Up here in Maine we have an old saying, “Up in Maine ya eitha make do or do without. Ayuh.” (Said with a thick Downeast accent.)
Most of you have probably heard that same saying in one form or another, but it illustrates a good point about being an “Independent Yankee.” If you’re working on a lobster boat ten miles off shore near a small island and your motor dies you’d better have a way to fix it before your boat goes aground. Yes, this happened to me while I lobstered with my brother-in-law for a summer.
The idea is to get creative with what you have to fill a need. Did you break your axe handle? No problem, grab a nice piece of hickory and carve one for yourself. There’s usually a way to rig something up to get it working no matter what it is.
Mrs Jarhead has a nephew who likes to stop by occasionally. This young guy doesn’t have a high school diploma and isn’t the best educated or the most well read guy around, but what I like about him is his attitude. Despite a tough childhood he’s always upbeat. He’s always got some kind of project cooking and it seems he has very little money to fund it with, but he’ll come up with some way to get it working. He recently cobbled together a pickup truck that had been stuck in someone’s back field for years. He pulled it out and somehow got it running. Some of the mechanical stuff he did would likely make a safety officer blanche, but he got it going and was as proud as could be.
He’s a good guy who’s a self proclaimed Redneck, but when he says it there’s a note of pride there.
If/when TSHTF that’s the kind of attitude we’ll need. Chances are good you won’t be able to stop by the local parts store, but if you’re trying to fix a pickup truck or an old tractor you just might be able to use some parts from the old jalopy parked out back with a few “modifications.”
How do you get started with something like this if you don’t have any experience? Don’t be afraid to look under the hood of your vehicle. Start by changing your own oil and filter then move on to air filters and other types of basic maintenance. Change your own tire. Ask someone who can fix something to show you how. You’d be surprised at how often people are willing to teach you something new.
This doesn’t just apply to mechanical things either. Try your hand at basic plumbing, or carpentry, or wood cutting, or whatever might help you gain a little independence from your fellow man. You may not be the best at it and your work may not be the prettiest, but if it gets the job done then you’ve gained skill and saved money. Not a bad trade off at all. Be aware that there may be zoning requirements in your area and you might want to check into those when you start your project.
Whether it be Yankee Ingenuity or Redneck Repairs learning to do some of those repairs yourself can’t hurt.
Do you do your own repairs?
-Jarhead Survivor
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12 comments
I like to fix my bike. I’ve not had an occasion to mess with the gears beyond basic maintenance, but brakes and tires and seats and pedals have all been tinkered with by me.
Oftentimes when you drive through the countryside you will spot a trailer with 5 or 6 junk cars in the driveway. Many would call this an eyesore…..up here in Maine we call that the parts department.
If you use the term “repair” loosely, then yes, I do my own repairs. Duct tape! Never leave home without it.
I try to fix as much stuff as I can. For most stuff around the house if I try to have a How To book on hand so I don’t drastically screw something up. My wonder tool seems to be my Dremel. If I run into something that I can’t figure out how to do it I can usually make it work with a little Dremel time (and maybe a few more accessories).
I do as much as I can on vehicles but there’s things on my SUV that I’ve done on previous vehicle but when I look at it now it’s just not worth the hassle and lost skin to attempt. Yes, I’ve seriously considered getting something older that I can still do most of the work on but everything I’m seeing in a reasonable price range is in rough shape.
Steelheart
This may be more “recycling” than “repairs”…Took a broken remote control and removed: battery contacts, resistors, and insulated wire. Then 20min on the Internet for formulae and $5 at the electronics store for 2 bright white LEDs. A few quick calculations later and I was ready to solder my homemade, SHTF-ready headlamp.
As you said, not the prettiest, but this thing is bright as hell…plus the experience and satisfaction of getting the thing to work far outweighs my costs (monetarily and physically…molten metal is hot!!!)
The most important thing to recognize is that these experiences build confidence. Make your mistakes now, brothers and sisters, before SHTF. There won’t be room for mistakes when it’s really going down.
The engine in my car is barely recognizable as an engine. The nice thing about it being that the car never seems to need work other regularly scheduled maintenance and it starts every time. If I got a flat I’d fix that myself.
I can fix anything that needs fixing on my bicycle, but I take it in to the bike shop for a yearly tuneup and once or twice a year for a free brake and gear adjustment. The guys at my LBS (local bike shop) are really good and I enjoy paying them a visit. I keep the tools and spare parts to fix anything that might go wrong while out riding, but with a good quality bike and regular trips to the bike shop, nothing seems to ever go wrong.
