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When did you start working on cars?

Seventy

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A thread on another forum made me think about this, My son is 16 and has been pretty good with a wrench, he is learning, not quite where I was at 16, but he gets it done, my father says he can't do more because I do everything for him, lol... I just think that is a way for my father to make him self feel better about never helping me, lol....

Anyway, I was thinking, I bought a 79 trans am, 403/automatic, blue with blue interior when I was 15, the previous owner pulled the top of the motor apart because it was overheating and had leaking head gaskets, never fixed anything, just took it apart and lost all the bolts.

So I paid $750 for the car, I had a savings account with $1600 in it at the time, from my "landscaping company", which was a lawn mower my uncle gave me when he bought his condo, a sickle I bought at bennys, and some yard tools from my parents house, lol... My mother gave me a bunch of attitude when I asked her for the money, she thought it was a big waste, but my father told her to go to the bank for me (it was my money)...

SO I get it home, I called about every machine shop in the phone book, everyone wanted $500 to do the heads, back then. But the gas station by our old house had a mechanics shop and I used to help the guys out on weekends (plus cut the grass in front of the place)... They sent the heads out for me and it only cost me $200, surfaced, and all fixed up, like new. I put the motor back together with a CHILTONS BOOK!!!! I also put some vette seats in it and a few other guido touches, lol. I sold it for a good profit before I even got my licence...

Then after that I got a 1992 buick riviera, black, with black leather, moon roof, with 40K miles on it, it was like brand new in 1995.. EXCEPT, my uncle bought it for me at the insurance pool, so it needed a hood, bumper, grill, 1 light, and 1 fender... I found the parts in New Hampshire (a local yard was nice enough to find them for me), I had a high school friend of mine drive me up there and we pulled the parts ourselves, best part was THEY WERE THE SAME COLOR!!! I pulled the fender support and rad support with the winch on the front of my fathers CJ, chained the opposite side of the car to a tree and tied the cj to another tree, winched a little here and a little there, we got it done. I mounted teh fenders, washed it all up, changed the oil, changed a front rim that ended up being bent (didnt know that till I got to the highway), and I had that car for a LONG TIME, my kids rode in that car, lol....

Oly bad part was I used to get pulled over a lot because I was a young kid in an expensive car, I sold it years later with around 130K miles on it for $1900!!! Almost double what it initially cost me...



So when did you guys start wrenching, I feel like I really started on bicycles and then go karts, then the dirt bike, then cars... I also feel like our kids today missed that part of life, my kids are OK', but other kids I see dont have a clue, maybe because cars today are a lot tougher to work on? maybe because video games replaced bicycles? I don't know?
 
I started working on cars long before I got a car of my own...
I grew up with a gearhead dragracer step father...

I was leaning over fenders putting in bolts at maybe 6-7ish...
My step dad was trying to teach me, very young & I wanted to be out in the garage etc.
I remember waking up after sleeping on a fender allot in my youth...
Didn't know what I was doing but learned the wrench sizes etc.,
spent time in the garage, made me the gearhead I am today probably...
Got a car @ 12-13 IIRC a POS rear engine 61 {?} Renault we made into a sand buggy...
{my step dad cut it up after he caught me driving it on the street, loaded it up in a trailer & hauled it to the scrapper}
I had a ton of go-carts & mini bikes, motorcycles etc. I learned allot about the basics on them &
tore them apart allot, did paint job engine rebuilds etc.
I worked my *** off to get any of them, none were just given to me, like my brothers & sisters,
I got them usually from one of my cousins as a hand me down for helping him/them on their cars,
for my step dad...
He was always doing some kind of side gig for someone,
I was sanding or cleaning something, taking something apart always
getting dirty really early in life...

My 1st car was a POS 65 Ford Galaxie 500 straight six, didn't last long got it for $100
sold it for $150 a while latter...

My 1st real car was a 68 Charger R/T, I learned almost all aspects of a car on that ride,
15 y/o for saved money, from doing odd jobs, paper routs etc....
Paid $350 from a neighbor lady down the street, I use to mow her lawn...

It's all down hill after that...LOL

100+ cars & trucks, 4x4's & motorcycles quads etc. latter, I'm still learning too...
 
