I can think of 2-

Night diving about a 1/2 mile off the Oahu coast, the strap for my mask broke, so used my buddy's velcro dive watch band to improvise a strap, and finished the dive. About 10 minutes later, flashlight quit, but had a teenie spare, enough to kick back to shore. I have kept a pass through velcro watch band on my dive watch since.

Driving home from Tombstone, the fan belt broke, we used 6 shoelaces all woven together to replace it. A state highway patrolman stopped, looked at it, said "stranger things have worked", and drove off.