Gandolf, That's funny. It reminds me of Forrest Gump. In the book, not the movie, he was driving with his college room mate and something similar happened to the room mates car, he lost all the lugs off one wheel and didn't know what to do. Forrest suggested the same thing that your dad did. The room mate was floored that simple Forrest could have thought of something so simple and clever, to which Forrest replied "I might be an idiot, but at least I ain't stupid!"
Tom.