I always think of two fine young adult men from church who help me on my first car, a 69 Coronet.
It was around 1973.
One helped me change the oil to save me some money.
The other help me get the water pump changed so I didn't have to cancel a date.
 
In short, I worked on my first car in 1966, at age fifteen. I took the shop class in high school, and went strait into the trade. I didn't start making any real money, as a dealership mechanic, until the late seventies. I hung up my shop clothes in 1984, and went into law enforcement, a well paid profession over turning wrenches. Retired twelve years ago, with a disability due to a traffic accident. I'm presently working for a sign, outdoor lighting company. Once I get the Bellevedere in shape I'm going to happily retire.
I have owned five mopar cars, one van and two pickups.
 
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A thread on another forum made me think about this, My son is 16 and has been pretty good with a wrench, he is learning, not quite where I was at 16, but he gets it done, my father says he can't do more because I do everything for him, lol... I just think that is a way for my father to make him self feel better about never helping me, lol....

Anyway, I was thinking, I bought a 79 trans am, 403/automatic, blue with blue interior when I was 15, the previous owner pulled the top of the motor apart because it was overheating and had leaking head gaskets, never fixed anything, just took it apart and lost all the bolts.

So I paid $750 for the car, I had a savings account with $1600 in it at the time, from my "landscaping company", which was a lawn mower my uncle gave me when he bought his condo, a sickle I bought at bennys, and some yard tools from my parents house, lol... My mother gave me a bunch of attitude when I asked her for the money, she thought it was a big waste, but my father told her to go to the bank for me (it was my money)...

SO I get it home, I called about every machine shop in the phone book, everyone wanted $500 to do the heads, back then. But the gas station by our old house had a mechanics shop and I used to help the guys out on weekends (plus cut the grass in front of the place)... They sent the heads out for me and it only cost me $200, surfaced, and all fixed up, like new. I put the motor back together with a CHILTONS BOOK!!!! I also put some vette seats in it and a few other guido touches, lol. I sold it for a good profit before I even got my licence...

Then after that I got a 1992 buick riviera, black, with black leather, moon roof, with 40K miles on it, it was like brand new in 1995.. EXCEPT, my uncle bought it for me at the insurance pool, so it needed a hood, bumper, grill, 1 light, and 1 fender... I found the parts in New Hampshire (a local yard was nice enough to find them for me), I had a high school friend of mine drive me up there and we pulled the parts ourselves, best part was THEY WERE THE SAME COLOR!!! I pulled the fender support and rad support with the winch on the front of my fathers CJ, chained the opposite side of the car to a tree and tied the cj to another tree, winched a little here and a little there, we got it done. I mounted teh fenders, washed it all up, changed the oil, changed a front rim that ended up being bent (didnt know that till I got to the highway), and I had that car for a LONG TIME, my kids rode in that car, lol....

Oly bad part was I used to get pulled over a lot because I was a young kid in an expensive car, I sold it years later with around 130K miles on it for $1900!!! Almost double what it initially cost me...



So when did you guys start wrenching, I feel like I really started on bicycles and then go karts, then the dirt bike, then cars... I also feel like our kids today missed that part of life, my kids are OK', but other kids I see dont have a clue, maybe because cars today are a lot tougher to work on? maybe because video games replaced bicycles? I don't know?

So I paid $750 for the car, I had a savings account with $1600" based on the cost of money at that time.... you must have had ONE HELL OF A PAPER ROUTE!
 
Who said I work on cars? I simply change the oil and break things while trying to make a repair. Read my posts.
I can even cause damage when detailing. See the dents in the roof of the Challenger.
 
:iamwithstupid: Lol...
 
In addition to fixing my bicycles myself, my first major foray into a car was around 1962 when 16. Family 2nd car I was driving dropped a valve, froze up the engine. Dad told me to take it apart to see what things were like if I wanted before he had it hauled off for scrap.
Long story short, worked on it in the backyard with a crescent wrench, 2ft pc of pipe, and a neighbor's 3/8" dr small socket set w/ extn and ratchet in a tin box. Many times work was in the evening into the night under a flood light I tied to a small sapling nearby. Worked different shifts at a local public pool so had to take what occasions were available.

