There isn't a lot of sweet shops in the Columbus area. My husband does everything from our garage. He built his car from the ground up, and he is going to be working on my car and a friends car soon. He is also going to be building a 59 chevy truck from the ground up here pretty soon. We live right off of south high st. Like 8 min south of osu. So if you want to stop by and hang out in the garage sometime Im sure he would love to show you somethings!
I grew up in a fairly hot-rodless area and had no luck trying to do what you're doing. The old man taught me troubleshooting and basic wrenching, the rest was on me. So if you can't apprentice somewhere, consider the following- Help anyone with anything on their car. Open your toolbox and garage or shed doors to them. Someone will become a regular and you can learn from thier car without having to shell out parts money. My one car garage became hot-rod-U because my project was inside, and somebody else was working in the driveway. Want your car out?? Better help solve their problem. My little garage built/supported at least 6 high school hot rods. That was a 6X acceleration on the self-taught curve Once you've got your feet under ya, start offering service to friends and relatives. If you tell them you want $20 an hour cash, and won't markup parts.......there will be a long line of brake jobs, water pumps, timing belts, CV joints, etc waiting. You ALWAYS learn something, and the first 100 jobs will each buy a tool that will prove useful later on. The HAMB does not represent a true cross section of the hobby. This place has serious talent. You may think you're a hack, but when you start looking at the real world and what a hack really is.... you're probably not. Don't be afraid of profit projects. The apprenticeship ain't gonna pay that well, so don't be afraid to take on a $300 craigslist late model with a bad engine. Throw a junkyard engine in and flip it. Double bonus, first you make $5-15 for all the labor you put in the car. Plus you will ALWAYS learn something transferrable. Always. At some point you'll decide to keep one, and suddenly have a damn nice winter car, cheap One last thing. No matter how bad I fucked anything up. Even really bad fuckups. They never cost more than if I'd have taken it to a shop and paid to have the work done. Yeah, it might've taken 3 times to get it right. Yeah, the result may not have looked pretty after the learning was done. But it was ALWAYS a better deal than taking it to a mid-range mechanic. Always. Your time is free. Good luck grasshopper.
Young1, Come on over! I don't know how much I can teach you as I'm just learning stuff myself but it's always good to have company in the garage. I also race so if we get tired of working on the hot rod we can go work on the rally car. I'm was in the same boat as you. I wanted to learn all the "hot rodding skills" but didn't know anyone that had them or any shops so I bought a car to learn on. Fortunately, a few months after buying my '50, my wife and I bought a house, unsuspectingly, near an old hot rodder. He's been able to guide me as I stumble along. Right now I'm doing mainly mechanical stuff as I don't have regular access to welders and such but sometime this year I plan to delve into a bit of body and paint work. This weekend I've been trying to finish a disc brake conversion including all new lines. Also on the to-do soon list is a 12v conversion and dual exhaust w/ lake pipes. I'm in German Village, give a holler if you want to come out.
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