my old '77 Pontiac Catalina overheated on the way home from working swing-shift one summer night, pulled over and I could see I was leaking around the thermostat housing, so I pulled out the thermostat, and sure enough it was broken. tossed it in the trunk and put the housing back on, I made a gasket out of an empty coors light box I found on the side of the Interstate...drove it that way for a couple of weeks before I finally got around to installing a new thermostat..

this reminds me of another time, _{at band camp}, I was driving a '95 long nose pete in central california on a hot summer day, when I blew out the top radiator hose..had a split about 4 inches long...was running with another driver and we both pulled off onto the shoulder of an off ramp..we wrapped some shop towels around the hose, then secured the rags with a dozen or so heavy-duty zip ties, then wrapped all that up in some good 'ol duct-tape, then another handful of zip ties...rolled another 150 miles no problems, to a shop where I could get a replacement hose. I was tempted to run the patched hose until it burst again, just to see how long it would go, but decided to go ahead and put the new hose on while I had a decent place to work...