Dad had no interest in cars so working mostly alone, I eventually got it running and drove it another year until all my errors caught up with me. Nothing was safe after that!
 
In addition to fixing my bicycles myself, my first major foray into a car was around 1962 when 16. Family 2nd car I was driving dropped a valve, froze up the engine. Dad told me to take it apart to see what things were like if I wanted before he had it hauled off for scrap.
Long story short, worked on it in the backyard with a crescent wrench, 2ft pc of pipe, and a neighbor's 3/8" dr small socket set w/ extn and ratchet in a tin box. Many times work was in the evening into the night under a flood light I tied to a small sapling nearby. Worked different shifts at a local public pool so had to take what occasions were available.

Dad had no interest in cars so working mostly alone, I eventually got it running and drove it another year until all my errors caught up with me. Nothing was safe after that!

shorty...most HONEST answer so far....not that others don't believe the money that was GIVEN to them by their parents wasn't earned.... I just find old school honesty in what you said. I lived it like you..... my family was poor. My Dad loved us but he said "if you want a car .... you have to build it yourself" meaning go get a job and work for it! Of course at my house that also meant you contributed to helping the family with those BIG dollars of 1.50 an hour working a full time job while attempting to go to ....NOT COLLEGE but eff'n high school!!!!!! We all survived and I earned every bit and Im not ashamed of a bit! I have NO respect for some cat says "i bought it" bull shidt you had a nice home and any money you made was YOURS...you were not surviving and bought that nice *** car!!!

I bought a POS 62 Nova 4 door 6cyl three on the tree smoking PIECE OF JUNK just to get me to school and to work putting quarts and quarts of OIL IN IT every trip. FOR the record the back in the day prices I got it cheap so I didn't over pay for it...just all I could afford on minimum wage. I wouldn't trade that experience for any of anybody else's NICE COMFY LIVES!! I've since had some cool cars I built myself and didn't SEND out with my check book a DANG THING!
 
My first car was a 57 VW. I was about 15 and saved up the fifty dollars it cost from delivery newspapers. My parents gave me a 1/2 drive Craftsman socket set that i still have one Christmas when i was around thirteen. My father was a garbage man and every so often in the trash he'd find a old lawn mower with a gas engine. He'd bring it home and id take it apart and try to fix it. Later on id find old cars in the woods and just take parts off them
 
I tinkered and fiddled with cars since I was 8 years old with my father and uncles and family friends.

When I turned 16 I put a 440 into my 66 charger things got a little serious.

When I turned 19 I was in the Air Force and broke but I bought a 5.0 Mustang and grenaded the transmission using nitrous on it on my way to work. I was broke...thats when it got SERIOUS.

After the service:

I spent a year as a mechanic at a mom and pop shop.

I spent a year as a dodge dealer mechanic

The car transformed over the years into a 9 second street car and during that time I learned so very much. I do miss it to this day.....money pit...

I have done everything to this day except for body work and paint.

I have buffed cars out tho.

I am the family mechanic and my buddies at work and such.

Dont know it all, never will but I have built things with my own bare hands
 
By 13 years old I had a few regular lawns I mowed and shoveled snow as well. Around the block from my house there was a 1963 Chevrolet truck that was off the road and sitting in a back yard. I wanted it bad. I bugged the guy long enough he sold it to me. I was going to have the best truck in the world! If I remember, Mom helped me out and we got it for the price of $150. I drove it around the block and into my back yard. (Straight six, three on the tree, first vehicle I ever drove. Thankfully I knew what a clutch was from riding motor bikes.) There I proceeded to "fix" it! Needless to say, knowing nothing other than I wanted to work on it wasn't necessarily a good thing. If I remember correctly I took the valve cover off the straight six and it never went back on. Obviously Mom wasn't a mechanic and neither was I at 13. I remember eventually a local guy bought the truck and turned it into a trailer for hauling garbage etc. I was disappointed but it was only a stepping stone. By 16 years old I bought a 1969 Pontiac Acadian that needed a drive train. I promptly yanked the 327 auto out of the 1969 4 door Impala Mom had given me when she bought a new car. In it went and on the road I was. I probably had a dozen vehicles before I was 20. I would buy something that needed repair, usually a trans, fix it, drive it shortly and sell it or trade it for another. I decided in High school, (all 1 year that I completed!) I didn't want to be a mechanic for a living. I figured if I did something at work all day I wouldn't want to do it when I got home. I have never forgotten "my first truck" even though I never did get to really enjoy it.
 
