Wierd Farmer fixes

Wuudie

Wuudie

Senior Member
Starting to go over pops car and noticed alot of Farmer fixing. Any time pop had to fix up the car and didn't have the money (who did on the farm) he used farmer fixing (as he called it) using what's available lying around the barn.

Not only did he use GMC sealed beam headlights, but I just noticed he farmer fixed the rear bumper mounting brackets. See Pic

What is the wildest famer fix you've encounted in your Barn Find?
 

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I bought a 1930 pickup once that the farmer had removed the pass. side lower hood panel to accommodate a Massey-Ferguson vertical tractor muffler: out the side and up.
 
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I had a Dodge Brothers sedan that had been cut up to be a pick-up truck.
When I pulled it out of the field,it had three flat tires and one that was
fully inflated....with small logs,cut to fit the shape of the tire.I doubt
it would ever go flat.
Buddy P.
 
Horse **** in the radiator, when I told my Grandpa ( 50 years back ) he told me that was the way farmers stopped a leaking radiator.
 
Best one I ever saw was a fender crack about 4-5 inches long. Each side had a 1/4 inch hole drilled in it and the crack was wired together, looked just like a laced shoe.
 
My pick up had a broom stick drove up inside the right side windshield/door post
Apparently the truck took a hit in the cowl and that's how they straightened the door post
 
BrakeSpring-1.jpg


Brake rod return springs on my Model A. The same car also has a part of a Model T running board for the plate under the battery.

Last summer I bought a popout cable with a small knife switch attached for an ingition switch.
 
I found a chain welded to the frame at the motor mount,passing under the flywheel housing,and welded to the frame on the other side.The mounts were sagging so bad they had jacked the engine up and welded the chain in place.
 
I once had a pickup that now belongs to James Hitchcock here on the form. My parents bought it in 1961 for $185. It had a lot of "farmer fixes". Half of one rear fender was chevy, and was bolted onto the torch-cut ford amputation. It had a house light switch for an ignition switch. Also had a home-made rear bumper with a hitch, but with the regular rear bumpers mounted to it. The local dump once asked dad if he was leaving the truck too! :)
 
My Pickup had just the 2 wires sticking out of the key hole that I hooked together when I wanted to run the vehicle. That way there was never any doubt whether the "key" was on, or off. Worked good for a number of years! :D I finally got more "sophisticated", and have a key now!
 
Re: MY Farmer fixes...........

when the original popout switch in our Coupe went south and left Judy and I waiting for AAA at the roadside, I subsequently installed a hardware store toggle switch to get it running again.

original intent was to get the popout restored, but it's so darned convenient I'm in no hurry to put the popout back on. then the repro switch in our Town Sedan developed a battery-draining short, so I put a toggle switch on that one too!
 
I heard that folks used corn husks to pack the tire when the tube gave out. Something like the specially cut logs from above, but probably a little better ride quality.
 
I once bought a running Model A chassis complete with a piece of barbed wire for one of the spark plug connectors and this was a L-O-N-G time before anybody had ever dreamed up the concept of a rat rod.
 
Rats. I was hoping to read about weird farmers. I think most of these fixes were pretty ingenious and, at a time when the cars were pretty worn out, and so were the people, they came up with some pretty good repairs-after all the car is still here today.
 
I'm running a barbed wire spark plug connector now on my '28 PU, it always gets a laugh, plus, it will "bite" you when the engine is off.
 
I've seen barbed and baling wire used quite a lot,mostly barbed as we had very few wire tie balers around.Another thing I've seen a lot of is a cork with a nail driven through it for a distributer connection.Screw the cork into the hole where the popout cable went,push a nail through it until it hits the lower plate,tie a wire to it and go.
 
My "farmer" built doodlebug has an odd brake setup. It only has brakes on the front wheels and they used the emergency cross shaft because the second transmission was in the way of the service brake shaft. In order to activate the extended front brake rods the shaft was turned upside down and an old clutch pedal was mounted curve side up to connect to the foot pedal shaft. Confusing but it works pretty well.
 
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