I never intended to be a wrench

In all my life, I never intended to be a mechanic/technician/grease monkey. It seems after 30 years of working on machinery,Including everything from Hot Stamp Machines,My own cars,Top Fuel cars and now 747's, It might be destiny.

Anybody else that never figured they would be a "wrench?"

 

I would have rather left it as a hobby.

 

I was certified in '86 and gave it up 'cause I was tired of busting my knuckles on newer cars if you catch my drift.. Now I just work on my own stuff..

 

I hated metalwork in school, who would have guessed I would end up shaping metal for a living!. I don't know what else I could do that would give so much job satisfaction...and so many headaches!

David

 

I do it to relax. My frend runs a shop has some real nice rides but wont go to a show or cruz or even DQ on friday nights. he says after working on them all day and weekends at times he likes to own them but dont want to work on his stuff.
he would rather set home and watch Gunsmoke on TV. LOL

 

Born into it here, can smell the rearend grease and still see the tired hands and feet of my dad. Miss him all the time, but tried to work for him in his shop at about 16. Started a job (water pump on a inline 6 nova) owned by a old man that babied his car to the point he was standing over my shoulder doing this job. Next thing i remember was him making me nervous to the point, I turned behind me to adjust the shop fan and stuck my right thumb in the damn thing and about cut it off. I quit right there on the spot. I refuse to work for a living as a grease monkey!!!
But I love to play (race / street / shows / friends / family) cars and trucks. It's the most freak'n relaxing thing I get to do and love doing it for nothing.

Yep, smell and look just like my old man and damn proud of it...

 

Never had any intention

 

I was born with a steering wheel in my hand and a wrench in the other.

But todays jap cars are not much fun to work on - nothing was designed to be serviced. I'm glad I don't have to wrench fulltime anymore.

Now I work on stuff for friends, family, and the occasional guy referred to me.

 

ive had the bad urge to take things apart then try and put them back togeather again since i was a toddler .had a little setback in my early years when i thought that if a battery made it go 110 volts would make it haul ***.

 

I always thought I WOULD, now I own a bar instead. Glad though because it's true, if you're around/working on cars, new or old all day long, the last thing you want to do is work on your own project sometimes.

 

Wanted to keep it as a hobby but 12 years ago I went to a dealership due to being able to double my yearly income. Now I am getting back out of it before I become to sour and stop working on car altogether.

 

I wrench to keep my mind off of stuff I hate. Out of 45 years at it I only did it for a living for 3 or 4. Its mostly been my worn projects and helping others, and a few paying jobs on the side.

 

Ive been doing it for 25 yrs ,been a master tech for 6, and still love it even though i went to vo-tech for 4 yrs to be a machinist. never did it but dont think i could stand in front of a machine for 8 hours a day but my hot rods and race car is like theropy when i get home.

 

The magic driver's license did me in.....but makin' $18 an hour at 20yrs old was like crack.... It only got better. If I would have only continued my education....But,to be a vetrinarian takes a long time. So,I wrench. It does interfere with my hobby. And my body reminds me all the time of what a dumb *** I am.I can't complain about the $,but I don't want to be worn out at a young age..... You live/You learn.

 

my first entry into the career world was working on machines...metal working machines, lathes, mills, drill press, etc. Did that for about 12 years until I got into the computer field and did that for 25 years. I can take apart and put nearly anything together again.

I remember one part of my job in the machine shop was ***embly. I ***embled large water pumps for Earth moving machines. My foreman was always amazed when I would take a look at the blueprint for a long minute and put the pump together without a hitch and never need the blueprint again.

I'm still Mr. fixit around the house and even with my friend's 39 pontiac as far as almost instinctively knowing how things will look or how to solve a problem.

As far as not always having a wrench in my hand, well, I look at it this way, there will always be a time for wrenching....its been that way all my life and I don't see that aspect of me changing too much any time soon.

Here's to busted knuckels! lol

 

I have been working on cars old and new. I've been a EMT-I for 15 years, I have taken time off of the ambulance to stay with my Mom and Dad they are both have health issues. I work on cars ( buy and sell them after fixing them up ) to make ends meet. But I only work on peoples cars that I know can pay me. My mom is real sick we don't think she's going to make it. It's been real hard to deal with. I still work on cars at home to take care of things for them and myself. I guess what I'm sayingis it was good to have a hobbie that pays me as well.....