I always think of two fine young adult men from church who help me on my first car, a 69 Coronet.
It was around 1973.
One helped me change the oil to save me some money.
The other help me get the water pump changed so I didn't have to cancel a date.

I like that...everybody has their version of "hardships" mine doesn't mean everyone should have experienced the same to be respected. However I LIKE what your church did for YOU. I've been toying with the idea of offering a monthly education thing for the youth or uneducated. I can't quote scripture like my friends but I can offer something. Thanks!
 
Started working on cars when i was 13. Had my first car, a 74 duster 318 automatic, when i was 14 for 300 bucks. All down hill from there
 
Started taking my bike apart, fix it, and do whatever I needed to do with it somewhere around 6 to 8. Helped my dad rebuild the lawnmower, but think he wanted to sucker me into cutting the grass, lol. My dad had a lathe in the shop (electronics/ham radio), and found it interesting (an early clue). We moved to Germany, and I spent a lot of time with the landlord as he was a machinist. I really liked watching the mills and lathes. Got real interested in cars/mechanics around 14, and got my first car (75 Alpha Romeo hand-me-down), when dad got his new Alpha Romeo, a 79'. Took auto shop 1 & 2, and my first American engine head job was a mid 70's Nova, SBC 350. I spent quite a bit of time getting those ceramic/hard plastic rings off of the valves, working so very hard not to break them, only to find out they were O-rings that come in the gasket set, LOL....

I read many auto magazines, especially the engine ones. I thought it was cool how the engine was machined to rebuild it. I pretty much knew by now, that I wanted to be a machinist. I read all that I could, and learned as much as I could. After I graduated and joined the Army, I found my dream car, a 67 Chevy RS Camaro with a 427, 4 speed, and posi. White with black rally stripes, but could not come up with the $1500. I saw a 74 Charger drive by one day while marching back to the barracks, and my Mopar allegiance began. I have owned the 74 Charger, 72 Charger, 65 Coronet, 69 Superbee, 65 Dart, 75 Dart x2, 73 Van, 78 Van, 87 Ram, 95 Ram, 99 Ram, 05 Ram (wife's truck),06 Toyota Tundra.

After leaving the Army, I finally opened my machine shop business, Precision Machine Service (notice the plug), but had to suspend it after 5 years because of an X. Moving to Fla for my dad until his passing, and now I am back here in Arizona, reopened my business (5 years again so far), and will continue until I retire or die, whichever comes first...
 
I started when I was 16 and worked on cars on and off since then. Been working on a 78 Lil Red Express truck that I picked up a few years ago for $400.00 and just completed a 73 Mustang restoration 6 months ago. Recently picked up a 71 RR which I am getting ready to start on so starting to collect parts now. I figured this was worth saving and is going to be my first attempt to keep a car as original as possible so we'll see how it goes.
 
Well out of all my buddies I was the youngest and usually got everything last . So one day my buddy got his parents to buy him a 73 duster he had it for literally one day and totalled it . He then bought a 79 trans am and I got to ride to schoolb in that ,my other buddy had a run down pos 78 nova . So I started working because I was told you want a car you buy it yourself no freebies ,so at minimum wage and crappie hours and any side work that came my way I started to put money away because I wanted a trans am like my buddy had .So one day I was at work (dropped off already and ride left) and I get in and I was told to go home I worked in the AM
So I called my ride and no answer so I decided to walk home ,and that's whenb I saw it the huge brown turd I would soon call my first car.
I didn't know what it was or anything it was rusty and crusty but the asking price was less then what I had saved up for the trans am . So I did the only sensible thing (so I didn't have to walk home) I called the owner and asked if he could show it to me the car was pure groceryv getter and grandma s car. It only had org 36*xx miles gold white vinyl top ,white with the gold and black plade interior. I was so excited about it.I rushed it home to pay the seller, so I had some very upset parents when they found out what I did. So later in the week I was out playing with the car and learned a new trick called a burn out .well within 4 hours I blew the trans apart so I learned real quick how to r&r a trans I miss that wreck wish I still
 
So I paid $750 for the car, I had a savings account with $1600" based on the cost of money at that time.... you must have had ONE HELL OF A PAPER ROUTE!

