I was reading a post on another car form I'm on and it got me wondering. The poster said he was no mechanic but had problems with his car and was asking for help. The problem was his temperature gauge was in the red and he needed to fill the radiator every other day. Finally the MIL came on and he managed to drive it home. He wants to know what to do. So back to the question. I learned basic car care from my father. He was not a mechanic but taught me the basics. Things like washing the car , vacuuming it , checking the oil , water , battery and other fluids. How to change the oil and filter as well as how to change a tire and even install a new tube in a tire (remember those days). Then also learning to drive a standard shift. So when my kids were growing up I did mostly the same but the truncated version for modern cars. Mainly what the dash lights are saying and what you do when one comes on. I learned my wrenching skills by working in a gas station and hanging around a speed shop. I guess some of that pointed me into my mechanical engineering career. Now that I'm in my 70's i"m on my downward curve where I can afford to have someone else do what I don't want to anymore. So who trained you ?

 

I blame it all on Hot Wheels cars, Lego's before they turned into 3d jigsaw puzzles and those DIY electronic kits from Radio Shack. Star Wars was a big part too of creating interest in mechanical things.

Learning about cars came from taking them apart and fixing stuff. I helped a friend and his dad restore a '65 short bed F-100 and had a '68 Honda 50cc street bike for a long time.

 

I'm rubbish. My father was a Marine engineer back in the fifties, as chief engineer in the Merchant Navy, in the days of fox it with what you have or fabricate it if you didn't have the part or tool.

Regretfully he was rubbish at teacing as he preferred to do.

So my experience is basically changing plugs, battery, fluid top ups and other required regular maintenance.
Electrical,systems are a dark art left to others.

 

German guy named Roland Schmid. He was a Mercedes Indie. Had his own shop on England Terrace in Rockville Maryland forever. I used to stop by when making court appearances at the Mont. Co. courthouse. I learned a lot from him and helped some. I really miss that guy.

 

I owe it all to my dad. Although he was an electrical engineer, he had a passion for cars and taught me everything about them from maintenance to body work to engine rebuilding. I can recall rebuilding transmissions on the kitchen table, testing thermostats in a pot on the stove and baking moisture out of freshly cleaned parts in a low heat oven much to the distress of my mother.
Brake jobs in the driveway and tire rotations were a typical Saturday learning experience.

 

I would have to say some shady mechanics...after I searched all over, before the days of the internet, to find a brand new master cylinder for my Alfa Romeo, I gave him the part to install and about a month later when I was under the car I saw an old rebuilt unit was installed. After that I decided to do whatever necessary repairs I can accomplish on my own. My '64 XKE hasn't been touched by anyone other than me in over 25 years now...but that a nuts and bolt car. My XKR is another animal.. I'll try to tackle whatever I can.
Just yesterday I did change the front wheel hub and bearings on my Ford Ranger.

 

Initially, the obligatory shop class in junior high of which you had to select one. I noticed the Metal shop and Wood shop teachers were missing fingers so I opted to take mechanical shop where we learned about the internal combustion engine and took several lawn mower engines apart and put them back together. The girls took home economics.

Chilton and Haynes manuals next. My parents gave me my first car but I had to learn to fix it myself as I couldn't afford a mechanic. Same with my friends, so we were self taught.

Later in my youth I became certified and was a mechanic for the RTD (Denver's city bus company)

Then got out of it altogether as I looked at the lifers and their bodies were the worse for wear.

 

My dad and school of hard knocks mostly.

When I was in high school I could barely afford the car, let alone paying someone to fix the pile of junk, so I had to do it myself. Then after two mechanical engineering degrees my wife and I took a liking to restoring '50s era cars - a '56 Vette and two '57 Tbirds. Every mechanic claims to know how to work on them, but VERY FEW REALLY know how to do it right. So I had to learn, the hard way. Kind of like the Jags.

 

Auto shop Freshman year in high school and then hanging around a Pure neighborhood two bay service station. The owner/mechanic was a good guy and taught me a lot, unfortunately I have proceeded to forget most of what he taught me.

 

Strictly School Of Hard Knocks! When I was 16, I paid $75 for a '50 Ford with a V8 flathead. I managed to find a pair of 11 to 1 Offy heads and bolted them on and promptly destroyed the engine. Since all my buddies were shade tree mechanics too, we managed to cram a '51 Chrysler hemi into to it and then most of my weekends were spent in our garage with several 3 speed Ford gearboxes in pieces trying to make one good one.

 

I started when I was ten. I was always taking stuff apart to see how it worked and how it was built, and was always looking for ways to make something better. Aside from fatherly influence, Legos played a huge role, followed by RC airplanes, then real airplanes. Cars were always in the picture. Three college degrees and a pile of certifications later, here I am being an a-hole to people on the internet.

