Where is the line between hack job and reasonable repair?

Lets say I hit a 5 gallon bucket on the freeway and smashed a radiator duct. New ones are $100. Reasonable I suppose. Or I could get some glue and suitable plastic and patch up the hole and cracks and use a fender washer on the mount hole which tore out.

Hack? 

Reasonable repair?

Its not like Im doing this to impress the next guy, but that's usually the question I ask myself to decide if its hack or not. Im drawing a blank today.

Thats easy.  If I do it, its a reasonable repair, if someone else does it, its a hack job!  

Glue?  Zip ties are more my thing.  Prius lower lip "repair" after encounter with a racoon. Has held for years.  

If you use Pittsburgh tools when doing it, you're a hack, if you use Icon tools, it's a proper repair. The difference is which side of aisle number 5 you're standing upon. 

I think the line is not in the quality of the parts, but the care in which the repair is done.

I've seen some high quality bodges and some seriously hacky "by the book" repairs.

if you have to redo the fix in a few days it was a Hack   !

PS.....but if it got you home who cares .......and good job :)

John Welsh said:

Glue?  Zip ties are more my thing.  Prius lower lip "repair" after encounter with a racoon. Has held for years.  

Huh, I was out by you when I hit a raccoon that took out my left front corner of the bumper.

Was going to post the bodge I did to hold the undertray thing up after the side panel completely disappeared (it involves the original mounting bolt and a drum brake spring) buuuut the pics are on a tablet that has a broken screen.  Maybe later.

logdog (Forum Supporter) said:

Thats easy.  If I do it, its a reasonable repair, if someone else does it, its a hack job!  

Nuff said

If it fails again, are you stranded or just slightly inconvenienced?

For this particular application the consequences are nil. I got home without touching anything. Maybe the radiator didn't get an ideal amount of air but the car didn't get hot either.

But as a philosophical question.... the crux of it might be the perspective its asked from. Yep, logdog that makes sense.

This whole question makes me feel like a cheapskate. Or maybe a discerning cheapskate? That seems better.

I was hoping part of the five gallon bucket would be used to repair the duct.  Because revenge.

 

Cooter said:

I was hoping part of the five gallon bucket would be used to repair the duct.  Because revenge.

 

Yeah, I assumed that was going to be the lesson imparted.