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Strangest bodge/repair


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Just reading the old thread about expectations of work on boats, which reminded me of an odd repair we had done to our boat and wondered if anyone else had similar.

 

On departing the boat after a week out one of my last jobs is to hook up to the shoreline, on plugging the cable into the boat i noticed that the socket was missing the bottom two screws holding it to the boat, figuring this would cause a problem over time and not having any suitable fittings to hand i just added it to the End of Cruise Report sheet for the Marina to action. Next time we were at the boat i checked the socket, and saw two nice shiny screws had been fitted, great i thought, until i came to unhook the cable. this is when i realised instead of actually screwing the socket down with two new screws, someone had sikaflexed two screw heads onto the socket instead!

Surely this bodge took more effort than actually fixing it properly? We fixed it ourselves and left it at that. Think at the time the Marina had taken on new workshop staff, we didn't see them again.

Edited by Hudds Lad
repetition
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Reminds me of a workmate who had worked for Cleveland Bridge Engineering.   After the Menai Straits bridge was damaged by fire he was involved in the rebuild.  They had access to the original drawings made by Robert Stephenson which were immaculate and showed the long bolts that should have been cast in to hold the structure to the concrete piers and abutments.  When they dismantled the decks they found most of the bolts were not long enough and a short stud and nut that didn't reach the concrete had been placed in position instead.  Made the job easier if nothing else.   So much for Victorian engineering (or for Victorian supervision of engineering installations at least).

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Some years ago I mentioned reading about a bodge repair I had come across in one of the yachting magazines.

 

Two teenage boys were sailing somewhere on the South coast in a centreboard dinghy. They noticed that the joint between the plywood centreboard casing and the deck board was leaking with seawater slowly filling the bilge. They looked around the boat for something to seal the gap but the only thing they had was a processed cheese sandwich so one of them chewed it into a paste and they used the resulting "putty" to stop the leak. It worked and they were able to continue their day sailing before returning in the evening.  Out of sight and out of mind they didn't get round to repairing it properly and the cheese paste remained in place  until they sold the boat some years later.

 

Wirth considering as an item for the emergency tool kit!:boat:

 

Howard

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Advisory on a BSS that the wooden lining on the botttom the gas locker was damp. Poked it with a screwdriver to check for rot and it went straight through and kept going. Turns out the the hull was built, pre-BSS, with a floor to the gas locker well below the waterline, and when BSS came in, someone had built a wooden framework and false floor to raise it up. The whole space under the false floor was full of expanding foam to stop is filling with gas and pass the BSS. Said false floor not being waterproof, all the foam down to the original steel floor was saturated, and the wood rotting. 

 

I spend several days in the gas locker with a Tesco value breadknife, mining expanding foam (6 binliners full, if I remember correctly) to get to the original steel floor, check it for rust, clean and repaint.Then the local boatbuilder came in, plasma-cut the top off the gas locker for access, welded in a new, higher, steel floor and welded the top back on the gas locker. 

 

MP.

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Not on a boat, but my first car came to a juddering halt going up a steep hill when the linkage from gear lever to gearbox failed and I couldn't change down. The AA man reassembled the linkage but hadn't got a split pin to secure the assembly. So he got out his keyring, removed all the keys and worked the keyring in where the split pin should go. It was still there when I sold the car a year or two later.

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8 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Copper ball valve in the cistern filled with water.  Punch a hole in it, empty out and wrap in a poly bag.  Lived in house for another 27 years, sold it still with the poly bag in place.

I wonder if it is still there?

Now what are the names of the boats you have owed, just so I can keep clear ? 

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My own bodge to unbodge a pro job: when a new stove had been installed it seems there was some fireclay left over but no cash to buy some glass fibre rope, so they filled the deckhead gap with fireclay. First night on board fire was working only too well, and the paint on the deckhead near to smouldering.

Next day I got a blunt chisel out and got rid of the clay, stuffed gap with glass rope, then wound a nice shiny silver glass tape round the metal ring thing which had finished the original job. It's unique, but it works.

The door didnt close properly either, which accounted for the fire going so well.

