Whats your mechanical background?

Seriously, I think I felt this way by 7 or 8 years old, mid 1960's. Obviously I wasn't alone.

Wind in my hair ---
Shifting and drifting ---
Mechanical music ---
Adrenalin surge ---

Well-weathered leather
Hot metal and oil
The scented country air
Sunlight on chrome
The blur of the landscape
Every nerve aware

 

"I have the mechanical aptitude of a dachsund..."


LOL!

Phil Hill was attributed to have said that describing the style of Wolfie VonTrips....who would drive the car 'till it blew up, in search of Victory.

 

Also, my leftover bolts NEVER match my leftover nuts!

Glad you are back, Paul....

 

I'm pretty much self taught. I really had no other option, as everything I owned until after college was some sort of clunker. Buy them cheap, get them running, keep them going until something -expensive- breaks, then buy another cheap car. The old-school Chilton guides were my friends. (the new ones are junk...)

Biggest lie in mechanics, in 6 words: "Assembly is inverse of disassembly"

I don't claim to be an expert, but I figure I can take pretty much anything apart without breaking it. If I get lost at that point....well, that's what flatbeds and professional mechanics are for.

 

That's a good idea. I don't do that, but instead I put a cinder blocks under there in case the jack stands fail.

 

The wheel is better.

A cinder block actually should not be used, and would certainly crush if shock impacted by the load..it'd be dust.

I worked for the railroad years ago and there learned it's hard to beat oak timber...I keep some 12" x 12" x 3"s around of that stuff, and shim them up if I am under the car, alone....

 

Damn, sorry to hear!

 

ISN'T THAT "5" WORDS???!!!

 

There was an extra part in there when I started, but I'm sure it wasn't important...

 

Started when I was about 5 or 6, taking apart things to see how they worked, getting in trouble for "destroying" the clock, drill, vacuum cleaner, etc. I learned that if I took itapart, I'd sure as hell better put it back together before I was found out, if I wanted to be able to sit down for the next couple of days. By the time I was almost 7, I'd been shooting for a year, and Dad taught me how guns worked (Colt Woodsman Target) by having me clean them with him.

By 8, I was able to field-strip my Grandfather's service 1911, rechain my bike, was creating brackets to build my treehouse (unfortunately, didn't yet understand the gauge/strength of sheet metal, and used that thin galvanized roof flashing - oops), and lots of other things that would get parents thrown in jail these days. Being an Engineer, among other things, Dad also was teaching me how to illustrate what I was thinking (drafting), which taught me to think in 3 (and later 4) dimensions.

By 19, I had worked on my motorcycles, cars, and started building up my first balls-out custom car. This led, a year later, to being hired by Bob Norwood as an apprentice/gofer/fabricator/shop monkey, for which I can't be thankful enough, for the education and opportunities to be shoulder-deep in what was an evolution of cutting edge design and construction as it progressed through the decades.

Since then: race cars, both my own and customers', race teams, and some prototyping and design; along with education in Architecture and Engineering (family business related necessity), later specializing in Aerospace Engineering (after leaving the family business), not for the purpose of sending things skyward, but race car chassis design. This was long enough ago that all those equations computers perform for CAD was done by hand and a calculator.
At least I missed the slide-rule era, althogh Dad taught me some of that when I was in middle school (no, I don't remember a bit of it).

Not nearly as active in the mechanic part of the cars now, mainly because of lack of my own shop/equipment, and I actually mind getting filthy now. I do sometimes miss even that part of it, but mostly just use my experience to know when something isn't right, and the likely culprit in need of attention.

Once it's in your blood..........well, you know.

 

Can't second this enough!

 

I'll throw mine in. I learned to 'fix things' by first watching, and later helping, my dad - a man who not only fixed his own cars, but also built the garage in which they were fixed.

From there, I worked in a local auto parts place in high school. (I chose the job not long after learning just how hard it is to work construction). From auto parts I went to doing under-the-table wrenching for a local mechanic and then to a job doing marine motor work during summers in college.

They say that Golda Meir used to polish her tea kettle when she was stressed. For me, working on my car (or home) is like a form of therapy. It is engaging, productive, and it takes me away from my troubles.

 

in high school (the 80's) my friends and i built musclecars into "hi po" street machines and drag race cars. i mean, full frame off rebuilds including engine trans and rear. Well i just helped them on their cars as i didn't have money to afford my own really. i did buy some absolute junkers but never had the scratch to complete a project.

in the 7 years i "took off" between high school and college, i spent a year at auto mechanics school, which was pretty easy since i'd already worked on most everything we covered, with the notable exception of automatic transmissions.

nowadays there is nothing i couldn't fix or modify on a car (mechanically or electrically; body work is beyond me). i just put a completely new suspension and brake package on my vette, did the chassis setup, everything. you shouldn't read into that as if it's a big deal; it's really elementary wrenching. not like rebuilding an engine (which i could handle as well).

but i don't do any work on my normal cars -- they always go to the dealer even for oil changes.

the f430 i work on myself (which isn't saying much as it's super reliable with the exception of the ediff), not because of any desire to work on it, but because i refuse to pay the inflated service charges that the dealer charges for simple work. $1000 or so for an annual maintenance? whatever. IMHO that's a complete ripoff.