It was only 1995, you couldn't buy a house with it, lol... I never got to have a paper route, I inquired about it, but in our area there was a mother and daughter who had it all tied up, I think they made good money with it.
I was always a good "saver", my older sister used to think I was crazy, my grandfather would give me $25 a night for being a "runner" at his auctions on friday and saturday nights, and I did that every weekend, my parents worked all weekend so after school I was sent to the grands... Plus I did well cutting grass and raking leaves, I actually had 2 employees, 2 other kids from the neighborhood used to help me, I paid them by the hour, and would only take them when I needed them, lol..

I remember I worked a sunday doing lawns and I gave my mother $80 to put in my bank account, she knew I had the other 2 kids with me and said "how much did you make today?" thinking I split the money with them and figuring 80x3=240 which is a lot of money for 8-10 hours of work, for kids... I told her I got $100 and paid them $10 each, they started after me and left before me and did more playing than work, they were happy with the $10. She told that story at an SBA award ceremony, lol a few of my subs were there at the time and after my moms speech they busted my balls a bit and said I was even cheap when I was a kid, lol...

The first time my grand father handed me the $25, he said, and I will never forget it "Money has 3 values, face value is what its worth right here, then less than face value or 0 if you spend it on something silly like candy or a bad bet, and then the best of all 3 MORE, it can be worth so much more if you INVEST IT"... My mother always says he planted the seed, he drilled me with SAVE AND INVEST since I was 12-13 years old!!!! I used to buy all the broken bicycles at the auction, clean/paint/fix them up and resell them, that was back when people rode bikes, it was a lucritive little business, funny part was my grandfather used to charge me commission 15%, he used to say "I charge everyone else 20, but your familiy", my father used to say "that sob, charges him commission, who charges a kid commission" I was young and it confused me a bit, both of the guys in my life made sense.. But years later I got it.... Sadly my father never seen eye to eye with him, but thats how it works....

My 17 year old son, saves a lot of his money, he works with me, his uncles, and any chance he gets. When asked what he wanted for his first car, he said "I want a pickup truck that is good on gas", so he could make money with it, my wife of course tried to find something negative about it and said "he needs to be out having fun, not worrying about MONEY", I disagree of course, have fun in your 30's when your a millionaire, is what I tell him, my wife just rolls her eyes and says "money is such a small part of life", while standing in her 4300sq ft home, lol...

1 more thing my grandfather used to always say "investments are tricky, you invest $50 a day for a month and have 30 small investments, but small investments pay small, so wait the 30 days and invest $1500, big investments pay big and are less work" Sadly my grandfather didn't make it to see me in my 20's, but my grandmother always says "you have his blood and soul, but more heart than even he could have ever wished for", not sure how I am supposed to take that, but shes old, lol...

I am not surprised to see most of you guys started at 15, its sad to think that is probably lost now, I see kids at my sons school and not one is interested in doing anything mechanical, everyone wants to be working in the legal system, financial, or medical fields... I guess that is good too, but there is nothing wrong with working with your hands and your head, plus you learn how to "fix it" and you can do "it" yourself...
 
I started working on cars after I had bought my first car at age 16. However, before that, I was tinkering and improving my bicycles since around age 12. Even earlier, my friends & I were making "buggies" out of old scrap wood and nails that our dads all had lying around the house and talking the wheels off of shopping carriages that we'd find in the woods.
 
I was messing with bicycles at 10 pulling the fenders off and turning the handle bars over etc and doing some simple wood working at 11. At 12-13 I was a lawn mowing fool and was doing some basic maintenance on dad's car but was mostly washing it and keeping tabs on fluid levels. Was also tinkering with lawn mowers and go carts. An under powered edger motor was my go carts first power plant but it wasn't long before that was changed.....and things went downhill from there.
 
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