Young guys, where did you learn mechanics

my buddy robert hall! and i worked at a lube center after high school, where we did brakes and tune ups. i got paid to learn!!!!

 

I got started hopping up lawn tractors in the backyard, alot of trial and error and my old man telling me "that'll never work" just so i would figure out how to prove him wrong. the at about 13 I started sweeping the floors at the muscle car shop down the street. My school district was nice enough to offer vocational classes for the kids like me. I took the body course but spent more time honning what i knew then learning.

 

Took in in high school for two years. My senior year I did a work/study thing at a shop in town. I left at lunch to go to work and man did i learn alot working there for a year. After Highschool I went to the University of Northwestern Ohio in Lima. Took automotive there also worked and a shop full time. And on top of that was building my first truck. Did that for 3 years, then moved back to cleveland area and started working in a shop here. The shop i work at now does EVERYTHING but body and like custom work. learned more working here then all my schooling. I fix all makes and models and do alot of diagnostics. Electrical work is where all the money is. I go to classes all the time for training (work pays) Im a master L1 tech and hybrid certified.

So a ton of school and hands on got me to where I am now. Oh and the internet and car shows taught me about hot rods.

Read,Do,Learn.

 

i learned from my dad,he always had me around when he was wrenching,one of my earliest memories was a jack leaking down and his buddies old buick falling on him in a parking lot,scared the shit out of me!!

 

I learned from my dad, my uncle, and all of their friends. I also learned to keep my mouth shut, listen to what the ole man and his buddies wheres saying and the watch. Then ask questions. You can always learn things form the older and wiser. Even if its something that your parents may not approve of.

 

definatly the hamb, reading all my old books and shop manuals, justing kinda ripping stuff apart, and of course my father!

 

My brother and I took auto-shop our freshman year in high school (1987), and the rest we learned from my dad and older friends that raced cars at the local circle track. My brother got a job as a sophomore working at and equipment and vehicle repair shop, and I got a job working at an auto body shop. A lot of the rest was just trial and error.

 

Mechanical skills just come naturally to me...

 

no auto shop here just hard knocks. if you want something cool or great in life you strive for it wether you save up for it or build it yourself. I couldnt save so i learned to build it myself. no body holding my hand just trial and error.

 

I am an Auto Shop teacher and the classes are starting to become few and far between. they are out there, but due to the budget cuts and crap in Cali. these classes are first to go. The districts and schools think all students are gonna go to college and be doctors or lawyers. This is far from reality. I had 5 classes last year and due to cuts 3 were cancelled, and they expect you to stay positive(See how positive you are when your pay gets cut by 50% and you can't pay bills)!!!
Students today aren't what they used to be also, out of a class of 30-35 I may get 2 that are interested, which is fine, but getting the rest to do any work is like pulling teeth. Been doing this for the past 10 years and I've noticed a difference just in this time. Sorry for the rant, but I needed to vent.

Myself my dad is a gearhead and I just followed suit, I've been messing with stuff since I could walk. I always new I wanted to do somthing with cars, but not fully with the mechanical aspect. I needed to make up credits in high school (f'd around a bit much) and ended up takin the ROP Auto body class after school. I discovered that I really liked doing bodywork and painting, so taking the class ended up being a very good thing.Took the class for 2 yrs. and learned alot, I graduated and went to Wyoming technical institute taking Collision/Refinishing & Street Rod. I graduated and 2 weeks after landed a job at a fab shop doing sheet metal fab on hot rods and customs. Long story short I became the T.A for the autobody class I took and started teaching the night class. An opportunity came up for the class I'm in now changed it from a regular Auto Shop class to a Performance & Fabrication class. Thats my story in a nutshell.

 

Wow, I'm really proud to see all the answers here. It has re-newed my faith that the torch will be carried on.
Chalupa55, I hear ya. and I feel for you.

 

I'm not a young bloke (46), never had any formal training.
Read, asked questions, listened, pulled shit apart...
I have always worked with qualified blokes, I have gained a lot of knowledge from them, just have to listen.....
There are LOTS of young people that wont listen when someone older with experience gives them advice.

 

My brother was a motorhead and almost 10 years older than me. I started helping him by holding the light and running (he MADE me run) back and forth to the toolbox. One terrible day I dropped his 1/2"-9/16" open end into the cowl vent of his '56 Chebbie, we never could get it out, we still laugh about that (now)!

When I was sixteen he helped me drag home my first sad looking mutt, and after that we helped with each other's projects. One day when I was in my mid-twenties he called me up to say he was stumped by a problem on his current clunker. I took a look at it and came up with a fresh idea, and it worked!

The worm had turned, and the "hurry up kid" had arrived, that was a proud day for me. Now 40 years later we're still buds, still working on each other's crazy projects, and still learning something new every day.

