How/when did you learn what you know??

-
buffoni88

buffoni88

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2011
Messages
202
Reaction score
4
Location
Dover AFB, DE
I did a quick search, and didn't see any forum for this yet, so here it goes. When did you start working on cars? Who taught you what you know? I'm 28 years old and just started getting into it, and have been feeling quite overwhelmed, to say the least. I've learned a LOT from these forums, but obviously some of you have been doing this since the pre-internet days. I'll start reading a post, and once I start seeing numbers (ie cam sized, clearance numbers), or words of parts I don't know, it just starts feeling like too much to take in! I absolutely love working on my car, and just fixing things in general. Stories of my father tell me that he was the same way. I work on airplanes for a living, and have been told I'm very good at what I do (troubleshooting fuel problems, quantity issues, pressure problems, fuel leaks...), but I also have a lot of technical course education along with tons of help from fellow coworkers. I've been tempted at times to just sell my car and get one that's already built up, and learn later when I retire from the military. But then again, I hate giving up, and love learning new things. So what's your advice on the best way to effectively learn these monsters?! Any/all input appreciated! By the way, a HUGE thanks to everybody that has contributed to this website, I love coming on here and just cruising the forums reading different posts. The amount of combined knowledge and experience on here is absolutely insane!
 
I was born with all of this knowledge....


Seriously, we got our first collector car when I was 13. My older brother (by a year and a half) always liked cars and would always talk about them. I picked up alot of info from him. We read all the car mags and mopar mags in high school.

Ok. so we got our first car at 13. It was a 71 Challenger convertible with a 340. My brother and I rebuilt the engine together. The first time we put it together, the guy at the parts store told us the wrong way to install the bearings. We put them in upside down. By the time we got them all in, the crank would not turn. The crank got too damaged, and we had to buy another one. Then we used the service manual as a reference and it went together ok the second time.

Then we learned to use a good reference book and not listen to what people tell you.

Then we kept buying more cars and fixing them using the service manual and any good reference books to learn what we needed to know.

I took the attitude that I would try to fix the car myself. If I messed it up, I could then pay someone to fix it, or try to fix it myself the right way again.
 
Thanks to my one and only Chevrolet, I learned at an early age. I got my driver's license when I was 13 and dad bought me a cherry-looking '41 Chevy 2-door sedan to drive the twelve miles to high school. After about a week, it began to break down almost daily. Brakes, ignition, lights, transmission, gauges, cooling system, door latches, trunk latch, hood latch, window cranks, suspension, radio....and on and on.

I had the choice of learning to fix things or stop driving and stay at a boarding house in town, so I learned to troubleshoot and repair cars. But, mostly I learned to never, ever, buy another Chevy. After less than a year driving that POS, dad bought me a '48 Plymouth that was bullet proof, and it's been nothing but Mopars for the past 58 years.
 
Like most of the older guys here, I started working on cars during my teenage years because my family couldn't afford to take them to a mechanic. I learned by watching my dad replace starters, alternators, water pumps etc. Then it became engine or transmission swaps as the years went by. I learned as I went.

You are doing the right thing by being here. You will learn more about your car by hanging out with people that are passionate about the same kind of car. If you get stuck, come start a thread about your problem, you'll usually have an answer in less than a hour. I've been working on cars over forty years and still do it. We all have varying degrees of knowledge but most are happy to share theirs with you.

Good luck and hang it there!
 
"We put them in upside down. By the time we got them all in, the crank would not turn. The crank got too damaged, and we had to buy another one"

So I'm not the only one that has done something similar?! Good stories so far, I love hearing them. I do have some pride in saying that I have never had to take any of my vehicles to a mechanic, other than for alignments/balance and stuff like that. When a problem arises, I do tons of research, and tear into it. Now I'm in the mindset of wanting to do upgrades, which is where it gets tricky. Example, new/rebuilt heads, swapping cam. Like I mentioned originally though, this website has been a goldmine for me and tons of others, I love it.
 
buffoni88 said:
So I'm not the only one that has done something similar?! Good stories so far, I love hearing them. .
Click to expand...

