How long you been wrenching?

I remember when there wasnt a forum to ask for help. Just got the tools out and tried to figure it out. Ive been working on cars since I was 14. Im 41 now, and well not as bendable as I used to be.

I asked the muffler and shock place what it would cost to replace the shocks, lets just say Im doing it myself. I an do it for 1/4 what he quoted me.

Lets here you stories.

For my 13th Birthday I got a box of quadrajet parts and my dad told me to "put the puzzle back together". He later tested my abilities by installing it on his '76 Regal. Worked fine and it later made it to my '71 Olds Delta 88 with the 350 Rocket. I have been "figuring it out on my own" ever since and I am 44 now.....


Oh, on a side note, I often have to explain to the mechanic what I want and how to do it..... I'm there because he has the tools that I don't, not the experience or knowledge.

In 94 I started wrenching on my own junk as well as the Army's junk, lol. Before the internet forums came along, I had my father on speed dial, lol.

After the Army I started working of tractor trailers and after a while went back to military stuff as a civilian. Now I am laid off and do minor repairs for people on a cash pay basis.

As for my own stuff, aside from tires, paint and machine work I do all my own work. It is too damn expensive to do otherwise. I have of course spent quite a lot on tools but since I can use them at my actual places of work, it's worth it.

I started working on my bicycle when I was 14. My parents gave me a set of metric combination wrenches for Christmas, because my dad didn't have any metric tools in his box. I had a better set of tools than my dad by the time I was 21. I got my first car when I was 20, and I spent a lot of time under it. Luckily, I had friends who knew about cars.

I learned my limited automotive knowldege from my Dad, spent a lot of time helping fix either his 75 Impala, or the 87 Lesabre. Its amazing what you learn from completly rebuilding and engine by hand. We rebuilt the 3.8l in the 87 lesabre that is now one of my many cars. I think my interest in cars started in the late 90's.

around 12-13 was supervised putting a 283 back together,now at 56 its .. do i really want to work on that today..lol

I started working on almost anything I could take apart at the age of 10 (1958). I built push cars, and at 16 got my first motorcycle. I T-boned a car with it, and ended up with a 62 Pontiac Catalina. I started doing my own work on it. Generators, points, voltage regulators (the kind with points). Since then I have been fixing almost everything that breaks. Occasionally I will have a mechanic do something when I do not have the time to devote to it. I am getting a little old to do the really heavy stuff, and work on really hot days. I just replaced the entire steering system of the Starship, except for the upper and lower arms and bushings.

This is the first forum I have been on, so up until I got here, I was doing everything with little if any assistance. I have been lied to and deceived by many a mechanic, so I still like to do it myself. I am currently going to USF full time, and can not afford to have mechanics charge me $75 an hour every time they touch my car. I usually know more than they do as well. I also find that if I need machine work done, and I take the part to the shop, it costs a lot less. I also use a lot of junk yard parts, because they cost a small fraction of the new parts. I've been hitting the yards since I was 17, and find them a great resource, as well as educational, because I get to practice on their car before I work on mine.

At 9 I took apart a wind up alarm clock. It didn't go back together too well (sprung the springs, lol) My Dad was always wrenching on his cars, mostly shade tree mechanic stuff. He dabbled in body work on the 73 Caddy and the Austin Healey, painting the entire car with spray cans that no one believes is a spray can paint job (spend ALOT of time buffing it and there are no runs or sags ANYWHERE on it). I was only mildly interested until 19 and my first vehicle.
I started working on it out of financial reasons. Blew the tire 350 up inside of a week and paid my buddy to replace it.

My fave wrenching story was taking the 70 Blazer to my buddy's house to do brakes. His Dad was the service manager at a dealership. He walked out to my truck on the stands and used one of those specialty tools for brakes, POP POP POP off came all the parts onto the ground and he said, "Get to it boys, let me know when you are done" Well we figured it out and managed to get it all back correctly. ha ha ha
'
My heavy wrenching has only happened since I've gotten afflicted. Never thought I'd pull a motor out or swap axles in my driveway but there you go.
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I blame my father. He's been a gearhead his entire life and I just followed along. When he started driving his Dad mortified him by giving him a former Bell System 1960 Rambler wagon. Dad fixed it up and traded it for a 1963 Nova SS.

I came home from the hospital as a baby in 1974 in my Dad's '72 Cutlass Supreme coupe, buckets, floor shift, rocket 350 and SSII wheels. I was three when I helped him paint the stock wheels body color. He loved that car and it made me love Oldsmobiles.

In 1977 my parents found out my brother was on the way. Dad didn't think the Cutlass was large enough for two kids, but wanted something special. He was an Olds man, but didn't like the way the wood trim only ran down the lower sides of the the Delta wagons, and then up and over the wheel-wells. He thought that was ugly.

He stopped at the Pontiac dealer, and found out '78 was going to be the last year the real Pontiac 400 was an option. He ordered a Grand Safari in full-boat luxo trim, but also added the 400 and Turbo 400 tranny, tow package with posi rear, heavy duty cooling and snowflake mags. I've written about this car elsewhere, but it's the car that made me like wagons. We tinkered with it until 1986.

At age six I "helped" Dad fix up his father's old 73 Chevy Cheyenne Super 10 that he'd inherited. It was a fun truck, two tone orange and white with brown interior. Ahh the 70's! I learned to change oil on this truck.

