Cans and hose clamps. Good old times. I even put mine over that asbestos wrap stuff, had to make it better, right?
Properly done, the old can-on-an-exhaust-pipe trick could last for a couple years before the can itself rusted out.
UPS driver had his exhaust system dragging on the ground when he delivered a package to a place I used to work at. I fixed him up in short order by fashioning some new exhaust hangers I made out of wire coat hangers and duct tape - the next best thing to bubble gum and bailing wire!
Saw this in the junkyard toe rope and zip tie, tie rod ends. Sent from my moto z4 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Got an old can clamped to an exhaust pipe hole on my 48 coupe right now..been there for about a year.
Waiting for something like this to show up, told this one before. In the mid 70's I had a 65 El Camino that I took fishing, had an idler arm seperate when driving on a mountainous gravel road, luckily, I got it slowed down immediately after the steering wheel started shaking. Had absolutely nothing with me to bandaid it together...........except a steel fish stringer. This was the kind with the big bobby pin latch wire, crawled under the car and wrapped it around the joint and in five minutes I had it fixed good enough to finish the sixty mile trip back home, it worked great.
This certainly proves the old adage............................... "There's a fine line between genius and insanity" - Oscar Levant
I'd say that that screwed on patch on that exhaust pipe was far more due to not having access to a welding torch than anything else. Guys are pretty spoiled now because just about everyone has a little mig welder of some sort and a torch in the garage and welding up an exhaust pipe isn't an issue but in the 40's or 50's most guys had to go pay someone to do the welding. Same as the tin can and clamps exhaust repairs that a lot of us did back years ago. We didn't have anything else to do it with so that's the way we did it.
Years ago, Dad and I used Bondo to fix a tube on Mom’s vacuum cleaner. Worked fine until she got mad at it for some other reason and literally pitched the whole thing out of the front door. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
On my OT beater I had an O2 sensor go bad in the exhaust. When removing it, the threads in the bung stripped completely out. Not able to put a new one or even screw in a plug, I needed an easy way to cap the hole. I could have taken the time to make a patch, but I had a quarter in my pocket, and a hose clamp on the bench. I used that quarter to cover the hole for at least 15 years.
On one of my O/T be bugs I used an axle out of a wheel off one of my bmx bikes to connect the duel carb linkage and clamped the bell crank to it for the throttle cable. was supposed to be a quick fix to get me running until parts showed up. It worked great and so it stayed as a permanent part of the car!
The Vacuum! She also pitched an iron out of the front door that screwed up. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Missus Beaner and me had an old Merc when we were in high school (a 430 car). We had the top tank on the rad separate when we were about 70 miles from home. Rolled into a rest area and looked at it and she said, "can we just put water in it and loosen the cap?" I said we really need to fill the crack with something. While I was thinking she went to the john and came back with the window glazing compound from one of the windows. We stuffed the crack with the glazing crap and loosened the cap and it made it home just fine.
I replaced the leaky rad in my daily driver a couple years ago with a generic aftermarket unit from the parts store. It had an extra heater hose outlet, but it came with a rubber plug and hose clamp to block it off. About a week later on the way home from work the rubber plug disintegrated. I needed to get to work the next day, so I wasted an hour looking through the garage for some sort of plug...the only thing that was the right diameter was an old model A drag link, so I cut the end off, shortened it up, jammed it in the hole and sealed it up with a chunk of heater hose and a bunch of hose clamps...2 years later its still holding up fine.
My buddy Bill bought an old Ford truck with a 4 speed with granny low gear. The kid he bought it from decided to fix it up by shortening the gearshift lever. Made it hard to get enough leverage to shift well so we got a long 3/8" bolt and held it on with two hose clamps. Worked great - we did have a welder but wanted a hokey looking repair. At least we put a nice gearshift knob on it.
LOL She pretends dumb, yea dumb like a fox. She is always the one to remember if I crossed the 5 and 7 wire too.
I guess one of my best on the road repairs happen many years ago when I was starting out working at the city garage. I caught a “ truck quit” service call close to quitting time. Drove across town and popped the hood on that 1951 Ford winch truck, found a no spark problem. Traced it to the rotor bug, the springy thingy had broken off. Well I didn’t have time to get to a parts house and back before quitting time and the driver was getting real nervous! Lol So I looked around on the street and found a piece of wire and with my pliers fashioned it onto the brass contacted that was still hooked to the rotor and cut it off at about the right height, put it back together, it ran like a champ! The next day it was all over the the street department that that new kid in the shop fixed a truck with junk off the street! Lol Bones
I'm sure I wasn't the first to do this fix but in 1954 my first car, a '47 Plymouth lost a cotter on the shift linkage. I stopped a bunch of girls that were walking by (that wouldn't happen today ) and borrowed a bobby pin (that also wouldnt be found today ) repaired the linkage offered the gals a ride and happily went away.
When I was driving up to Kamloops to pick up my girlfriend with my brother it started to rain hard. We were driving through some road construction in Manning Park so the windshield was being covered with dust and rain...mud. Then the wipers quit. We had to get to Kamloops on time so I took out my shoes laces and tied one to the left wiper arm and one to the right. I'd pull to the left and my brother would pull to the right. Worked quite well until the repair was made.
Back in the 70s, on the drive home from a drunken night in the next town over, I lost the headlights in my 51 Ford convertible...with still 20 miles to get home. I unplugged one headlight, took some aluminum foil from my cigarette pack, stuck it in the plug with some sticking out and plugged the headlight back in. I then broke off my antenna, electrical taped one end to the aluminum foil and taped the other end to lay across positive battery terminal. And, made it home with lights. The next day I found it was a fried headlight switch and realized that if I had just taken 2 wires off the switch and twisted them together, I wouldn't be buying a new antenna...did I mention I was drunk at the time?
Easily one of the funniest and saddest threads in H.A.M.B. history. You have a link? Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
The Jalopy Journal
