Fairly sure that the stick is just there to protect the legs of passengers, from the metal brackets that are still attached to the SUV. To hit your shin on that bracket is not fun!

They should just unbolt the remaining brackets.

I'm a mechanic at a car dealership. I see all kinds of hacks. check this out. this is what you doing when your 4X4 stops working. cut the axles off

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still got two wheels that work , after they go Fred Flinstone style !

I wouldn't be surprised if all these pictures were from that Escape.

That axle thing kills me.I was a mechanic in the 80's.There was a guy that had an old Dodge truck that every time it broke down he would shoot it with his 44 magnum til he shot it and put a hole in the block.That was expensive.

That's the custom natural look.

I've worked in and around body and mechanic shops. You see some funny stuff! Another one is in the rust states where people tape(duct tape usually) over the rust holes on their vehicles then spray paint the tape.

Quick story from an old coworker...he swore it was a true story, but funny either way...

Old coworker who was a mechanic for a fair number of years; lady comes in with car running poorly and smoking like crazy. She had concerns about the oil. She,said it must be loosing a lot because of how much she had to put in...she said she kept having to buy more and more oil to get it filled up.....

Apparently...she thought you filled oil like you would fill wash fluid or a radiator...she bought a bunch of the big jugs and poured into top of engine till full !!!!

Now, idk if true story or not....but it was was a pretty funny WTF story when he told it.

Paint over it?!? I can't believe people paint over "West Virginia chrome".

ummmm? reminds me of a guy that put a quart of oil in his girl friends car every couple of days for about 2 months. Then one day decides to pull it in his friends shop, put it on the rack to see where this leak is. Ya? The oil filter had actually rusted a hole through it! That tells you how often I changed oil and filters in our vehicles! They still remind me of that every now and again even 20 years later. "i've been around cars my whole liife, and you are the only one that I've ever seen have an oil filter rot through"

That's pretty good one! I will use same theory I used when I found my truck had a small hole rusted thru the rear differential cover:

Wtf! It's full of oil! How the hell did it rust out!! Lol.

Now, of couse I know it rusted from outside in....still, oil filter rusted beats mine!

My mom and sister checked the oil in her car when dad was away on business and proceeded to add a quart of oil...drop by drop...down the dipstick tube...

Hey! At least it went in the correct place

Before I became a career automotive mechanic, back when I was a teenager, the trunk of my 68 Galaxie was held closed by a jumper cable wrapped around the license plate and clamped to the trunk lid. It worked...

I've seen some pretty crazy shit , the stuff that some people do to cars is scary .

The stuff that some paid mechanics do to cars can be scary as well. I watched a lady drive off after having her brakes done and the wheel fell off. The mechanic went running out there with her wheel bearings in his hand.

I was just going to tell the story of a girl in my H.S. shop class that did the same thing. She finally freaked out and started yelling about how long it would take her to pour four quarts in her engine. She was blonde.

My friend with the shop hired a guy right out of school. One car he put the rear pads on backwards, it didn't go together right so he left the caliper bolts out. That one didn't even make it out of the parking lot.

He has had some bad mechanics over the years. Everything you can imagine. They let one of the racks down and the guy in the next bay had a brand new mustang door open, let the car down right on the door. Oil changes and don't put the oil in all kinds of scary stuff...the list goes on and on.

That's why it's tough for good techs like myself to get paid what we are worth. In the end I found it wasn't worth doing anymore. They want to be cheap, they get what they deserve.

While I was still a mechanic I had a rusted out Isuzu Rodeo come in. It was so rusty the left rear leaf spring hanger had rotted off the frame. How did the rear axle assembly not fall out of the truck? 5 heavy duty zip ties.

If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

A friend of mine, working unsupervised, decided to do something about his squeaky brakes back in the 80's. He opened up the drums and gave the shoes a good dose of Turtle Wax. Took it for a test drive and ran through the fence at the end of his lane.

I would upvote this 20 times if I could. Red Green is hilarious.

Quite some time back I had an '86 Cutlass Calais & the passenger door sometimes wouldn't open from the inside. One day I had to drive my boss to the dealership to pick up his car & he couldn't get out. I had to walk around the car & open the door. He said I need a new car, I said I couldn't afford it. Got a fairly big raise the next time around.
Later the door wouldn't stay closed, so I strapped a bungee cord from the ashtray to the door handle. On every left turn the door would swing open & then slam shut. I'd have to pull on the cord whenever I made a left.

My first job was at a Oldsmobile dealership in Vegas in the parts dept. One day a guy walks in with his oil pan.He says he needs a gasket for it.The parts guy asks him what engine he had.He says "I don't know but it's parked out front".

Oh that is epic

Not a hack but one of the more memorable things I seen at a dealership...was a lady that bought a new Infinity Q45. When leaving our dealership there is a light at the exit...she blew the light off (I think she made a right on red) and got blasted.

When she picked the car up after getting fixed a couple weeks later... someone else blew the light off..and blasted the other side.

She drove the car about 1 mile and it was is 2 major wrecks

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This happened at the gas station I worked at in the 1980's.I worked for 2 brothers and one of them would treat me badly most of the time .A real" A" hole.Well one day he was working on a electrical problem ,sitting in the drivers seat of a customers car inside the gas station.I had just driven up as I was getting a part at the parts store.I looked over and he was touching two wires together.Just then the car started up which was in gear and went forward straight into his Snap On toolbox and pushed down the wall in front of the station about 6 feet out. I almost bit my lip off trying not to laugh.

