So I needed a tape dispenser in my office. Seceratary who normally has such things is nowhere to be found. I could go buy one myself and reclaim the €1 back as a business expense, but geez, that's a lot of legwork. Instead...
Haha, works perfectly. And I only used two vises worth €20 each, a specialty machined concrete bolt that's probably worth €50, and a knife blade worth a few cents. Luckily I had all that laying around.
Tape dispenser, $1.
Two bench vises: > $$$
You have a bright future in government work
my Jerry-rigged short shifter... 
My old miata rocked a cable tie belt tensioner for about 40k miles. It takes 5 of the mid size ones, any less and they'll break at high rpm. I lost that little block at some point and was too cheap to buy a new one.
Not me, but it could easily have been one of us.....
brings new meaning to the term flat bottom boat..
Sheesh, you guys are WAAAAAY to P.C. You could just say "Honged."
Okay, where's the pic of the carb held on to the intake manifold with Vise-Grips, tape, and about three pounds of orange silicone?
Knurled wrote: Okay, where's the pic of the carb held on to the intake manifold with Vise-Grips, tape, and about three pounds of orange silicone?
Damn. I should've gotten close-ups. We had coins of various denominations silly-coned on to plug up vacuum ports too. The tape was (in theory) holding the nitrous line in place.
I "fixed' a drain pipe on an old basement wash tub this weekend. The tub is likely 50+ years old. It is made of concrete and I really did not want to replace the tub itself but it is bad shape.
Recources employed were, a carraige bolt, 3 zip ties, two bricks and a small wedge of wood in addition to a new j-pipe.
Works just fine!
I hit something on the track once that turned out to be a bumper from another car. It launched me pretty good, and made the car do all sorts of funny things in the corners. Seeing the motor flopped over on it's side, it turned out that both motor mounts were broken. I took a tie down chain off my trailer, wrapped it twice around the motor, and crossmember, and used a load binder to pull it tight. It worked long enough to get me through the feature.
A neighbor approached me the other day while I was working on my house.
"When you have a minute, will you see if you can get my hood open? It used to have a coat hanger wire sticking out the grille so I could pop the hood...becasue the cable is broken, but I can't find it anymore."
So I go look at it and can't get to the hood release lever from ouside the front of the car. This is an '80s or '90s prizm (Corolla). I go pop the hood of my '82 Corolla (which, as I suspected, had pretty much the same design hood latch) to confirm that I could get to the three bolts holding in onto the Prism through the grille.
I stuck a socket and extension through the grille and removed the hood latch, opening the hood with it dangling from the catch.
Then I replaced it and replaced the now-missing piece of coat hanger wire with real live safety wire.
I made sure the safety wire was wired on good. I was happy for the excuse to make a work around work (around) better.
Clem
When in college a freind drove his old Jeep Wagoneer over to visit one weekend. About 2 miles from campus his throttle cable decided it did not want to stay on the carb. A wire coat hanger and some scotch tape and it was good to go untill he got back home.
I had a Flowmaster muffler rot away, with about one inch stub sticking out of the can. I made a splint out of two roofing baby tins and two worn gear clamps on each side of the joint. Worked good for two months.
Years ago I bought my first new car, a 1982 1/2 Datsun/Nissan Sentra (said both on the trunk) and took it to Fairbanks Alaska with me when I was transfered there. About the time the warranty ran out I had problems starting it if it was a sunny, cold day (like most days there in the spring/fall). If it started it acted like it was running on one cylinder. Tracked it down to the electric choke sealing the carb and no internal adjustments. I wasn't paying the dealer to fix it so I looped a piece of safety wire around the linkage limiting travel. Worked like a charm. Traded the car for a used 81 K5 Blazer and was commended on taking such good car of the car. 
Grafted a mower gas tank to my forklift. It's just to do in a pinch until I get the scratch to order the Clark fuel lines and carb kit. Runs like crap. Looks like ass. Works wonderfully, though. There are many more but I'll dole them out here and there so as to not overwhelm you all with my wonderful makeshift awesomeness. When you're broke, you have to fix stuff.
I grew up in a third world country. My father was an aircraft manufacturers field training rep. I have seen more jury rigging than you can shake a stick at.
I use a small pair of HF vice grips to hold the choke knob out until the car warms up a bit in my mini....been doing it that way for around 3 years. The choke cable is supposed to lock when twisted - why spend $20 for a new one and have one more tool in the toolbox in the boot. This way I can carry one less tool in the box.
I've seen a tree branch wedged into the engine compartment to hold in a frost plug. (ps: I thought "Jury-rigged" was a misunderstanding of "Jerry-rigged," but they have two different origins and have roughly the same meaning. Learn summin new 'ery day. )
I can't find the picture.
About eight years ago, we were messing around with some computers and needed to fit a Species Y power supply into a Species Z case.
At our disposal were a drill, and a Leatherman. No saws.
We drilled a bunch of holes where we needed the new power cord access area to be. "Hole" is too grand a term for what we were about to perpetrate upon the case. After making this line of holes, we grabbed the outlined piece of metal and bent it back and forth with the Leatherman until it finally gave way. I think we only broke two sides out and just folded the rest of it into the case.
A couple haphazardly drilled mounting holes, and we were in business.
After having a steering shaft strip its splines at the steering box end while traveling at high speed through mountain twisties, and NOT dying by plummeting hundreds of feet off the cliff i hung a wheel over, i still had to get home.
After I figured out wed stopped almost to late, and i got the car back on the road, and i stopped shaking, i figured there was no pay phone, and i hadn't gotten a cell phone yet, not that it would've got a signal anyhow, and zero "traffic" besides me.
But there was an empty coke can on the side of the road, and i had my small tool kit. I cut the aluminum can open, turned it into a sleeve by wrapping it around the end of the steering shaft, pounded it in with a rock, tightened up the clamp bolt (also using the rock to pound on the wrench end) and drove that puppy about 160 miles home, no problems. In fact, I drove it like that for a few months until i could find a replacement. the aluminum welded itself to the steel and it was a real pita to take apart again!
dont try this at home folks...
I got one like 924guy's. I took the Shelby out for a early morning run last Thankgiving, the drive out was great, on the drive back I broke the weld on the side bar of the front sway bar the center section fell to the ground and was banging around so I pulled off and parked. The Griggs front sway bar has two solid side arms that are welded to a hollow center section, I had no tools, no phone reception and it's 7am Thankgiving morning so no traffic on this back road. I started to look for a piece of wire to tie up the center section when I realized that a propper diameter stick might do the job; I easily found the right stick and worked it through the side arm into the center hollow section, it worked like a charm and got me and the car back to the shop without any further problems.
my laptop charging cable stopped charging one day, so I found the bad connection, cut it, spliced back together, and used copious ammounts of electrical tape.
A friend with a 69 dodge d-100 has a leaky fuel tank. A piece of rubber fuel line connected to an outboard motor fuel tank in the tool box fixed that. I use a hardware store turnbuckle as part of the clutch linkage on my 74 F-100.
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