You learn from your mistakes.


Probably more than what you learn from your successes....


Learning what you can't get away with is just as important as learning what you can....



(Now I'm a philosophizer)
 
I think some of it is motor oil in the blood. While I know my real father was a car man, worked at a service station, drove a hotrod 56 chevy, I never knew him. I was adopted into a family of textile mill workers. Not one car man in the bunch. I was taken to many baseball games and football was always on the TV or in the conversations. I had to beg a ride to the local race track with a neighbor or classmate.
I spent most of my summer days hanging around at either a local garage or upholstery shop. I played hooky from school a lot and spent those days at those same places.
I was 16 years old before I found out the owners of those businesses knew my real dad and understood what drew me there. That's why they hadn't chased me away or back to the school earlier. The did influence me to attend and graduate high school ( threated to kick my butt if I didn't ). Anyway that's where I learned or should I say soaked up a lot more motor oil into my own blood.
 
Like some of the others I learned at an early age, because my family could not afford to go to mechanics. The more I did, the more I learned, and if the work required a special tool, I bought it. I think most people here probably learned more and more little by little as they moved through life.
 
@RedFish...they definitely taught you a lot, I've read a ton of your posts and it's just amazing to me how knowledgeable you are. I never hung out at local shops or anything, even though I've always wanted to learn. I just felt like I'd be too invasive. I went to sign up for an auto school when I was 18, but my mom wouldn't co-sign for me to go. Here I am now, 10 years later, finally getting my hands dirty and learning from all of you.
 
I picked up the wrench at 17. A school mate that was younger than I was all ready swapping engines and such. I wanted to know. He invited over and stuck a screwdriver in my hand to take out the radiator while he started on disconnecting the engine. It was on from there. Always tinkering with something.

He didn't care what make or model car it was to mess around with. All were fair game to play with and modify. Our crew of freinds had plenty of talent and pocket change for something. Times were a little different as well as used cars from the early muscle days were just simply used up cars we could get for less than a (kids) week salary to two weeks salary. Yea, they were beat up, but prime for play.

'66 LeMans for $50, 326/4bbl (yes! Running and driving!)
'74 Duster 318, $100
'73 Nova $500
70 Chevelle 350, $400
'74 318 Duster for cleaning up a garage
'73 Tempest , FREE because I asked about it
'72 LeMans, accident, rolled, price? Case of beer.

We would all jump in on it and open up the Summit catolog. Swap meet searching for parts. Throw'em on and let's see what happens!

Yep! Them's were da days!
 
buffoni88 said:
@RedFish...they definitely taught you a lot, I've read a ton of your posts and it's just amazing to me how knowledgeable you are. I never hung out at local shops or anything, even though I've always wanted to learn. I just felt like I'd be too invasive. I went to sign up for an auto school when I was 18, but my mom wouldn't co-sign for me to go. Here I am now, 10 years later, finally getting my hands dirty and learning from all of you.
Click to expand...

I've told every niece, nephew, grandkid, anyone who will listen..
"Knowing a little bit about everything is great but doesn't pay the bills. Get your education, learn all you can about one thing is my advise".
 
Don't loose confidence! I started learning about two years ago at 21 when my cavalier lost a belt due to a bad water pump bearing which had the pulley wobbling. I didn't even know how to change a spark plug or oil back then. I couldn't afford to have it fixed at the time so after buying some $10 wrenches and reading I fixed it and haven't stopped since. Now I've rebuilt a 360, A904 and have done a bunch of repair work on my cars as well as my family's. I never knew car guys or had a dad who knew cars, I've just read a bunch on here along with a couple books and other web sites.
 
