Are we "The last of the Mohicans ?"

man you are so right on the entitlement thing.remember the occupy movement?take from me so you can have some to.anyway my plan is to just find a kid that wants to learn, when that happens and he stays with me for awhile and proves to me he is sincere then i will tell him or even her my plan. i did something like this over 35 yrs ago when i was in my mid 20s.gave a 57 nomad without a engine to a 19yr. old kid who was married and had a little one and not a dime to build a car. he hung around our shop at my house all the time helpin and never asked for anything. one day after about 6 months of this i gave him the body and he started to cry. hell i almost did too. anyway my partner gave him a engine and trans, didnt tell me. didnt see that kid for about a week thenm one day he pulls in the drive im my car! proud as hell of him.and alittle mad too.lol

 

My Step Son was 8 years old when I met and married his Mother.
I did my best in exposing him to cars by having him help me in the garage, bought him car models to build etc.
Never showed any real interest then, and has zero interest now at 22.
Has very little in the way of mechanical apptitude. His Mother tells me his biological Father was that way.
That's just the way it is. I don't fault him. He's turned out to be a good kid who is studying to be a Police Officer.
So, I happily tend after his car and do any work that is needed. He buys the parts and I do the work.

Some people are just born with a knack for things mechanical. Some aren't. It's how you are wired by the gene pool.

 

Back in the 80's Clark Air Base was hopping. It was truly something to behold.

And, as a K9 handler at the height of the New People's Army attacks against the base, I saw enough action for several guys. I also dated a college student there who was a mix of Chinese, Filipina and German who was probably the prettiest human being I've ever seen.

 

I'm 40 and ya know what, I still keep an atlas in my car. The looks I get in a diner with that thing open and coffee staining it as I plan and locate the loneliest highway between points are shameful. Yep I have a smartphone with a map program but I won't change. And I sure and hell don't tweet and use faceboooook. Happy in my old fashionedness as I write this post on a damn iPad. Good thread

 

Yup, what he said.

Living in China for 8 years now and I have become totally sick of the whining about cheap, crappy Chinese products.

Here's a news flash, stop buying it and they won't make it anymore!

Here's the funny bit, middle class Chinese people don't buy that crap, they generally demand medium to high quality and are willing to pay for it seeing the value in something that lasts, it's many of you who don't see that you are the problem, you tightasses

China does not sell cheap crappy stuff, you buy it!

As Goose says, just say "no" before it's too late because they are catching on fast here and soon you will have the cheap stuff that's also genuine good quality and then it really will be too late...

 

Just curious... Assuming you're not Chinese, but you've been living in China for 8 years... What prompted your move?

Just sayin', if you're not part of the solution...

 

Total agreement, the system has gotten lazy. Yeah, the new world $$$$ is in technology no doubt, but someone still has to keep it running! The problem lies in the fact that no one wants to pay for any type of manual labor anymore, no one wants to pay good money to trained/skilled labor. If you wont pay these folks, you are going to see a downfall in this generation.Im 55 and have worked at Chevy dealerships since I was 19. GM wants you to be as smart as the engineers they have, but pay you shit, and less all the time. I see many young guys come and go because they just cant make any money wrenching, its not because they cant do the work, the system just wont allow them to do the work in the alotted time frame....sad really. My boys still love cars, but are into sport bikes, because they are affordable and FAST. I would assume I would have gotten into bikes in this day and age also, if I were young again, since cars are not in the average persons budget at a young age anymore. God save us all! I honestly hope our young Americans can save this country when its there turn to take over for us old farts!

 

Friday nights there's a burger joint in town that caters to rodders and 50 to 80 cars usually show up. These days 2/3s of them are tuners and new "muscle cars". The youngsters tend to ignore the real hot rods and slobber over the new Corvettes, Mopars, Cameros, etc and only, maybe, mention my brass knuckle radiator cap as they quickly walk by. Don't get me wrong, if I had the money, I'd have a new muscle car, it just that the most youngsters don't appreciate or care what goes into building a rod or custom and just know "bling".

 

Friend of mine sells tube electronics components to hobbyists and for high end, hand made amps etc.

He told me when he spoke to a Chinese manufacturer the first thing they emphasized was how cheap they could make things. When he told them he didn't care about the cost , he wanted the best parts they could turn out, they were thrilled to bits. They gave him excellent quality at a price about 60% higher than the cheap shit. A very reasonable price.

So, they can make quality and they will if someone is willing to pay a little more for it.

 

Don, if you had been around 100,000 years ago you could have seen your Dad and Grandpa build a hut made from sticks and mud, and skin an animal with sharpened flint tools. Were those skills passed on? They became obsolete, and we progressed and so it will be in the future. Every generation is the last of a dying breed. They possess skills which become obsolete. Change is inevitable, and every generation learns new skills. My Dad could pour babbit bearings. He learned because he had to. I don't need to pour babbit bearings, so I never learned. I'm optimistic about human nature. We're adaptable, and learn quickly to suit new needs and environments.

Bob

 

Very well put Bob!
Totally agree that with each generation of people, some skills diminish and some skills grow!
I'am sure today, you can find a craftsman to make a wagon wheel for your carriage but he would be much harder to find!

