"What? Fire for tire repair?" Liu Dafu's eyes widened.
“Yes, it’s a traditional method we use back in my hometown in Northeast China, it’s guaranteed to work!” Du Jianshan said to himself. “Find me a piece of rubber and some gasoline, and we can patch this tire!”
Liu Dafu was taken aback: "Fixing tires with fire? You have that skill?"
“My dad did this job at Ansteel back then.”
Du Jianshan had already taken off his coat and rolled up his sleeves. "My family was poor. When I was a kid, I had to mend my own worn-out rain boots. This kind of work is no problem for me."
After saying that, he looked around and pointed to a pile of old iron buckets in the corner: "Could we use those iron buckets to start a fire?"
"able!"
"I need to find some broken rubber shoes and discarded inner tubes. I want to refine the raw rubber and mix it with some coal ash."
Aygul hurriedly ran to the warehouse to search, and soon returned with a bag of broken inner tubes, two rubber-soled cloth shoes, and half a bucket of old engine oil.
Du Jianshan took it, propped up the iron bucket, added a brick underneath, and dug out the furnace chamber.
"Find a metal plate to put on top!" he ordered.
Without further ado, Liu Dafu quickly moved a rusty piece of sheet metal from the warehouse and placed it over the mouth of the bucket.
Du Jianshan lit the fire, controlled the flames, and used a saw to shave the punctured tire skin into pieces and threw them in. He also added some old engine oil. Soon, a pungent black smoke billowed from the bucket, and the rubber gradually melted into a sticky sludge.
"Don't let the fire get too big! Let it melt slowly."
While stirring, he used sandpaper and a steel brush to clean the edges of the damaged tire until the fuzzy tire fibers were exposed, and then he pasted on the cut pieces of film layer by layer.
"Comrade Liu, cut a piece of that old cotton cloth!"
"What's it for?"
"After patching the tire, the padding needs to be pressed down and cooled, otherwise it won't stick properly."
"Understood!"
For the next hour, Du Jianshan was busy and sweating profusely. He applied putty to the tire bead, layer by layer, then wrapped the putty layer with an old cotton cloth, clamped it tightly with wire and steel rim, and finally lifted the whole tire onto the charcoal fire to bake it.
"Now we just have to wait for it to cool down slowly, it will take at least half an hour." Du Jianshan sat down and took a breath.
Looking at the tire that had been patched up so skillfully with fire, Liu Dafu clicked his tongue in amazement: "Brother, if you had this skill in our agricultural machinery station, you'd be worth three experienced masters!"
"You guys spent three months trying to fix it, but he got it done in one morning!" Ayiguli chimed in happily. "My brother Du is awesome!"
Du Jianshan smiled and said, "I don't deserve such praise. I'm just a hard worker."
After more than half an hour, the rubber layer had completely cooled down. He had someone put the tire back on the tractor, inflated it, and tested it. It was inflated solidly.
"Test drive!" Du Jianshan jumped into the driver's seat and stepped on the gas.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
The engine roared, and the tractor circled the yard twice, the tires turning smoothly without any unusual noise.
"It's done!" He got out of the car and patted the front of the car.
Liu Dafu was so excited his face turned red: "Brother, you're the life of our agricultural machinery station! Why don't you come work here? Your work points won't be less than those in your production and construction corps!"
Du Jianshan shook his head with a smile: "My partner is in the Kanerjinggou Company and can't leave for the time being. Besides, I'm used to sandstorms, and I'd be itching to guard the warehouse every day."
He paused for a moment, then said, "But I can take on the role. If there's any machine you can't fix, just let the Corps know, and I'll come over and fix it for you when I have some free time."
Liu Dafu slapped his thigh: "That's great! We'll talk to Company Commander Chen about it and get you a letter of introduction!"
As he spoke, he ordered his men to bring two barrels of diesel oil, a bundle of new steel cable, and slipped in several grain coupons:
"This is just a small token of our appreciation from the agricultural machinery station. If you'd like to transfer here, feel free to contact me anytime!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
