FIL's Man card revoked

I'm rescinding my father in laws Man card for an epically poor bodge. Now, I have noting against a good bodge, I've done some wonderful bodges myself over the years, but this was inexcusable.

Now, part of the reason this is so bad is that my FIL really can do really good stuff. This is a guy who built his own house. And when I say built, I don't mean paid contractors to do it. I mean quit work for two years, clearing the land and building every last part himself, foundations, plumbing, walls, roof they lot, everything. Nothing was farmed out. He broke his back digging the trench for the sewer was told he would never walk again then got up 6 weeks later and finished the house in 3 years. He then founded his own electronics company and ran that successfully for 20 years.

So what was this monumentally bad bodge? Well as per another post my C30 needs some serious work after an accident and is going to be MIA for at least a month. I hope to borrow another car soon, but in the meantime I've had to put my wife's one owner 93 Geo Tracker back in service. It's the Superleggera model with strategic used of ferrous oxide to lighten minor things like rocker panels, seatbelt mounts etc. The car is at my In Laws as my FIL uses it from time to time. I get there and he's kindly got it ready for me, as soon as I fire it up I hear the exhaust is blowing, he said that the pipe had split and he'd wrapped some metal around it, it's still blowing but he says his great grandson (he's 78 BTW) thinks it sounds cool when he takes him to school. Crap thinks I, I assumed it was one of those muffler blankets and I hate those. If only. By the time I get home I know I'll never be able to stand commuting up and down the freeway with it so I went back out to see if I could re-bodge the bodge. The microwave said 8:30 as I walked out of the kitchen and it was starting to get dark. I look under the car and can't believe my eye's. Between the cat and the main muffler there's a standard 2 bolt flange with springs on the bolts to add a certain amount of flex. I'd replaced those parts 2-3 years ago with Murrays (now O'reilly's) finest Chinese crap that had rusted through already. To 'repair' where one of the pipes had started to separate from the flange he'd wrapped several layers of aluminum kitchen foil around it and tied it off with some thin wire either side. Yes that's right, the stuff you wrap your bacon roast in before tossing it in the oven!! Now, to his err credit, I assume when he did that the pipe hadn't fully separate from the flange so it may have held for at least 5 minutes.

So I pull off the remains of the foil and wire, burning my hand as the cat and pipe are still hot. Measure up and decide I need an max 8-9" long flex pipe so I jump into my wife's car and head off to O'reilly's for a flex pipe. The shortest proper flex is 14" end to end which wont fit, so I grab some of the spiral flex crap to re-dodge the bodge. Home again grab the angle grinder to cut the old flanges slip on a bit of flex pipe and I have a workable bodge that will probably outlast the muffler. I then washed it and refitted the soft top and was inside by 9:33.

Now to my FIL's credit, he's in the process of re-earning his man card as at 78 he's pulling down his ceiling to replace the dry wall and fixing a leak in the roof that caused the damage. I hope I'm half as spry at 78. He's also the same guy who only thee years ago I was dragging across a lake at 35mph on an inner tube behind a boat. Hell of a guy and my hero, but aluminium foil, really?

WTF is a bodge?

EricM wrote: WTF is a bodge?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bodge

EricM wrote: WTF is a bodge?

If you can't figure that out by reading the story I think your man card may be in danger.

When you don't care, you dont care. Thats when you get aluminium foil on an exhaust pipe.

ansonivan wrote:

EricM wrote: WTF is a bodge?

If you can't figure that out by reading the story I think your man card may be in danger.

If you can't use common terms like, uh, "repair" for instance, you should expect stupid questions about words nobody's ever heard of, and should get your American card revoked. I'm just sayin'.

I like crazy brit-speak.

bravenrace wrote:

ansonivan wrote:

EricM wrote: WTF is a bodge?

If you can't figure that out by reading the story I think your man card may be in danger.

If you can't use common terms like, uh, "repair" for instance, you should expect stupid questions about words nobody's ever heard of, and should get your American card revoked. I'm just sayin'.

