What's your most 'ghetto-rigged' repair/mod on your car?

[jackbootedthug]

Ah zip ties. I work for the phone company and we got 'em by the truck load every length and width you can get. I got rear ended in my old F150 and rehung the bumper using like 10 of the most heavy duty ones I could find in the stock room then pocketed the money I got from the geezer's insurance company who hit me.

 

[patmckinneyracing]

Most of us know that the factory muffler was mounted sideways between the axle housing and gas tank. Well after I scrapped the original exhaust, I used the big rubber hanger and built a mounting plate so my holley red fuel pump would mount to that. That's probably the cheapest as my dad would not allow me to do anything half *ss on the car.

Idea of the fuel pump mount was the rubber hanger would stop fuel pump vibrations from resonating throughout the frame and body.

 

[Larryg]

Was offroading in my baja bug with a friend when the windshield wiper motor broke. Took my shoe laces off and tied one to one wiper and the other to the other wiper arm. Anytime we went through a puddle, my buddy would work the wipers with the shoe strings. I can't take credit for the idea though, saw it on America's Funniest Video's.

I had this happen when got in a cab in Santa Domingo! They pick you up at the dock and squeeze 8 people into some ancient datsun and away you go. We needed a push start to get the car going but they had guys on the docks just for that purpose, and then the rain and string wipers from pilot to co pilot. Did I mention we could see the road passing below our feet?

 

[RegalBegal]

About 20 years ago, I had a buddy with a Vega wagon. The fuel pump went and he was broke. So, we stole the gas tank off his dads tiller, about a 2 gallon tank, popped two holes in the roof of the Vega and hung the tank with coat hangers. Then, ran some fuel line through the fire wall to the carb. He drove it like that for a year or so. Of course, this guy smoked in the car. I wonder if he's still alive?

 

[carmangary]

my zip tie plug wire separators. they actually cleaned up the engine really nicely. i saw it on tv somewhere. look close and you can see them:

I guess you would call those "wire togetherors"/

 

[MrHernandez]

well where to start.. we'll go front to back on this one. the grille is held on with zip ties, the trans cooler is held up with house electrical wire, the radiator fan is hooked up to a switch that goes over the guage cluster, the horn button is where the parking brake release used to be theres random wires under the hood that do nothing. the windsheild and rear glass trim are all held in with window sealer, the exhaust was held up by clothes wire hangers, the trans x member has a cutout for dual exhaust,

theres a bolt missing from the trans x member to the trans, theres no windsheild wiper motor, all the wires that went to it were painted black, the passenger side b-pillar is bent out, the drivers seat has an ash tray on the back, the wire harnis to the rear lights is held up by a leather shoelace, the brake lights dont work so i flash my hazards when stopping, there are no tailgate support wires, and thats all i can think of so far.

wow, is that thing street legal?

 

[mkiiisupra]

I think we should put beermonkey's whole car in this post....lol.......

I really cant think of any ghetto things on the daily driver regal, and the road race regal doesnt have any at all, other than the redneck hack job the previous owners did when they installed the engine and trans.

 

[86 regal]

i did a lot of weird stuff when i was in high school, i think i have most of it fixed the way it should be, i had a bad problem with useing hose clamps on way too many places that they shouldn't be used

 

[CamaroAdam73]

My Crossmember. We just re-drilled new holes and moved it upward slightly, then used a peice of thick teflon to act as the mount between the trans and the member. It's a 700R4 trans, and my "custom" teflon mount

 

[axisg]

It has been a while since I had to "jerry-rig" anything but..... we used to use house speakers in our cars and run it all with phone cable ( cheaper than speaker wires ). The soup can and muffler cement trick worked wonders. Using solid core house wire for electrical car repairs. The gbodies were so bad for rear frame rot that the rear bumper would sag. A common trick was to drill a couple holes in the trunk floor and Tie the frame to the trunk floor around a peice of wood or steel tubing to keep it from sagging.

Luck for me I have not had to do that for a while and my Monte is safe .