When did you start working on cars?

[Bruzilla]

I never wanted to work on cars. As a kid, I studiously avoided any such effort. Then I came off a patrol mission at NAS Jacksonville one morning and my 76 Gran Torino would not start. Turned out to be a seized oil pump, and the cost to repair was $300, which was a fortune to a young airmen of that era. So I went up to Orange Park Mall, went in the bookstore, bought a copy of How To Rebuild Your Big Block Ford, went home and fixed it myself. Been working on cars ever since.

As Budnick's likes to point out... I'm cheap.

 

[lewtot184]

somewhere in the early half of the '60's i always got "drafted" to help friends, who were a couple years older than me, work on their chevies. something was always busted. never forgot it, and never wanted to own one.

 

[YY1]

I was also a bike mechanic because if I couldn't fix it, I didn't ride.

I was raised by a single mother and I remember her brother helping with car issues, like teaching her how to stick a spoon in the choke linkage of her 67 Newport on cold mornings.

About 1980, when I was 12- the water pump in her 71 lesaber crapped out. We had moved about 10 miles away and my uncle did not have a car or license although he was a motor head.

I did all the work myself with my uncle coaching me on the weekends when we went to visit or via telephone.

I learned how to get studs out with two nuts, how to keep the impeller for spinning while loosening/tightening, the importance of a decent socket set, how to judge torque without a torque wrench, tightening sequence, and the pride and pain of busted knuckles among other things.

It took almost two months (mom rode the bus a lot, and didn't really like to drive), but I got it and it didn't leak!

 

[Cranky]

I never wanted to work on cars. As a kid, I studiously avoided any such effort. Then I came off a patrol mission at NAS Jacksonville one morning and my 76 Gran Torino would not start. Turned out to be a seized oil pump, and the cost to repair was $300, which was a fortune to a young airmen of that era. So I went up to Orange Park Mall, went in the bookstore, bought a copy of How To Rebuild Your Big Block Ford, went home and fixed it myself. Been working on cars ever since.

As Budnick's likes to point out... I'm cheap.

I liked to tinker with stuff and still do but I'm also cheap and when I saw how much a shop charged to fix something, it made me even want to learn how to fix my own stuff even more. Another big factor was when some mechanic tried to pull the wool over my eyes and fix things that weren't broken. It felt so good to tell him where he could go with his lying and cheating ways. Now that I'm in my mid 60's, I'm starting to see the cheaters more often again. Something to do with the young and dumb or the old and feeble mentality with these mid 30-40 mechanics......or just a sign of the times??

 

[Brandy]

I grew up in a motorcycle family, club, with 30- 45 bikes in the dooryard all the time. My brothers and I were expected to clean and repair when asked/told to and were taught to do so. The cars came naturally as well as we had to drive in the winter. My uncle Gary was a MOPAR dude and he liked me to help him when he needed an extra hand. I suppose I did my first real repair by myself around 1969 or '70.

 

[patrick66]

I was twelve when I bought my first car - a 1952 Plymouth Cranbrook, for just ten dollars. I even drove it the five miles to get it home! Ran like it was missing on one cylinder. Well, the number six piston was sitting in the crankcase, that's why! That was also my first engine swap, taking the engine from my second ten-dollar car (another '52 Plymouth!) and sticking it in there!

 

[Cranky]

I was twelve when I bought my first car - a 1952 Plymouth Cranbrook, for just ten dollars. I even drove it the five miles to get it home! Ran like it was missing on one cylinder. Well, the number six piston was sitting in the crankcase, that's why! That was also my first engine swap, taking the engine from my second ten-dollar car (another '52 Plymouth!) and sticking it in there!

You must have lived in the country? We were in the city limits but kinda still somewhat away from town so driving around the neighborhood was pretty easy to do without getting caught. We even still had a dirt road along the back of the neighborhood. I learned to shift my mom's 51 Cranbrook 3 on the tree at an early age while she drove and worked the pedals.

 

[Mocajava]

At 15 I bought my first car, a 56 chevy 210 with 6 banger in the engine bay. Found it sitting on blocks in a side yard, locked up and flat, dry rotted tires. Dad let me buy it because he knew I would have to fix it and and he figured it probably wouldn't run or move for a year. Through trading and a little cash( i am cheap too!) I found a 283, my buddies and I figured out how to drop it in and we got it running. Since I worked at a gas station, I had access to tires that kind of matched and the lift for getting her finished up and rolling. Had the car running 2 months before I could test for my license and drove it to high school for my freshman and sophmore year. Sold her to buy my first Mopar, a 68 Super Bee. My hands have been getting greasy and cut up ever since!

 

[747mopar]

When I was 16 and realized my dad had no intentions of helping get my first car! I bought Volkswagen Beatle, after nearly completing the car I looked at the motor and sold it haha. I ended up building an 82 Camaro with a MUCH BIGGER MOTOR, I built the whole car, motor, tranny, etc and got many good years out of it before a Dukes of Hazzard stunt claimed it's life!

 

[cr8crshr]

When they started to become ridiculous in the cost of repairing in a shop. Hell the parts were never the issue for me. Its was the Damn Labor rates these clowns charge and how they drag out the repair time so they get more $$$$'s in the end. :angryfire::angryfire::angryfire: I hate it when that happens so I just learned to do for myself...cr8crshr/Tuck

 

[Seventy]

I was messing with bicycles at 10 pulling the fenders off and turning the handle bars over etc and doing some simple wood working at 11. At 12-13 I was a lawn mowing fool and was doing some basic maintenance on dad's car but was mostly washing it and keeping tabs on fluid levels. Was also tinkering with lawn mowers and go carts. An under powered edger motor was my go carts first power plant but it wasn't long before that was changed.....and things went downhill from there.

