Unnecessary Bodges

[brages]

Have you ever run across a car that had a relatively simple problem repaired in a convoluted or barely functional way?

I have a truck where the driver's seat belt buckle didn't latch correctly. Instead of getting a new buckle from the junkyard for $5 or whatever, the previous owner zip-tied the buckle from the middle seat next to the driver's. Of course, that means no middle seat belt now.

I think similar when I see a window that's duct taped in place to stay up. Window regulators aren't that expensive or hard to replace IME.

The extreme would be the guy who puts a 110V window A/C unit in his car and straps a generator to the trunk to power it.

What have you seen that made you scratch your head and say, "why didn't you just...?"

 

[Wylie6G72]

I think I see more "why don't you just....?". There are SO many cars driving around with detached front bumpers and mirrors hanging by their wires, I've lost count. I guess it's just the right combination of lazy and cheap.

 

[Kira]

Or when you see a car "bandaged" like a mummy. "They do make cloth tape in the color of your car!"

You'd be surprised at how much people do not know. Feeling 'inspirational'?, try explaining something to someone; you'll get over it.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Back in the day a friend used to drive a beater early Dodge convertible with a "smiling" rear bumper. He put a bumper sticker that read, "Don't laugh. Your daughter may be in this car."

 

[vw7674]

my local pikn'pull wants $8.49 for a seatbelt buckle. (+ $2.00 to get in the yard)
one .17 ziptie is looking like a bargain.
And yes, a can of windshield defrost fluid currently holds my passenger side window glass part-way up.
Gonna order the new regulator later this week........ maybe. I dunno. : l

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

Have you ever run across a car that had a relatively simple problem repaired in a convoluted or barely functional way?

I have a truck where the driver's seat belt buckle didn't latch correctly. Instead of getting a new buckle from the junkyard for $5 or whatever, the previous owner zip-tied the buckle from the middle seat next to the driver's. Of course, that means no middle seat belt now.

I think similar when I see a window that's duct taped in place to stay up. Window regulators aren't that expensive or hard to replace IME.

The extreme would be the guy who puts a 110V window A/C unit in his car and straps a generator to the trunk to power it.

What have you seen that made you scratch your head and say, "why didn't you just...?"

Here in Louisiana some people think that the donut spare tire is what CAME FACTORY on the car!

 

[Passport1]

Might need a headlight alignment and driver needs to shed a few pounds for sure or get a longer bungee cord.

 

[Shel_B]

[...] I guess it's just the right combination of lazy and cheap.

Or maybe they just don't have the $$ to spare, or are waiting for a part to arrive, or waiting for some help from a friend or a relative.

Sometimes the comments I see on this forum are quite judgemental without the commentator knowing the full story.

If you saw sweetie's Prius, with duct tape holding the passenger side rear-view mirror together, would you consider her lazy and cheap? Or, if you knew the reason why that was done, might you think it was a smart move under the circumstances?

 

[Wylie6G72]

I knew the woe-is-me financial argument would be along any minute. You can't make that argument to someone who's been so broke I couldn't afford to change my mind.

When my Sundance got hit, I got underneath it and secured the bumper cover back in place with a piece of clothes hanger that I broke and bent with my bare hands because I owned no pliers. There's a way to fix anything, even if temporarily, on a shoestring budget. Cheap and lazy does describe the people who are unwilling to try it themselves, or pay a minimal amount of money for a contraption that will work.

Don't poverty-talk someone who's been there.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

The extreme would be the guy who puts a 110V window A/C unit in his car and straps a generator to the trunk to power it.

I was considering that for my Forester ...

 

[Wolf359]

I knew the woe-is-me financial argument would be along any minute. You can't make that argument to someone who's been so broke I couldn't afford to change my mind.

When my Sundance got hit, I got underneath it and secured the bumper cover back in place with a piece of clothes hanger that I broke and bent with my bare hands because I owned no pliers. There's a way to fix anything, even if temporarily, on a shoestring budget. Cheap and lazy does describe the people who are unwilling to try it themselves, or pay a minimal amount of money for a contraption that will work.

Don't poverty-talk someone who's been there.

If you're so broke that you can't afford to fix the car so that it meets safety standards, you shouldn't drive it. There's an agreement that you meet some minimum requirement to share the road with everyone else. That's why people not in compliance get tickets.

Another case I'll bring up are the people who drive with their high beams on because one of their low beams are out. I pointed that out to a woman on the street and she said her low beam was out. I just shook my head but that wasn't really a good reason why she was blinding me with her high beams.

