Questionable repairs that you have done, which have lasted a long time..

[Kershaw]

I didn't realize that duct tape over the seats was a questionable repair. :-P I found a surprisingly close match to cardinal red on Amazon. I ran this for over a year.



A few months ago I built and put in a new interior though. It's a slight improvement, haha.

[nando]

It wouldn't be questionable if it hadn't been like that for most of the time I've owned the car, lol.

did you buy seat covers or find better seats? my frames also need welded too, so it's not a matter of just getting new covers, although the welding they need isn't significant.

[Kershaw]

I bought better seats. They were gray and in the middle of nowhere PA, but they were $200. It was a great deal. I dyed them with leathermagic's kit, which is $60. It was definitely the cheaper route. I'm curious to see how durable the finish is. The first few coats definitely do absorb into the leather, but it takes a few more to get a consistent even finish. The ski-pass was already cardinal, so that only took a few coats to refresh it. The shift knob and e-brake were black and that took a bit. I can always touch it up I suppose.

Once my garage is built, the turbo is installed, etc etc, I'll revisit the interior. It's better than it was and that's good enough for now.

[Northern]

Re: Flare nut wrenches. I cut my own from the boxed end of a regular wrench and works great.

Original muffler started to rot out and had a small hole on top. Cut a piece of a metal shelf, ran a bead of red RTV, and bolted it on with galvanized strapping. It held for a few months at a time. Went through like 4 revisions of this until the muffler physically split in half as I was trying to clean it up for another patch.

At that point, I cut the pipes ~1" after they started to perforate and trimmed back the muffler shell, then bought two 18" slip fit pipes and some exhaust cement and glued them on. It was loud as hell, and droned badly on the highway. I drove it to work & back for a month before a new catback showed up.

For all of those two pin connectors for the headlights/speed sensor/whatever, I just have a big bag of connectors from scrapped E30's and E36's that I root through when I need one, but I often have to cut another corner off them to make them fit, but oh well...

[Fsnow]

[QUOTE=Fsnow;4605212]While changing my fuel filter a few years ago I noticed one of the clamps that hold the fuel lines to the car was missing. So a few zip ties later it was good and still is. Damn I'm lazy, I really should take one off my parts car.

Got the bracket off my parts car and undercoated it. Didn't want to use the rusty screw so I had to shorten a spare m4 x.7 from my nitro rc. No more zip ties anywhere on my car.

[nando]

That will probably be one of my projects some day - de-ziptying my entire car. lol

[Fsnow]

Well it turns out I lied. I forgot that I had saggy exhaust hangers that needed replacing , so I had put a few zip ties there as well just in case. Noticed when I took it off dollys today and they are still doing their job. Crap

[NC325iC]

So my first e30 fell into my hands when I was about 14 (obv it wasn't my car but it was to be my car, it was an extra car in the family). Anyway given that I was so young that car had a few sketchy jobs. To the top of my mind I can think of a few wiring jobs. When trying to install an alarm and get the lights to blink I used the trial and error method to find the right wires, and those headlight switch wires don't have much slack. Needless to say a few years later I was forced to "extend those wires".

I had the clutch master cylinder bracket break in that car during college, which basically made the clutch stop working. Well after a few weeks of driving it semi clutchless (only used the clutch to do first gear) I came up with a solution. I cut a piece of aluminum strip to about an inch long, drilled a hole in it and bolted it to the clutch master mount. That bolt was then a mounting stud for the clutch master. The aluminum braced the clutch master to the non-cracked part of the bracket. I ran the car that way until I wrecked the car in 2011 :'( , probably about 3 or 4 years.



I will admit to using zipties on any connection that does not hold water/air (unless its vacuum). So for instance steering boots. I see no issue with using a nicely tightened ziptie for these boots.

In my Jeep I had the front driveshaft come loose and destroy a brake line. Instead of replacing the whole line I cut away the damaged section and added a new patch line in its place. I did use brake line as the patch and I did use brake fittings and flare the ends. But it seems kinda questionable still... doesn't leak though

[JRyn]

One day, I opened up my car door, and saw my rear view mirror on the ground. Easy fix, just glue it back on. While I was at the store, I saw the "extreme permanent bond" epoxy, and said to myself, may as well. I detached the button from the mirror and glued it to the windshield. All was well until I tried to attach the mirror to the button... and then... pop. The assembly came off, and with it a big chunk of the windshield. From there I just covered the missing chunk up with the rear view mirror, and it is standing strong to this day. The windshield hasn't imploded on me yet!

[IceWhite]

Discovered my rear "Brake pad wear indicator" senor wire broken at the connector.
So instead of removing the damaged sensor wire and replacing it, I used the copper strands of a piece of wire I had, and jumped the connector on the body side and reconnected the broken sensor wire. No more light on.

[mjimport]

I can't take credit for this, but the PO of my e30 used (small) binder clips to hold the grills in place. Works great and is easier to remove than the oem slide on clips!

[15Michaeljoseph]

When replaced my rear brake hard lines due to some rusty looking jank, I noticed that the old hard line had already had a half-foot repair section, held together with..... Compression fittings.

This repair must have been at least 10 years old. From my research, compression fittings on brake lines are supposed to mean certain death... Maybe I am just lucky.

Sent from my XT1064 using Tapatalk

[fporro]

Holding late style brake switch with zip ties, been good for like 4 years. lol.

[bikerjim2000]

Accidentally broke the plastic pipe that goes from the front air dam to the intake box. Turns out that a soup can is the perfect length/diameter to take its place!

And so is an old style thick foam beer cozy!!! that is how mine rolls!!!

[estoguy]

I can't take credit for this, but the PO of my e30 used (small) binder clips to hold the grills in place. Works great and is easier to remove than the oem slide on clips!

Smart!!