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So my drivers side window dropped and wouldn't come back up... turns out the part where the window cable mounts had come loose in the past, been glued back, and now has come loose again. Well rather than glue it again or make me buy a whole new part (complex part with only one element that's gone bad) the guy at the shop I go to literally fabricated a metal part out of some sheet tin and riveted it in place. Fascinating to watch. $10 including labor, lol. Get that part fixed (meaning replaced) in the US and you'd be out well over $200.

the balinese are natural artists
cambodians are natural engineers.

those factory worker remorque pulled by a tiny bike are just mind bending in doing a job far past the design scope of the artefact.

even the little water drip on the cylinder heads of the bikes speaks of a rough and ready adaptability that defines the people.

so many clever fixers of broken things!

Good thread. As much as some (or all) expats can become bitter or negative at times, khmers can be really ingenious. I've witnessed tons of such things over the years but will need time to think about it and maybe dig up some pictures. Watched the game last night so it's time for my nap.

also, the fabrication of everyday items- the large water jars and indeed stainless water tanks. Distillation apparatus, all the needful things- charcoal stoves. it is a hillbilly paradise for dwellers on the land in some ways.
The cost of these things are absurdly low in global terms

OrangeDragon wrote:So my drivers side window dropped and wouldn't come back up... turns out the part where the window cable mounts had come loose in the past, been glued back, and now has come loose again. Well rather than glue it again or make me buy a whole new part (complex part with only one element that's gone bad) the guy at the shop I go to literally fabricated a metal part out of some sheet tin and riveted it in place. Fascinating to watch. $10 including labor, lol. Get that part fixed (meaning replaced) in the US and you'd be out well over $200.

Had a BMW X5 back in Oz, these things are notorious for the same part - the window regulator - wearing out. Small plastic clip that cannot be purchased separately, forcing you to buy an entire assembly at $280 non genuine. Replacing one can cost $1000 including genuine parts. Much speculation about that one plastic clip being designed to wear out at a certain age. I'd be keen to see what the locals do with that, I bet they could fix one for $5.

^I think a 3-D printer could fabricate stuff like this.

No more gouging by Companies I hope.

Milord wrote:^I think a 3-D printer could fabricate stuff like this.

No more gouging by Companies I hope.

Apparently some of the new printer resins are high tensile and non brittle, so sounds like a plan. You'd think a company like BMW wouldn't need to deliberately engineer a "fail part" for ongoing revenue. Taking the airbags out of the doors (well, getting the sequence of power on, power off as you do it) is the roughest part of that job, almost worth paying someone to do it other than you know that you're being played by a luxury car manufacturer.

Finally found a few minutes while doing some work in a coffee shop...

A few things I like:

Homemade Daelim hill-climbers... Rebar reinforced frames, jacked up suspension (double in the back), big rack, huge rear sprocket and tiny front sprocket. You only ever see these mods in Mondulkiri and Rattanakiri but everytime I go I love seeing them. Locals use them all the time and I've seen tons of kids going dirt-biking (3 on a bike), having fun crossing rivers, going up steep sandy climbs etc.




Here is a cool example of a home-made paddle tire... For those who don't know, paddle tires are used in deep mud or for sand dune riding. They look like this:

Now it's hard to see because it was taken a night and the tire is caked in mud, but these guys actually welded an outer "sand tire" around the rubber tire for increased traction in the mud. Probably weighs a ton but they obviously aren't worried about speed, just torque...



Local guy bringing his jacked up Chaly at the shop to fit a snorkle to his air-intake... He'll essentially be able to ford 1m rivers with it, LOL.



Same deal with these guys. You can see suspension mods like this in the city as well of course. But at roughly 200KG per pig, that small bike is carrying close to 600KG... That's truly impressive given that the bike is designed (maybe slightly over-engineered) for far-far less than that. I helped these guys lift the pigs up. 4-man job... A stick in put to keep the bike steady and they then put ice on the pigs to keep them cool. Felt kind of bad for the squealing things... I think this was in Kompong Cham or Kratie and though the slaughterhouse was only 2-4km away, it takes a lot of effort to load them up and drive them off. Anyone who has ridden with a big barang on their bike knows how hard it is to drive with a lot of weight to the rear... A prime example of their can-do attitude and resourcefulness. Sure, none of these mods are done with technical preciseness or beauty, but they get the job done!

the Khmer are dam clever

frank lee bent wrote:the Khmer are dam clever

No they arent, they work with what they got and being creative about it...ok I guess that's in the clever category. Even the Filipinos were shocked when their window's Tico on the driver seat couldnt roll. The Khmer mechanic fixed it less than 60 seconds free of charge.