how old where you when you first work on a car

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We were riding Dirt Bikes and Go-carts out in the Country in Middle School, and they would break down. So I started cleaning Carbs. out, fixing chains and sprockets etc. Took the Head off a Briggs and Stratton to free a seized Piston. My Dad was great. He taught me to Change oil and Plugs as I watched him on the Cars. Got my Duster at 15, and the rest is History
 
I'm allready no hair and fake teeth
I guess i know the next step
 
I was 6 when my Dad brought home the 70 Roadrunner that would start us on a lifetime of Mopar. Although my Grandpa was a Kendall Oil rep, he didn’t know which end of a hammer to hold and knew nothing about cars. But he did I still in us a love for cars through drag racing, circle track racing, tractor pulls, whatever Kendall sponsored, he went and we wanted to go with him. Before the Roadrunner, Dad had a Vista Cruiser wagon, and my brother and I got the notion that since we were so into racing that we could make Dads car go faster, so one day before we were going to the drive in that night, we filled up Dads gas tank with water from the hose, and the neighbors car too. Come time for the drive in, the car wouldn’t start, and my Dad and the neighbor were scratching their heads wondering why the car wouldn’t run. The neighbor girl was perplexed too, and matter of factly blurted out…”I don’t know why it won’t run, Greg and Geof filled up the tank with some super racing fuel”. Umm, yea! Was that my first foray into working on cars?

When my Dad got the Roadrunner, he and his buddy Ron would go over to Telegraph Rd to find some trouble. Ron had a 70 Hemi GTX, and Dad a 6bbl Roadrunner. Try as he might, Ron could never beat Dads car. When Ron would come over, my brother and I would slide under the front of his car and stare in awe of his big chrome oil pan!

As for working on stuff? We did the same things you all did, worked on our bikes incessantly, pounded forks from another bike on the end of the forks of our favorite bikes, got a mini bike, then a dirt bike, and finally a car. I got my first car for $100, it was a 69 Mach 1 Mustang, but I never got it to the road. I was probably 14, but had already been working on tractors and all manner of farm equipment. My first running car was a 70 GTO that I paid $850 for.

So I would say for me, the Mustang was the first car I remember actually working on, unless you count the super racing fuel incident!
 
I was 8 years old. I was helping my dad put an engine in a 58 plymouth wagon. I can remember that engine . It was a Poly 318

He just put the intake on and I dropped a nut down it. I remember that day like yesterday. And I remember the price of the gasket kit yelled at me several times.

Out of all 8 it had to be one with the intake valve open and yes it made it past the valve. $30.00 was a big chunk of change in 1963 for our family.

When I saw all these moving parts in that engine I just had to know how they worked.

Fast forward to 2025. What would I be doing today if I didn't drop that nut down that intake 62 years ago?
 
nutz said:
Some days I wish
Funny about the water
I got the idea to put concrete in the battery and gas tank
My poor brother got blamed ....
Sorry ...dad
Click to expand...
My dad would take the rotor off my 67 Barracuda when I was grounded for doing burnouts in the driveway. That one was easy to figure out...then he started hiding the rotor. LOL We all knew he was just mad because his 67 straight 6 Mustang couldn't even do a brake torque burnie.
 
GTX JOHN said:
Well, at least I still Sleep like a Baby.

I wake up in the morning with the bed Wet and Crying!
Click to expand...
I wish I could sleep like that ..
It would be worth a dampness
I don't sleep bad but a couple of pains and the wake up every so offen 3 hrs early
 
I was probably about 9 when my old man brought home a nearly new 1971 Mercury Meteor 4 door hardtop that had a couple of burned valves in the 351 Cleveland. Helped him pull the heads off, (mostly as the tool gopher) and reinstall them after the neighborhood machine shop was done with them. That car actually had some balls, I remember my asshole brother doing some decent pegleg burnouts in it.
Shortly after that he dragged home a 1964 MGB roadster with seized engine. Pulled the head off and soaked the cylinders with diesel, then beat the pistons with a block of wood and a sledgehammer until it was free. Put it back together and he overrevved it and bent several pushrods or something like that, got pissed off and sold it.
 
I was 10-11 years old. My oldest sister taught me how to tune up her Ford Pinto. Plugs, filters, fluids. I was hooked! That little Pinto ran for years!!!
 
I'd say from the time I was 6 or so if my dad was working on the car I was there. I do recall when I was about 10 (1973) my grandfather was working on the Barracuda (my Fastback) he was pulling the timing cover to replace it as the one on the car was leaking through the water pump cavity from decay, probably from just using water and no coolant? 7 years or so and minimal miles, not sure what was going on.

I don't recall if it was the same session or not but the next item we worked on was pulling the intake to clean out the carboned up heat crossovers.

From there it was helping my father pull fenders on a 55 chevy, wheel bearings on it. by the time I was 16 I was rewiring a friends 66 Chevy van.

Never stopped after that, when it does you might as well cover the hole up.


Alan
 
I was working on small engines and getting them runnning since probably 9. I would help Dad occasionally with cars, hand him a tool or something. But I bought my first car at age 14 ('72 Duster), and the first "under the hood" wrenching I did was convert it from electronic ignition to points, with the help of my Dad.
 

318willrun said:
I was working on small engines and getting them runnning since probably 9. I would help Dad occasionally with cars, hand him a tool or something. But I bought my first car at age 14 ('72 Duster), and the first "under the hood" wrenching I did was convert it from electronic ignition to points, with the help of my Dad.
Click to expand...
ha now you are changing them from points to electronic......
at 16 i was trying to stuff a 396 into a 6 cylinder 4dr chevelle never did finish it
i painted the valve covers and baked them in the oven ....mom was not happy ..boy did that stink
 
nutz said:
ha now you are changing them from points to electronic......
at 16 i was trying to stuff a 396 into a 6 cylinder 4dr chevelle never did finish it
i painted the valve covers and baked them in the oven ....mom was not happy ..boy did that stink
Click to expand...
I used to set the points on lawnmower engines with a cereal box flap, after I sanded the flywheel with sand paper and filed the points with a fingernail file. At 10 I made "free" riding mowers into go-carts by changing the pulley size, and putting any motor that I could get for free and get running.
 
Changed a tire at 10 ish did rod bearings on a Japanese 79 Mazda GLC at 15 or 16...just to get it running then quickly ditched it for an american v8 car :)
 
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