 

I miss my dad. I am trying to pass the torch on to my kids. Seems the girls are more interested in the hot rods than the boys at my house. I will teach em all if they are willing to learn. My dad gave me a set of tools and a 289 when i was 9 yrs old and told me to have it tore apart by the time he got home that evening...then he helped me put it back together. 1 of the best experiences.

 

my stupid school cut auto class back in 91! stupid jerks!

 

I learned from other rodders, magazine articles, and hard knocks. Mostly, I refused to pay a mechanic, based on some very poor and expensive service I recieved when I was a young whippersnapper. From 18 to 30, I moved from just oil changes to building engines and complete cars. I did have a couple club members teach me basic welding and cutting. The rest is practice.

 

Trail and error, buying shitty cars that didn't run and not having the money to pay someone to fix it

For me this went from bicycles, to cars, and eventually to buying a welder and building a hot rod.

 

I am 32, never had any formal training. Had one semester of auto shop my senior year! All we did was change oil for the teachers!
Most of my learnin was from my first truck! it was a hand me down, that never did run right. The ol' three on the tree crapped out on itself so I switched from a 3 speed to 4 speed. I replaced many clutches in that truck, only with hand tools, no trans jack and no garage. My father was a car guy, but not much into the mechanical side.
Learned alot from just hangin around here.

 

Under a tree.

 

My grandfather and my dad for the basics. Lots of trial and error. No auto shop for me either.

 

When i WAS young. I learned from my Dad(Thanks Dad! RIP) at his gas stations( MOBILE & ENCO) and the stations and dealerships he worked at and let me hang around. In high school i worked on friends cars to make money.Went to automotive tech school for six years. and watched everyone to learn anything i could. I learn more by watching! John

 

It's just a natural talent/feeling in my blood, and it is one of the only ways I can go into my own little world.

 

i learned the good ol way, by standing outside with my pops handing him tools. didnt realize i was learning at the time. actually didnt even like helping him out on the cars, until around 12 years old. my high school didnt have any auto shop classes either. in high school i would just read every car mag i could get my hands on, even read them in class.once i graduated from high school i enrolled in the local community college and took every auto related class the offered. the most fun ive ever had in school

 

I'm another one that has to give my dad all the credit. He was always wrenching on his old Dodge van especially before our 24 hour road trip from LA to Durango Mexico and he was happy to have me there by his side watching and learning.

It is a shame that high schools no longer have auto shop or machine shop which I had at South Gate High School from 85 - 89.

 

When I was 4 back in 1944 I used to sneak over to Reiders Garage in Oley PA and watch the mechanics repair cars. I asked lots of questions and eventually bought my own car at 14 and took it apart and put it back together. Helped a lot of my friends repair their cars in High School. I later became a truck diesel mechanic and later a Chevy master mechanic and again later a Chevy body and paint tech. This led to a Chevy service manager and later my own auto repair shop. Man i'm tired after all that but it was worth it.

 

Back when i was young, my dad talked me into buying a 63 corvair as my first car. That will do it

 

My interest in cars came out of nowhere when I was really young. I was drawing cars around age 5. The closest thing car related I grew up with was a 68 Chevelle in the garage. It's been sitting since before I was born. (i'm 25) Everything I learned came after I bought a 68 Mustang for my first car. I kept it on the road for 6 years as a daily driver and learned everything from that. I had help from Dad and some friends, but most everything came from my own research and trial and error. l love my father to death, but I really wish we had that father-son fixing up the Chevelle experience growing up. But he was and is so busy working. He still helps me with my car, and so do some friends. My high school didn't have an auto shop class, and no one with a shop wants to hire someone with no experience. But, I'm out there meeting local HAMB members and learning still. I am working a deal for a 55 Dodge flatbed pickup so that should teach me a lot while I get it back on the road. I still have a lot to learn and want to do a lot of things, so hopefully the years ahead of me will be filled with more and better learning than the years behind me.

 

I just started watching my dad work on stuff and finally told him to give me the wrench.

 

Disassemble, assemble it back together... test it, if it works... good, if not repeat an till it works. Thats how i learned mechanics. I am 23 years old and wrenching on my car for a year now... helping friends with there cars and i am enjoying it

 

I've always had a knack for looking at something and being able tell how to take it apart and fix it, so as a youngster i built alot of scale models and fixed allot of lawn mowers. All dad ever taught me was how to do tunes ups but he would give a couple days with whatever car was getting replace before it was scrapped. So at 14 i did a headgasket job on a k-car with basic hand tools and as i got older and more tools i kept tackleing bigger jobs just to see if i could do them. I couldn't afford to pay a shop and i always had two cars on the road at the same time so if one broke i drove the other.