When was the first time you started working on cars?

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Diablomonkey

Diablomonkey

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As the title asks when was the first time that you started working on cars and what was is the hardest thing that you have done to a car?

I have been around cars my whole life and with my dad being a car nut it wasn't long before I started helping him out. When I was 12 I did my first engine swap, there was a GT350 clone and a black notch back Mustang and the two guys that had them wanted each others engine. My dad had been teaching me different things around the shop and thought that I was skilled enough to do the swap. The only help that I needed was to break bolts loose. At 16 I took an engine out of an older Cougar, I rebuilt the engine all on my own and then reinstalled it. I was very proud of it because it was the first engine that I had built and it fired right up, but it probably had an easer time because I had watched my dad put together more engine than I can count.
 
I first worked on a car at age 3. Oh how I remember the blood sweat and tears that went into getting that '69 Malibu on the road.

These days I'm a regular mechanic. I can even tell you things like where the valve covers are!
 
I used to work on my Dad's '81 Caprice quite a bit with him, along with his C/K1500, and the later Vans that he has had. The current project has been the '68 Camaro, but my Brother knows more about the body work than I do, so I'm waiting to do the engine and the interior work.

As for my car, I've never had to do much to it. Its not quite as simple as an older Chevrolet or a Ford, so I tend to let the VW shop do anything more than basic repairs or replacements. I've really only ever had to rotate my tires, change the battery, and change the oil myself on the Jetta. I don't know how to do suspensions, so I left that to the shop.
 
i've been workin on cars for years. i started when i was like 6 working with my dad on all of his cars. I've done brakes, Suspension, Drivetrain , Eletrical, and Engine work. there really isn't much i haven't done. i did all the work on my Honda and my Reliant on my own. It's just much cheaper that way.
 
I was 18, and it wasn't by choice. My Dodge Daytona (my first car) broke down and I had to fix it. We weren't well off enough during my childhood to have excess food much less a project car--that and neither my mom or dad were into cars enough to be a mechanic. *edit* However at the age of 11 I started mowing lawns and such to be able to afford computers and parts. And that's when I became a computer tech...I fixed my first computer @ age 11 and overclocked my first processor at age 11 as well.
 
M5Power
I first worked on a car at age 3. Oh how I remember the blood sweat and tears that went into getting that '69 Malibu on the road.

These days I'm a regular mechanic. I can even tell you things like where the valve covers are!
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That made me laugh out loud as I had just read the posts exchanged in Diablomonkey's other thread!!
 
The earliest I remember monkeying around under the hood was at age 5, "helping" my dad change spark plugs. The hardest thing we ever did was change the heater core in our old '85 Mazda 626 (my first car :D). For some reason, Mazda designed the car so that the entire dashboard had to be removed in order to do this...
 
My dad had always been a great shade tree mechanic, so I grew up helping him out from as early as I can remember. We maintained our own cars and did side projects as well. I just regret that only about 50% of what he knew rubbed off on me before he died - he was a great resource. Plus he had a great garage setup that I'll never be able to duplicate, and miss almost as much as I miss him :lol:.

When I was 17 he gave my my mother's old gold Pontiac convertible (the red one I've posted around here before), and helped me restore it. We had already done a light rebuild on the engine after the oilpump died. We cut all the rust out and Bondoed it (there was no Year One and ready supply of replacement quarter panels back then, and cars that age were already getting crushed faster than we could find them). We redid the interior, new top, new wheels, and painted it red. New brake components, suspension bushings, springs, and shocks all around. There's a reason why that car has 275,000 miles on it and starts every time.
 
I don't remember how old I was but my brother bought a 1970 Beetle for $1000. It was his new daily driver and I helped him work on it, we did seat upholstery, wiring, I even helped him work on the engine. We took out the tired 1600DP and built a 1776cc from it. I think that's the reason I'm addicted to Beetles. I still get to work on it when I go to Vegas to meet him but it is no longer his daily, it's a project.
 
I rarely work on cars, and I'm sure I'll never fix my car myself unless it's something small. The hardest thing I've done together with my dad was getting out the whole driveshaft and geartransmission, fix it and put it back in. Since we had no professional equipment to place the car on, and no equipment to crack up the whole thing, yes, it was pretty hard getting that thing back into the '80s Mitsu Pajero :crazy:
 
Well, as two engineers, we spent a fair amount of time complaining and proposing different ways it could have been designed :).
 
