How did you learn to work on cars?

I had a Subaru Brat back in High School that I bought for $180 from a friend who hit a deer with it.
Its been downhill ever since.

Dad was my first teacher, then at some point I started getting into wrenching on my own, since I had no money and I liked the sense of accomplishment when I "fixed" something.

I had three older cousins who were into cars. One was Porsche, Audi, BMW (the list goes on) certified who had is own shop (he is about 20 years older than me). I learned by watching, asking questions and trying things myself. I enjoyed being their go-fer.

I was driven (so to speak) by the desire to go fast and felt the cheapest way I was going to get rolling was by doing it myself. Being one of the younger members of my extended generation (cousins, etc.), I was around guys who thought it cool to be able to do stuff for yourself. A dying breed for sure.

My dad and his brother, plus necessity and the desire to learn how things worked. I've pretty much always been "poor" when crap breaks, so I had to fix it cheaply but competently.

I've always learned by doing. I'm the only one in my family that has any desire to wrench.

I'll usually search up the issue I have, try and find a DIY on it, and just go to town if I have the right tools. Not having a steady income, since I'm a student, has also helped me become a better mechanic. Instead of taking it to the mechanic since I have no, I just start taking it apart myself.

My dad was a mechanical engineer and basement tinkerer with a full shop of tools, but surprisingly he was too impatient a guy to teach my younger brother and I about mechanical stuff when we were growing up, but at least we always had access to his tools. At age 19 I purchased my first car, a three year old 1968 Triumph Spitfire. A year later I decided to turn it into a race car. I bought Kas Kastner's competition manual and followed it to the letter. My younger brother is naturally more mechanically inclined than me and had an auto shop option as he was still in high school. Basically the two of us built that car which included a full engine rebuild with mods, etc. Dad would be there in a consultary position when we needed his help but we figured out most stuff by ourselves mostly thanks to Kastner's manual.

My dad is a mechanic who moonlighted a lot in the driveway, I started fetching/holding wrenches at 5 or so, made a little money now and then helping out, by high school I was stealing work from him.

It is interesting this just came up - I had this discussion with my 11 year old daughter this weekend.

I started working on my bicycles and my Dad taught me how to hold wrenches and which ones to use - then it became cars and I helped him on the easy stuff he did. Then in high school it took off and I did my stuff and helped my friends work on their cars too.

Give me another 30 or 40 years and maybe I will actually be able to effectively work on cars well enough to answer.

What I mostly do know could be more accurately described as: I stand before the open hood, wave a few tools around somewhat randomly and pray that my minor blood sacrifices are acceptable to the Car Gods. This is the way of my father, and of his father before him...

Anything that I actually do manage to fix properly falls squarely in between self taught and dumb luck.

I helped whenever I could when dad worked on the car growing up. I just wish that I had paid better attention.

My current understanding stems from my slight discomfort with my living situation: I don't feel comfortable enough in my job to take on a loan for a new car, so I keep the car running that is already paid off. When something breaks, or should break soon, I learn how to fix it. I try to find the middle ground between the overkill factory service manual and the lackadaisical internet.

Or, maybe I'm just a control freak.

I grew up car-obsessed but no one in my family had any car talents. My parents put me to work in body shop during my hs summers to try to get cars out my system and to understand that I should use my talents to make a living. After graduating from law school and establishing my practice, I decided to go SCCA road racing and initially relied upon "race mechanics". After loosing a Sport Renault engine when the "mechanic" didnt finish the work until the nite before we left for Road Atlanta and left several important fasteners loose, I realized that I could do the same work with better quality control. I bought tools and started doing my own work. I learned to rely on the advice of certain "experts" ie Mike VanSteenberg when I switched out to RX-3's and got to help build an enduro car which started out racing the Longest Day at Nelson Ledges and then became my sprint car after going on a diet. I recognized my limitations and had Mike or other expert to do my engines and transmissions but I could build and modify suspensions and do the weekly prep needed for a reliable club racing car. I still work on my street cars even though the economy has stopped my racing. To me, there is nothing more relaxing than working on a car after a day in the office.

I was as broke as could be and bought an RX-7.

I would pay well for an FC TII in that kind of shape, though.

Kind of a sore subject for me. I have loved cars since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Wanted to take anything and everything apart to see how it worked. I never was the girly-girl my mom so desperately wanted, and I never met my dad so I had no outlet for exploring my mechanical side. I tried to take auto shop in jr. high, but the school had never had a girl that wanted to take auto shop, and they liked it that way, so no auto shop for me.

I have given up on helping my husband in the garage. He seems to think my endless questions are just me second guessing him, so mostly I just read about stuff on the internet (here mostly) and do minor things on my truck. It's in my blood, though I couldn't really tell you who I inherited the gene from. Some long forgotten farmer probably, desperate to get the tractor working in time to bring in the crops.

Wasn't a car guy in the entire family till I came along. Dad never changed his own oil or rotated tires yet alone tune-ups or brakes. My buddies weren't car savvy either, I was totally on my own.

Stuck my nose in every automotive/ technical book, asked tons of questions, made a lotta mistakes. I seemed to retain car info like a computer tho. Started crewing for short track dirt cars and helping out on projects as a teen. One thing I knew I was good at was tearing stuff apart, got to do a lot of that. Bought tools every pay day... and more books.

Tackled more jobs as confidence came working w/ manuals. It was different back then w/ no internet, you met the right car folks or figured it out on your own. You folks are really lucky if you grew up in a car family.

