I only have one memorable bodge as a teenager
I bought a Puch moped (a Grand Prix version no less) as a project to get ready for when I could legally ride it at the grand age of 16
When I say a project it wasn't running, it wasn't actually complete but was fully stripped and in two old tea chests
I started building it up and thought I'd check the engine over and found the reason it was striped down nice hole in the top of the piston (these were early engines with a sort of nikasil or alusil coated bores so no rebores allowed and I was skint (I'd spent all my money on two tea chests with a motorcycle in them)
So I found a brass rivet in dads oddments collection and with a punch in a vice and a nice big hammer flattened the rivet to fill the hole and seal from both sides
Got the bike built up (it looked great even though I'd rattle canned the tank and side panels) and MOT'd taxed and insured I was on the road with new found independence.
I assumed when it failed I'd have to replace the piston and barrel and hopefully by that time I'd have enough money spare to afford it.
Sold it to a good friend when I hit 17 as 250 cc bikes were then allowed on L plates - he'd just turned 16 and he paid good money for it - never even had a second thought about my bodge
Needless to say I remembered it when it suddenly lost all compression and then seized....................... the conversation about what he found brass fragments in the mains and a rather large hole in the piston was memorable for all the wrong reasons
Don't ever sell to friends has been my moto ever since
I bought a Puch moped (a Grand Prix version no less) as a project to get ready for when I could legally ride it at the grand age of 16
When I say a project it wasn't running, it wasn't actually complete but was fully stripped and in two old tea chests
I started building it up and thought I'd check the engine over and found the reason it was striped down nice hole in the top of the piston (these were early engines with a sort of nikasil or alusil coated bores so no rebores allowed and I was skint (I'd spent all my money on two tea chests with a motorcycle in them)
So I found a brass rivet in dads oddments collection and with a punch in a vice and a nice big hammer flattened the rivet to fill the hole and seal from both sides
Got the bike built up (it looked great even though I'd rattle canned the tank and side panels) and MOT'd taxed and insured I was on the road with new found independence.
I assumed when it failed I'd have to replace the piston and barrel and hopefully by that time I'd have enough money spare to afford it.
Sold it to a good friend when I hit 17 as 250 cc bikes were then allowed on L plates - he'd just turned 16 and he paid good money for it - never even had a second thought about my bodge
Needless to say I remembered it when it suddenly lost all compression and then seized....................... the conversation about what he found brass fragments in the mains and a rather large hole in the piston was memorable for all the wrong reasons
Don't ever sell to friends has been my moto ever since