Your biggest car hack job ever

whitepunkonnitro said
Mine ended up on live TV.
We qualified #16 in Funny Car at the Mopar Parts Nationals at ETown one year.
Last qualifying run, the baffles tore loose in the oil pan at the finish line..spun every main and destroyed every saddle in the one block we had.
So, we had Force in the first round Sunday morning. No way we were going to beat him anyway, but you have to at least stage and leave the starting line to collect your qualifying cash..which we NEEDED!
So, we worked all night to doctor up the block. Cut up Pepsi cans and made shims to back up the main bearings and screwed and epoxied everything in place. First thing in the morning, we had it all together and towed to the line.
So, while the plan was just to start the car, stage, take the green against Force and then shut off...my driver suddenly had other plans.
He trees Force, beats him to.the 60, and proceeds to whip this dead Elephant right to the 1/8th, where..you guessed it..she threw the crank onto the ground and incinerated everything we owned.
Fun fun fun

My grandfather occasionally talks about repairs like that, that he and his friends made when they were young (this would have been the 1940's, if my math is right) to keep their cars running. Shimming bearings with cut up cans because they couldn't afford to buy new bearings, running heavy oil, etc.

My grandfather also tells me about how the biggest mistake of his life was buying a beat up ford as his first car, that it burned more oil than it did gas. "We carried gas cans filled with used oil in the trunk"