Edited by LadyG
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We had some paintwork done last year; one of the items to be painted was the control column, upon which as well as the gear lever there were the horn button and a multi-way microphone plug. One of the workers unscrewed and removed these latter items (despite being asked not to), then another worker noticed before starting the painting that there were two round holes in the column so he fitted a steel plate over that area and then painted over it. So I now have no horn and cannot speak on the VHF radio.

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3 bodges I remember I car and 2 sea going vessels. In chronological order. My dad had an Austin A55 which he had the engine "Rebuilt" on, within a month the big ends were knocking so as dad was now short of cash we pulled it to bits. The big end shells had works timesheets behind them to shim them out.


Offshore tug from the states working in the North sea 1975 ish took a greeny and smasher a laminated glass window in the wheelhouse, so in Gt Yarmouth they cut the old windows frames out and fitted big thick brass ones with very  heavy glass. just before the chap hit the wheelhouse with the burning torch he commented on the neat welding. It wasn't weld it was filler with a few stitch welds. 

 

The third one again an Offshore supply boat with 110 Volt navigation lights fitted with twin bulbs as backup and an alarm/control panel with a buzzer. To repair the alarm just chop the wire to the buzzer.

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13 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

We had some paintwork done last year; one of the items to be painted was the control column, upon which as well as the gear lever there were the horn button and a multi-way microphone plug. One of the workers unscrewed and removed these latter items (despite being asked not to), then another worker noticed before starting the painting that there were two round holes in the column so he fitted a steel plate over that area and then painted over it. So I now have no horn and cannot speak on the VHF radio.

Still, since they cocked the job up and then they didn't put it right either, at least you didn't have to part with any money, eh?

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When I had the boat resteeled three years ago, they shotblasted the bitumen off the sides and blew a giant hole in the hull below the waterline. Turned out it had been patched with a bit of car repair fibreglass. I never did it, the previous owner was a 2nd hand car dealer so I suspect him, but it must have been keeping the water out successfully for over thirty years.

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10 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

When I had the boat resteeled three years ago, they shotblasted the bitumen off the sides and blew a giant hole in the hull below the waterline. Turned out it had been patched with a bit of car repair fibreglass. I never did it, the previous owner was a 2nd hand car dealer so I suspect him, but it must have been keeping the water out successfully for over thirty years.

 

a lad i once worked with used to flip cars at auction for a bit of spare cash. i once saw him “repairing” a rotted cill with old fag packets, masking tape, strips of 0.5mm printing plate and spray paint. :( 

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49 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Still, since they cocked the job up and then they didn't put it right either, at least you didn't have to part with any money, eh?

Actually that was just one of several mistakes. They have promised (in writing) to put them all right, and by agreement I paid a part of the bill and will pay the rest when they have done so.

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Just now, Keeping Up said:

Actually that was just one of several mistakes. They have promised (in writing) to put them all right, and by agreement I paid a part of the bill and will pay the rest when they have done so.

Crikey, a sorry state of affairs and an ongoing one to boot! I do hope it works out well for you. :)

 

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I used to renovate Ford Dagenham Dustbins, Mk4 Zodiacs, paint white and sell as wedding cars. We had a customer who part exchanged an aging Cresta for one of out "Limos". It drove in, so it was a runner for the auction one day. Left it sitting for a few days in the yard.

 

Needing a car to get home one night I jumped in the Cresta and drove off onto the motorway. Wound it up to 60mph, looked in the mirror and was horrified to see it laying a thick smoke screen behind. Still running OK so got home and drove it back to work next day.

 

Told one of the lads to have a quick look at it before we blocked it. He came back into the office laughing heartily.

Seemed the last owner was a whiz with cars, realising the head gasket was leaking he had filled the cooling system with sump oil. Still sold it at auction that week, with nothing in the cooling system.

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Many, many years ago a friend of mine had an MG TD, it may have been a TC, with a well worn big end bearings. Having a friend who worked for Glacier Bearings replacements were 'freely' available. Every few hundred miles he would drop the sump complete with contents and replace the shells. Under an hour to do and no cost. Also more time in the pub. Happy days.?  

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Current boat had an inset 2 burner ring. Needless to say no flame failures even though boat had shiny new certificate. I condemned the cooker . Was always going to be a while before replacing it so disconnected gas and removed unit. Held in with blue tack.  3 years later I had to remove sink as I was moving things to put in a cooker ( finally). It too was held in with blue tack.

