Backyard Mechanic 101

[GasSavers_mattW]

I am just curious about how you guys first got comfortable/competent in working on cars? Did you grow up with your head under the bonnet with your dad or just start fiddling on your own steam or what?

[GasSavers_DaX]

I started restoring my first car, a 1973 Porsche 914, when I was 15 years old under the guidance of my uncle. This is what first got me going. He was there every step of the way during the build, but after the car was drivable, he almost avoided helping me, and at first I was frustrated, but this was the "push out of the nest" that I needed to get really going on my own. After I sold the Porsche, I got into Hondas and did my first engine swap on a buddy's car knowing NOTHING. The swap took about a week, but we finally managed to get it running. It's all down hill after you get confidence - now I'll jump head first into something I know nothing about (ahem, airplane), but the outcome is usually at least acceptable, and if not, chalk it up to a learning experience and fix the problem.

[101mpg]

I always hung out with my dad whenever he worked on anything, and I've got a mechanical aptitude which I inherited from him but it apparently skipped a generation according to him. (His dad had the mechanical aptitude, my dad just tried to avoid having to pay the repair guy, but he can do some simple repairs if he has to.) He gave me a roll of electrical tape, a few screwdrivers here & there, eventually my own small set of tools, and he always let me try to work on anything. He eventually gave me the tools he got for his wedding - Craftsman from 1964 and they outperform today's tools by a long shot.

I was actually studying to restore classic cars for a living after I found out I truly enjoy cars, but there was a nasty incident at the auto parts store I was working at and suffice it to say permanent back injury, so I have to pay for most things more complicated than an oil change or a simple tune-up now, unfortunately.

I've always been sort of intuitive with vehicles. My favorite fix on my dad's car was a Ford straight six engine which had a HORRIBLE squeaky alternator belt. He used belt dressing, changed the belt, cleaned every pulley, etc. This went on for a couple of weeks. Finally he asked me to look at it. He popped the hood, gave it a little gas, it squealed like crazy. I told him to shut it off, asked him if it was sluggish lately. He said yes. I said to pull the #3 and #4 plugs - they would be fouled, #3 more than #4. Clean/replace those plugs and the belt squeak goes away, power & mileage go up. He couldn't figure out how I knew this would fix the belt - after all - not intuitive.

I turned it on to show him - gas the engine and it torqued one way in the front (changed the geometry WRT the crank pulley & alternator & water pump IIRC) and turned the other way in the back. No fire in the middle - it really twisted a lot!

It's much easier with the internet - can learn things I never dreamed of before, and sharing all this information about FE is wonderful. My current project is finding a CRX and trying for 80-100+ MPG.

[guest001]

seriously school and books is the way to go. theres so much misinformation floating around from mechanic to mechanic, the web, etc.

[Danronian]

Originally Posted by guest001

seriously school and books is the way to go. theres so much misinformation floating around from mechanic to mechanic, the web, etc.

True but most people who go to school to be mechanics, never get a job being one.

The way to learn is to just start working on your car. Make sure it's a project one, and not a daily, because you WILL mess up if you're a beginner.

I've been working on cars since I was 13, finished restoring my first car when I was 16, and I've been under hoods/cars ever since. I went from Chevies to Hondas since MPG was killin me.

[GasSavers_TomO]

I started because I was too poor to pay to repair my first car. The oil sending unit blew out...so I went to the library, rented a helms manual and then went out and fixed it myself. I just told myself "it's broken already, so I can't make it any worse, and it's just some bolts/nuts that go back on when I'm done"

So now I can do anything to a Honda with the exception of rebuilding an automatic transmission. I just plain don't have a want/need for that as I've dabbled with the innards of a GM 4T60 trans before.

I also had mechanical aptitude from a very young age. I was always modifying toy cars by putting motors in them from other faster vehicles. Heck, I even made a propeller driven (air) car when I was 5 or so.

Good times, good time.

[GasSavers_bobski]

I think I've been mechanically inclined since I was very young, so that's kinda cheating, but I guess I started out with just taking broken small appliances and stuff apart to figure out how they work.
My dad was into bicycles for a long time... He would do his own maintenance and such and go riding on the weekends. I picked up the maintenance tidbits by watching and asking questions. After that it was a lawnmower engine or two, and similar watching/asking questions when he was doing auto maintenance.
Then came my first real project when I was 14 or 15 - putting my dad's old '74 Kawasaki S3 back together. It had been sitting in pieces for nearly two decades when I started messing with it. Luckily, everything was boxed and bagged up nicely, so very few new parts were needed.
Next was my first car - a '90 CRX DX. I tinkered with it for a while and then managed to hydrolock the motor, bending a connecting rod and trashing the starter... Pure stupidity on my part. So that threw me into my first motor swap. It was just a stock salvage motor, but cars are quite a bit different from motorcycles... You can generally pick up a motorcycle engine/transmission for instance.
That swap turned out fine... a year or so later I found a '90 Civic EX motor (same as the CRX Si) so I dropped that in and went about figuring out the MPFI conversion. My original transmission took a dump on me at some point in there, but that's not really much different than a motor swap.
A friend got ahold of a pair of CRXs with blown motors from a technical school, so I helped him install a single cam VTEC motor in it... That took a fair amount of wiring. He wasted no time in killing the auto transmission (doing neutral -> drive burnouts probably). Of course he wanted to replace it with a manual... Luckily Hondas go together like legos.
And then I wrecked my first CRX. Not racing or carving corners or other such stupidity. I was distracted and simply didn't register an oncoming Rav-4 when making a left turn. Bent the frame, it was a write-off. So I stripped what I could off of it and bought the remaining tech school CRX from my friend - my current '91 CRX.

Originally Posted by TomO

So now I can do anything to a Honda with the exception of rebuilding an automatic transmission.

They're not that bad... You just have to follow the manual and keep everything absolutely grit-free when working.



I'm now driving around on that trans BTW.

[GasSavers_mattW]

So in summary; if my Dad hasn't already taught me (he hasn't) buy a Geo Metro or an older Civic (Cheap and FE and I can sap you guys for knowledge) as a second car and the shop manual for it and fix everything that breaks on it myself plus do all the oil/filter/belt changes myself too. My wife and I currently just share 1 car, 96 toyota Corolla and I've never done any work on cars before so i'm a bit scared to work on that. I have done some electronics stuff and I have taken apart sanders and fans at work and put them back together without incident so I think it wouldn't be too hard. I just need a place to start.

[mrmad]

Originally Posted by mattW

So in summary; if my Dad hasn't already taught me (he hasn't) buy a Geo Metro or an older Civic (Cheap and FE and I can sap you guys for knowledge) as a second car and the shop manual for it and fix everything that breaks on it myself plus do all the oil/filter/belt changes myself too. My wife and I currently just share 1 car, 96 toyota Corolla and I've never done any work on cars before so i'm a bit scared to work on that. I have done some electronics stuff and I have taken apart sanders and fans at work and put them back together without incident so I think it wouldn't be too hard. I just need a place to start.

An old metro or civic would be a great place to start. Just get a good set of tools and have the attitude you can put it back together.

[korax123]

Well my dad is a "jack of all trades" and I learned what I could from him. He knew the basics of changing starters, oil, alternators, etc... And I have done 3 engine swaps on my 2 CRX's. I understand what I am doing but the mechanic at work understands a lot more then me. I just know enough to get by without paying someone else.