Date:         Wed, 10 Mar 2004 17:37:19 -0600
Reply-To:     John Rodgers <jh_rodgers@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Rodgers <jh_rodgers@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject:      Re: " you fixed it with what?!"
Comments: To: don spence <dspence@OANET.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <86D2AFD6-72CF-11D8-A1FB-003065A72624@oanet.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I saw two brothers once salvage a  largebody panel truck  from the woods
of Alaska. The thing had been there so long it had a tree growing up
through the floor board and out the right door window. They couldn't get
the carburetor to work right so as to run, so the engine hatch was left
off (engine in the cab) and one brother poured gas from a can down the
throat of the carburetor and the other drove the thing. They went from
Soldotna, Alaska to Anchorage, AK, 150 miles away by road through the
mountains. The left the tree, btw.

I also saw an Eskimo out at Mekoryak, AK (an Eskimo Village on an island
just off the western coast in the Bering Sea) repair (read "splice") a
broken wing strut on a Cessna 170 with two files as splints over the
break wrapped with three layers of reindeer sinew tightly wrapped and
shrunk onto the files. He then flew the plane about 140 miles east to
Bethel, Alaska. Most amazing thing I ever saw. I'm still amazed that the
thing stayed together.

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

don spence wrote:

> As travel season is approaching and there has already been a fair bit
> of discussion re: what spare parts to carry I'd like to invite one and
> all to contribute to a " you fixed it with what?!" list.
> Who knows, tales of other's creative fixes may get one of us out of a
> jam.
>
> For example, a friend and his family (wife, two young girls) were
> heading up a remote highway in northern Alberta for a Christmas visit
> with grandma in a Hyundai. Thirty miles from nowhere, -20 C, the fan
> belt pops.  No spare. No tools. What to do?
> For some unknown reason, the wife, whom I have never known to wear a
> dress, was carrying a pair of pantyhose in her luggage. Yup, stretched
> and tied the panty hose around the pulleys and limped slowly into the
> next settlement.  I've also heard of it being done with duct tape
> (don't leave home without it). I have wrapped up burst rad hoses
> successfully with Gaffer tape. (better than duct tape-used in the film
> biz)
>
> Anybody else made emergency repairs with "available" materials?
>