Some members of my adoptive family were in the salvage business and there have always been a lot of cars laying around, after I moved here they didn't treat me any different and showed me how to load a wrecker and stuff out in the garage (mainly because they needed help and were short staffed) and they explained to me a lot of how things work in theory.

the first car that ever made an impression on me and got my attention was a Sublime 70 road runner which I still think is the most awesome car ever, even though I didn't really know what I was looking at when I first saw one but I knew I like it ....so going Mopar was only natural

I ended up going to auto school and used those auto classes as electives for my other degree, and now here I am building darts and dusters ...my favorite cars. Mainly because of my adoptive cousin and other family and for them not treating any different for being a female. that and I am a book learner .....I can learn from a book so I have a lot of books and I have read them all so that helped a lot, that and I had a lot of time on my hands.

you can never truly know your car by just driving it around ....you only truly know your car when you have rebuilt it and spent countless hours with it in the shop and made your own modifications and made your own mistakes on it :-?
 
I guess I was born with it. My dad was a mechanic and he came from a mechanical family. I always liked building toys and Erector sets when I was a youngster. I rebuilt my motorcycle when I was 14. I rebuilt my AFB and tuned up my dual point on my 65 Dart when I was 16 and did a motor swap on my 69 Road Runner when I was 17. I attended the auto tech program at the local community college after graduating from high school and I have been in or close to the auto business ever since. I am no expert but I keep an open mind and learn every day. There is so many smart people here that teach me things I never knew. toolmanmike
 
Well my first huge lesson was right before I left for Spain in May. Battery kept dying, wanted to fix it before I left so my buddy could drive it around every once in a while. Took battery to autozone, it was holding a charge. Took alternator to autozone, it checked good. I decided to buy a new alternator anyway, just in case (old one looked...extremely old). Still, battery kept dying. Come to find out, the belt around the pulley wasn't tight enough to spin the pulley. So easy, yet my lack of knowledge was driving me crazy. Which, in turn, is why I posted this, to see how everybody else learned. I'm sure a lot of you have experienced a lot of trial and error, and I've noticed a lot of threads based around that, which is awesome. I can't stress enough how much I enjoy this website. I'm going to become a gold member right now, actually.
 
I started off young at the age of 12 hanging with oder teenagers.We would go to the salvage yard on weekends and hot-wire cars and drive them around in the yard.I bought my first mini bike at age 13 wrenching on it to get it running.Over the years I,ve worked as a mechanic at numerous shops,til landing a job for the Ford Motor Company.That was 27 years ago and I still work on all my own cars/trucks.Its a passion for me.:D
 
I guessing that many, like me, started working on their own cars because they could not or did not want to pay someone else to do it.

Speaking in general, not just about cars.
Since the advent of the internet information is at your fingertips unlike back in the dark ages when all we had were books. (Maybe that contributes to your overwhelming but I would think it would do the opposite and give you confidence)
So I'm pretty much useless to the new generation for information.
Except for opinions, of which I have many and perhaps "wisdom" I have no function.
Take it one step at a time. Trouble shooting and fixing things is not just getting information, it's the ability to think logically.
Try and have fun with a old car.


Some general adriver truisms for fun.
The world is plagued by inexperience.
Good judgment comes from experience.
And experience usually comes from poor judgment.
 
I actually served an apprenticeship under the crabbiest Master Mechanic God ever created. From the time I was 15 until I went off to college I worked in a "all makes" service garage. We did everything imaginable on cars and my boss was a diehard MOPAR guy. From him I learned how to rebuild automatics as well as manual transmissions, rear ends, engines etc. When I was 18 I went off to trade school for two years of automotive machine shop but never plied the trade. I worked at the local Chrysler during the "street wars" era. That would turn out to be the most fun I've ever had with my clothes on. I've owned, built and drag raced MOPAR products since 1963.
 