 

I find this topic very interesting and here's a couple examples of how I see things: I work in a sawmill machine shop. I do CNC programming, but also use some of our lathes that date back to the mid 1940's. We can do it all and rely on no-one. Bring us half a part or a greasy-fingered sketch or draw it on the floor in welding chalk and we'll build it and it'll fit. It's been that way for generations in that shop and I should know, my grandfather worked there from the late '30's until '69. But things changed when our company was sold and the new owners chopped jobs left and right to "save money". Now it's come to the point where we need to cover some retirements and the people to do it don't exist. Anywhere. All the knowledge was passed down from generation to generation and everyone had to earn their way. But greed took care of that and I can see us in desperate times in the very near future because or all-knowing management looks down on training skilled craftsmen. It costs too much money. Like the saying goes, they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
My second example came at a local car show a couple weeks ago. It's a big show for our area and draws about 300-400 cars total. Back in the '70's when I got actually hands-on involved in hot rod building with my Dad, you could pick up neat tricks and tips from nearly every car at any event. If you were building a car and you had trouble figuring out a brake system, a clutch setup or motor mounts, you were sure to find a guy there who had done it and could help you out. Those days were numbered when Pete & Jake's sold their first bolt-on 4-bar setup. All of a sudden, guys who had zero taste or talent could build a car! I'm so sick of lawn-chair car shows and car owners who couldn't build a car if their life depended on it that I could just puke. But I'm trying to change it the best I can. My 11 year old son and I spend quality time in the garage ( that I built myself) doing stuff I consider true hot rodding. We're currently swapping a T5 in place of the auto of my OT car, which I built myself. Rather than buy a $500 hydraulic clutch setup, I did some research and spent about $40. I made the brackets from scraps at work and bought nearly nothing, with the exception of an off-the-shelf crossmember. When that thing didn't fit, my son and I cut it up, modified it and welded it back together. When I say "we" I mean it, my son pulled the C4 auto out nearly single handedly hisself. I think we all need to be helping the next generation learn to get their hands dirty on anything we can, whether it's building a chassis or re-sealing the toilet. Do something. Build something. Improve something. Teach someone.

 

thinking back to the 60"s i did not know crap about cars , slowley learned and got better, also trashed and ruined some stuff, darn gas wrench
i spent 18 year on stock cars and fabricated everything, torch, weld ,and sidegrind it all...
i am tired of it and want to buy it if its priced in my reach
most of my cars are bought and redone as needed , i just dont have the strength to do a full build
oh today i did my 29 th show of this season
and i am tired and got cars to fix and repair, full time its all I do

 

mechanics get no respect now and the paycheck proves it

 

Today, especially in dealerships, most "mechanics" are simply parts replacers, busy trying to beat flat rates. Ten years ago the tune up and A/C guys made between 75 and 100 Gs where I worked in service management. Heavy liners were the ones that made the least and had to know the most! My son, a friend, and myself built the "29 and we enjoy sitting in our "lawn chairs" and talking cars with fans and owners.

 

I drive year round daily my chopped top custom El camino,have a custom Airflow and am building a T coupe hot rod. When I am driving the Elcamino in todays traffic I look around and all I see is cars buzzing around that all look the same and most of them look like space ships with tinted glass. I am sure most of the people in there space ships looking through there black tinted glass don't want me in there new world , Screw em, I will drive my old stuff as long as I can. Yes I too feel we are a dying breed.

 

On occasion I have the same thoughts that the OP mentioned...Then I see what the "average" guy on this and other forums is capable of creating. I see an accomplishment such as NASA putting the lander, curiosity, on Mars and I think that things aren't so dire with regards to the future.

 

Bob,
Actually my dad did teach me to pour Babbitt. He said that I would never need to pour Babbitt because I was not going to grow up and be a mechanic; but if I did a good mechanic had to know how to repair anything and that included Babbitt rod engines. Of course he also pointed out to me at the time (late '50s early '60s) that real mechanics are a dying breed, that most of what they called mechanics were just learning to be parts re-placers.

He was almost completely correct, against his wishes I did grow up and work with my hands. I can repair a Babbitt rod engine without converting to inserts and can also convert one if I want to as long as I can get to the proper tooling. I am not a parts replacer as many are that call themselves mechanics.

It is a shame that your dad did not pass that talent on to you. If you only do it once in your life it is a talent that many do not have.

It is also a shame that you have never ventured out beyond your comfort zone. People still build houses out of sticks as well as cook on pots made of gourds with hot stones because a gourd would burn up on an open fire. Whether you want to believe it or not there are still many talented people in the world that can still do thing without the use of modern technology.

What is dieing off is the desire to use one's hands and brains to get by. Several times a week I respond to threads posted by people that already know what is wrong or would if they would just take a breath and think. Many of them have already thrown money at a problem and have not cured the problem. Mechanics is not parts replacing, it is diagnosing and replacing or repairing what is not working properly.

I have a paper written in my grandfathers hand writing. I got it when I was about 16 or so, it was stuck in a carburetor that I was going to replace because I could not make it function properly. All it says is THIMK (sic).

 

My 12 year old son learning how to tig weld.



The bike he built from scratch using discarded junk he got for free.

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I can't wait till he gets his first car.

Don't worry old guys. The future is in good hands.