I started working on cars after I had bought my first car at age 16. However, before that, I was tinkering and improving my bicycles since around age 12. Even earlier, my friends & I were making "buggies" out of old scrap wood and nails that our dads all had lying around the house and talking the wheels off of shopping carriages that we'd find in the woods.

Wheres Tom from Texas, I thought he was the oldest mopar enthusiast, Wooden push karts with carriage wheels, and bicycles with fenders??? WTF, How old are you guys? LOL, I'm just kidding, but you have to admit, that makes you boys sound 80-85......


But seriously I think the kids today NOT fixing and playing with bikes, is an issue...

 

[theman440]

1981 - I was 13 years old.

 

[Cranky]

Wheres Tom from Texas, I thought he was the oldest mopar enthusiast, Wooden push karts with carriage wheels, and bicycles with fenders??? WTF, How old are you guys? LOL, I'm just kidding, but you have to admit, that makes you boys sound 80-85......


But seriously I think the kids today NOT fixing and playing with bikes, is an issue...

Bicycles with fenders....that was the problem....even in 1962 it wasn't cool to have fenders on a bicycle nor turned up handle bars lol. Today's kids spend way too much time playing video games imo. My 27 year old daughter's life is ruled by them I've played my share of vid games too but saw how much time I was spending and got rid of ALL of them after about a years time. That was in 1980 just when they were taking off. My wife even bought me a racing game complete with pedals and steering wheel and I never hooked it up. I knew better lol. I'll be 65 in May....

 

[SassyPants]

Hello folks,

Great stories, thank you. I grew up on a farm where if you did not fix it, it did not go. I also put my self through College with $100 or $200 cars (a 64 Valiant and a 64 Sport Fury) so I got a chance to wrench on those in many parking lots. My official start at Resto was in 1998 ish with my daughter. We redid a 74 beetle. Then in 2000 ish, did a 68 Firebird Convert with my Son. When my Son was about to go away to college, he suggested that we sell the FBird and build a Cobra Replica. We started Big Red in the spring of 2002 and I finished it after he was gone in late 2002. Then my Brother moved to town and suggested that we do Gen 1 or Gen 2 Mustang. We bought a barn find 68 California Special and did a Nut and Bolt resto on that car with his 10 year old son who is now at Basic Training in the Air Force. Then my Brother in Law moved to town and was in love with Cobras. We did a Factory Five version with him. Then my brother decided that the Mustang was ready to move on and we then built a Cobra Replica with him and his family. And NOW, it is the 66 Coronet, Big Block, 4sp, Convert that My Girlfriend's family has had since nearly new (demo). Sooo, cars have been a way to be close to family. I have been extremely lucky to build cars with those I really care about, with their help. This Coronet may well be the last car to be built in my downstairs garage unless I have a Grandchild that wants to share the task and I remain healthy. Thank you to all on this site for your help with the Coronet. You folks are appreciated and we look forward to this new adventure. Stage of the 66 Coronet Build, Still in Tear Down, but pretty close to being done with tear down. Then time to get it media blasted and start the body work. This will be a big project that my girlfriend and me very much look forward to. My brother, brother in law and other help come over to lend a hand. Soooo, it is still a family affair. What a great deal. May you all enjoy the process as I have done over the years. Best to you all.

 

[Moparsmitty]

I was lucky enough to live through the 50s (I'm a pretty old guy). When I was about 10 years old my next door neighbor's teenage kid was a real 50s style hot rodder with the greased back hair, the smokes rolled up in the t-shirt sleeve and the whole nine yards. They had a little garage behind their house and the kid and his buddies worked on their rods whenever they had the time. I would stop by the garage after school and whenever I had a spare minute to watch them wrench on their cars. My folks thought that these guys were absolute hoodlums but they treated me as a kind of a mascot and were really good about having me around and trying to teach me about working on cars. I learned a lot from these guys and not just mechanical stuff. I will never forget those guys. I guess the message is to never pass up the chance to teach a kid something useful. You never know how much positive influence you might have on them.

 

[eoo]

bought my first car when I was 15. a 67 cutlass for 200 dollars. back then that's all we ever spent on a car so anything majorly wrong we junked the car and bought another. my dad was not into cars so all little repairs were self taught. when I got a little older and spent more money on cars my uncle taught me how to repair them. I can never thank him enough.

 

[ZR9B]

If you count my GI Joe jeep ...about 8. I had four older brothers all into cars, I would get in there way every chance I could. started with huffy bikes, then came the minibikes...I had more minibikes then any kid should, our snowblower was missing the motor for some reason(minibike) around age 12. At 15 I bought my first car, 71 Cuda power windows, fog lamps ,wing, the car was loaded, 340 car with a 318 for $500 in 82. First thing was to fix header leaks...did that for the life of the car. Rebuild the top end, new headers and repainted under the hood. I had the coolest car. I also fix my friends cars for them and even the school bus on the way home from school. I had a few roadrunners bunch of transportation specials, trucks and so on.... as of now 72 charger and about 6 minibikes ,for the kids of course.

 

[uwss]

14

 

[Daves69]

Probably around 8, around '65.
I got to hold the light while dad and my uncle worked on replacing a piston in a '59 Rambler wagon in the car. Another uncle that worked at Warshawski's got them the parts.
Lol, two other memories I recall about that car.
Once we had an ice storm (you could literally ice skate around the block) and the car could not make it up our driveway and the rear tire smoking.
My dad tried to teach my mom to drive one evening. The first corner she turned we ended up in the neighbors front yard. She never tried again after that.

 

[mmissile]

Bicycles, motorcycles, cars. Normal progression for a "mechanical addict".