2009, the day of my FIL funeral. My wife had been in KY for a week as her dad died, I showed up the day after he passed, in the Mercedes he had sold me. Wife had driven her Mitsubishi Outlander. She was parked in front of her brother's house, which had a fire hydrant that was lower than law, and covered by grass...the grass the city mowed. As we were leaving for the funeral home in separate cars (mine was the lead car, hers was in case anyone needed something prior to leaving) she, not thinking clearly, drove over the hydrant and the top of it pierced the oil pan. It took too wreckers to lift it off...no damage to hydrant, but ripped the hell out of the air dam and oil pan.

Before I left to drive back to UT, I pulled the pan, made a call to a shop I was referred to, and used their facilities to make the repair. The pan was cast aluminum, and they didn't have the ability to weld AL in house. I heated and hammered the pan semi flat, and cleaned everything up real well. They gave be a 1/8 thick X 4 X 4 plate of steel. I cut it to fit, and glued it down with JB Industro Weld...the strong stuff. Installed it and got her back on the road. She was able to drive back to UT on that repair...and the person we sold it to still is driving with it...no problems at all.

I've kept some cars on the road with bailing wire and duct tape out of lack of funds when I was younger. I've repaired exhaust systems with soup cans and large hose clamps. On a Durango I recently sold, the thermostat is on the bottom of the engine. I had to replace it once, and broke the bottom bolt (4.7l engine, reverse flow cooling system) and was unable to get it out, and didn't have time for a proper drilling and tapping, so I used a small 1" c-clamp on that flange...dang thing stayed like that for years, and I sold it like that...no leaks at all.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles