Mechanical Intimidation

snailmont5oh wrote: Vigo, you need to go to work for Jay Leno, or find your own local Leno. I gotta think that his mechs get paid enough to live comfortably.

I'm not so sure about that. He occasionally makes comments about it and I get the impression most of his guys are either volunteers and/or retired and working on his stuff for the fun of it - and lets face it - who wouldn't want to be able to work in his shop with his specialized tools on the huge variety of cars he owns. Plus, he allows them to work on their own projects in the shop.

It seems the best way to make a living as an enthusiast mechanic is to specialize in a particular car or make. One shop I know in Philly pretty much only works on MINIs (mostly) and BMWs (some). There are also a few Volvo specialists I know of in this area. They work on Volvos and little else. Being marque-specific could help reduce the special tools and training required and thus seems to keep their prices down. Plus, working on one type of car all the time reduces diagnostic time since they see common problems so often.

New here to the forum, like many others, after seeing a link to Mazdeuce's engine thread.

I'm not into the racing so much as just into cars/pickups/heavy equipment.....aw heck, anything mechanical.

I grew up surrounded with it, my parents were in a farming area, one grandfather had a farm tractor dealership, my father was a mechanic, and I eventually became a tool and die maker.

I was about 12, and went to spend spring break at my grandparents. After a few days of snowing weather, some boredom etc, my grandfather offered a challenge, a roto-tiller with a briggs and stratton, that had broken a connecting rod. It was already apart, so was quite a puzzle for me, and with a couple phone calls to my father I got it together with the parts my grandfather had found. At the end of the visit, my dad came to pick me up, and spent some time to get this thing up and running.

After that, when we got back home, I got a thorough lesson on rebuilding a Briggs lawnmower engine, which in turn, vecame my summer pastime. I must have rebuilt a dozen lawnmowers that year for friends and family.

As one learns to work on/repair more 'complicated' items, I call it 'evolution'. In a way, for most people, I would think it's an inverse relationship to 'mechanical intimidation'. As one learns more about various systems (in a car, house, industrial machinery, whatever!) the overall evolution of knowledge lowers the intimidation factor.

I find that having at least one more car than I need goes a long way towards reducing the intimidation factor.

I'm reasonably confident in my ability to resolve most problems given enough time. Not having to fix the issue right now because I need the car to get to work tomorrow makes all the difference. The extra time means that I can sit back with my coffee as mentioned above. Or if it turns out I need a tool or part I don't have, I can punt until that lack is overcome. Or when the scope creep kicks in. I pulled part X only to reveal more issues with part Y, etc.

see what appears to be interference from a slightly worn starter motor interfering with crank signal. New starter, interference gone, starts fine next morning.

Maybe off-topic but just wanted to give you props for that one. If it weren't for the nagging questions of cost:benefit you mentioned, you should feel pretty dang good about being able to find something like that.

And then sometimes necessity trumps intimidation - re: AmySanders' comment in the R63 thread.

In reply to Ian F:

I read her comment and immediately thought of the scene in Grapes of Wrath where they lose a rod bearing on the way to California. They get a used one from the junkyard and reassemble and they're back on the road.
Sometimes not fixing something is not an option.
A good writer could spend an afternoon with her and come up with a great short story.

I've never had a case of mechanical intimidation. As a kid that was kind of a handicap. According to family lore I often disassembled stuff that I never figured out how to put back together. In my memory the bathroom scale, alarm clock, lawn mower and television were already broken before I got a hold of them but my Mom's recollection is different. As an adult it's sort of an advantage as I can usually dive into something I've never even seen before, figure out how it's supposed to work and fix it.

Similar story. I used to be called "Mr. Fixitforgood" by my dad because I used to take things apart (by destructive means at first) and couldn't put them back together. I've improved my "take it apart broken or not/put it back together working" ratio a little bit. I do like EFI over carbs but the new stuff annoys me with things like "P0300 random misfire detected". Heh?

Good luck tracking that one down...