 

it's good and bad, if I didn't start working on cars (which I didn't intend to do) I wouldn't have know the joys of old tin. But as time progresses I do find myself sore, tired and have motivational problems with my own cars. The job I have had for the last 5 years will give me pension for after 55 work, but it's different enough repair work to bring some of the fire back.

 

That's what killed me for the longest time. I've been out of the 'being a mechanic' **** for about three years now, and I'm finally starting to get the feeling back.

 

I was more or less born into it. I spent many hours in my uncle's garage s****ing gaskets and cleaning parts. I was a cook, then a truck driver before becoming a HD diesel truck mechanic for more than 30 years (now THAT'S an industry that has changed since 1979!).

 

I never wanted to be a wrench. Still don't. Don't think of myself as a mechanic. Still when I was in the Army I was a Motor Pool mechanic. After that I started a machinist training program at the Airline. Became an A&P Mechanic 'cause it paid better. But mostly ran machines. Had some drag cars. three Bonneville cars. Set some records. So if you go by my resume I guess you would have to say I turned out to be a mechanic. I have seen and known mechanics. I'm not one of them.

 

never wanted to be anything else. wrench/fabricator/smart***. what could be better?


sometimes I wonder what else I would have done besides this but nuttin else fills that need.

as for keeping it a hobby,, ehhhh,, my hobby is working on my shop or my cars.

 

I knew that I didnt want to be mechanic from the beginning. However I saw my Dad work on stuff, he would just start taking it apart and fixing it. So I never had a second thought that I could do that too. but I realized right away I didnt want to do it as a profession. I ended up being a shop electrician because I was a helper in the electric shop at Kaiser Steel Fontana,[where California Speedway is now] which was basically a mechanic with the power off. I finally got to high voltage work at San Onofre, where the secret was, 'don,t make mistake'

 

always wanted to sit on the beach and paint coconuts for the tourists... ahhh there is still time.

 

I thought I wanted to be a mechanic from about the time I was 12 but in reality I wanted to build hotrods and custom cars. I did take three years of auto mechanics in high school, two years of trade school and worked as a mechanic for a number of years before teaching high school auto mechanics for 13 years in the same high school that I graduated from. One of my feel good moments from that was that one of my former students that I see almost daily just rebuilt the engine in his pickup using what he learned in that cl*** 25 years after he was in the cl***.

I enjoyed twisting wrenches for a living when I could rebuld a front end and align it and have the owner of the car come back and say that it drove better than it did when it was new or I could make one drive straight and smooth down the road. My favorite time though was when I worked for W.H. Thomas (JD Fike's fatherinlaw) in Waco, TX in the mid 70's while I was going to school in the mornings. Walk in at noon after going to school in the morning and work on what ever he had for me to work on be it ac, front end or brakes or what not. I could usually kick out ten hours of work in six hours and the world was good then.
Now days I wouldn't go back in a shop and work for wages for love nor money. My hands are too smashed up to work well and cars are too complicated. But I am doing what I really wanted to do all along and that is working on my hot rods and custom cars when the weather cooperates and I can get motivated. Hard to get motivated when I work on stuff outside and the wind is out of the NW at 18mph and the temp is 60 according to the weather channel. Maybe I should have gone sailing today as it would have rocked out on the water in my sailboat today.

 

In 6th grade I would find ink pens in the trash cans and rebuild them using other ones for parts. Built model balsa airplanes (many from scratch), boats and cars, fixed toys, and tore everything apart to see how they worked. Got my first car before I was 15. Worked for a Ford/Linc/Merc dealership as a tech for 30 years, cert Ford Master Tech and ASE cert. Specialized in electronics and electrical work. As a hobbist I learned body and paint. Then helped my boys in their dirt bikes, jet skis and cars. Now I'm retired and its my turn to build my toys... but I find out my body is worn out from my life time of CARS and I would do it all over again. I still have about 15 projects to build... I guess I better get busy.