Plywood is a versatile Bubba repair material. I had a '75 Mustang II Ghia rust-bucket that got me through college. One night it was broken into and the tape deck was stolen. The thief broke the small side window to get in. Being a Ghia, the limited production of the narrow window was very low, so it was very expensive to replace. As I recall, the window would have been $150 for a car I bought for $300. Plywood to the rescue! Trimmed a piece of 1/2" plywood to the shape of the opening, painted it black to match the black vinyl top (at least it hid the fix at night!) and it was still there when I sold it!

 

ok.. I am bubba...

test drove my vette without front clip or hood, sitting on a railroad cross tie. No windshield either.

The temp was in the upper 30's, but that was ok because an upper radiator hose leak sprayed me with a warm mist. Good times!

ok... I actually drove it that way for a couple of months with a shop rag to wipe off my glasses.

 

my first car was a 6 volt model. I installed a 12 volt battery to run my radio and charged it each night. The old 6v system was a slow cranker so I added a extra starter solenoid and a button below the key switch on the dash. Turn the key to crank, extend the pinkie finger on to the button and 18 volts happened to that 6v starter.

I should have gotten a patent on that.

 

In high school my best freind and his dad used shim stock to shim the rod bearings in his MG. I let them know that his dad's "old school" idea probably wasn't such a good idea. A few months later, they disassembled the engine and there was brass everywhere, the shim stock wore out near the edges and left metal everywhere. Seems funny now...

 

Now that there is funny!

This bubba once had a 69 slant six dart that had a bad starter solenoid or associated wire, I can't remember exactly...It was mounted near the battery on the drivers inner fender.

I once needed to use a jumper wire to connect the positive of the battery to the terminal going to the starter. I used a coat hanger to bridge them. I learned quickly that uninsulated coat hanger wire gets very hot very fast when carrying that kind of current!

 

Winner!

 

On my 65 MGB back in the '70s. Back of seat broke and couldn't afford to repair it properly and Dad had a great idea...take a piece of 2x4, cut it ot fit under the back of the seat bolts, drill two holes to hold the bolts in place, painted the wood black (same colour as the leather) and voila...worked until I sold it several years later for a new TR6...the dealer didn't even question the "repair"...LOL, thanks Dad...
Domer

 

This is embarrassing...on my 76 I was running a 180 degree thermostat...had taken the 195 out, put new gasket in, new 180, all was fine but decided in summer with 95 degree outside temps to put the 160 degree I had bought as well in. So, this morning I pulled it, cleaned the former gasket out, put it together then took it for a short drive forgetting to put a 9/16" socket in just in case. Of course I didn't have it right or down tightly and by the time I got home it was well over 200 degrees and the fluid had sprayed all over from the high pressure vapor leak between manifold and the hold down cover. filled the overflow container with new glycol mix assuming that would replace lost fluid steamed out the little opening.

Cooled it, opened the thermostat area and then learned I'd put the gasket down first and the thermostat in correctly but on top of the gasket instead of in the little inset machined groove for it first with the gasket on top of that to be flush with the two mating surfaces. Redid all that with new gasket, put it in correctly tightened it up than ran it around the neighborhood with wrench on the seat and the thermostat went right on past 200 very quickly so back to the garage.

At 7:30 pm it was cool enough to take the radiator cap off this time as it dawned on me I might have had a lot more air in the system than I thought and it was three quarts low on antifreeze mix...was never going to cool the engine very well without enough liquid in there! Must have lost more than I thought. I'm so used to using the overflow reservoirs to add any fluid it didn't occur to me that I needed to check the radiator itself.

So, for such an absolutely simple thing as putting a thermostat in that I'd done successfully not all that long ago I created a mess two or three times, made two or three basic mistakes that took half an afternoon and evening to resolve and felt like an idiot.

Once it was all set, I drove it and it held the temp in what looks like the 160-170 range quite well and about 20 degrees below the former 180 and all's well in the 76 Corvette world again. Amazing how much better I feel even though I was the one making all the basic errors.

 

The PO of my car used a household light switch to activate the car's electric fans... i fixed that immediately... He also took a hacksaw to my taillight mounting pieces and then left it that way..

 

Didn't have much money as a Private in the Army for anything other than beer. Traveled to the beach over 100 miles one time from Ft Polk in an old Plymouth Duster. On the way there the voltage regulator went haywire and began to cause overcharging of the electrical system. My stereo blew out along with all of the lights. On the way home (back to base) it was already beginning to get dark and was affraid the boys in blue would nail me for no lights. So..................stopped at a local stop and rob and bought two of those D cell battery flashlights for a buck each and duct taped them to the top of each fender and made it all the way back without incident. Always had duct tape with me. And you know the deal..............it's good up to 100 MPH right (hence the name 100 mile an hour tape)????

 

Back in my school days up in the cold, cold north, I did the following:

In my 66 VW Beetle daily driver that had next to zero heat I rigged up something like this http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/12vo...Fcdl7AodSW9ewg little electric heater to defrost the windshield and warm the cabin until the slight amount of heat that came off the exhausts did anything.

Taped it to the dashboard facing up..


Worked so well that when the heater core on my 66 Vette went out, I used that same little electric heater to heat the car. Taped to the dash to defrost on those cold winter days when the Beetle wasn't mobile and the Vette had to be used.




My other Bubba move?

Made the mistake of parking the Vette (a vert) nose down on a hill one day. It rained and then the temps fell. Floorboards filled with water which froze. Drilled holes, chipped ice, ran the electric heater to melt the remains. Never filled with water and ice again....

 

Then YOU ALL WILL LOVE THIS SITE


http://whitetrashrepairs.com/

 

Now that's good stuff!

Years ago a good friend of mine had a rusting TR6. The gas tank was so rusty that he had to stop multiple times on his way to work to pour gas into his tank from a gas can. He had no money but was desperate for a fix so I welded his fuel pickup to a metal gas can and bungee corded it in his trunk. He drove it that way for years.