What was your best BuBa fix?

[Domenic T.]

Even though we do good work there was a time we had to make a decision and evaluate the situation. Some got us home, and possibly the fix is still working well!!
Already claim the worst where we all had to pee in the radiator not quite a fix but we made it out of the desert.

Dom

[Chris H.]

[David H.]

Re: What was your best BuBa fix?

Parking lot, evening college class. Lady's (teacher's) car would not start - sounded like an almost dead battery. Top post battery/cable connector HEAVILY corroded. No tools but a Phillips screwdriver.

Removed a screw from interior facia and screwed it between battery post/cable gap. Enough of a connection to start her car.

Recommended she get her husband to do a proper repair.

Dave

[Paul H.]

Re: What was your best BuBa fix?

After 51 years of ownership and 3 heater cores I decided to by-pass my heater core on my 65. After getting the dreaded drip on the passenger side floor, I decided not to do the required "surgery" this time. I either smartened up or I'm getting lazy.

[Bill M.]

Re: What was your best BuBa fix?

Clutch bracket broke off of frame opposite side of the ball on my 64 Impala SS. I was on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway on a Saturday morning 2 baby sons in the car. I was able to clamp it back onto the frame with vise grips and get it home to Floral Park.

[Tom L.]

Re: What was your best BuBa fix?

I kind or resored my car backwards. Started with the body then mechanicals. Anyway, on the way home from the body shop looking good with fresh paint and chrome I overheated. No PEE in this story : ) but it turned out that the only belt on the car shreaded. Used a few tie wraps as a crank to water pump belt just to get to a nearby friends place.

[Bill M.]

Re: What was your best BuBa fix?

My friend Brian worked at Broadway cab company. We used the shop one night to put a Dana rear drum to drum in my 71 Demon. When it came time to install the drive shaft we found out that the Dana yoke was larger than the stock yoke. We had to get the car off the lift and out of there by morning so we wrapped the caps in wire until we had made up the space. I was able to get the car home and have the drive shaft modified.

[James W.]

Re: What was your best BuBa fix?

The hole Bubba (not me) punched in the storage compartment of my '65 to get to the differential front mount bolt out. I repaired it last summer.

I used duct tape to seal a heater hose on the same car to get the car home (30) miles after looking in the rear view mirror to discovered the car was leaking anti-freeze. My wife was following me with our three small children and had to haul water (2 trips 8 miles round trip in Western Iowa) to the nearest rest area with the gallon plastic jug of windshield solvent we kept in her car. She was less than happy. I found that the heater core was also leaking when I got home.

James

[Mark E.]

Re: What was your best BuBa fix?

Picking up on the C3 battery box theme of a concurrent thread, when I acquired my '70 in 1990, the fiberglass on the bottom of the box was missing (apparently eaten away by battery acid) leaving a large hole in the floor. Some clever amateur repairman or perhaps the nondiscerning owner riveted two 1" sheet metal straps to the surrounding panel to hold the battery up.

Needless to say this did increase road noise a bit. As you can imagine, this was an effective price negotiation point when discovered during my pre-purchase inspection (no, the seller did not disclose this feature beforehand). Caveat emptor!

[Allen N.]

Re: What was your best BuBa fix?

About 30 years ago, I was getting ready to leave for work when my next door neighbor came over saying his heater box was leaking into passenger compartment, and he needed to get to the airport an hour away. I disconnected the two hoses from the heater box and connected them together to bypass the heater box, added some water to the radiator, and off he went to the airport.

He didn't have any heat, but he did get to the airport on time.

[Michael J.]

Re: What was your best BuBa fix?

I think wiring open the heat riser is my best one. Lasts forever and does no damage.

[Rocco S.]

Re: What was your best BuBa fix?

Here's my most memorable Bubba Fix. Back in 1973 I owned a 1968 Camaro 327, 4-speed. It had headers, Sig Erson Cam and a Holley carb. It was a great car for a 17 year old high school senior.

One Thursday night a few of us went to Island Dragway, Great Meadows, NJ for time trials. This was at a time when we drove our everyday cars to and from the track and then to school the next day. Never gave it a thought that if we braoke at the track we would be stranded.

Well, on my first run I broke a motor mount (original, non-locking type), the engine throttle rod twisted and locked the carb wide open. Stepping on the clutch returned it to idle. At the same time the engine lifted enough that the distributor hit the firewall. A large piece of the distributor cap broke out. Now what to do? Most people carried spare points, condenser, rotor, spare plug wire, but who carried a spare cap?

I walked the pits asking around if anyone had a spare GM cap. Nobody had one! My Bubba Fix was to get a piece of cardboard and some electrical tape and patch the hole. I carefully drove home (about an hour) and the next day replaced the motor mounts and distributor cap.

[Domenic T.]

Re: What was your best BuBa fix?

Got another one,
Was with the family in my converted (OLD) bus driving back from a vacation in IL going home to CA when I noticed the engine temp about pegged and the alt showing discharge. Belt was my first thought, but wasn't that lucky. he water pump pulley broke away from the water pump and there was no way to turn a belt and we were in no mans land.
Well we let it cool down while I removed the broken part of the pulley that was between the water pump and the fan blade. I reversed the fan blade to get a better bite on air and when it cooled I drove to the top of each hill and turned off the engine and coasted down while looking for a ranch or farm with scrap cars that might work.
Well found one and it was fenced with a mean dog that seemed to bark all the time. I got my nerve up and decided to open the gate and knock on the door while the dog was nipping at my but. Well, they had a arc welder and for a few bucks I welded the pulley and was able to find a town with a junk yard. Yes, the reversed blade turned enough to somewhat cool whil driving and the engine cooled while coasting down the hill with the blade rotating to circulate the water.

Dom

[Mark E.]

Re: What was your best BuBa fix?

Very creative, Dom. What kind of bus was this? Partridge Family type school bus? Did this incident involve tie dye and insense?

[Rich G.]