Frizlefrak

I went to shut off my headlights the other night, and they wouldn’t shut off…..that is….the switch wouldn’t go in far enough to shut them off. I had to pop the **** off and push the switch rod all the way in to get them to go off. Today I found out why….





Yep….GM’s lovely plastic dash disintegrated. Seems 23 year old plastic is a lousy structural material. Also seems that I had only a couple of options to repair it. One, dismantle the entire dash setup on the car and find a used dash setup….which would cost a fortune to ship and most likely wouldn’t be much better than what I have….or Two….come up with a bubba repair. Option 2 would be cheap or free…but would require some ghetto rigging. Option 2 it is. Hmmmm….what would work as a suitable patch that I have laying around the house? How about an angle iron??



Yep…just cut that puppy in half with a hacksaw and do a little drilling. This might just work!



Next I removed the nut that used to support the plastic dash and coated the stud with a dab of grease to mark the spot to drill. I then drilled the hole and slid the angle iron over the dash stud and put the nut on.



I then put the gauge bezel back on and put a dab of correction fluid on the switch rod and slid it through the bezel to mark the spot to drill my new “switch support”. Removed everything, drilled the hole, and……





mounted it up. Then I mounted the switch up and put the nut back on it. Everything lined up nicely….musta been accurate with my correction fluid. I love it when a plan comes together.



Solid as a rock now. While I had it apart I replaced a burned out bulb in the cluster. Total cost $10 for the bulb and about 2 hours of my time. I can’t imagine what this would have cost at a repair shop.

Anybody else done any serious bubba repairs on their C4 that they'd care to share? Or am I the last redneck in the Western Hemisphere?

Ttime

I think it turned out good considering the other choices you had. I was expecting Duct tape and liquid nails from the topic title.

Frizlefrak

The thought occured to me....

Shawn_65

great work, glad to hear about those happy endings once in a while

Shawn_65

Wow.. Sorry about that guys.. stupid computer <(><)>

theres my posts for the next 5 days.. lol, goin for that 1 post a day

Frizlefrak

Hey....I'll take it as 3 compliments.

baddmann

A true Bubba repair would have involved Duct tape, epoxy, or wood glue. After everything was done, the repair would have looked like an afterthought... What you did was actually use your brain to save a little $$$.

Joe C

...make it four!

the same sort of thing happened to my 85. the plastic around the larger nut above the headlight switch cracked and broke into several pieces. as i was driving to work one day, i noticed that the LH corner of the dash moved up and down about an inch or so. at first i thought the nut was loose, and it would be an easy repair. when i took the IP bezel off, i noticed the damage and realized the effort to replace the dash frame structure. my repair was similar to yours. first i glued all the broken plastic pieces with superglue. not that the superglue would solve the problem, but i wanted the correct form and thickness of the original frame. i designed a sheetmetal bracket out of .063, aluminum with all the correct cuts, bends and mounting holes for the screws, nuts, headlight switch, etc, and used 3M body mount double sided tape to secure the bracket to the dash frame. finally i reassembled the mounting hardware. its been about 7 years now, and my dash is as solid as new.

while working on my 85's interior restoration, i had the same sort of problem where the dash frame center section attaches to the console frame - broken plastic at four (4) attachment points. i went thru the same type of repair - sheetmetal and double sided tape as a repair patch. my whole dash assembly is as solid as ever.

BTW, dont think of your fix as a "bubba repair" - think of it as good old "american ingenuity"!

again, and

BTW, i'll edit this post with an attachment of a detailed, dimensional drawing of my repair bracket. i'm sure, we're not the only two with that sort of a problem.

merplastic91

good repair. By no means bubba as there is no duct tape, wood screws or string. Probably better than new and the only cost effective way to keep our 20+ year cars on the road

FrankN

Great job!

tomtom72

That can't be "Bubba Engineered" there are no zip ties used!

I think that solution is a fine example of American "Backyard Engineering" applied to correct something the PhD's didn't think about in the first place!

Doug 87L98

Grat repair job. Thanks for posting the work.

I'll have to keep that in mind as my car turns 20 next year.

flyinlow90

Great Job

Ever consider changing your screen name to McGyver?

Gary

Frizlefrak

This is what I was thinking too.....when I saw what was causing the problem, it occured to me that there must be other C4 owner's that have encountered the same situation. Might not be a bad idea to snap some pics and I re-engineered my dash with construction products.

Thanks for all the compliments folks. Since I didn't use any duct tape, JB weld, Liquid nails, wood screws, zip ties, hose clamps, Elmer's glue, or permanent C-Clamps, I guess it's not as bubba as I thought.

Anyone else have any "unusual" repairs on their C4's? Sooner or later we'll probably all run into the same or similar problems. Might be good to have an idea on how to attack the problem.

5pinball

did aprox same repair on wifes 88 3yrs ago.

C4boy

I think for McGyver status he'd have to use a blade of grass, a chewing gum wrapper and a shoe lace to break out of jail.

Although, a good fix just the same!

AZC4Guy

I'm sorry but this simply doesn't apply as a bubba repair. Your problem solving and excellent execution along with, as someone else mentioned, no sign of duct tape makes this not qualified as a Bubba.

Sorry, your fit and finish are simply too well done ... no bubba for you.


Great work!

Frizlefrak

I guess a true Bubba fix would have been to remove the headlight switch completely, and then drill the hole in the bezel bigger and run the wires through it and attach them to a dangling toggle switch.

Then attach the dangling toggle switch to the steering column with a strip of duct tape (Duck brand).



Trust me...in my high school days in the 70's, I did a lot of this type of repair. I had a Chevy Luv pickup that had a broken hood release cable. There weren't any parts trucks in the junkyards, and I couldn't afford the part new....so I rigged a cable from a ten speed bike shifter and ran it out the front fenderwell. One good tug, and up came the hood.

FF1wms

Good job! Adapt and improvise, that's what it's all about.

Biker

Nice repair job.