Filling up the Rio last night and caught the edge of the fuel flap cover whilst hanging up the diesel pump, off it pings across the forecourt, other drivers looking on and obviously impressed with my car's build quality, me slightly embarassed picks it up and calmly slings it in the boot. I'm sure that I have done similiar on previous cars & they held together. I hate to think what a new cover costs c/w paint so I drilled several holes along the hinge mechanism & lock-wired the thing back together. It is functional again and looks normal on the outside. A successful bodge then.
{header given a less vague title}
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 22/04/2009 at 17:55
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Did something similar to my Volvo three years ago; didn't damage the external flap but broke the hinge by reaching past the flap to hang up the pump nozzle. Some black sticky tape held it together till we got home from France, then a new Volvo part (purely internal, so no paint required) cost £15 at the next service.
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Sadly the flap & extended hinge mount are a one piece moulding on the Rio, the flap is quite weighty and the hinge not very beefy IMO, if it holds up till I get rid nexy year I'll be happy!
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ive just had to remove a locked filler cap on a corsa with no key
took me longer to go get the screwdriver than it did to wrench the cap off
well done OP you cant beat a good bodge
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An old Mk2 Polo I owned had a broken fuel flap spring, so it flapped open every time I stopped. The cure? A strip of velcro on the closing edge - a zip or buttons wouldn't have worked!
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Did the same thing to my other half's picasso a few years back. Plastic hinge just sheared off.
Bought some plastic glue stuff - smothered it, and then taped the flap in place for a week. Held OK and also looked fine from the outside til we got rid.
Not very robust design, and I guess would have cost a packet to replace properly
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The Vauxhall Chevette was one of the first cars to have a plastic-hinged filler flap.
Some regarded it as cheap and nasty.
If I recall, in a bid to reassure potential buyers, Vauxhall put out a statement saying the hinge would last half a million openings and closings.
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The little 'push to open, push to lock' clip on my bike's glove box stopped working. It was probably about 50p to get one but looked a horrendous job to fit it.
Good old velcro sticky pads came to the rescue !...well recommended'....although I don't often buy it...it's such a rip-off !
I'll get me coat !
Ted
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I caught mine at the petrol station with my leg a couple of months ago, it snapped off and shattered due to the sub zero temps. A new (VW) one was ~£35 incl. stickers and £30 to have painted.
BTW, it's 'botch', not 'bodge'.
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Early smarts were notorious for the solenoid for the fuel filler cap failing - of course you didn;t find out until you needed fuel.
Solution was either a screwdriver wedged behind it which wrecked it, or to carry a small allen key as smart designed it so you could undo the middle of the cap to access the filler cap - took a while though as there are about 12 small allen key head screws!
Edited by daveyjp on 23/04/2009 at 09:49
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Hamsafar said
>>BTW, it's 'botch', not 'bodge'. <<
To me a a botch-up (or to botch up) is an unsatisfactory outcome, a bodge is a functional but unconventional and probably untidy 'make do and mend' solution.
Dictionaries appear to give widely varying definitions. I would guess that regional differences in usage apply.
p
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>>Not very robust design, and I guess would have cost a packet to replace properly<<
Surely much better that the hinge (or cover) breaks, otherwise you would be in for a complete panel replacement and respray!
OK the best design would be a sacrificial hinge, leaving the flap and panel intact, but that means an adiitional component , additional fixings and therefore increased cost!
p
Edited by pmh2 on 23/04/2009 at 10:02
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Have to agree with PMH2 on botch/bodge.Originally bodgers were men who lived in the woods and made chairs and stools,turning the wood with foot operated lathes.It was a skilled occupation so seems odd that bodge has come to mean doing an improper job.
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It was a skilled occupation so seems odd that bodge has come to mean doing an improper job.
Not odd according to the OED.
"1552 . . . Bodger, botcher, mender, or patcher of olde garmentes."
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"bodger." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 23 Apr. 2009 .
* role in furniture industry ( in furniture industry: The art of chairmaking )
These bodgers, as they were called, made only the turned parts and delivered them to chairmaking firms for assembling. They had no overhead expenses, no power costs, and the only lighting they needed in winter was an oil lamp or candles. They were long able to compete with powered workshops.
p
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I remember the consternation when the plastic flap fell apart in my dads Rover 820 (he liked buying blitish). Popped into the Rover agent to order one and the partsman asked what colour we wanted as he had a range in stock! Clearly a common failure and cheap to replace but no one thought to actually redesign it.
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I remember our D Reg Polo saloon "Classic", the Bootlock broke. I managed to get a long cable, think it was from a bike shop, and tie one end to boot lock and the other end next to driver seat so if you needed to open the boot, you just pulled it and hey presto it opened!
Didn't realise this would become commonplace in cars after that......
Also remember having a company Mondeo and the fuel flap would not open. As luck would have it, this was the time I had ran the fuel right down to the fumes.... I remember stripping out the internal trim in the boot and finding that you could access the cable that way to pull and the flap popped open!! What a relief!
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I remember our D Reg Polo saloon "Classic" the Bootlock broke. I managed to get a long cable think it was from a bike shop and tie one end to boot lock and the other end next to driver seat so if you needed to open the boot you just pulled it and hey presto it opened! Didn't realise this would become commonplace in cars after that......
Maybe you should have patented, the idea ;-)
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I've always said "If a job's worth doing, it's worth bodging."
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Update, just out of curosity I priced a new flap from Kia - a not unreasonable £10.47 + VAT. The expensive element is painting it which costs an additional £45 + VAT. Not really worth it as my bodge seems to be holding up fine. I have even hidden the lockwired hinge by dousing the wire with touch-up paint. , now when the flap is open you would have a hard job to tell that it has been 'fixed' :)
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