Been over 30 years since I rebuilt my first SBC, 25 since I bought a D Sports Racer w/o a clue other than I'd rebuild and race it. Time flies.

My 90 y/o Dad just seen my '05 S197 on jack stands and said: what's the matter?

Nuttin' I said, just tinkerin'.

I always had an interest. I read shop manuals from the library for years before I ever owned a car (How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive should be required reading for everyone).

I learned by doing. It's all just nuts and bolts. Taking stuff apart and putting it back together is the only way. It took me a long time to get over my fear of electrical problems, but now I just pretend they are pipes that carry smoke, and can usually figure it out.

The most effective tool, however, was buying a $300 Fiat 124 spider as my first car. It really didn't give me much of a choice.

My mom had a cousin/uncle that spent all their time in the garage. She told me it was common to go to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner and the afternoon/evening would always end up with her uncle and sons all in the garage working on a project. The family that works on cars together stays together; I guess?

Carbon copy this for me!

My dad knows how to drive a car, that's it. But I had the interest in working on cars at a young age. My main inspiration was my grandfather. He would tell me "you can learn how to do anything from a book." TV broke and he was off to the library, an hour or so he was off to Radio Shack. An amazingly smart man, and he didn't even finish high school.

My first mentor was my high school girlfriend's dad. He is a career mechanic and SCCA racer/fabricator. He helped me buy an old ratted out Jetta, change the heater core and put new CV joints on, etc. I've been hooked ever since.

ddavidv wrote: I always had an interest. I read shop manuals from the library for years before I ever owned a car (How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive should be required reading for everyone). I learned by doing. It's all just nuts and bolts. Taking stuff apart and putting it back together is the only way. It took me a long time to get over my fear of electrical problems, but now I just pretend they are pipes that carry smoke, and can usually figure it out. The most effective tool, however, was buying a $300 Fiat 124 spider as my first car. It really didn't give me much of a choice.

To add to what I said earlier. Dad also encouraged tinkering. He used to bring home broke things for me to tear apart and figure out how they work. Built push-carts, tear them up on hills and rebuild. Like others, did bicycles too. Before manufacturers had BMX bikes we built our own and rebuilt when we broke them. Dad brought home a motorcycle in milk crates once, a late 60's era Montessa 250. Almost had it together before it disappeared. Probably a good thing since it didn't have fenders or front brake and had worn out motocross tires, it was an accident waiting to happen. Aviation-wise, dad brought home a lock-wire practice board and taught me to lock-wire when I was 12. Think that was just to keep me occupied and out of his way when he was working on other things. Came in handy when I became a helicopter mechanic.

I never was the girly-girl my mom so desperately wanted, and I never met my dad so I had no outlet for exploring my mechanical side. I tried to take auto shop in jr. high, but the school had never had a girl that wanted to take auto shop, and they liked it that way, so no auto shop for me.

To be honest, the 'gender isolation' of being a mechanic is something that really wore on me over time. I think a LOT of us men wish in some way or another that more women were interested in and allowed into the trades. I guess some guys like being around just guys at work, but i found that, for reasons i resent and would like to change, the kind of men who end up working on cars are more often sexist/racist shiny happy people (intentionally or not) than they are in the general public. I think it's a result of the kind of people who wouldnt let you into auto shop, the same people who pushed students who they thought couldnt succeed academically into shop class, the same kind of people who think being a good tech doesnt take as much or more brains than many 'white collar' jobs, the kind of people who think women 'just shouldnt' be in certain positions or jobs. The trades are still flooded with the results of these biases, and they arent always fun to be around.

Brett_Murphy wrote: I was as broke as could be and bought an RX-7. I would pay well for an FC TII in that kind of shape, though.

Same here, actually! For a while I had 0 desire to work on my cars, but once I finally got a decently reliable DD, I went out and bought a 1987 non-turbo FC as a project (now Dave Estey's hillclimber). I pretty much did all the work on that car myself with a Hayne's Manual and FSM I found online, buying tools as I would go. I only occasionally farmed out projects when I was pressed for time or could not do something myself with my limited toolbox and skillset (i.e. front wheel bearings). It helped that it was in good shape considering it lived in New England all of its life.

In general things are pretty much the same now as they were back then, except for the Alfa 164's engine rebuild which I did with a knowledgeable friend. My gearhead friends all live far away from me and don't have compatible schedules, so I tend to go it alone with the help of FSMs, YouTube videos, and forums.

Genesis was building model rockets, then radio-controlled cars. First car had a 43 HP diesel so I thought I should lighten it by removing the jack and spare tire. Got a (real) Beetle and learned to change the oil and screen. Bought the "Compleet Idiot's Guide." Rebuilt the Solex carb without instructions in a bowl on the driveway. Had a college roommate with some knowledge and skill that gave me the confidence to do brake pads, rotors and shoes. Bought a 914, a Haynes manual, and rebuilt the dual Webers on the kitchen table. Still didn't know much.

Then decided to build the 914 into a race car, in a small midwestern town before the internet. I knew next to nothing, had next to no money, and struggled a lot. But the struggles taught me a lot. Resurrected a 1973 911 targa.

Sold the 914, bought a Spec Miata, raced it, fixed what broke, did body work when folks crashed into me. I figured out as much as I could, including that while I work on cars, I will never be good enough to be good at it.

But I did win two championships in that Spec Miata. :-)