Personal Car Stories?
 

So I'm curious- I find people who are patient online and others who seem to look at me like I'm stupid and I'm wondering what kinda crowd I'm talking to. Does all this stuff make sense to everyone but me, or am I looking up the wrong info.
So I wanna get to know the people on these forums- their background in automechanics and what else you do. For starters

I never learned how to so much as change my oil until I decided to do it myself to save money a year ago- even then it took me two hours after wresting with the filter.
I'm living on my own and am going to college for architecture but really started loving cars when I was broke and so was my car.
Unfortunately the internet is my only source of info on how to repair and modify my car. But I'm learning after I keep breaking my car and eventually figure out how to fix it. So now I just love messing with my car. Even when I kill it, I enjoy seeing how it behaves under certain conditions and I learn from it.

Whats your story?

You said " I find people who are patient online and others who seem to look at me like I'm stupid and I'm wondering what kinda crowd I'm talking to. Does all this stuff make sense to everyone but me, or am I looking up the wrong info."

I am finding This hard to figure out.... What are you asking?

Well some people are more patient than others when I ask questions and seem redundant. So it got me thinking about how experienced the people on these forums are. If the information makes more sense to them than to me.
So I wanna know what experience youve had with cars, when you started, is it professionally, how old are you, how did you best learn about cars?
I wanna use it as a comparison for where Im at and see how I can further my education in automechanics.

Robinson
oddly enough I was enrolled at the 4 year University and had a foreign car that was messing up. I had always been so inclined to tinker, and I didn't know what I wanted to major in at college so I went to the instructors at a Community College and talked with them. I told them I had ZERO experience and could they teach me. They said they could, so I transferred.

The first semester I did ok, about average, but after that, it clicked in... and I was making straight A's. I graduated with top honors in the 2 year program, went to work for a foreign car repair shop with my goal to open my own shop in 5 years,.. I did it in 4...

As for knowledge on the forum....it can vary from very knowledgeable people, to people that really should not be giving advice. You will have to decide on which ones fall in that category.

You can always take a night course in Automotive Techs and learn the correct way.

I hope this helps

Brian B

Well I'm also interested in just hearing your stories too. So thanks. Did you grow up around cars? And I see under your signature that youve gone pretty far in the automotive industry.

Unfortunately Im balancing school and work now. So I have priorities. But I think Ill look into night courses. Trouble is I wanna learn this stuff to work on my own car, save some money, learn how to improve it. But I dont want to go into the career field. Is there inexpensive training I could get for people who want just that?

I've always liked taking things apart to fix them. As a kid, the "fixes" were not always successful, but my dad had lots of patience.

Dad wasn't rich, so he fixed what he could on older cars. Namely he fixed just about everything. So that's the background of growing up in that household.

Story...
I had an ammeter installed in my 72 datsun. I was doing something under the dashboard, maybe rooting around for some speaker wires or something. I got my wristwatch band up against the back of the ammeter, and it just welded itself onto those big wires. $&*$%)$(*$ that thing got REAL HOT in a big hurry. I had to really pull my arm hard to break it loose from the ammeter terminals. That's when I discovered there's a whole ton of sharp metal brackets & stuff in there. How I wish I had disconnected the battery first...

Oh, guess we all have messed up. Its interesting to see how many had gotten into cars from growing up.

I did not grow up around cars.. NONE of my friends had any ideas about cars. My family was into sales/adm and my grandparents owned a furniture factory,other gparents was a Fire Dept Chief.... so no influnce there at all and yet, it's the path I took and it has worked out for me very well.

You should be able to get some basic training from any Community College for very little out of pocket $.

As for snaffoo stories.. back in the early 70's.. I had very long hair.. I was leaning over drilling a hole in a Sand Rail I had built.. and my hair got sucked into the drill motor... it wound it up pretty darn quick... I learned real quick about how power tools can play havoc with anything loose. (there are many stories about drill presses and slinging metal )

Brian B

Oh. The Community college I go to has automotive but its around 180 a credit plus fees.

Nothing free my friend...and the education you get is priceless.