How did Everybody Learn How to Wrench on Their Cars?

[OchoMarko]

I was just wondering, it seems like a lot of us on here do a lot of mechanic work on our own cars. How did yall learn all your skills?

I went to community college in Houston and learned a lot of theory of how things worked with little hands on. Then I got an awesome job as a tech trainee at an Infiniti stealership. I learned so much more from this job in the first six months than the two years at the community college. After a year, I got promoted to be an actual technician, not just an oil change/tire guy.

Seems like a lot of guys here can do some really big jobs that professional techs can do. Pretty awesome!

 

[ssmoparviii]

I started when I was in high school by reading a service manual for a 1959 VW Type 1 (bug) I was starting to restore and learned from there. It was a start and now sometimes I wish I did not ever read that book. hahaha

 

[SATURN5]

Shop manual and a box of tools...

Later, local college for a two year degree. Which I never finished.

From there, lots of late nights helping buddies with everything from engine swaps to welding in replacement panels..

Plus all my own projects..

 

[bugzilla46310]

My dad grew up through the depression. That age group seemed to to everything themselves. I got into doing what ever I could by helping my dad; my auto, building, wood etc. And of course, no one can do it as good as yourself!

 

[Sapperfire]

well i pretty much started out HAVING to work on things... when i was a kid if i wanted a bike i had to make it from parts, then when i wanted a go-cart i had to make that too, basically just grew up with only my mom, and my dad never paid child support.. so if the lawn mower didnt work, i had to fix it...

there was a guy across the street from where i lived that was an at home mechanic and he had a shop, i was always over there bothering him for tools or advice on stuff, he showed me the basics of welding and thats how i built my first go-cart from 2 old dolleys and 2 15hp chainsaw engines, the guy gave me the saws because he couldnt get them running, i took them home, took them apart, cleaned everything, gathered the pieces that i thought were bad and showed him, he got new pieces and i put it all back together
thats how i kinda got started in this buisiness...
the main kicker was back in 2001, i took my 97 Trans Am to a friends shop to have him install a blower, proformance susspension work, and a few other "go fast" goodies, i was working offshore at the time and told him its his car until i get back, basically tossed him the keys, signed a blank Work Order ticket and told him he had 2 months to make it bad a$$, when i got back on land i went to the shop to check out the work... the first thing that was handed to me was the bill ... $14,200.. at that point i decided to swap careers

 

[mespock]

Shop manuals ... Constantly connected to LvC ... laying on back phone by ear Ray or Jibit on the phone.

Spending time with Kiker....

 

[rooster1969]

Trial and error of course. Never destroyed anything with a hammer and blamed everyone else. LOL!

 

[chicken]

started by keeping my 87 f150 runnin

high school auto shop for 2 years

community college for 2 years of auto

bounced from shop to shop for a while

and worked at ford as a tech for 12 years

 

[97SilverLSCcobra]

Trial and Error for one thing.

Lot's of common sense for another!!!

 

[ford nut]

My dad had me in the garage at a early age.

 

[LaserSVT]

Always had a good grasp of the mechanical and electrical. Took stuff apart since before I could remember and tried to put it back together. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didnt. Made an amplified antenna when I was 7. It worked well for 15 seconds before it burst into flames and then the TVs tube poped! :lol:

Took shop in high school and wasnt happy with my first cars performance at 15 so I began learning to mod crap.

Read a lot and just started working on peoples cars. 10 years ago I took and passed several ASE tests when working at a dealership but never had any training.


For me its a passion. I love cars and love to know how everything works and what I can do to make it better.

 

[bryantaylor]

would always like to take apart things and try to put them back together as a kid. was always into bikes, so i would work on my BMX bikes all of the time.

couldn't afford a running car at 16 so got one that needed work and a shop manual. all working on cars involved is following directions. then just read a lot on tuning theory, how a motor actually works, and so on for the other stuff.

 

[topher5150]

My dad was always wrenching on cars, 56 F100, 40 Ford, 68 Shelby etc.... And I would always watch and help out ever once and a while. Then dad tought some basic maintainence, and then tought my self the rest

 

[Duck]

Started messing with muscle cars in high school, and had a friend who worked on cars. His dad was a logger and he had a shop we could use when he wasn't using it. I learned a lot in high school shop, due to the way it was set up. Remember I am an old fart, so our high school shop doubled as the bus garage. We were in 2 person teams and each team was responsible for a bus. Any thing that broke or needed service on your bus, you fixed. Think of the liability of doing that today

 

[NoLimit95]

Trial and Error for one thing.

Lot's of common sense for another!!!

That's my answer except I blew one up lol. Now I don't mess with injectors and I have enough sense to know that o-rings have a purpose. Two of them isn't always good either.