Starting Off Young Kids In The Garage

I started mine out with the snow/summer wheel change over. They could pass lug bolts set the torque wrench etc. We then moved over to lawn tractor and snow blower maintence. This worked well because everthing comes apart so much easier. Now we do brakes and oil changes (then go out for something fun, I tell them we can do these things because of the money saved by doing it ourselves.)

Chris

My dad always had me help him with mechanical projects. Everything from fixing the dishwasher to changing the oil/wipers on my family's early '80s Mazda B series or rebuilding the yard sale lawn mower he bought for $5. Sometimes, I would just stand and hold the flashlight while he talked about what he was doing, other times he used my tiny child hands to grab a nut or screw that he dropped into some cramped crack. He still does the same. I was home last week, and he insisted that he show me how to rebuild the mechanical circuit for the turn signal on his CR-V. I actually hated working on these projects as a kid, but they helped plant the bug for life.

Klayfish wrote: I'm "middle aged" and just started learning how to work on cars a few years back. Still very much a novice.

same here....I just pulled my first intake off an engine

My daughter is 5 and my son is 4. They love to help whenever I'm working on something. I made them their own workbenches...

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The total cost to make the benches with all of the tools was much less then most of the fake plastic toy work benches they sell, about $90 each. The kids love them. Now they want to go check out new tools in the store with Daddy.

Working on their bikes is a great idea for kids. The look on my daughter's face when she removed a wheel for the first time to fix a flat tire was priceless, I could see the light bulb flick on. My son needs more supervision, his favorite tool is the hammer .

My dad started me off as gopher and light holder. That then progressed further. He used to bring home things for me to tear apart and figure out how they worked. Most never went back together. Sometimes he would bring home something torn apart and I had to figure out how to get it back together.They were usually missing a key piece though. He brought home an old Montessa motorcycle in milk crates once. Was missing the side case. Dissappeared before I got it completely together. Good thing though, it was an accident waiting to happen. No fenders, worn tires and only a rear brake. Used to scrounge bicycle parts and build our own bikes for a specific purpose. Like wheelies or jumping for example. Built a bicycle chopper once with 6-ft forks. Lost track of how many push carts we built, destroyed driving them down an hill and then rebuilding them. Gocarts too. Built one out of a self propelled lawn mower with the drum style blade. None of the nieghbors complained about us driving it across their lawns as they got a free mow out of it. Considered charging but thought that would be pushing it and just thankful they didn't call the cops on us. I rebuilt my first motor, a 69 Datsun 510 wagon w/1600 SOHC with him sitting in a chair with a beer in his hand directing me what to do. I was 16. My sisters went through similar. One sister rebuilt a Yamaha 350 twin 2-stroke and the other rebuilt the motor in what is now my 70 Opel GT. My girls weren't that interested plus I didn't have anything around for them to tinker with. My youngest did want to learn some and I taught her what she wanted to know. At first she didn't mind getting dirty and did her own maintenance on her cars but later when she got jobs that appearance matters she didn't like to get her hands dirty or break a nail. She does help change tires when we race and she does like to race cars. We share the Miata. But she won't go out with a guy that knows less about mechanical things than she does. She used to get mad at some of them when they passed through the garage and saw my toys. They liked to hang with me in the garage. One of them helped me put the engine back into the GT and I taught him about points style distributors. Still friends with a couple of her exes.

From my experience in robotics, I would be über careful not to push them beyond their capacity/attention span/patience for something. Assuming everything has a "place" in your garage, I would start by teaching him were things go. Not only will you trust him more, but you will also be much less frustrated with him. I think that labeling everything (to help him) would be a good idea, but a "quiz" might be overdoing it. Looking back on it, I think that I got started by swapping out the tires at the change of the season. To this day, I'm much more interested in the mechanical aspects (bolts, springs, belts, tires, carburettlrs, etc.) than the electrical. Taking him on a "field trip" to harbor freight might not be a bad idea.

In my opinion, you have to build the interest first and work from there. Also, be sure to lay a few basic safety rules ASAP. Jack stands, hands behind the path of the blade, etc.