how did you learn to work on cars?

-
Back in 78 we moved to a new neighborhood when my Dad retired. Down the street lived a man who had a 57 Corvette and a 72 454 Corvette. It didnt take long to make friends with him and was soon helping him turn wrenches on a hotrod. The first project was replacing a 327 with a dual quad 350, had a Borg-Warner super T-10 and 4:56 gears. What an awesome car that was!!!!

The 72 was bone stock, white with blue interior and was a total chick magnet.

My friend/hotrod mentor's name is David and he is a retired FAA manager, but more importantly a highly decorated USMC helicopter pilot/Vietnam Vet. Man did he have some stories to tell................

This was also back in the day when you could ride around drinking a beer and cruising around on a Friday/Saturday night looking for some good car action! :)

When my Dad retired in 78, he gave me a 69 Dart he had bought at his last assignment in Arkansas and this was the start of my own Mopar hotrodding addiction.
He also taught me a lot about doing your own repairs/maint . Growing up, he always talked about 57 Chevy with power pack and tales of high speed runs on his way to Randolph or Lackland AFB.

So between my Dad and David R is where I was given the foundation of what I know.
 
Played with Lego when I was a Kid (assemble and disassemble), then went on from
there.
Darryl
 
I grew up in an automotive family. My Grandfather owned a gas station/repair shop, and later worked for Chrysler dealerships. My Dad was a mechanic in shops since he was a kid and when got out of the air force in 1959, he went to work in a Dodge dealership and worked his way from the bottom to the top. He stayed there until 1980 when he took a job as supervisor for our city's vehicle maintance department. All the time, I would go to work with him and see the cars, so I grew up around 60's-70's era mopars. At home, his hobbys were restoring Mustangs. So I learned how to restore cars from him as well. My love of Mopars and Mustangs, Restoration work and so much more all came from my dad.
 
School of hard knocks, my old man told me, if I break it, I will fix it, or I walk. So being young and stupid i wanted the biggest boat car with the biggest motor i could possibly find, because at the time my dart was a gutless turd. Luckily my Dad is a chevy guy, so when i purchased my 76 Cordoba, 400/727, he figured it was a smallblock (chevy 400 SB ya know) and when i informed him that it was literally a punched out 383 he was a little angry, but by then it was already mine. I started working at NAPA when i was 16 so parts were cheap for me. After he strictly told me not to do a 4 barrel swap, I did it anyway. Rebuilt my junkyard thermoquad with a ton of trial and error....mostly error, finally got it right, also learned the importance of the kickdown linkage adjustment. Did a shift kit when i was 17, grenaded my first driveshaft sortly after, (no i never "laid J's" I knew better than that) learned how much it sucks to buy tires....converted the factory ignition system to a stand alone MSD unit as a shop project my junior year, and built my own gauge pods from exhaust pipe as a shop project. Creamed a deer the summer of 07, went to the junkyard the next day and bought a whole new front end, had it back together the following day. Learned how much it sucks to get the side seals for the rear main cap on a big block to seal up, 440source viton side seals are a life saver by the way (after the 3rd time of doing it), then summer of 09 the transmixer let loose, tore it down, the clutch facings were all but gone. My dad taught me the main things though, oil changes, repacking wheel bearings and changing seals, brake work, greasing the ENTIRE chassis....hes a logger, Id help him grease equipment all the time. so when id miss a zirk all hell would come crashing down on me, and it stuck, cause im the same way now :p
 
Dad was "THE" mechanic at our local Chrysler dealer for most of his working years... His side jobs started because so many people requested him at the dealer, they could not give him all the work.... He had me rebuilding alternators and starters at 10-12 yrs old (how many people actually rebuild them for themselves anymore???), and teaching me why one brake shoe has more surface length then the other.....
 
I got my start on small motors when I was about 10 years old. I had been eyeballing a old motor on a drag saw in my grandfather's garage. My grandfather was my inspiration. I had no father but my grandfather was a incredible man. So one summer day when school was out I asked him about the saw motor for a go-cart. He chuckled and said you can have it if you can get it running. Long story short, two days later It was running. It went from there to mini bikes/motorcycles to all my cars. One more thing, he was a avid mopar man.
 
My dad sold used cars out of our yard always took me along with him to all the car auctions and started me patching up the ones we brought home to sell when I was about 14 or so .His favorite cars to sell were always mopars. Tha73t was over 40 years ago. I still have some of his tools and several old mopars in the yard. Tried to teach my son the same way. His daily driver is a 73 DART SWINGER.
 