 

Self taught. Rebuilt a couple of 60's Fords in my early 20's and figured it all out as I went using not much more that the factory shop manuals.

 

jagtoes,

I laughed when I read your post, since it's almost a mirror image of my story except for the fact that I lasted only 2 years as an engineering major. It took me 2 years to realize that I couldn't spend the rest of my life wearing white socks and having a pocket protector in my shirt. But my fear of having a slide rule forever hanging from my belt turned out to be unfounded, as it went the way of the buggy whip.

I, too, have my dad to thank for teaching me the basic mechanical skills that were necessary to keep my first car running - a 1955 MGTF1500. As I've said in previous posts about my experiences with that car, it defined the term Sports Car. You had to be a good sport to put up with all the things that kept breaking; hence, it was a sports' car. I also learned that just because I enjoy fixing things (even as of today) doesn't mean that I was cut out to be an engineer. Switching majors was one of the best decisions of my life.

As was buying my XKR. And my XJ. Love 'em both! And, just like you, except for the things that I feel like doing myself, I pay someone else to get their hands dirty and skin their knuckles.

And I'm passing my "fix-it-man" attitude and ablility along to my 9-year old grandson, who has a curiosity about how things work and aptitude for fixing things, just like me. Fortunately, he doesn't like white socks.

Stuart

 

I still have my 1st slide rule . I wanted to get it plated. Hahaha

 

Probably owe it to my father, now in his 80s. He was an A&P mechanic for Braniff by day and spent his evenings and weekends in the garage restoring vintage aircraft. Whole time I was growing up there was an airplane parked diagonally in the garage with the wings off.

At 15, dad towed home a late model wrecked car, nothing cool or sporty, but told me "Son, if you can fix it, you can drive it." I went to the library and checked out books and manuals. Dad took me to junkyards to get parts. Dad watched to make sure I didn't hurt myself, but I had to do everything. And over one summer I had it looking and driving like new again. I wanted something cool tho, so I sold it for a little profit and moved on to restore a 1966 Rustang. Its been a string of car projects ever since.

 

I come from a family that is really poor with cars; good thing thing they finally ended up with a reliable model of vehicle (Ford E-250 van) to haul us all around in. (I grew up moving from job site to job site every few weeks.)

I would say it started with computer games which caused the following steps:

Led me to making my own concept cars that I would mod into the games.

Led me to wanting to start putting in cars that could actually be built.

Led me into researching how cars are put together, space requirements, how the systems work, etc...

I really liked the Porsche 944 in NFS 5.

I got to drive a Porsche 944 around in a construction site parking lot; one of the workers had one and let me take it around when I was interested in the car.

That led me to Porsche related BBS's where I read every DIY thread, complaint of lack of maintenance from previous owner, etc.

Between Porsche BBS's, and a desire to take my 944 apart and put it back together, I learned a lot. I really love the little 944.

 

Started in mid-50s. My father could check oil level, and that's about all. All my "hoodlum friends" wanted to work on cars. Usually, it was just points, plugs and oil changes. The only tools I had were screwdrivers, a vice grip, pliers and a crescent wrench. Change plugs and dropped oil pan on a '54 Ford with these few tools - took days, and broke most of the plugs removing. No one had socket wrenches. They were consider "exotic" tools.
A friends dad was skilled, and he brought us along. We got to remove and replace motors. Did "porting and relieving". It was pretty primitive, but so were we and so were the cars. Became best friends with a master mechanic who was my age. He taught me a lot - still learning. Still making mistakes too.

 

For me, 100% from my father. As I was growing up he was always taking something apart to fix it, the car, the truck, or a tractor. There wasn't much money, so DIY was the only option. My earliest memories are helping him change piston rings and starter motor brushes.
His hard work put me through college, so I'm not in that same financial situation, but the lessons learned from him will stick with me.

 

My father for the basics. We always had crap cars when I was a kid in the 70s so I learned how to change oil, tires, rusty mufflers, coolant and how and why you had to stick a screwdriver down the carb throat to help it start on cold winter mornings

Once I got into high school, my dad had a 70's something Datsun pickup that **** the bed. He said I can have it if I fixed it. My friend next door had an uncle that had a huge tool filled garage with a pit and an engine hoist. He was old and didn't use it much so he gave us free reign. He said to start with a tune up and he was right. Drove it for a month or 2 and then bought a 69 Camaro and a 71 Chevelle. Re-built both motors in that garage with my neighbor and some friends from high school. We each knew a little more than the other and spread the knowledge around. The old man loved to talk about engines and hung out with us sometimes while we were messing around. I learned a lot from him.