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Scotty Guest
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Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:33 pm Post subject: |
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Not my choice of combinations, however beauty is in the eye of the beholder. |
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alec.elliot
Joined: 28 Feb 2012 Posts: 58 Location: Worcestershire
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:09 am Post subject: |
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Hi there
My best bodges on my Morris 8 are as follows:-
1.The Horn and Dip switch fell to bits so I have used a suitably fettled old motorcycle horn/ dipswitch (the sort that would mount on handlebard) and used plastic padding to hold it all in place. Now that the cover is back on you would never know and it works a treat.
2.The internals of the Lucas D shaped lights had dropped to bits as well so I bought two cheap plastic rear light assemblies off Ebay usually used for caravans or trailers and cut them up so that the bulb holders and a small area of the mounting can be installed and bolted inside the D shaped units instead. Once again works a treat and you would never know.
Just buying new Lucas bits for the above would probably cost £150ish. The bits I bought for this off E bay cost less than £20! Its got to be done!
Alec |
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Bitumen Boy
Joined: 26 Jan 2012 Posts: 1733 Location: Above the snow line in old Monmouthshire
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 2:16 pm Post subject: |
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When the centre rear section of my Herald's rubber bumper was hanging off at one end because the mounting strip behind - aye, and the valance too - was lousy with rust, I drove around for a good 8 months with it held on by a bit of hairy string wrapped around the boot floor extension of the chassis and one of the petrol tank mounts inside the boot. Then came the MOT, and I had to think of something more permanent. So I drilled a hole right through the rubber and the rotten valance, drilled a hole in the middle of an odd 6" of steel bar and tapped it M6, stuck a bolt through and screwed it into the steel bar inside the back of the valance. Followed that with plenty of rustproofing wax, and it lasted for another 4 or 5 years before I got round to replacing the rotten valances. Never have got round to buying new rubbers though, they're too expensive and heavy to boot...
Fibreglass is a favourite too, not just useful for car work - the cat flap and fridge door I've fixed with it have lasted way longer than the originals and are still going strong! |
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Bitumen Boy
Joined: 26 Jan 2012 Posts: 1733 Location: Above the snow line in old Monmouthshire
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 2:30 pm Post subject: |
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Just remembered another one, still in service on the Herald after 5+ years. One of the articulated joints on a wiper blade assembly failed - one of those where two moulded pips fit into two holes on the other part. Drilled the defective pips right out and put it back together with a small splitpin. Took a few minutes, cost pennies and has outlasted a few sets of rubbers, even now I see no good reason to replace the blade |
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V8 Nutter
Joined: 27 Aug 2012 Posts: 587
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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I was told a tale that was supposed to be true. Just after the war a the story teller bought an old Morris 8. It ran O.K. but when it got hot it smelt of kippers. After a year it started burning oil, he stripped it down and found a set of oak pistons. He went back to the seller who was a carpenter, who explained the car had been laid up through the war, when he came to start it the pistons were badly corroded. New pistons were unobtainable. He managed to buy new rings, so he turned a set of pistons from a piece of mature oak he had in his workshop. The smell of kippers was the oak charring when it got hot. The man who told me the story was a bank manager, so it must be true. |
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colwyn500
Joined: 21 Oct 2012 Posts: 1745 Location: Nairn, Scotland
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:11 pm Post subject: |
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Previously on this forum I have told the tale of an old friend of mine who, when faced with a white-metal big-end bearing failure on an Austin 12 being driven home from auction, removed the offending piston and rod at the roadside and drove home the remaining hundred or so miles.
personally, when I was very young and genuinely didn't understand these things, I actually did use baked-bean tins and fibreglass to repair the sills and front end of my first Fiat 500.
It didn't fool the MOT man (it wasn't meant too!) and I ended up paying what now seems a trifling sum of money (about £50) to have the sills professionally replaced, filled and resprayed. |
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Salopian
Joined: 05 Jan 2010 Posts: 354 Location: Newport Shropshire
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 11:16 pm Post subject: |
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The other thread on 2CV v R4 reminds of my last R4. They were mechanically great but complete rotboxes in keeping with most if not all cars of the period. In 1978 (the car was a 1971 Reg EJW 999J no doubt recycled now) the rear pivot on the offside rotted away from the sill mount leaving the suspension trailing arm waving about on the torsion bar. Handling was somewhat strange! I now admit I drove it around for several months with a fence post cut to length across both back trailing arms and wired to the remaining "chassis" giving solid back suspension. Did bounce most oddly and developed a strange rythmic nodding on the motorway.
As usual then I was skint but did eventually weld it which took 3 days and I ended up working back from the front bulkhead which seemed the only sound metal. Passed its next MoT and sold on to a friend who ran it to over 200 thousand miles then I lost touch with him.
And he was delighted with it! _________________ Jonathan Butler
Alvis SD 12/50 1928 MG TD 1950 |
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DM
Joined: 21 Dec 2008 Posts: 212 Location: North Cornwall
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 11:30 pm Post subject: |
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Not me but my old dad (he must be old to have used one as family transport)when he repaired an old bedford van, coach bolted two lengths of wood from an old bed in place of the chassis box sections.