Mine was a little different... I was pretty much born with an obsession for all things mechanical. Neither my mom nor my dad know much at all about cars so I had to completely educate myself on how to work on cars. When I was a kid I would love to mow the lawn just so I could operate the lawnmower and do repairs on it LOL. I became interested in Mopars when I was 15 or so and started learning about classic muscle cars. When I was 16 my dad bought me my Duster and it all started there... I plunged head-on into modifying and restoring it from a bone-stock 318 grandma car to where it sits now 5 years later having a fresh rebuilt (by me) 360 Magnum with pretty much everything mechanical on the car either replaced or restored...:burnout:
 
I started in the garage with my dad... my earliest memories are from about 3 yrs old. He owned a local gas station but had been working on cars and stuff since he was 10 or so ... I learned a ton of stuff from my dad and then even more from doing, and also from from reading and learning from others.
 
I grew up around cars and car shows. I dreamed my whole childhood life of having muscle cars. My first car was a 73 340 Road Runner. I had no money and could not afford to pay people to work on stuff. So trial and error. I also read hot rod , car craft, then mopar mags . I still have car mags from the 70's when I was a kid. I still can't afford to pay others to work on my cars . So I will continue to trial and error !
 
I started at a really young age just watching my dad in the garage because he never wanted to pay to fix anything that was broken. If anything major ever went wrong it would be my dad, my grandfathers and myself fixing it. I of course would do the little things since I was so young but once I was about twelve or thirteen he had me start doing all the basic oil changes and brake jobs by myself and he would watch if I did something wrong he would let me finish then tell me something isn't right so I would tear it back down and figure out what was wrong. I learned by doing and I think that is the best way. I'm starting a budget resto on my 69 cuda I have never attempted body work or any custom fab as far as any metal work but I plan to do everything myself including paint.
 
self educated.trial and error.ive been wrenching about 10 years.but before i stared working on cars i was already an accomplished welder/fabricator/pipefitter.in all honesty i thought i knew a little something about this stuff until i joined this site and met some people that are really good at this stuff.after that my learning curve increased greatly.
 
I started very young, it was second nature, I found that out when I was about 10. I took it upon myself to sneak around and fixed my dads old dirty rats nest taillight wiring on his 63' chevy truck. Which he was either too unmotivated, or baffled to deal with and he was blown away. Been playing with them ever since. :glasses7:
 
Some gearhead's girlfriend taught me how to take apart and rebuild a carb. A year later I had fully rebuilt a 340 with the help of shop manuals and magazines. Al Gore had not yet finished inventing the Internet at the time.
 
Yup. Thinks broke. I learned to fix 'em. Read books. In 70, when I bought my first 69RR, I bought a shop manual, smartest thing I EVER did, and of course, other books. When I bought my 70RR from a friend, he already HAD the shop manual, so that detail was taken care of. In fact, I still HAVE (somewhat torn) my old 70 shop manual. Have had it since around 71-2

The internet has been a giant help. Although there is bad information, there is all that in some of the books and magazines, as well. Hot Rod, Car Craft, others, have made some giant mistakes. Who was it had "Project X" I think the same mag had some "project coupe" which they got into one HELL of a mess with bodywork (incompetent shop) and I also remember that car, they took the driveshaft for shortening, and the "machinist" did a big blab on "how you cut it in the middle !!! ??? !!! of the tube.
 
I'd say for me it was 2 people, my grandfather and my brother. Now, Grandpa couldn't fix a damn thing, had zero mechanical ability, and liked to fix things by running a giant slotted woodscrew about 1/2 way in and call it good. BUT, he was a rep for Kendall Oil, and exposed my brother and I to the world of high preformance vehicles of all shapes and sizes.

Now, the 2nd person on my list is my brother Greg, or blu340dart to y'all. See, he was right there with me growing up and going to the same races and leaning over the same cars. We learned as we went, and we still do. We've had literally hundreds of cars owned between the 2 of us, all makes and models, but Mopars have always seemed to be top on our list.

I gravitated to the point where I am mostly early A body because I like them, have them and know a lot about them. I like to take things apart and challenge myself to completely rebuild it exactly the way it was made. I'm on a mission to rebuild all the big stuff a person owns in their lives...so far I've rebuilt a house, a motorcycle and a car (well, a few). Whats next??? I don't know, but I think I'm gonna need more tools... Geof
 
My obcesion with cars/working on them all started with older bro's 70 Road Runner,it had a 440 out of 69 Bee,air grabber hood,bench seat with that long pistol grip shifter.I can remeber begging him to hit the air grabber switch and to give me a ride to school.Wish I had pics of that car.My dad wasn't into cars at all,they were something to get him from point A to B.I started hanging out at the local Amoco at night,mopping floors,sweeping the parking lot and cleaning the bathrooms which I did for nothing.At 15 the owner offered me a job,which I loved.mostly pumped gas and changed tires,can still remember the mad rush of people getting their snow tires put on at the first snow of the season,before everyone was using radials.As I was there longer he taught me to do brakes ,shocks,rebuild carbs,helped him swap engines /transmissions.He was a great guy,his name was Bruce Mincher,he just passed awaythis past year,I miss him.I worked for him 5yrs full time,even while I was in school,worked everyday,then parttime for 7yrs after that,to keep my rack privlages.Alot of things I figured out for myself but he gave me my basics.I'll never forget him.
 
