The most "ghetto-tastic" thing you've ever fabbed for a car.

So this will be nothing compared to what I hope to see from the rest of you....but a small ghetto improv today for me..... My formerly M10-powered rallycross e30, which has an M42 swap, got an e36 6cyl (Chinese-made) aluminum radiator today. Because of this, I had to "install" an expansion tank, since the M42 radiator has one integrated. From an M20 e30.

On the M20 car, these are mounted on the passenger side, but I have coil packs mounted there so it had to go on the driver's side. Since I was lazy I decided to fab up my mount brackets for it out of whatever was in my "junk drawer."....this included some odd BMW bracket for something else that happened to have holes that lined up to the reservoir mount points (on the wrong side), a backing plate from a u-bolt, and a twisted L-bracket (this is the front mount for the M42 airbox. The rear mount is a bent-over bracket that used to hold relays on the M10).

Combine this with a welder that didn't want to cooperate, as well as my mediocre welding skills, and this is what you get. The funny part is that it's solid as hell and holds everything exactly where I want it. And since this is the rallycross car, who cares about engine bay aesthetics?

(also, the lower coolant hose is made out of the OEM hose with a 90* elbow, and the charcoal can (which I will get rid of eventually) is mounted down below).

So.....what is the most "ghetto" or "improv" small thing you've ever done on your car (photos preferred!). And this doesn't include your LeMons car, because that would be too easy.

Oh man, I'm gonna need a few days to think on this. I know I can outdo that.

i see nothing "ghetto" about that- you just used what you had and made it work.. that's what's called "old school hot rodding" right there...

i just got done using some scraps of sheetmetal, self tapping screws, and high density expanding foam to plug holes in the rear wheelwells of my Camaro so it isn't like driving thru a dust storm whenever i go down a gravel road... and, yes- you can see the expanding foam thru the 2"X3" hole behind the driver's side wheelwell. i'l probably have to shave it down and contour it a bit tomorrow..

check and mate.. unless it doesn't count because i didn't bother to take any pics. i will get some tomorrow if it's necessary....

I actually think I'm gonna need to see pics of that one, derrik.

I really should have taken a pic of mine before I painted it, to show the several shades of rust, heat staining, and general nastiness of these metal scraps I used, lol.

all my sheetmetal has been "found" (i.e. trash) material

water heater ==> hood
water heater ==> rear panel
oven ==> rear deck
a/c air handler ==> door
a/c air handler ==> quarter panels
hood ==> floor
file cabinet ==> floor patch panels (hood was short)
stove ==> rear deck
card table ==> front transmission tunnel
refrigerator ==> rear transmission tunnel
box fan ==> grill shell
upright freezer ==> firewall and upper cowl

As a 16 year old I crashed my Protege and zip tied the grill back on.

we decided to make a heat shield for the intake on the miata one day..
piece of strangely shaped stainless my uncle found for me, cardboard to "mock it up" (ie: fold it vaguely into shape in the engine bay and mark where the folds were, then kind of measure and mark the steel) and then bent by a custom sheet metal brake (looks a lot like a non-functioning front loading washer and a piece of 2x4)
came out all twisted and horrible looking, but pretty much fit. Bought a roll of that reflective tape from harbor freight and then I guess we forgot to finish the project=] lol

• VTA catch can made from Gatorade bottle on the 'rolla (I tried the same thing in a suck-through configuration but it imploded instantly)

• Samurai washer bottle made from 1gal gas container with pump RTV'd in and strapped down with zip ties and aluminum fence wire. Currently in service, 1st attempt only used zip ties which released somehow, melting the bottle on the exhaust manifold in a rally. Saw another competitor using a PET bottle duct-taped in the engine bay so it could have been worse.

• Corolla washer bottle using RTV pump seal and a ton of electrical tape to hold a spiderweb crack. Has been in service for many years now.

• various camera mounts made from cardboard and wood, one still in service (using wood, zip ties and a jointed camera wall mount...hardly ghetto at all!)

• Cardboard data logger mount w/ velcro removable section. I intend to re-make it in coroplast, possibly today:

• Today I intend to use some kind of metal can to deflect exhaust from the 'rolla's downpipe down and to the side. This will be my temporary exhaust for a few weeks.

The warm-air intake I installed in the Hyundai is pretty ghetto-fab. The ECU mounts to the stock airbox, with it gone I needed some way of attaching it. FortunatelyI have plenty of junk, so it was just a matter of figuring out what junk would take the least amount of work to do the job. Surprisingly, it's still holding up fine after almost 3-years.

Oh, and there's the fact the front bumper cover is held on with penguin duct tape, but I figure that's a pretty normal repair.

Floor patches for some rust holes in the floor of my '66 Dart. They're made of old flannel rags soaked in epoxy. And have held up for over 15 years.

Toilet plungers used for diff covers in my chain drive Geo,perfect still after approx 50 races.

Miata rubber shift grommet made out of a $.99 toilet plunger in red. The car had no center console so this was the shift boot. Same car I fabbed a steering wheel adapted to use a dino boat wheel out of the stock wheel center section welded to a old chair leg welded to a flange to bolt the dino too. This left a hole in the middle of the wheel. That was covered by a pull top from a cambels soul can complete with pull tab. God I miss that car.

kevlarcorolla wrote: Toilet plungers used for diff covers in my chain drive Geo,perfect still after approx 50 races.

this is your ice racer, right?

Seat mounting brackets made from 100% Super Strut in an MB 2A.

When floor of my 78 Scout rotted allowing the seat belt bolt to come out, I just put a 3' section of street sign post under the floor and bolted the seat belt to that.

there is nothing ghetto about using a welder relatively correctly. that takes out the welding electrical box parts to the rotted cab mounts on the frame of my truck to rebuild the bushing holes.

do you count using the old speakers from the dead jukebox from the party center next door in the trunk of my car when i was 16 ghetto? they were safely mounted with plumber's tape and drywall screws.

honestly any use of drywall screws in a car is about as ghetto as you can get. that or how my dad loves to shoot great stuff foam into gaping rot holes and bondo over them to make it look good for another year before completely exploding.

A lot of these are a lot more ghetto than mine (clutch cable bracket made from an Ikea shelf L-bracket). It was already pre-drilled and everything!

Truck has a bit of blowby causing it to sometimes push oil up the breather tube and soak the airfilter with oil. I took a longer piece of hose and routed into an empty brake fluid bottle. That I attached to the power steering hard lines with a coat hanger.

10#s of bondo in a 71 Mustang 1/4 panel behind the tire

Well there's this...

Or the clutch cable that wouldn't keep its adjustment on a '96 Saab 900SE, so I had to make a spacer out of a bottle cap on the side of the road.

Or the exhaust on my '91 Saab 9000 that was made entirely out of Saab 9-5 pieces and help up with wire and hose clamps. Plenty of things on that car, actually...

Fixed rotted out welds on the exhaust with roofing baby tins and hose clamps.

Fold tins around broken sections.

Use hose clamp or 2 or 3 to wrap around edge of baby tin.

Tighten.

Forget about it for a couple of years.

When using some epoxy, I needed some sort of mesh to keep it together. I grabbed a tuft of fur off my then shedding dog and used it. It worked great.

Tupperware for a clutch fluid reservoir ranks pretty high.

I did a lot of stuff to the Yugo intentionally. My favorite was a 2 liter Coca Cola bottle for an overflow tank, printed in Italian.

I fixed the governor on my transmission with a roofing nail I found on the side of the road.

Well, not really "fixed" so much as "held the spool valve open so it would allow a shift into 2nd".

E30 aero with narrowed Late Model Monte Carlo nose