Oh how do you temporarily fix a broken low beam?

 

[eljefino]

My saturn took an obscure #24 side marker bulb, and the sockets were always getting corroded with road salt. I retrofit a junkyard 194 socket and pigtail that I had on hand-- took a lot of whittling of plastic tabs and whatnot to make it fit but once done you'd never know. While on the topic of those cars, I replaced a coolant temp sensor connector with the 2-pin "HDD LED" pigtail off an old computer motherboard.

I ordered a X-inch wiper blade for the rear blade of my prius off rockauto. When it arrived I noticed my old blade had a frame style that wasn't universal, eg, my new one didn't fit. So I coaxed the tattered rubber blade insert out, then parted-out my brand new blade, carefully sliding the "refill" into my old frame. Works mint but my time was worth like 35 cents an hour.

I've done my share of zip-tie "drift stitch" applications, mostly underneath where noone would notice. If a 35 cent plastic rivet or "Christmas tree" gets mangled I often drill a hole an inch away to allow for a loop and zip tie the mess. Even though I can run out to Lowes and buy replacements... just want the job done.

On the "spectrum" of bodges though I feel my repairs trend toward legitimate.

 

[Kira]

Not picking sides with any of the descriptions above.....however.......
If a vehicle is on the road the "money clock" is ticking and has been, likely for decades.
IOW no driver is that darn poor. Get real, please; nobody's a character from "Of Mice and Men".
I personally don't care what a car looks like (sometimes, like a mummy-car, it can be peculiar) but safety concerns are everyone's concerns.

How well these concerns are policed is the question. I've seen some real dangerous sheet metal in my day.

A two part question from another stream:
part 1: Is it me or are there many, many brand new trucks driving about with their bright lights on all the time?
part 2: Is this some new version of 'rolling coal' or other low energy (aka grumbling child) kind of social statement?

 

[Wolf359]

My saturn took an obscure #24 side marker bulb, and the sockets were always getting corroded with road salt. I retrofit a junkyard 194 socket and pigtail that I had on hand-- took a lot of whittling of plastic tabs and whatnot to make it fit but once done you'd never know.

How much was the factory socket? I've had that happen on my Mercedes E-350, the side markers getting corroded by water is pretty common. A new factory socket was about $10. The first time I cleaned off the corrosion but it came back after a few months so I ended up getting the new socket.

 

[Wolf359]

part 1: Is it me or are there many, many brand new trucks driving about with their bright lights on all the time?

It might be a little of both. I think I see trucks that seem extra bright but that's just because their headlights are higher and aimed pretty might right at you. Plus many cars now have brighter LED lights. Sometimes people flash me thinking my bixenons are on high and I flash them back with the real high beams.

 

[eljefino]

How much was the factory socket? I've had that happen on my Mercedes E-350, the side markers getting corroded by water is pretty common. A new factory socket was about $10. The first time I cleaned off the corrosion but it came back after a few months so I ended up getting the new socket.

IDK but I think I was going over the car the night before a state inspection appointment and had to have something working by the appointment.

I have kids, back then they were little, so I only got to work on the cars after they went to bed, by which point the parts stores were closed. I loved mail order (still do) but sometimes I had to MacGyver stuff.

 

[RAR]

I have many, many such tales… and no, it wasn’t because of money that people did this horrible fixes. It was ignorance and laziness.

The window that had a 2x4 jammed in the door to hold it up… they were already in there to do it, but didn’t plug the motor back in… or the fuses yanked on an Avalanche to turn off the airbag light. It was a broken wire under the seat that was obvious and visible.

There are more, but that’s good enough for now..

 

[Chris142]

Here in Louisiana some people think that the donut spare tire is what CAME FACTORY on the car!

California too

 

[meep]

my favorite car… a 93 keep ZJ…. Had side swiped almost everything off the right side in its previous life. I really loved this car. The passenger door had a functioning handle but the back door didn’t. I bondo’d it till smooth and painted it with duplicolor wheel paint, which oddly was a /perfect/ match. Instead of buying the Jeep handle, I used a toilet flush handle and copper wire inside to pull the latch. To prevent a falling obstacle from opening the door, I fashioned it as an upwards pull and used vinyl to draw the appropriate curved up arrow. my kids loved it so much, I never changed it.

 

[97prizm]

I used to be an emissions Inspector and the bandaged vehicles that came in. Some had been "temporarily " fixed for years.