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39 minutes ago, roland elsdon said:

Current boat had an inset 2 burner ring. Needless to say no flame failures even though boat had shiny new certificate. I condemned the cooker . Was always going to be a while before replacing it so disconnected gas and removed unit. Held in with blue tack.  3 years later I had to remove sink as I was moving things to put in a cooker ( finally). It too was held in with blue tack.

There's something very, very similar to BluTak  that comes with the install kit  for  new hobs etc , seals to the work top and holds it in place- are you sure  it wasn't that?

Of course, it maybe BT that is supplied anyway?

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My bodge story isn't boaty. When I was in the army back in the seventies I was the NCO in charge of a mobile radio detachment, Marconi D13 transmitter. Anyway this was a HF transmitter and we used directional dipoles strung between two 40 foot sectional masts. The dipole was made up of twisted strand copper wire which we had reels of stowed on the vehicle. Anyway we were out on a comms exercise somewhere in Germany and an Army Air Corps helicopter landed next to our vehicle, we were usually deployed into open areas because of the 40 foot masts that couldn't be erected in woods etc. Anyway the helicopter pilot ran his engine down and the pilot chappie ran over and asked if he could have a length of our copper antenna wire. We gave him a couple of foot and he proceeded to wind it around something up near the base of the rotors. I have no idea what he did but he shouted his thanks and took off. Hopefully it wasn't anything important and we didn't get any reports of helicopter crashes during that exercise.

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1 hour ago, billh said:

There's something very, very similar to BluTak  that comes with the install kit  for  new hobs etc , seals to the work top and holds it in place- are you sure  it wasn't that?

Of course, it maybe BT that is supplied anyway?

No blue tack. Found the correct black plastic sealing ring in the box of useful bits in the engine room. Used the blue tack to stop the lace plates rattling.

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6 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

Just reading the old thread about expectations of work on boats, which reminded me of an odd repair we had done to our boat and wondered if anyone else had similar.

 

On departing the boat after a week out one of my last jobs is to hook up to the shoreline, on plugging the cable into the boat i noticed that the socket was missing the bottom two screws holding it to the boat, figuring this would cause a problem over time and not having any suitable fittings to hand i just added it to the End of Cruise Report sheet for the Marina to action. Next time we were at the boat i checked the socket, and saw two nice shiny screws had been fitted, great i thought, until i came to unhook the cable. this is when i realised instead of actually screwing the socket down with two new screws, someone had sikaflexed two screw heads onto the socket instead!

Surely this bodge took more effort than actually fixing it properly? We fixed it ourselves and left it at that. Think at the time the Marina had taken on new workshop staff, we didn't see them again.

I've done that! Sheared off brass screws removing something or other, couldn't drill the remains out without making an awful mess so stuck the something or other down with 'no more nails' and stuck the screw heads back in the holes. Mind you that was my own boat.

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8 minutes ago, Bee said:

I've done that! Sheared off brass screws removing something or other, couldn't drill the remains out without making an awful mess so stuck the something or other down with 'no more nails' and stuck the screw heads back in the holes. Mind you that was my own boat.

 

the relevant bit of your story is “stuck the something or other down”, on our boat is wasn't stuck down, it just flapped on the two original screws like before but at a glance looked fixed, as soon as you tugged on the power cord to remove you knew it was bodged.

 

i’ve just found a pic of it, i remembered wrong, it was the right side attached and left side bodged, not top and bottom.

 

 

 

 

6FBCC89B-BB4B-4FCB-924E-D9292398805B.jpeg

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19 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

 

the relevant bit of your story is “stuck the something or other down”, on our boat is wasn't stuck down, it just flapped on the two original screws like before but at a glance looked fixed, as soon as you tugged on the power cord to remove you knew it was bodged.

 

i’ve just found a pic of it, i remembered wrong, it was the right side attached and left side bodged, not top and bottom.

 

 

 

 

6FBCC89B-BB4B-4FCB-924E-D9292398805B.jpeg

 

 

 

Isn't that a plug rather than a socket ?

 

 

6 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

On departing the boat after a week out one of my last jobs is to hook up to the shoreline, on plugging the cable into the boat i noticed that the socket was missing the bottom two screws holding it to the boat,

 

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