Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

[jeffnick]

Re: Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

I understand my grandfather was 'handy', but my dad (bless his heart) didn't know what part of the hammer to hit the nail with. My wife was so proud of her handiwork in putting up a key holder one day as I came home from work, she said, "I pounded the screws in all by myself".

So for me, no mentor, but never could throw anything out that wasn't torn completely down. I even totally disassembled watches at age 8 to see how they worked and eventually could put them back together working. Had a hard time in grammar school and high school, never finished college but because of my (natural) curiosity developed a very keen sense of mechanics. Hardly ever paid anyone to do anything during my youth and working career, but now shy away from shingles and ladders (and high tech motors).

I was known as "The Shell Answer Man" to my High School friends because of my innate ability to diagnose car problems. I was later know as "Golden touch" because I seemingly could fix anything but a broken heart.

Life has been very, very good to me!

 

[JB]

Re: Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

My Dad the philosopher was also a car and sailboat nut and a tinkerer. He had a workshop in the basement where he made scale models of famous sailing vessels from scratch. Part of that workshop was a Unimat machine shop. . .lathe, milling machine, etc.

When I asked him to explain how car engines worked he took me to the basement. Two months later we had a running 4 stroke engine of about 1ci. We later built a small 2 cylinder opposed twin 2 stroke.

The business of finding the right profile for the camshaft, the right dimensions for the intake and exhaust, the right timing for the ignition, etc. was an education.

When we built the 2 stroke we just copied port timing, etc. from Dad's Sea Witch outboard, but had to learn why that timing was important.

I learned a lot more building and modifying chainsaw engines for my racing karts and building the racing version of the Crosley engine for my H Modified sports racer. Just about everything my Dad had taught me turned out to be gospel.

I have probably learned more about wrenching in the past 8 years, right here on iboats, than I knew when I retired.

 

[triumphrick]

Re: Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

I have probably learned more about wrenching in the past 8 years, right here on iboats, than I knew when I retired.

There's a lot of humility in making that statement!!

When young, I hated asking for help. I was self taught and made a lot of mistakes. The U S Navy helped with my basic electricity and electronics training. Diebold (Bank security company) training furthered that. I remember taking a radio apart in Grand Cayman to remove a diode to fix the power supply of the banks alarm receiver at the local police dept. I became known as the guy they could send anywhere in the Caribbean and Central America to have fix anything...
Nowadays the internet is my substitute for all those outdated shop manuals! The friends I have made here as well as others on my car forums have proved invaluable. I don't mind asking for, or mind giving, help. I had been a points and condenser kind of guy for so long, but knew those days were gone when the TR-3 got it's first high output transistorized ignition. Lucas be damned! The changes in technology are made exponentially...so much happens so quick. So much more than any one man can keep up with. So lets just continue to share and help one another and all our tasks are minimized...

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

In our family we never hired any one. We would fix it ourselves. So from there my friends dad owned a garage and it looked cool to me as they fixed things i knew nothing about.I was about 5-8 years old. At about 13 years old on till 18 years old i had an after school job pumping gas at a garage that still fixed cars. I then started a job at my friends dad shop that was now a dodge dealer.Worked there for 7 years and then went to a Toyota dealer for another 7 years. Because of conflict i started another job at a jobber shop for 6 years. Now I am a head head mechanic for a fleet of Ford trucks now and have been for the last six years.

I guess my mane mentor was my friends dad when he gave me my apprenticeship. He told me ether you can do it or you cant and if you cant i am going to fire you. I made lots of mistakes but he always be leaved in me. To the point he tried to hire me back after i left.

 

[The_Kid]

Re: Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

I never had a mentor. My dad was handy when it came to fixing stuff around the house, but never worked on cars. I learned to wrench on motors from Chilton's, or a factory service manual, or by tearing it apart and putting it back together.

I'm the same way when it comes to doing plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, or any other remodeling work. I figure I've probably saved myself better than $50K over the years by doing most of the work myself. Last year I replaced the furnace, modified the duct work to fit the new one, and added central air at the lake house. Other than the equipment, my only expense was $120 to have someone come in and braze the lines and check the freon.