Dad had a gutter business with several trucks. He would do some of the mechanical work himself and I was normally right at his side.....
 
Manuals came later, everything started with working hands on my mom's 1973 Firebird (car saw the top speed of 173.6 mph on the autobahn). She started it all and my dad took over when he realized how much I wanted to learn.
 
Rani,

Don't let them get to you.

The biggest difference in more females doing male dominated work is physical strength. If you can overcome the strength part you got it whipped.

I learned from my dad also. He worked for Chrysler as a machine repairman, was a license mechanic so on the side he would inspect cars and work on them for my uncle who owned a body shop. I was with dad all the time when he wasn't working at Chrysler and I wasn't in school, doing whatever I could to help.

Mom said from the time I was 2 if I found a screwdriver watch out something was coming apart.

At 14 I was working on cars myself, fixing my older brother and sisters cars. 2years auto mechanics as part of high school, rebuilt my 1st engine for my 67 Barracuda at 16 (273 hipo out of sisters Formula S)

I still learn stuff today, if you aren't learning your DEAD.

Don't care to work on cars like I use too. Don't mind the older stuff and cars that are not my daily drivers. But hate the new computer controlled stuff.

I know I have forgotten a lot of stuff, but when challenged seens to come back, the worst thing is working on something and never really moving and cannot find my tools They must have grown legs and walked off.

Read as much as you can, do as much as you want, just remember to clean the grease out from under your fingernails before going out on the town ........LOL
 
I started real early with toys. The big challenge was orderly dis-assembly so that I could reassemble things. I progressed to bikes and skateboards.

After I got my license, I got the responsibility of taking the family cars to the mechanic. I'd look over their shoulder, ask questions, and stay out of the way. It was rare I took a car in for the same work, because if I did the work, I got paid for it. It wasn't as much as the mechanic charged, but it was good for walking around and date money.

The summer after I got out of HS, I got a job working with a buddy for a local NASCAR Sportsman (now Nationwide Series) racer. First day on the job, put brakes under the transporter. Boss had appendectomy, so my buddy and I built a new racer while he directed from a lounge chair. It was definitely learn by doing. Over the course of three seasons, I got to do just about all of it (except drive).

Enjoyed matching wits with NASCAR inspectors, too. We never did especially well, but we had tough competition (Waltrip, B & D Allison, Bonnett, and Farmer) every week.
 
Grew up on grand fathers farm, at 8 yo I was helping repair tractors. Had the car bug early, bought all the mags. Worked as drive train, and then front end mech for gm dealer for awhile; got side-tracked, tried college. Then construction. Rose up to super, where I could afford to play with my a-body small blocks more. Your best friends- any book by Larry Shepard, and or Carl Monroe. That is factory racing in the 60's and 70's. A factory manual for your year, un-believable info in those books.

You go, girl. Ignore the cave man mentality ( you threaten them; you can show them up; most are just bench racers, anyhow).
 
Yup had a paper route and got tired of riding the bike delivering 300+ papers every day. Soooo.. I swiped dad's 39 Chevy and drove it around delivering papers. darn car broke down all the time so I learned real quick how to get her running again before Dad got up @ 5:30 in the morning. I'd get the papers in a bag and start the car rolling down the street and I'd run to the houses delivering the papers and then at the end of the street jump in the rolling car and load up again, cut my delivery time in half. Thinking back on it I was just plain crazy for doing that but it worked for 2 years until I turned 16 and then had saved up enough money to buy my first car.

(I really thought I was getting over on Dad) but it seems like he knew all along and never said anything until I was 30 or so and let it slip that that darn Chevy never ran good until I started delivering papers, of course when I got my car he traded it in on a new 66 caddy convertible and I never found those key's EVER!
 
Monook and me had play dates as kids...kidding, but Lego's shaped my life. Loved building and taking stuff apart was even funner. I grew up slightly poor so when I got a car, I could not afford a $35/hr mechanic to turn a wrench when I could just as well. So I learned the hard way, midnights on my back sunday nights so I could drive to school the next day. Wrecking yards were an easy way for me to spend 6 hours on a saturday trolling and pulling stuff off motors. Dad was a slight gearhead so when something went wrong, he wold always take a crack at it and I would help. It's a life skill everyone should have, but few do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top