I started wrenching as early as I can remember.it helped that when I was young most stuff was worth fixing unlike the disposable stuff they sell today. I was just fascinated by how things worked and took a lot of stuff apart before I started putting it back together. Pop was an engineer in the aerospace indestry so he had a lot of knowledge but not much enthusiasm for my hobby. I read a lot of books that had technical information on engines when I was a kid. I loved looking at the photos, especially cutaway drawings. Started on bicycles and then a minibike. I bought a 72 challenger for my first car, my buddy had a 71 charger se, and learned from trial and error. Got a job fixing cars back in the eighties and quickly figured out that not everyone was a good mechanic! I now have a Bridgeport milling machine and a lathe and taught myself how to machine. I guess it was just "in my blood" as they say.
 
I started off on bicycles and it just all came along as I got older. My dad was a professional mechanic but my parents divorced when I was 4 so I never learned much from him. We never had money so if I wanted something I had to work for it and make it happen.

I bought my first car at 13 without my mom knowing it and I hid it at a retired friends house so I could work on it. He wasn't a mechanic but I did get the car running by asking questions to people that could tell me what to do. Over the years my ability has improved and I even work on computerized cars today. My secret is I try to never have to work on something I have to drive right then because the frustration level get to me and it is no longer fun. I keep a spare family car so we have another driver when one is down. Every vehicle I have had in the last 18 years (except my rollback) was bought broken down and I fixed it.

As stated above the factory shop manual is your best friend. I have them for my newer cars too. Asking questions and getting answers by knowledgeable people on the car forums is also a great tool.

Just as when you were a baby, you started with a first step and then you went from there. Twisting wrenches is the same way. You will do some things and screw them up (fall down) so you just do it over (get up) until you get it right and soon it will just become first nature.
 
I grew up on a farm and if something broke we couldn't afford to have someone fix it. When the tractors got too worn to produce enough power to pull the plow my Dad rebuilt the engines. When the combine broke it was either fix it or don't harvest. I was exposed to wrenches from a toddler. I always liked fixing things. My Dad got me my own wrenches, screwdrivers and pliers for one of my early birthdays (some of those tools I still have) and I've been fixing, or modifying things since. My Dad was also a school teacher so when we went from the country school to the town schools (town during school year, farming in the summer) I started finding cast off lawn mowers and bicycles to use wrenches on. Before long I had friends who were old enough to get cars. That was a great time for me because most of those friends knew little about cars and when they broke the kid that was still too young to drive was called on to fix them so we wouldn't have to walk. I made a lot of mistakes, and as has been mentioned, you learn a lot from those mistakes. A lot of the cars owned by my friends had been given to them by relatives so they were old and often needed repair, from Model As to Jeeps to big old Buicks, to you name it! As I got older the friends I hung around were also ones who enjoyed working on cars so I learned from them as we played. I went to 2-1/2 years of college but never was much interested in the book studies so I went to Yellowstone Automotive College for Auto Body school. For several years if I wasn't working on cars I was playing with cars. So, to sum things up after 59 years I forgot both things I once knew!!
 
started young like 13 and grew my knowledge base from there

no had shown me anything and opened a few books and also projects ...

i learned from on all kinds of makes ( american n european ones ), that, they are all the same but the technique is different in repairing them

live and let learn .... =)
 
The first book report I did in school was on the combustion engine, I never had anyone show me anything about cars, Dad died in 70 and no one in the family was real car people, so everything I learned was by trial and error, a **** load of error, but I can do any part of a car build, I started out just keeping the family car running then started dragging any broken, busted, abused mopars home, that's a habit I've yet to break.
 
For me it was two older brothers,I was about 8 years old and they were tinkerin with a go-cart then motorcycles.None of us was ever into sports just anything with engines.The older of the two got his first job working at the neighbor's gas station.My dad had a 63 chrysler at the time and the brothers swapped out the 2bbl for a 4bbl from a 383.From there it started to snowball and to this day the 3 of us are still into cars. I can't leave out my sister, she too is into cars and both of her husbands, ex and current, are car guys. I joke that sometimes I wish I knew something else.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top