using a squeegy as he was driving.

 

Ive used the bungee cord fix on my coolant/ wiper solution resivoir for over ten years now.

 

Pepper in the radiator old skool fix better than barrsleak

 

I've used a couple of eggs in there too, in a pinch. If you put the eggs and pepper in there, and a slice of bacon, you can have breakfast on the road.

Oh and not what I would call Southern Engineering, but I've heard of sneaky used car salesmen putting brake fluid in auto trannies to swell the seals up and get them to shift a bit firmer. Of course I doubt the trans would last any good amount of time.

 

Well I don't mess with automatic transmissions I actually enjoy shifting gears but to each is own

 

Did this just three weeks ago. Fuel pump in my 2005 daily driver died,and I have a gravel driveway,no garage,no way to jack it up high enough to drop the tank to replace the pump. So I lifted the back seat,used a dremel tool to cut an access panel,replaced the pump,went to the junk yard,cut a piece from a wrecked focus,used some screws and sealant,now I have a door in case it ever dies again!!

 

I did that with my bus, when I 1st got it. After dropping the tank once(one heavy tank), I made a access panel in the floor!!
Also did the same thing with a 93 Explorer(mud truck) after a few pump problems occured.

 

My Uncle Fred used binder twine tied to his wipers and ran it through the no draught windows on his old dodge pickup. When it rained it was his wife's job to pull the twine back and forth to wipe the windows. He drove it like that for as long as I can remember. I don't think he ever got that fixed.

I've used soup cans and clamps to repair exhaust leaks. I used pepper in the radiator in my '70 F100 4X4. On my '72 F250 4X2 the clips used to hold the throttle together kept breaking. So I used a small polypropylene rope tied to my my throttle on the carb and ran it through the firewall to the gas pedal. It worked so well I never did fix it and I put 200,000 miles on that truck.

My dad told me about some not so honest people, when he was in his 20's, putting sawdust in their differentials to make them run quiet when they were selling their cars. I remember many of the vehicles in our neighbourhood had a whine coming from the rear differential so I imagine that would work for a short time.

I've used tin foil over a burnt out fuse in order to get home. I've also put screws in holes in my oil pan to stop leaks. I used a flashlight once as a headlight, in a rainstorm. That was an adventure. Brrrrr My best friend and I took his dad's car out one night, without permission :-(, and we put in into a snow bank and knocked the headlight out of it's bracket. We took a match book and folded it until it was able to wedge the headlight in place. It lasted about a month.

I broke the throttle cable on my bike so I pulled it up beside my leg and attached a vice grip. I rode like that for four hours until I got home.

I can't think of anything else at the moment but driving has been quite the adventure over the years. :-)

 

Here's one I did last month on my 89 F250 after the cruse and throttle cable plastic holders broke off......



Don't you love brittle plastic parts......