Little Victories that got you through....

The worst mistake thread got me thinking about what good stories are out there where you did something a little off to get by and saved the day.... a little victory. Maybe it wasn't done right, but it got you out of a bind until you could make it right. Maybe it was just thrashing to get your car running in a short amount of time....


In college, my buddy had a Mazda pickup that was running pretty rough and asked if we could look at it. My two roommates and I were car guys, which is why he asked.

We looked at the plugs, air filter, ignition etc and didn't find anything obvious. Next we took a can of carb cleaner and spot sprayed the outside of the carb and other connections to the engine.

Sure enough, there was a gasket leak on the carburetor. We didn't have a shop to work in, and my buddy needed the truck to get to work until he could get home (~3hrs away) at the end of the semester and rebuild the carb.

So we thought about how to plug the hole in the gasket. We decided to degrease the area with brake cleaner to get any oily residue off. Then we sprayed a little spray paint (engine paint) at the spot with the leak. Cranked it over just to suck a little paint in. Then sprayed a little more and let it dry.

The paint worked like a champ. He drove the rest of the semester with the painted carb. When he went home, he rebuilt the carb with his dad and all was good.


Tell us your little victories!

 

In high school my brother had a 1976 Ford F150, 3 on the tree. I cant remember exactly what went wrong but the fuel pump wouldn't come on. I wired in a switch to bypass the ignition and go directly to the pump to get it going. This was supposed to be a temporary fix. You had to flip the switch to start the truck and you had to remember to turn it off when killing the truck. Well a temp fix became a, we will just let it ride fix, and turns out it was a theft deterrent.
One night someone tried to steal his truck, but they couldnt get it started becuase there was no fuel going to the engine.

 

That's a pretty good one.

Hope he doesn't forget.

 

High school buddy of mine ‘just had to have’ a ‘54 Chevy 5 window pickup. Gas gauge didn’t work and he didn’t have the money to fix it. He asked if I could come up with a solution. I said “sure, come on over after school”. He showed up and asked what I was going to do. I handed him two yards of nice sized twine tied to a Texas sized washer. I told him that when it comes up dry, you better start looking for a gas station. It was meant as a joke, but I’ll be damned if he didn’t use it for at least a year.

 

A girl I knew years ago had her car "fixed" at a dealership. When she left the dealership her brakes started to fail & went all the way to the floor.

So she carefully limped it over to my place after giving me a call to see if I was home. I took a look at it a found the issue. Absolutely no gasket at the master cylinder! I got crafty & made a gasket out of cereal box bolt holes & all.

Hero of the day!

 

Back in high school, we painted my brother’s truck with 50+ different shades of red spray paint, cost $50 which is way less than Mayco. Actually, it came out pretty good.

 

Bright sunny Sunday morning northbound highway to visit my brother in college. Forty five miles away from my destination. In distance see a VW vanagon off to the side of the road, object in the right lane, and a man. Man proceeds to dump another object into the passing lane. I pull up and see it is luggage he has deposited to block the highway.

He starts screaming about how he needs to be taken somewhere. Before I can even respond he jumps on the hood of my car and bends up my driver side wiper. I instantly floor the accelerator. He spins off my hood and to the driver side and punches my still closed window. No damage to the window. Driver wiper mirror bent upwards ninety degrees.

I proceed the remaining miles with this little victory. Didn't even look back in the rear view. Wiper waving as a big middle finger to all the inconsiderate people who don't give a bloke time to respond much less roll down the window.

 

Wow.

 

2 yrs 6mos Clean from Opiates. That lil victory is the only reason I am still here today bugging everyone on TW!
If not for that one win I would most certainly be facedown in a ditch somewhere.

 

Congrats, that’s huge. Life is enough of a trip just being sober.

 

Very true! I dont miss those days at all!

 

Congrats, good to have you here with us.

 

Back in the late 60's my cousin and I were coming back from a double date with two country girls. We dropped them off at their house and I noticed the car was running hot. A few miles down the road and it was REAL hot! We pulled over to let it cool down and discussed what to do - no water or any container that would hold water.

We did, however, have a cooler full of beer.

We decided that straight beer wouldn't work in the radiator...but recycled beer probably would! So, we'd drink a few beers and pee in the radiator and drive on until it got hot again. Let 'er cool down while we drank some more and repeat.

Took several hours to make the 30 miles home. We didn't mind.

 

Ate some Chinese food from a dirty hole in the wall location. Was driving. Stomach was rumbling. Wasn’t going to make it home. Saw a McDonald’s. Ran in. One stall for #2. It was taken. Thought about laying the mess into the urinal. Too risky. Came out of bathroom. Opened women’s door. Said. HELLO. no response. Went for it. While I’m causing the ladies room paint to peel. Some ladies come in and out. Can’t exit stall while women are in there. Wait for the place to be cleared. Get out fast. Didn’t even wash hands. Phew. Would have been a pain to clean out of my clazzios.

 

You wouldn’t be from Alabama would you?

 

Jeep motor mount snapped on Rollins Pass, CO, 30 miles from my house while driving solo in a snow storm. All of a sudden while driving down the trail the stick slams my thigh and is shifted about 40 degrees to the left. Got out and saw the engine literally leaning on the wheel while. Used a strap to try and ratchet the engine in place and drove that sucker home with the whole driveline twisted and the engine chillin on the wheel well.

I don't know if that counts as a victory but it was damn scary

 

Nope. Arkansas. Not that there's much difference where stuff like this is concerned....

 

I know it's a running joke but FFS why can't people put their threads in the right section.

 

Cuz no one reads threads outside the 3rd gen section

 

Mid 70’s in college, roommate let someone borrow his Vega for the day. His buddy came walking back to the dorm stating the car ran out of gas, and he had a hard time getting the key out of the ignition... but did get it out after a struggle. Well, that vehicle has an ignition key release lever under the column that needed to be pushed in for the key to turn to the lock position and release the key. Driver who borrowed the Vega didn’t know, and now the key would not go back in, but the ignition would still turn without the key inserted as the switch was really unlocked.

The broke college kids fix, (I use to help my old man repo cars, so enter my experience), was wiring up two toggle and one push switch under the dash... two to throw power, and one to engage the starter. My roommate kept that work around for the next three years... the key locked the door, and no one else really knew the “secret” to starting his car. Ahhhh, I love the old school cars.