Cool stories here, keep 'em coming... As for me, Ejected from disfunctional family home at 16, slept rough for a while, got involved in the drug culture of the time, got a hand up from some people who gave a shit....Never looked back. Learned about mechanicals by haveing to keep my own shitters going to get to work. Always loved American iron..(in a country swamped with pommy stuff)...go figure. Met a great gal at 22yrs and she's still by my side 31 yrs later. She loves early iron as much as I do ...what more could you want? I can't do everything it takes to build your own rod, (otherwise I would have by now), and I have farmed jobs out, and got ripped off here and there,but you learn from the ripoffs too. More about human nature than things mechanical, but hey it don't hurt to be well rounded.
I took every metal working classes they had ,Several welding Arc& Ox -acc, back then. Also some casting, pluss all the wood classes ,speakers,water skis, cross bows, also all the mech drawing . 1st car at 16 was '51 f1. Had to work to support my self. Started My own Roofing Bus. (Self taught) 1st project completed with all my high school knowledge was a complete rear clip on 67 stang. Alot of ox&accytlin and coat hangers holding that 1 together(oh yea plenty of Bud & Bud) it was all good . Always thought I needed a real (Auto Guy) to put my projects together so I never really took the time to complete my projects just alot of stuff started by guys who did it for a living. Always to busy trying to make a buck. Now after 8+ projects collected and not finished find myself disabled with all the time in the world to finish these things (Course I dont have a dime to work on them) You Know, now with the help of SITES like these. I'm much HAPPIER than I was. Just taken time out to sit in these projects and think about what I can accomplish. Alot of insperation going on You guys keep it comin with your Builds and insight.THANKS
I grew up around my grandfathers dealership as a real young kid. My dad went to work for FOMOCO proper when I was ten. Ford moved us all over the world, England, Middle East and South America. When I did get a chance to settle back in Detriot as a high schooler I took auto shop and mechnical drafting. And some real training from gas station mechanics. When's the last time you've seen one of those? These all helped define my love for American steel and set me down my career path. I have been around cars, breath cars, eat sleep and drank cars for years. Oh yea, screwed a many times in them as well! I now manage a fleet of over 400 vehicles from tractors, PD units, buses, off / on road construction equipment up to class 8 trucks. I have 5 tech working for me in a 18ths square foot shop all have my same love for being a Mechanic. I have taken certification classes in welding. I can run an alignment pit, vertical mill, crank machine, drive shaft balancer, boreing bar. I have a ASE master certification in Automotive and HD Truck. I am also licensed by the State of Texas to do Propane vehicle conversions and repairs. Hell their is not much I can't do at just 48! But I am by no means an expert. The first think you learn in the automotive world and some thing I press upon all my new techs and the gals I tech powder puff auto classes to, no one, I mean no one knows it all. If you find that guy or gal who say they know or seen it all, run, run fast and as far away as possible. Because lightnign is getting ready to strike! The auto world technology changes upon and average of every 2 1/2 years. We constantly have to train and retrain. When was the last time a doctor had to retrain. Not knocking Docs, but the old human body has changed much in several thousand years! No new model coming out next year.... There's been alot of discussion on the HAMB recently about farming out body work, frame work, engine work etc. There is not a thing wrong with this in my opinion. But there are many here who strongly disagree and look upon this paramount to being Un-American down right communist! Great were all intitle to our opinions. But for many of us "Hobbist" we prefer to leave certain areas to the experts. It's not necessarily a sign of our lack of knowledge but time constraints. Unfortunaltey I was accussed by a fellow HAMB'er recently on my opinion to use other businesses for certain work, IE. Paint & Body, as he asked if I paid someone to screw my wife as well! Sure I can do body work and paint, I can sling lead as well and even own an English wheel! But I prefer to leave certian aspect of this to the trained professionals, in some cases untrained after recently getting screwed on paint and body work. Certain people specialize in certain areas that they love to do. So why not let them do the work? And to those who do utilize these professionals, more power too you. Hats off to the guys, and gals who choose to be auto technicians as a career.We need more of you in our profession. But study and keep on learning. He'll I learned alot here on this web site over the last several years. One thing in particular I learned for sure, we're a band of brothers all of us HAMB'ers, because we choose to keep the old culture and traditions of our auto heritage alive!!
I was thinking the last 25 years or more , was harder for the young guys to get some bacies as kids for putting stuff together then back when i was growing up in the early 40's,we had Building Blocks,Tinker Toys, Lincon Logs,Erecktor Sets,Toy Trains,push/coster down hill carts[soap box],bikes,then slot cars ,go karts etc. But now many just have computers and games. That's a big def of a start to putting things together Got to hand it to you younger guy that still jumped that gap you are todays cool.
Nothing in classes but. I had a brother that was 10 years older than me. And he collected early matchbox cars, trains, anything he could collect. And my younger brother and myself got to play with his toys. He was an early hotrodder. I think he got tired of us messing with his toys. Anyway he was rebuilding a studebaker pickup truck and came home one day and threw me the carb and a rebuild kit and said to repair it, just follow the directions. Well my younger brother and my self got er done. And the damn thing fired up and ran. After that he had us honing the brakes and whatever else needed to be done on that truck. I was 9 at the time and my little bro was 7 and we both got hooked on anything automotive from that time forward. Thanks for making me remember (keith. always my older brother)...John
High School Classes that helped... 1. Power Mechanics (basically model airplane and lawn mower engines) 2. Basic Auto (Just like it sounds, was supposed to be a "hands on" class, but since all of the tools were stolen over summer break, and it took the whole school year for the school to buy new tools... well you get the picture..) 3. Advanced Vocational Auto 1 (a 2 hour block class my Jr. year, did not have enough room in my schedule Senior year to take Voc Auto 2 AND graduate.... 4. Mechanical Drafting 5. Architectural Drafting I was, and with the exception of my kids, STILL AM, the only real car guy in my family. About the only help I got from anyone is for people to tell me over and over and over.... "Don't try to weld on that body, you will ruin it..." Took me many years to get over the fear.... but now I ain't scared of shit!!
My dad has taught me everything I know as far as mechanics, and he introduced me to welding and paint/body(we painted my '69 Chevy pickup) but he has limited experience with both of those areas. We both learn as we go with bodywork(and read lots of books and tech articles). For the welding stuff I took a welding course at school, had a great teacher(an old hot rodder) and I learned a ton and got my confidence up enough to step my own control arms.
The Jalopy Journal