#
Undersealed well they confused the MOT tester when he tapped them with his little hammer. |
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Rick Site Admin
Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22429 Location: UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 9:22 am Post subject: |
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V8 Nutter wrote: | I was told a tale that was supposed to be true. Just after the war a the story teller bought an old Morris 8. It ran O.K. but when it got hot it smelt of kippers. After a year it started burning oil, he stripped it down and found a set of oak pistons. He went back to the seller who was a carpenter, who explained the car had been laid up through the war, when he came to start it the pistons were badly corroded. New pistons were unobtainable. He managed to buy new rings, so he turned a set of pistons from a piece of mature oak he had in his workshop. The smell of kippers was the oak charring when it got hot. The man who told me the story was a bank manager, so it must be true. |
Not a bodge, more of "make do and mend": while corresponding with the descendants of the chap who ran Welland's Garage (featured on the site), I heard the story of him creating a crankshaft out of wood during WW2. Apparently a photo of this exists, which I hope to see a copy of sometime.
In more recent times I've seen a Mk2 A40 with wooden sills, very convincing they were too, only tapping them gave the game away.
RJ _________________ Rick - Admin
Home:https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk
Videos:https://www.youtube.com/user/oldclassiccarRJ/videos
OCC & classic car merchandise (Austin, Ford ++):
https://www.redbubble.com/people/OldClassicCar/shop |
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52classic
Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 493 Location: Cardiff.
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 3:39 pm Post subject: |
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I learned 'bodging' at a very early age. My second car was a 105e with a very rusty A post. I removed a sound one, along with a piece of wing and floor, from a scrapper then fixed them to my car with roofing bolts.
I'd cut the floor section a bit short and the original floor was rusty anyway so there was a pretty big 'flintstone' gap to be made up.
I used some ply for shuttering and formed a concrete floor! |
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Bitumen Boy
Joined: 26 Jan 2012 Posts: 1733 Location: Above the snow line in old Monmouthshire
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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Another couple of Herald stories that people have told me, rather than from personal experience. One was a guy who, again, removed a piston and rod at the roadside - forget why, probably the big end - and drove home on 3 cylinders. The other one was a story of a Herald with extensive rot to the outer rails of the chassis (behind the sills). It was repaired using the steel "backbone" of some old flourescent light fittings welded in place - though I'm not sure I'd really call that a bodge, those old light fittings were heavy and it was probably as strong as the original
Just remembered another one that I actually saw. Many years ago I was in the market for a used Mini, and looked at plenty, some terminally rotten, some with knackered brakes and so on, but the one that took the biscuit was one advertised as having a new rear subframe fitted. Yes, it was a new subframe, yes the rotten mounting points had been replaced - but the repairs hadn't been welded, they were in fact only secured with a few pop rivets each Needless to say I wlked away from that one, pity it had been bodged as the rest of the car looked fairly tidy |
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Penman
Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4750 Location: Swindon, Wilts.
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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Hi
I find it hard to understand why we have got on to page 2 yet no one else has mentioned exhaust pipes/ silencers and their link to GunGum, tin cans and baling wire. _________________ Bristols should always come in pairs.
Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10 |
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V8 Nutter
Joined: 27 Aug 2012 Posts: 587
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 8:48 pm Post subject: |
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Penman wrote: | Hi
I find it hard to understand why we have got on to page 2 yet no one else has mentioned exhaust pipes/ silencers and their link to GunGum, tin cans and baling wire. |
Those were not bodges they were normal repairs.
When I was an apprentice one of our college lecturers had a V8 Pilot. It ran a big end somewhere on the south coast. He filled the sump with gear oil and drove it back to Worcester. He used to teach metalurgy and he claimed the reason this was possible was the Pilot had a cast iron crank.
My old boss did a similar thing with a Hudson Terraplane, it rang a big end in Spain, but with a sump full of gear oil plus a couple of pairs of nylon stockings (also in the sump) he made it back home. |
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JohnDale
Joined: 19 Mar 2008 Posts: 790 Location: Kelvin Valley,Scotland
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 6:07 pm Post subject: |
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A work authourised bodge was a customer on holiday from Devon in a Austin 12 which ran a white metalled big end bearing. No time to do the work as he was returning home with his family in two days. Solution was the removal of number three piston & conrod, cut a slice from the lid of an OXO tin & fasten round the journal with a Jubilee clip, remove the relevant plug lead, & off he went. He sent a letter having reached home without problem, with thanks for the efforts,cheers,JD. _________________ 1958 Ford Zephyr Mk2 Convertible
1976 Ford Granada Ghia. |
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ukdave2002
Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4100 Location: South Cheshire
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 7:42 pm Post subject: |
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As a cash strapped student,I once "repaired " some worn oil starved tappets by flooding the tappet bore with solder and then reaming out....lasted at least another 10k miles whilst the car was in my ownership
Dave |
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