I fix and maintain stuff around the house, but honestly, I’m looking at moving to an apartment or condo or maybe just a newer and much smaller house. While I “can” do everything that need done, there’s about a million other things that I’d rather be doing.
I just stumbled across this video and about half way though it started thinking about the thread on here about Nuntin’ Fancy’s claim that kids today were pussies. Which I think is nonsense.
http://vimeo.com/32232684
I always thought that everyone thought like me and out of the box. I’m not sure the box thinking is even in the next county the way I think.
I often can’t do the things I think of but someone can with a certain set of skills and tools.
I’m not sure how I got this mindset but I don’t believe in the word can’t or impossible. If I beleived in the word can’t I’d have never played football for my school in the late 70’s. I’d have never joined the US Army with just a GED as a female. I’d never been an Audie Murphy member or soldier and NCO of the year if I believed folks on what can’t be done. You can’t be disabled and getting SS and or disability and prepare. I don’t ever believe it! has it taken some time and a little work yes but pepping is doable for anyone. It’s not nuclear fusion we are talking about it’s having food for a year. Heck tons of folks have already done the math. I don’t even have to think, 1 person needs 300 pounds of grain per year to eat and it can be whatever you want from pasta, flour, whole wheat or rice. I’m sorry I think I may have pushed my buttom!
I kinda miss my first truck, it was a 1965 F100 with a 390ci engine and twin I-beam suspension… I had enough room under that hood to curl up and take a nap next to the engine! I used to do all the work on it, and had the engine torn down several times to do some modifications. The next vehicle I bought was a ’94 Ford Ranger with a 2.3L 4 cylinder engine, manual steering & manual transmission. I bought a 351 windsor to put in the Ranger that my brother and I rebuilt, we were gonna install the engine with a T5 transmission, but some jack-ass rear-ended my truck, totalling it, so the engine still sits in the garage waiting for a small truck to put it in! My brother and I are going to build a small pick-up for drag-racing over the next few years (will probably be a Ranger). The vehicle I had next was a ’98 Ranger V6 long-bed, I tweaked the throdle body, changed the TPS (throttle positioning sensor), and installed a “Zex kit” nitrous oxide system on it that would provide a 75hp “shot” at the push of a button… It was always fun to blow-the-doors-off these little “rice-burner’s” in an old pick-up… they would never see it comin”!
Besides doing some of my own mechanical work (I usually have my brother helping me, he is a CAT heavy-diesel mechanic), I have been trained as an HVAC technician, which I had to learn plumbing, electrical, and mechanical repair for. I am an EPA s608 Universal Technician; Which means that am licensed to work on refrigeration systems, and I can purchase refrigerant (tightly controlled under the Environmental Protection Act section 608). Some of the most usefull skills I learned while working in HVAC are how to use air/acetylene and oxy/acetylene torches to “braize” (used to hold copper/aluminum tubing together and seal the refrigerant “loop”), mig/tig welders, how to work with sheet-metal (used for constructing duct-work, I have made things like a solar oven with these skills over the years), and how to repair curcuit boards (I learned how to re-wire industrial thermostats or controls that have “burned-out”). I also learned how to “trouble-shoot” a system, which actually has helped me in every part of my life; because it makes you step-back and evaluate what you need to do first, and then establish what steps you need to work-through to acheive the desired result. I have used the knowledge of establishing a system of procedures to help with everything from fixing my vehicles to establishing prep-lists for the professional kitchens I have run.
I count myself lucky that I have been able to learn so much over the years, and that I have been able to apply this knowledge to help me acheive my goals. It also tends to help my wallet, being able to fix almost anything that breaks/fails in my home/vehicle! I know for a fact that these skills have literally saved me thousands of dollars over the years!
My first truck was a ’68 Ford F-250 with a 300ci straight 6. You could fix just about anything on the truck with a crescent wrench and a #2 screwdriver. I loved that thing.
In a post-TEOTWAWKI world, your nephew is going to be an asset to your clan. A good can-do attitude with the Redneck Repair skills to make it happen somehow. A good combination.
Joe
My wife knows that although we have newer suvs as daily drivers, my Suzuki Samurai is a “no sell, off limits” vehicle. My worst fear after an EMP would be the guvmint trying to confiscate it because it will still run. Guess they’ll have to catch me first. I get this great mental image of feds on bikes chasing my sammy yelling “stop!, halt!”… I have kept all of my old parts and even have printed off a list of compatible parts for scrounging, i.e. what vehicle has what that will fit.