tell me your most successful gear repair stories

i really like the concept of repairing and/or revitalizing old gear.  what’s the best way you’ve ever patched something up or made it like new again?  patching, re-waterproofing, sewing, re-soling, cleaning, etc.  bonus points if it’s from the for sale forum!

the 12v jack plug on my power inverter fell apart and when I put it back together the pointy thing in the middle flopped around and would not make contact inside the plug. It occurred to me that I must have lost a crucial spring. stumped and with several photo orders that needed processing and a dead battery in the laptop.. I crashed resigned to having to find a place to plug in the next day.  woke up in the middle of the night with the solution. In the morning I took the spring out of a ball point pen screwed the plug back together and it worked :) Still works but I just ordered a new 1500W inverter that I will hard wire in to the van.

Sole of mountaineering boot peeled partway off when a student dried them too close to the fire, releasing the glue. Speedy stitcher and bailing wire for thread sewed the flopping thing back on. Lasted the 50 miles out to the trail head.

Shoe goo to repair gaiters, I thought I was just finishing out the season the spring before this one but they're  still hanging in there!

My pack got hit with a large block and i sewed it back together. I have had this bag for 10 years. 

my friends sprinter radiator hose ruptured in yosemite right before he had to go pick his gf up from the airport. Some ziplock baggies, duct tape, and zip ties held the pressure and heat for a 3 hour drive (and didn't leak). also fyi, duct tape has zero stickiness contacting coolant fluid

I hit a tree snowboarding once, ripped a 5" hole through my gore-tex pants, Insulated pants underneath, thermal liners, and into my ass cheek.

Taped up the black gore-tex pants with some yellow gear repair tape, and stitched the pants back together. They both lasted for another 3 years and we're still bombproof!

Kinda miss those pants with the yellow ass cheek.... 

MIG welding wire to replace trigger wires on DB cams. 

Driving to the RRG in my van in a terrible midwestern rainstorm, an hour from home, and my windshield wiper breaks on the driver's side. I can't duct tape it because of the rain. Luckily, I was a prissy boy and bought ORGANIC bananas for the drive, the kind that comes with that blue 1/2 inch tape around the bunch that says "organic" on it. That tape, while not too sticky, is I guess made out of liquid diamonds and basically like a steel cable as far as strength goes. I used the banana tape to connect the windshield wiper to the windshield wiper arm, pulling it super tight as I did.

It held so well that I just left it until I needed to replace the windshield wipers a year later.

reswaged bd trigger wires on #3 with $4 of stuff from internet

patched my thermarest with sewing, glue and tenacious tape, 2 years still holding!

probably my proudest gear repair was my fox rear shock on my old mountain bike, an internal seal failed and t leaked fluid, non-rebuildable except to mail it to fox, but with some internet help I rebuilt it with o rings sourced from McMaster (actually upgraded the offending o ring to a quad seal) and used a fuel rail valve from a ford v8 to charge the IFP which was the crux as it is supposed to be a factory tool (thanks internet for helping me with that!) story from the guy who figured that hack out was he was at a bar complaining "how will I ever get a Schrader valve with xxx threads" and some old guy at the bar was just like "oh that's a fuel rail valve on a 79 mustang" just like off the top of his head.

If we start going into cars i'm a mechanic so it will get ridiculous but the best climbing car story was when I was laid up in bed after surgery and my girlfriend called me from 5000 miles away on a climbing trip when her friends van wouldn't start and I walked her through by phone banging on the starter with a rock to get it started so they could drive out.

MIG welding wire to replace trigger wires on DB cams.

One of my (many) favorite all-day rock shoes are my old SCARPA Marathons. These were introduced in 2004 at the then-unprecedented price of $149. But what most folks noticed was the wedge of EVA foam and the dot rubber tread on the rear half of the shoe. I never found any real benefit to these; I loved them for their awesome fit and great face climbing performance. Well, all things must pass, and eventually that EVA foam material deteriorated and crumbled. The entire aft end of the shoe came loose, and no amount of glue would fix it (there being no solid material to stick to, just crumbling foam). Unwilling to give them up, I "sewed them back together" with stout twine. They don't see much use these days but have been working just fine.

twice now i have put tenacious tape on a ripped jacket. it got pretty intense.

TLyons wrote: MIG welding wire to replace trigger wires on DB cams. 

At first I totally read this as "MIG welded my trigger wires back together" and I was really impressed with your welding skill (especially on a mig lol) 

  I have a kit with wire and swages and swage tool to fix cams when on the road.   My favorite fabric duct tape repair move is to apply the duct tape to the fabric and then staple it on with an office stapler. then cover the staples with one more layer of duct tape.  pretty much bullet proof. 

Mend it, don’t spend it

Bootied a fixed yellow mastercam with all the trigger wires broke. I used weed eater cord for trigger wires. 

Peter G wrote: I hit a tree snowboarding once, ripped a 5" hole through my gore-tex pants, Insulated pants underneath, thermal liners, and into my ass cheek.

Taped up the black gore-tex pants with some yellow gear repair tape, and stitched the pants back together. They both lasted for another 3 years and we're still bombproof!

Kinda miss those pants with the yellow ass cheek.... 

Did you DIY fix the tear in your ass or go to a professional?

Sam Skovgaard wrote:

Did you DIY fix the tear in your ass or go to a professional?

DIY fix with Gauze and tape, still got the scar to prove it! I think I hit the tree around 10am, didn't realize I tore a chunk out of ass till I got up one time and a buddy asked why the snow was so red were I was sitting.