Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Ghetto car repairs.

I can't even imagine doing ghetto repair work.

I get way too nervous about stuff like that...

On a long trip, something broke on my truck. Just so happens there was a dealer right there, so we stopped the caravan (me and another car), had it fixed, ate lunch, and went on the way. The other driver was like YOU CAN WAIT, and I'm like NO!! I couldn't even imagine doing any of the things you guys are talking about...

I've got a rubber fingerprint roller as a hanger for my passenger-side muffler.

My friend and I went on a road trip to Detroit once in my 1978 Mustang. While in the middle of nowhere driving down the highway the radiator hose burst. It left about a four inch rip in the hose. So I took the leather (or something) cover off of a cassete holder case (yep, remember those), wrapped it around the hose, tied it up with my friend's boot laces and poured the melted ice from our cooler to fill the radiator back up. That got us to the next rest stop. At the rest stop I saw a fellow a fellow phone guy and asked him if I could get some supplies from him. I then replaced my first fix and wrapped the whole hose with 2" electrical tape and followed that up by wrapping big tie wrap around it one right next to the other. I used at least 20 of them. Filled her back up and we made it to the show with my car running better than ever! Of course it never made it all the way home.....
I still have the car and the hose. I tried all kinds of new parts trying to fix that engine and finally when I swapped the engine and was also swapping the new part I noticed the difference: the cam lobes were almost totally rounded over.

I was hit in a parking lot at work by a drunk driver and my left fron 1/4 panel was totally trashed. I had damage on the car before I got it so I replaced the other 1/4 panel and the hood while I was at it. I had a midnight red 95 SE, lowered with Konis and Eibachs, one electric blue 1/4 panel, a teal 1/4 panel, and a green hood. I left the yellow numbers from the yard on it and didn't wash the car for a month. I found that kids a school were walking over my car and I found K-swiss foot prints all over. Then I painted all those primer black and sold the car a few months later. I also installed neons inside the car. It looked nice but the kits I got from work (best buy) used these control boxes that would over heat if you connected more than one neon to it at a time. I had already but all the kits up and had to rewire all of the kits back. I shocked myself so many times. Shortly after some stopped working and only started working on the drive to sell the car.

1.
I used the twist tie from a bread wrapper to temporarily hold my thottle linkage together until I could get to a dealer for a plastic clip. I was on a road trip to Chattanooga at the time, I-75 in Florida was under heavy construction & my kickdown was not working. Press throttle, engine spins, no go. Keep light on throttle, car maintains speed. Wacky! Pull over in a rest area, twist tied (after I figure out what the problem was), & off I went. Got a freebie replacement from a L-M dealer in GA.

2.
Thermostat failed when returning from a trip to N.C. Blew the gasket and pulled over to the only gas station (which was closed) 30 miles from nowhere & water was spewing out the thermostat housing. Was telling my wife that I couldn't get the car to the next town without a gasket. Mind bending time: Enter my 2 year old.

Jessi: "What's a gasket?".
I explain.
Jessi: "Is it like the one in my bottle?"
Me: "Uh, yes."
Jessi: "You can use it if you need to, Daddy."
Me: "Thank you Jessica, I think you saved us."

Put a wrench to the T-stat & gutted it, cut the nipple off the baby bottle & there inside was a perfect temporary gasket for the application.

Made it home on the inginuity & clear thinking of a 2 year old! She got praise & presents.

My dad had a 68 F250 that was held together with chicken wire and wood 4by4's. The truck bed rotted out so he got anohter "nicer" rusty truck bed that was green. The funny thing was it had a Greenpeace sticker on it. My cousins always got a kick out of that one(chevy fans) I have many more memories I'd rather not tell you all

Sorry to say, I haven't done any ghetto repairs on my car.

I'm way too anal when it comes to stuff like that. If i'm missing a screw anywhere on my car. I go crazy until it is replaced.

I went to the junkyard today and got the missings screws I needed while I was there.

After a friend backed into my 91 Civic Si with his short buss yellow Pathfinder, I used a empty cigarette pack to hold my headlight in the proper position.

I had to replace it every few days when it rained, but I had tones of emptys in my car. It was a rolling trash can.