Sometimes we make things more difficult and/or expensive than they really are. This might not apply to the newest 2014 vehicles, but for the most part cars are pretty simple. There are many parts on a vehicle that are repair-able with a simple MIG welder and some time. Often times the replacement part is too expensive, unavailable, or may have a long lead time.

In my project today, I had a customer bring me a brake pedal bracket from a mustang that had cracked. This part could have very well been hard to find or impossible to buy short of going to a junkyard. Often times, “hard parts” that don’t wear out aren’t stocked or even offered by auto parts stores or dealerships.

The above pictures are as it was brought to me. This turned out to be a VERY simple repair that saved the customer a lot of money over trying to find a replacement. This bracket was just mild steel that Ford had made a lil’ too thin.

I whipped up a quick reinforcement plate made out of similar gauge steel. Clamped the assembly with some vice grips and started adding tack welds around the bracket. Filling in with tack welds until we figured it was sufficient and WAY stronger than what Ford had originally built. The part and repair doesn’t need to be beautiful as long as it holds, it will be tucked out of sight under the dash.

The whole point of this post is not to show this specific fix. The point of this post is to show you that there are a whole range of solutions for auto repair that don’t necessarily include spending lots of money or time waiting on parts to ship. Get creative, but be smart about it. If it doesn’t affect your safety, try it! What is the worst that could happen?