 

[Limited-Time]

Re: Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

I like a few of the others here seem to have been born with wrench in my hand. I can't recall ever not tinkering with something. My parents told stories of me disassembling bikes shortly after Christmas. And reassembling then in less time than it took my dad to assemble them on Christmas eve. As for a mentor, I was a learn as I went type. Now there's not much I wont or haven't tackled, be it in the mechanical or construction area. With one exception, I've never done any Masonry (Brick or Block laying) work.

 

[mphy98]

Re: Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

I was 12 when I built my 1st mini bike with an old washing machine engine. It was a 3HP Briggs and stratten engine. Self taught all the way. Moved on to hotrods after that and ever since have always had one of some type or another. Getting older now but still like to tinker with the vette and the boat. Nothing is more satisfying than making something new out of what was in some peoples opinion, was a pile of junk. I have to wear a tie all day long, so to get my hands dirty is a treat these days.

 

[JCMINIS]

Re: Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

Young boy who loved motorcycles(still do),I would ride it till it broke and my dad would fix it and I would watch,then he would have me fix it and he would watch,after enough teaching from him it got to where he didnt watch anymore.I could do it on my own,of course I would get hung up on something and he would help out.I now for the past 15 years, fix motorcycles 8 hrs a day 5 days a week.

By reading some of the posts,some of us should call up our pops(if possible) and tell him thanks !!

I did.

JC

 

[eaglejim]

Re: Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

I call Mom and Dad at least every Saturday and sometimes 2 or 3 times a week just to let them know I am thinking of them

 

[dingbat]

Re: Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

I learned to wrench out of need when I was 16. More time than money.

Now a days I have more money than time but I still end up wrenching most the time. I want it fixed on my schedule, not the mechanics

 

[avenger79]

Re: Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

My first experience working on real cars was when I was 12. I had been puttering around with mini bikes and what not, so I knew a little about wrenching.
My dad bought a '32 Ford rod. She was a beauty. I couldn't wait to just touch it in any way shape or form. The thought of actually getting to work on the chrome beast of an engine was overwhelming.
So the day came we (dad and I)took the tires off and were cleaning them up for a show. All done with that we went to work on dad's truck, while there he said. I remember this clearly, " hey go pull the spark plugs out of the street rod and check them". Yeah, you can guess where this is going. I knew exactly where those ol' plugs were too, so I went to the car and pulled the distributor cap off and........oh oh. No plugs. hmmmm. Put it back on because I knew I was doing something wrong. As I came out of the garage to ask him where they were he met me outside and asked, "got those plugs out of the riding lawn mower yet?" Huh? I swear I thought he wanted me working on his street rod. I think he knew because later that week he took me out and showed me where the plugs were on the car. "Just in case I ever ask you to change these".
Funny looking back, all those times he left you working on something and you thought man he's not even helping. Now days you know, yeah, I can figure this out on my own. (as long as it's not an outboard engine. )

 

[Throbbin Rods]

Re: Where YOU got started with wrenching ?

Grew up poor. At 9 I was fixing bikes for evryone in the neighborhood, buy them whenr people wanted them gone, sell them to someone else for a profit. At 10 I took the motor off my Dad's old reel lawn mower, built a go kart frame from what he had laying around, and was barrelling around they rd when he came home. At 12 we all had minibikes, I mowed so many freakin lawns ot get a minibike. Same deal, fixedthem for everyone, bought fixed and sold, Wrenched on cars and semis for a living over the years, now I am an IT/ERP guy, sit in an office doing software. But I usually buy, rehab and sell around 12-15 boats a year. I built, wired and put doors on garages atthe last 4 houses. I have bought rehabbed and sold 6 houses. Helped my buddy build a convenience store. Only thing I can't do is paint - cars, boats, houses, all the same - I can't paint worth 2 dams and a jar of cold pee. But every thing else I do.