I believe Adrian hails from across the pond

I thought that "bodge" was a fairly common term I have heard it all my life and I live in the States.

This bacon roast you speak of.....

@Adrian: Your dad and my dad should hang out. My dad just last year bought and tore down the house next door to his. He did all the tearing down with hand tools. Cut a hole in the roof, put a ladder through, cut the sheathing into squares, tossed it in the dumpster, etc. Reclaimed all the big lumber and cleaned all the nails out, etc. He's 73.

bravenrace wrote: If you can't use common terms like, uh, "repair" for instance, you should expect stupid questions about words nobody's ever heard of, and should get your American card revoked. I'm just sayin'.

Does aluminum foil wrapped around an exhaust pipe sound like a repair to you? (Yes, I'm just yanking your chain!)

He fixed it with wire and foil.

You can't revoke his man card for that sort of repair, he gets bonus points!

Bodges are a badge of manhood.

Only women fix things right.

Wow, no one has ever asked what a bodge is before and I've been this side of the pond for 17 years now.

I couldn't use repair as it was in no way a repair.

I just found it so funny that a guy with such talent and ability would do this, especially when I did a serviceable repai...no, it's still a bodge, for less than $10 and probably 30 mins work inc buying the parts. The other 33 mins were spent refitting the admittedly tricky soft top and giving it a wash.

Now, if we want to continue threatening man cards, my own must be up for scrutiny as the one tidbit I haven't mentioned is that as my wife bought this before I knew her, the Tracker is white with pink writing on the side!

Whew! For a minute there I thought he bought a Miata.

ya we atleast us a sodecan and hose clamps... oh wait thats not right either.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: It's the Superleggera model with strategic used of ferrous oxide to lighten minor things like rocker panels, seatbelt mounts etc.

BAHAHAHA!!!!

Does that mean a rusty 911 counts as a GT3 RS? Of course, being a Porsche, the rust costs extra.

Bodge/= repair. Repair=done correctly. Bodge=make it work.

dculberson wrote: @Adrian: Your dad and my dad should hang out. My dad just last year bought and tore down the house next door to his. He did all the tearing down with hand tools. Cut a hole in the roof, put a ladder through, cut the sheathing into squares, tossed it in the dumpster, etc. Reclaimed all the big lumber and cleaned all the nails out, etc. He's 73.

Yup, he's taught me everything I know about house maintenance and helped me re-roof, build a deck, re-model the kitchen, tear down walls the lot. I think he'd kick Chuck Norris arse if he wasn't' so busy.

914Driver wrote: Whew! For a minute there I thought he bought a Miata.

HEy, on top of the white/pink Tracker I'm an ex and hope to be future Miata owner.

OK, who's coming to get my man card, it's on the desk waiting for collection.

I wonder if he knows the guy I bought my hose from. The first cold day it smelled like a truck stop. I went downstairs to find that the aluminum foil conecting the boiler to the chimney had blown out and the boiler was filling the basement with exhaust.

Adrian,

Sounds like your FIL is finally slowing down a bit, hence the super-dodge-y bodge. He actually had a moment of weakness so go easy on him.

Any reader of Practical Classics knows from bodge. Regardless, the meaning can be inferred from the usage in the story.

If the old man has recovered, send him my way. I could uses some help rehabbing a rental condo.

We don need no stickin bodges.

My father in law mixes his Michelob Ultra 50/50 with Diet Sprite because the Ultra is too strong by itself. Do I win something?

Ade, are you sure it was kitchen-grade ALUMINIUM (since we all like Brit-speak) foil and not something like this? http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-80334-Degree-Exhaust-Repair/dp/B000BOAMUI

Still a bodge, but the Permatex label and fact that it's sold in auto parts stores gives it some small measure of credibility. Though not much.....

In reply to EricM:

You obviously haven't watched enough Wheeler Dealer episodes. Back to the TV with you!

Job Done!