how old where you when you first work on a car

Dad gave me a cleaned-up carburetor with everything loosened as a puzzle when I was about 2.

I remember helping him swap engines in VWs and Porsches when I was about 5 - Little hands are very helpful getting to those starter wires and backing up nuts.

I had the mind for electrical stuff, so any of that was always my job before he even thought about it.
When I was in JHS one of his buddies bought a VW squareback with a burned motor, and we swapped a new motor in. It had a Bosch injection computer that was the size of a shebox in the fender. He'd bought a replacement out of a junker. Thing had to have 30 or 40 wires coming out of it, and when we went to put it all together, they were all different colors than the old one. I sat there for an hour or so, soldered every one of those wires into the harness (all different colors, and no manual or internet), bolted it together, and said, "Start 'er up!"
They were shocked when it ran.

- Eric