Bram Turismo
I rarely work on cars, and I'm sure I'll never fix my car myself unless it's something small. The hardest thing I've done together with my dad was getting out the whole driveshaft and geartransmission, fix it and put it back in. Since we had no professional equipment to place the car on, and no equipment to crack up the whole thing, yes, it was pretty hard getting that thing back into the '80s Mitsu Pajero :crazy:
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Same here. My dad wasn't a big car nut, so I never really have learned a lot about engines. Which means anything really minor like changing tires and oil, and fixing my rear view mirror is about the most I do. But with my cars, it's almost impossible to change the tires, and getting that way with the oil.

So, really, I pretty much have my work done by others or Michael if he feels like it.
 
I remember at age 8 my dad showing me how to rebuild a Holley 4-bbl on the kitchen table.........with my mom screaming in the living room about the smell of gas in the apartment.

My father has taught me alot. I had alot of fun working on both car {94 SS and his 72 impala, which is mine now} I enjoy the time me and him spend together working on them.

But knowing alot about cars, it's a blessing and a curse. A blessing in the fact you don't have to take the car anywhere except for either tranmission repair or getting new tires. A curse cause people try to take advantage of you and your services.

It's happened a few times with me, so I don't work on other people's car.
 
I don't remember when I first started working on cars...

I often remember "helping" and watching my dad with maintenance and repairs on our cars/boats/ski-doos for as long as I can remember.

But for me doing work, it'd probably start with my first car (that wasn't even mine) - a 1995 Neon sedan with the patented Slushbox transmission.
Washing and detailing, maintenence (oil changes and filter replacement, coolant flush, etc), and jobs growing in size for the year that I drove it. The bigger jobs I did on that included some suspension work when I replaced a ball joint, and the rear main seal on the engine, which entailed removing the transmission, front suspension and subframe. I did this at the school shop, largely on my own.

On my Talon (which I've had just over a year), I've done the timing belt and associated pulleys and the water pump. Also I've done a complete brake job, and replaced a front axle (with the other due soon as well). I do my own regular maintenence, and smaller jobs as well.

The only things I farm out are wheel/tire related stuff and some jobs where specialised tools are required. When the clutch is needing replacement, I'll probably hand somebody else the keys - Too big of a job for a weekend, partly because it's AWD.
 
i do ALL my work myself except for installing new tires( and if i need to i can do that myself) i even do my own tranny repairs and replacing sheetmetal(RUST)
 
foamy_302
yea but in the MANY years of automotive engineering you think maybe someone would have thought of a better way to do it?
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Holy crap!!! The Idea Police is here!!! I'm sorry, officer. I'll club myself with a wrench the next time I have a thought.
 
I think I was about 12 when I started to do work on cars, but a year later, I got into kart racing and I have been working on race cars ever since. The only thing that I didnt touch was the inside of the motor. I still did all of the other maintenance like oil changes, changing the heads, repairing the front spindles, even making the sheet metal and fiberglass body pieces.

I didnt start welding till I was 15, but I kind of still know how to
 
I didn't work on proper cars until my mates started buying cars. I was 16 when I tinkered with a proper car. Before that though I'd worked on a lot of mechanical stuff, I ripped apart and rebuilt go-kart engines and stuff like that. or the most part I know what I'm doing until the bonnet of a car, though the help of a Haynes manual is always welcome should I need it.
 
Haynes and Chilton Mauals are the ****.
i have a full set of FSM's for my honda and plymouth. they go about 10 times the detail of and haynes manual.
 
Mmm... pretty early. I never really did much besides clean and polish and change fluids, rotate tires and help install brakes though.
 
I've been working on cars since I was 5 but never really started turning wrenches til I was 7. I did my first rear end disassembly/assembly and enine disassembly/assembly last year. Most of the stuff I did before hand was really light stuff. i never got a chance to really do all the cool stuff most of you guys have done simply for the fact that there was never a car to really mess around with...
 
foamy_302
Haynes and Chilton Mauals are the ****.
i have a full set of FSM's for my honda and plymouth. they go about 10 times the detail of and haynes manual.
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I have the Hayne's manual for my diesel and I can't say it's the greatest thing ever but that's why I ordered the Bentley. If it's good enough for the dealership mechanics it's good enough for me.
 

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