Diy muck ups

mondeo

How about a new thread idea, "I tried to fix my own car and made a bollix of it"

Saw this lovely Bodge job whilst parked in Dublin 8 drinking a cappachino.
It looks like it was fixed with putty and painted over with hammerite. It was a beauty. Elderly women driving it and I would guess she did this herself.
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El Guapo!

:eek:
Sweet Jesus thats bad. It looks like an elephants arse-crack

I made a mess of a power steering belt tensioner when tightening it up, I thought the adjuster was a bit tight, I hadn't opened the lock bolt thing

W.Shakes-Beer

The amount of screws I've bodged the head off!

Nothing as bad as the OP picture however.

A favourite of mine is seeing panels/lights held on with masking tape.

R.O.R

Fitted a new Starter motor to my Kit car (cycled 15 miles to pick it up from a scrapyard). Bolts came loose on the Motorway so dragged it for about 5 miles down the M61 until the services (thought the straps holding the exhaust off the ground had snapped). Took it off at the services and push started the car. Got a real mechanic to fix it.

Fitted a Clutch cable to the same car after the original one snapped. Got the routing of it a bit wrong and it went too close to the (Cherrybomb) exhaust which resulted in the plastic coating of the cable melting while going through Blackpool illuminations. Had to sit at the side of the road for 2 hours until it cooled enough to be able to get gears, and ended up only being able to get 4th at a set of lights on the way home. Got going in a cacophony of noise, but not much acceleration. Re-fitted another one myself properly the next day.

Have done numerous poor filler / fibreglass repairs on my first couple of cars. Stuck a screwdriver through the sill of my Metro and about 70% of it was just rusted. Chicken wire and Fibreglass painted with Hammerite made it look presentable, but the mechanic who had to weld a new bit in for the MOT wasn't too pleased with my handy work.

Had all the sills, wheel arches and boot lid lip painted in Hammerite on my 83 Starlet as it was the only thing that was slowing up the inexorable march of rust.

trad

"Painted by Stevie Wonder" comes to mind

colm_mcm

My exhaust broke where the centre section meets the backbox, ordered a new one off Camskill but did a temporary but crappy repair by using some metal rods and hose clips to hold it together and a load of gun gum and exhaust tape. Held together for about 3 weeks.

corktina

my Cortina ran for two years like that!

cadaliac

Took on the daunting task of changing a starter motor for a 1976 Cadillac Coupe de Ville when I was a teenager. I just made a fool of myself really.
I couldn't even hold it place with one hand. (yes it WAS heavy)

Tried to fit a stop solonoid to a diesel pug 405, which ended in tears. Luckly enough the scrappy took pity and sorted it out for me.

Made a fool of myself again with a fiesta diesel van (98) changing the starter motor.
Turned out to be glow plugs and bad earth from the starter.

I'll just stick to my day job, ta.

robtri

colm_mcm wrote: »

My exhaust broke where the centre section meets the backbox, ordered a new one off Camskill but did a temporary but crappy repair by using some metal rods and hose clips to hold it together and a load of gun gum and exhaust tape. Held together for about 3 weeks.

ha ha... I had the exact same problem as well around 2 years agao and did the same...
also had to use some cable ties to help hold it up....

JimmyCrackCorn

• Dumped 5 litres of oil on my drive after i got a wrong oil filter (not my fault)
• Broke more studs than i can count
• Couldn't bleed a clutch slave cylinder on the drive due to snow as I lost feeling in my hands
• Put a cheap power bleeder on wrong and blew a load of air into the system (never read the instructions)
• Freeing a stuck handbrake I caused a hydraulic leak on a Saturday
• Car battery blew up in my face
• Short cut on a wheel bearing i bought an outer hub from a breakers yard as a cheap temporary fix. It was fecked two

Lost track at this stage

inforfun

Had a leak in the radiator of my car years ago which caused the engine to run quite hot when standing still
Changed the radiator.
Engine never run hot again.
Inside of the car neither.

Same car i "fixed" the shock absober that had gone through the chassis by adding 2 steel plates on and under the chassis. No welding of course.
Worked quite good for a few months till the other side had the same problem.

Didnt bother to go for the Dutch equivalent of the NCT that year...

keithclancy

Dismantled most of the passenger side dash trying to get out the interior filter.

After 2 hours of head scratching and wondering why the Airco pipes were in the way realised the Haynes manual was for a RHD car :rolleyes:

A real "A For F*CK SAKE" moment.

Oh yes .. another tip, when working on your car leave one of the windows open .. handy, just in case you lock yourself out somehow

Sofiztikated

A '95 starlet I had (God I loved that heap!) threw a rear shock up through the mounting.

To fix it, me and a mate used a metal ninja star he fashioned when he was in school as a washer, and away it went again. Was still on the car when I sold it.

Same car had "issues" with a hole in the rad, and would occasionally leak water into the passenger footwell. Eventually found a place that had radweld, and was on my way out the Stillorgan Dual carriageway, when at the Montrose, it decided it had enough, and dumped the whole lot. Took 15 refills to get it out and back, and dumped in the radweld, and left the engine running, as you do.

30 minutes later, was still leaking. Got thick and decided to take the dash out on the side of Haddington Rd with a philips head and a lot of cursing. Dash didn't come out, but radweld eventually took. Had screws and bolts galour left over. Left them in the ashtray for whoever bought it.

Henry Ford III

When I much younger I put 3 in 1 oil on a squeeky fan belt, and used a pot scrubber to try and revive some dull paintwork.

coylemj

Had a Yamaha 50 back in the 70s & took off the back wheel to install a new tube. When I put it all back together I had this 4" bolt in my hand with no obvious place for it to go, got rid of the bike soon after!

Daegerty

Took the blower out to put oil on it so it would stop squeaking, ended up breaking the controller module for it somehow, still not sure how that happened.

Skuxx

I saw this one in Russia, although they do things a little differently overthere!!