In 1983 at age 9 Dad bought "our" 1969 LeMans convertible from a co-worker. THIS is the car that I really learned how to build cars with. From 1983-1993 we converted it into a perfect GTO clone. Only looking at the cowl tag would reveal it was a Lemans. We put a correct YS code 69 GTO engine in it, changed the entire front end to GTO, all the badges and trim. The hardest part was the rear marker lights in the 1/4 panels. The Lemans used red Pontiac arrowheads and the GTO used GTO-specific lights. Had to weld in patch panels for those. Will post pics of that car and all the changes someday.

In 1984 Dad bought our '79 Corvette L-82 4spd. We were living in Denver at the time, and I have AWESOME memories of going up into the mountains with the T-tops off. We had that car up until just a few years ago. I did my first water pump on that car, and not many people can say they were taught to drive a stick in a Corvette. Thanks Dad!

As usual I've written way to much, but lastly let me say at age 15 I started pumping gas at an Amoco in New Jersey. In new Jersey it's illegal to pump your own fuel, but a 15 year old can do it for you. Ha! They also still have SERVICE stations there, and I owe a lot to the gruff and always loud Bob Botteroff, the mechanic at that Amoco. I pestered him and looked over his shoulder long enough that he finally taught me a lot. He also hit on my mother whenever she came in, which flattered my Mom but made me want to slug him. Ah memories.

-Mike

Sprocket wrote:

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I have many pictures where I look just like this. Putting a new 4.2 I-6 in Laird's AMC Pacer wagon comes to mind....

Need.....More........Beer.......

Used to wrench back in the seventies. Had several custom vans, Dodge Maxi's, that I worked on. Had one with Edelbrock manifold and carb, along with Hooker header/sidepipe combo.
Also was a pit crew member for a gut from Grand Island NY, who did formula Ford racing.

Had a opportunity to buy a chassis for an original 427 powered Ford GT Mark 2 from Holman & Moody, but didn't have $2500.00 at the time to grab it. Can you imagine what that thing would be worth now?

Been wrenching since I blew up the family lawnmower at age 12. I remember when I first got my 9C1 - was afraid to work on almost any part of it. That was back in 2003. Now the only thing that hasn't been touched is the long block and the AC compressor.

After several years of saying "man, should I have really done that job myself, or just taken it to a mechanic?" I made a decision about six months ago that every time I do a major repair, it makes me a better mechanic. So if I keep doing the hard jobs, it makes future jobs easier. I've got a big engine job coming up with my wife's minivan (need to replace timing cover seals and oil pan gaskets in a 99 T&C 3.8L). Bring it on.

Damm.. Never gave this much thought .. Good GOD !!! Ummmm.. 50+ years No wonder I am starting to hate cars !!

Added a 10 speed 2 gear pedal sprocket to my bike, cut off the 10 speed forks and slipped them over the original forks for the chopped look,. added a banana seat and sissy bar,.
swapped it for a 57 dodge custom royale, cut the back off with an axe and an 8 inch grinder,. 361 v8 push button auto,.great bush car,.
i was 13,.


Nick

I was one of those kids who would take things apart to try to understand how they worked. Usually got all the mechanical stuff back together properly, but my Mom's kitchen radio was another story...

We (my brothers and I) would completely disassemble our bikes in the spring, clean and lubricate every part and reassemble them. Got my hands-on gene from my Dad. But the funny thing was he would NEVER touch his own cars. He always went to a mechanic for car repairs, but he could rebuild huge steam engines and compressors with his eyes closed!

My first experience on my own was pulling the interior out of my first car and installing a carpet over the old rubber floor covering. The car was a 70 Nova 4 door - with a straight 6. Since then, been gradually adding skills, tools and experience. I've restored a bunch of cars, including a 57 Corvette "basket case" that was nothing more than a mechanical jigsaw puzzle when I got it. Most recent build was a 68 GTO that got a "Silver" at the GTOAA Nationals in 2009 (its first show).

Recently, I tried to list all the various cars and trucks I've owned. it's been about 75 vehicles in nearly 45 years of learning and wrenching and (usually) it's still fun. Best part of all is meeting and talking with like-minded lunatics like us!

I separate mine into eras:

1. Lego
2. plastic models
3. RC cars
4. real cars

It has been awhile...

JoeT wrote:

Got my hands-on gene from my Dad. But the funny thing was he would NEVER touch his own cars. He always
went to a mechanic for car repairs, but he could rebuild huge steam engines and compressors with his eyes closed!

Some of the mechanics at work are like this. They figure that they spend all week fixing things, so on their days off they'll
pay someone else to do it. They just get tired of it.

Nick Danger wrote:

JoeT wrote:

Got my hands-on gene from my Dad. But the funny thing was he would NEVER touch his own cars. He always
went to a mechanic for car repairs, but he could rebuild huge steam engines and compressors with his eyes closed!

Some of the mechanics at work are like this. They figure that they spend all week fixing things, so on their days off they'll
pay someone else to do it. They just get tired of it.

It's a similar thing with me. I use to repair computers full time and when one of mine would break I would have one of my friend's fix it. Comes with having to deal with it the whole day.

jayoldschool wrote:

I separate mine into eras:

1. Lego
2. plastic models
3. RC cars
4. real cars

It has been awhile...

Same for me.

jayoldschool wrote:

I separate mine into eras:

1. Lego
2. plastic models
3. RC cars
4. real cars

It has been awhile...

Slightly different for me:
1. Lego
2. plastic models
3. Lawn tractors
4. real cars

jayoldschool wrote:

I separate mine into eras:

1. Lego
2. plastic models
3. RC cars
4. real cars

It has been awhile...

1. Wooden blocks - so I am old!!
2. Lego's
3. AFX cars and repair
4. Mini-bike
5. Snowmobile's
6. Cars