Your examples of resourcefulness/improvisation

[WalkingTree]

I remember my grandpa telling me about how he made a piston ring from a tin can on the side of the road when the car broke down in some way and he needed to replace a ring...was really long ago, the kind of cars you could do that to with maybe 5 basic common tools I guess.

Man, I want a car like that. Heard recently on local news that AAA said that late model cars break down more often these days.

[shiftyer1]

I'm a master of redneck repairs. lol Duct tape and bailing wire held many of my vehicles together back when I had more mouths to feed.

Coffee cans and hose clamps to fix exhaust leaks.

Safety pins and electrical wire for trailer lights

Vise grips make great knobs for bathroom faucets and also window cranks, even used one for a shifter on a shovelhead when mine rattled loose and fell off

This would be an excellent thread for my ex brother in law. He's very Macguyverish..........he had a broken circular saw and needed a table saw so he stripped it and built a wooden table and had an adjustable table saw.

Aside from a million other things like that, he built a projector out of a soup ladle, a camera lens and various computer parts........I thought that was really cool

[Rick]

There are only two things you need to know. 1. If it moves and it shouldn't: Duct Tape. 2. If it won't move and should: WD40.

[Fixit]

Remembered another one. Had a tire with a fast leak. I think I told y'all before my road is half flint . Anyway 3 plugs shoved in the gash and not slowing down . Took 2 plugs and dipped them in latex paint then shoved them in . Waited about 5 minutes pumped air in . It held air tell I got to town to get that tire booted .

[edr730]

I've stuck fat nails covered in contact cement in my tires many times years ago. Many times it never did leak again. Other times I took the valve stem out and squirted pure latex glue in the tire many years before they had fix a flat.

[hunter63]

Gas tank fix....sharp stone got between the strap and tank on the old Dodge van
found the hole.....coated a self-taping screw with epoxy stuck thru a piece of bicycle inner tube....never leaked again...screwed in tight.

Fixed the blower motor on the same Dodge van....filed down the armature....shimmed up the brushes and used a spring from a ball point pen.....fire back up....was still in it when I sold the van.

[kyratshooter]

I guess "if the women don't find you handsome they should at least find you handy".

We should rename this the Red Green Thread!

Next thing you know someone is going to tell us how they used a .357 as a particle accelerator for a home made nuclear reactor.

[hunter63]

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[WalkingTree]

Long time ago in a smallish town I lived in there was a catholic college, and there was this dude who lived there and maintained the grounds and did maintenance. This guy built him a motorcycle and would tour the country on it once every year.

But this motorcycle was quite unconventional. Me and my buddy thought it was just the coolest thing ever. If I could remember everything about it, this post would be better, but I'll try...Was a regular cycle frame. The engine was some kind of "shop motor". Visually, the motor viewed from the side was just a big round thing like a fan and a pull start. Under it right above the ground was a metal drawer with a few tools and stuff. One lever on the handlebars was a big bolt welded in place, and another was straight from a bicycle. Part of the bars was just some pipe, and part something else. Some of the lights were of parts from flashlights and little tin cans, and any red light material was taken from something other than a vehicle tail light. The main headlight was from a car, and nested inside a big tin can. The seat was modified from a chair, like a dining room chair. And I swear the gas tank...was a gas tank, like the kind that you carry in your hand, of metal, set somewhere on the frame where you usually wouldn't put it.

I'm not sure about how he managed registration and insurance, but I suspect that things were a bit different then versus now, else it isn't as difficult a proposition as I think it is.

I been wanting to build my own little street legal car from scrap ever since (instead of buying one and be locked into doing maintenance on it according to the manufacturer's design, let alone their cost). This guy was one of my minor heroes, and source of lifelong inspiration.