Ever since I bought my first shitbox, I’ve never left home without a bag of cable ties in my trunk. Even if they go months without being touched, I know that somewhere down the line, they’ll save my ass from something coming loose or falling off my car, as they have in the past, time after time.
Jason wrote about how he brought his 2CV to a local shop to get the carburetor fixed, which finally got it running. The lines from the gas tank weren’t being very cooperative, leading him to temporarily install a five-gallon tank in the passenger footwell, secured by two cable ties. PlatinumZJ:
Yay! \(^o^)/
Did you make sure to give that cable tie a good tug and say “That’s not going anywhere”?
He must have, otherwise he wouldn’t be here right now. Everyone knows zip ties are all you need to hold a car together. User Mike Harrell agrees:
Congratulations! I probably wouldn’t have used a rag to plug the neck of the field-expedient fuel tank but at least you’ve got the tank itself half-heartedly and haphazardly zip-tied in place so it’s all good.
FormerTXJeepGuy:
Ah the Roadkill gas tank solution. You’re definitely following the dont get it right, just get it running mantra.
I don’t hate manual transmissions:
First chainsawing lead-acid batteries, now driving down the highway with the fuel tank inside the passenger compartment…
Torch, l love man, but it’s seriously time for an intervention.
Respectfully, I disagree. It’s these kinds of decisions that keep the lights on around here.
I wrote about how GMC dealers are offering huge discounts on four-cylinder Sierra 1500s right now. Angry Bob:
That engine has more power than the 6.5L Turbodiesel V8 in my K3500.
James McHenry:
…and the question that now comes to mind is “just how much more boost will that engine take?” And “how stupid does a modern half-ton truck look when it’s lowered?”
And Matt wrote about how no one really knows why Carvana keeps buying Stellantis dealerships. Bob the Hobo:
Maybe CDJR dealerships come with cash incentives like their vehicles do.
Phonebem:
I’m just going with Carvana is positioning to be the Spirit Halloween of defunct car dealerships…
Arch Duke Maxyenko:
There’s always money in the car vending machines, Matt
Have a great evening, everyone!
Top graphic image: Jason Torchinsky
That’s why I have a box of stainless steel cable ties in the shed. Now I just have to go all out and buy one of the special tools designed for tightening/trimming them, and there will be nothing that can’t be fixed with a cable tie!
Every fairing on my track bike is held on with zip ties, and it had no problem doing 160 around the banks of Daytona. Zip tie gang for life!
I spec’d cable ties to hold a fence together on a project I engineered. They were plastic and UV rated 36″ long and I’m pretty sure they were rated at over 1000lbs of tensile strength.
For those really big jobs 36″ cable ties are a thing
Why stop there?
Congers Homer voice: “It’s a fuel cell Lisa. Fuel cell.”
I once used a bunch of zip ties as a spring compressor. It did work. Until one zip tie broke. I said ‘Oh shit’. Then another broke, then another. I probably said 10 ‘oh shits’ watching the zip ties break one after another and the spring finally freed itself with a loud sprong. After that I bought a proper spring compressor.
Cascading failure.
Buildings do it too.
Weird where zip ties hold up or don’t.
Though I’m amazed they ever worked on a spring.
And all you needed to buy was one more zip tie
Zip ties are 100% a must carry item.
I had a Dodge Omni for 7 years.
Ask me how I know about zip ties, they held that piece of shit together for years.
Aw yeah
I once had a friend call asking if I could help him with a car problem he was having, with no hint of what it was other than “making noise”. It turned out he had hit something and fractured the front bumper, the air diverter under the radiator, and the inner fender liner, so parts of those things were dragging on the ground, on the tires, and on the CV axle. He was a broke college student, so I whipped out my zip ties and drill and we Frankensteined the front of his car back together. I think we used about 200 zip ties, but it not only held together, but held together for the remaining three years of law school. We both had actually forgotten we even did it until I helped him replace a CV axle and saw my old handy work. Zip ties are above duct tape on my personal hierarchy of ultimate quick-fix solutions.
Quite true. Zip ties have no adhesive to melt or dry out.
You know it! Zip ties are permanent fixes!
I used to work for an OEM, and in off road reliability testing, good zip ties would outperform bolted metal clips for most routing and lightweight part mounting.
You say “driving down the highway with the fuel tank inside the passenger compartment” as though there is something wrong with that.
Ford had the gas tank in the cab of their pickups until 1977. My Porsche has the tank in the front trunk where it really smells if you spill any.
That looks like the gas tank for every outboard motor ever, and I think we had a farm truck with a gas tank made from a Jerry can with a fuel line dropped into it.
Probably not a good idea in the 21st century though.
You could here the gas sloshing around in the vertical tank bolted to the rear cab wall behind the bench seat. The filler cap just behind the driver door frame up high just above window sill level. It seemed all the 1960’s era trucks were this way.
The behind the seat tanks were the dual tank options, right? We had a 70’s Dodge with dual tanks and a switch to switch between them. One of them was behind the seats and the other under the bed.
I think the in cab tank was what you got if you had one tank. I remember. A neighbor’s farm had a dual tank truck that did the regular and premium trick where they would switch to the premium tank under heavy load when the engine would start pinging. I think there was a manual spark advance knob on the dash too.
A cheapskate with too much spare time – typical farmer.
Manual spark control is still useful.
I saw an outboard motor tank used as long rang fuel tank on a sidecar once. It was in the sidecar instead of a passenger and plumber into the fuel lines
Nice!!
I do appreciate a good cable tie repair…I have two of them (one heavy duty, another super lightweight) securing the bulb in one of the ZJ’s headlight housings. I also used one of the super lightweight ones to repair the sunglasses compartment in the WK, but I’m not sure if that counts because I had to cut the cable tie into pieces.
I’m not saying MY comment would have risen to the top, but declaring COTD just minutes after a Star Wars piece goes up? You know some folks will drop some gold in there. You’re turning your back on them (to coin a phrase).
Meh, not much going on over there except some obviously insane person who thinks Pickard was better then Kirk.
Picard is better than Kirk! At least Picard didn’t need a toupee!
He DID bring one to the audition, though…
Counterpoint: do you know god-awful the TNG costumes smelled by the end of each season?
beg to (pause) differ.
The only reason Shatner needed a toupee is because of discrimination against us follically challenged folk in the ’60s. For me, Shatner as Kirk is Star Trek and always will be. I admit I like some of the other Star Trek series though.
By the way, are you a Gorn, Lizardman?
On the topic of corny original series fight scenes, I used to have the Trek fight music on my phone and would play it whenever our old office assistant would get her ass thoroughly kicked by the printer/copier/scanner (which was multiple times a week). It took things from just being sad (she was why question 1 of any tech support is “is it plugged in?”) to pretty amusing.
Rodenberry had friends who knew things. He just copied and changed some details. And yes, our appearance inspired the gorn. Our government inspired the Romulans. See, romulans were based on the Roman Empire. But the Roman Empire was an experiment to see if we could adapt our government to humans. Of course you idiots messed it up
Like the exact fuel tank placement in a 2CV makes any difference in a crash. It might actually be safer in the passenger cabin.
And being plastic.
That too! Maybe if you are lucky, it will get pitched right out the roof!
The lattermost 2CVs did ship with plastic gas tanks, and most of the replacements you’ll see online are plastic. Including the GIGANTIC XXL tank Burton sells (38L)