I had a Cutlass with a wooden rear bumper as my "winter" car in high school...the stock bumper rusted and fell off. The police gave me a ticket for not having a bumper. I had no money, so...wood bumper.

Keep it going

Where did that dam apprentice put the screw driver?
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Possibly the mother of all tool boxes.

Pringles!!!

When I was younger, my exhaust broke...and I was broke.
I cut open several pop cans, wrapped around the broken pipe and put a couple hose clamps on. Only lasted a few days...so I did it a few times

Made it till a got paid a few bucks and could buy a flex pipe and muffler clamps.....not much bettet, but at least my exhaust didn't say pepsi on it any more

I used dried red pepper to plug a coolant leak. That old Datsun kept running at least another 20K miles that way until I traded it in. Hardly used any antifreeze after that.

Not a hack but kind of. The Rodeos (I worked at an Oldsmobile-Isuzu store) would frequently burn out their in tank fuel pumps. When the tow truck dropped them off it was at the back of the dealership which was quite a ways away and down hill. To get them in I would lift the hood and walk along side the truck spraying choke cleaner into the intake while someone else drove it so we didn't need to push the trucks up the hill.

When I was young man I had a old Chevy truck that left me and a buddy stranded on the side of the road. I expertly diagnosed the problem, bad fuel pump. In the bed of the truck I had everything I needed to get home. A plastic cup and a gallon of gas. I only needed to go about a mile to make it home. I sat on the front of the truck with the hood opened , leaned in And slowly poured gas into the carb. as my buddy drove. This worked pretty good for about 1/8 of a mile until the truck backfired , igniting the gas. I instantly threw the cup of gas, right into the middle of the road. Traffic stopped both directions. As the 4foot Flames slowly subsided the driver behind us drove by , opened his window and yelled "ass holes". As the line of traffic slowly drove by, we busted out laughing and thought it was the funniest thing.
My friend and I still laugh About this. This was about 30 yrs. ago. I miss being young!

I did this on the front caliper of my 77 Regal. But I was 100 miles from home and fixed it the next day. But mine wasn't leaking, it was blown out. I've also driven to work with the master cylinder in the front seat. Driving without brakes isn't a huge problem if you know you don't have any, its when you expect that you do, and DONT. Again, when we were young and dumb.

My first car was a bit of a beater. It seemed like every few months, something new went wrong with it. This one time, the rear driver side brake caliper locked up, causing the brake pads to grind on the rotor. My regular mechanic was about 10 miles away.

So, I jacked up the car, took off the wheel, and removed the caliper (with a fair amount of difficulty since it was pressing on the rotor). Since the caliper was just dangling there after that, I took a few wire coat hangers, cut them apart, and used them as wire ties to secure the caliper to the undercarriage.

After putting the wheel back on, I then drove out to my mechanic's shop, he raised the car up, looked at the caliper, and shook his head. But, he was able to take care of the problem (from what I remember, he had to replace the caliper--not something I had the tools or experience to repair at the time).

In a separate instance, I used wire coat hangers again when the flange on the end of the tail pipe leading to the muffler rusted out and broke off. It held, but the car was a little on the noisy side for a bit until I had it replaced.

So, that was a fun car to own.

We get many older Chev and GMC trucks that come in with the hole cut out of the box floor. Just to access the fuel pump/sender unit. Most leave the hole open. Some will have a mat covering the hole. Some have silicon goop to act as glue to hold the cut piece in place..
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When I was doing my first disc brake job, I found the tube of anti-squeal paste in the pad box.
Sounded good to me, so I put it all over the face of the pads.

They didn't work very well after that, and it sure did take awhile to stop stinking...

Just saw this one in our parking lot. Need new wiper blades? Just stick an old t-shirt under and good as new!!
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I understand this "fix" but for the trouble (and it always doesn't work) why people don't just lift the bed to change the pump???

In a somewhat related story, a family member called me up complaining that his Suburban wouldn't start. I told him to go outside and kick the thing. He doubted my advice but as I listened, he did exactly what I told him, I told him to kick the gas tank in the center, then try to start it. He was amazed that it worked. With the fuel pumps in the tank, the cheap gas fouls the contacts of the pump and usually the sending unit too. Won't "fix" the problem everytime but as long as it does it once. BTW, I am a strong believer in using a bottle or two of Techron in the gas tank especially when I know the car will be sitting for a couple days. It seems to do a better job than most of cleaing the sending units and pumps.

BTW, have seen some clowns drop the tank on many of the older GM cars without looking to see if there is a trap door in the trunk. Most of the doors are gone now but talk about an easy swap when the opening is there.

Not really a hack, but...

I went to college in La Crosse, WI. Me and 2 buddies stole this car from our roommate and took it to Florida for spring break (we couldn't find him that day and we were in a hurry). It got better gas mileage than our cars did. It had holes in the floorboards and dash(we drove huddled in sleeping bags). The passenger door was held closed by a bungee cord. On the way home, the alternator was going, we found a junk yard that had the part and the owner felt so bad for us that he lent us the tools to change it in the parking lot.

We left town with $220 between the three of us, 6 quarts of Catherine the Great Vodka, a loaf of bread, and a jar of peanut butter. We made it to Daytona Beach and back in that car.

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3 of you , that car's a two seater !

It has a trunk

you mean a front , the engine is in the trunk .