Permanent temporary fixes

[SuperBuickGuy]

Time to 'fess up - how many have done patches that were entirely intended to temporary yet ended up permanent?

I have 2
- 1974 Blazer, I was out wheeling it and slammed the gas tank onto a dirt berm which cracked the tank under the strap. I had no choice about the repair - used silicone loaded on galvanized metal which was folded a couple times to take up the distance between the strap and the crack.... held just fine. Sold the truck not long after, but told the guy "you really need to fix this." A couple years later, I saw the truck for sale on a car lot... proudly displaying my temporary handiwork
- liquid steel does repair radiators forever... really, forever.

[Lon_H]

Re: Permanent temporary fixes

I have a set of seat belt latches for an Astro van third seat, in my Sliverado, the original latches wouldnt latch, and it is on the driver' side and for the middle seat, the original latches are under the seat plugged into the wiring so the seat belt light stays off.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: Permanent temporary fixes

Have you seen my Skylark's fuel system? :o

[tardis454]

Re: Permanent temporary fixes

Peppered my S-10 radiator after finding a pinhole 2yrs ago, no leaky.
Peppered my YJ to stop a heater core leak, drove it & sold it that way.
Heli-Coiled 2 caliper bolt holes on wife's TJ, works better than factory.
JB Welded & Seal-All'd a few leaky gas tanks, oil pans, never had an issue.

[Barry Donovan]

Re: Permanent temporary fixes

I have no permanent temp fixes.

when something decides to be midget and break.. why humor it half assed. Local, it is made larger than normal, and if thats not enough, it is into mythological science, and even bigger...and it can still be hauled off defeated.

I do wonder alot how such tiny puny pathetic lack of solid states (more so than science smart guys) makes its way into my world..

and there it is. People in the locales of fairly land paradise fixing things with glues and duct tapes...and actually getting away with it. :

I can't even automotive get trim glue to work... yet I humor it over and over again...

[STINEY]

Re: Permanent temporary fixes

Being as I was "trained" by honest hard-working farmers, I have to say that all repairs are considered permanent. ;D

If you don't overkill a repair by a factor of at least 100, it ain't gonna work at all. And you'll never have time to do it right, because you'll be busy repairing some other issue.

Grandpa instilled his sense of overkill while I was quite young. I fight it everyday, only thing I can do is keep repeating to myself "keep it lightweight, keep it lightweight"

It helps.

;)

[milner351]

Re: Permanent temporary fixes

The best example of overkill I've seen is in a friends house, it's also an example of "use what ya got".

He ended up with a bunch of railroad tracks (yes, the rails, hugely heavy little I shaped solid bars of steel)

He decided to used them as the "beams" to support the steel "concrete" decking over a basement addition to his home.

I'm pretty certain the load rating on that concrete deck is something over that required to support a locomotive, I think the rails are on 24" centers.

His Dad is a farmer.... yea - the overkill genes run DEEP in farming families.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Permanent temporary fixes

The wiring behind the dash of the Impala. I'm thankful that no one who has seen the car in person looked back there. Yikes. I was careful when patching not to have a fire, but it aint pretty. Since 90% of the fixes were done with red wire, I have a bitch of a time tracing problems.

I keep promising myself I will rewire the whole car when I pull the windshield to fix the rust and leaks, but so far, I just keep a bag full of solderless connectors, shrink wrap, wire crimpers, and duct tape in the trunk. The tape is for the leaks.

[Gary 351C]

Re: Permanent temporary fixes

The blue Montego had a bungie cord holding the battery in for years. I finally bought a new battery tray and hold down a few years ago. It still has JB Weld plugging a hole in the radiator.

[RAIV70Judge]

Re: Permanent temporary fixes

I lost the 12 volt lead to the HEI unit in the Judge on Power Tour last year. Easy enough road side fix- run a new wire to the Hei coil from the "key on" 12 volt side of the fuse panel. That was in June last year.......its still there!

[Monk]

Re: Permanent temporary fixes

One I did in the Nova was use a ball point pen
spring to replace the one in the horn contact
in steering wheel......still there today as far as I know

[milkovich]

Re: Permanent temporary fixes

I wish I had pictures of my old C-10.

The entire truck was a "temporary fix" from the autozone horn button wired to an electric washer pump to the structural use of ratchet straps.

[kyhunter89]

Re: Permanent temporary fixes

an 86 toyota of mine had a copper piece inside the starter wearout, drilled a hole in a penny and place it behind the original as a spacer, bout 8 years ago...
240sx has the radiator liquid steel.
2000 silverado had the e-brake shoes removed "until I get new ones" that was a while ago.