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How did you learn?


Guest Hal

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I havent really done a whole lot yet. Just oil changes, brakes, tore apart the intake manifold on my old car (damn butterfly valves), done minor bolt-ons and stuff like that. Usually I just get a write up and follow the directions if I get lost. It seems like putting stuff back together is always worse than taking it off though haha.
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Guest fist302
I used the internet to gain the knowledge over the years and learned the hands on by fixing my Fords when they broke. Now im going to college for auto tech.
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Well i guess growing up in the industry is what has got me to where i am today.I started out In my dad's shop in what seems like eon's ago.My grandpa, uncles, cousins every ones seems to turn wrenchs in my family. I started out recoring radiators, replacing them and heater cores, doing a/c work and so on.As time went on dad would buy dead cars and let me learn on them. fixxing them up and selling them. of course as high school came along i went to tech school, then on to north western and so on. Any time i could take a class that was offered i'd take it. weather i would learn anything from it or not. And still do to this day. In this feild your never done learning and it never hurts to ask questions. And for anyone to come in and try to say they know everything, well is just a pompous ass IMO.
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I grew up in it. My grandfather managed the Sears auto center at Northland mall, i can remember working on stuff with him, but mostly going to races with him. My Dad is an ASE master tech, and we were always working on something. My Dad and I raced karts as I grew up. I learned alot about driving, and basic chassis, gearing, and engine set-up. Those were the best days in my life, used to race Sarah Fisher, and Sam Hornish Jr., yes they were both local racers when we were kids.

 

After getting out of the electrical trade, it was easy for me to get into cars and went to work with my Dad. I learned more about the trade and liked work more when I went and got jobs on my own. In the last few years I've gotten decent at diag work and started getting some of my ASEs.

 

So you could say I've had the car bug for as long as I can remember. I vaguely remeber sitting under my Dad's jeep handing him tools when I couldn't have been much older then 3-4.

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When I was younger I used to sneak it out and take my dads 76 alfa romeo spider for spins.. without a license of course because I'm a dickhead. Anyways i bottomed the car out and had to replace a bunch of leaking shit before he found out so i had to teach myself to fix a car that nobody knows anything about and that was an experience.. then in highschool I got my hands on a wrangler which i offroaded and broke every weekend.. Best car to learn shit on imo. Then I bought a 300zx and realized Japanese people have tiny hands and they over think everything.
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My dad and my Grandfather were always fixing little shit. I guess I grew up just trying to rig together things that were broke. When I was 15 i really started getting into muscle cars and I think I read every single top car magazine and auto trader from 2000 up until a year or so ago. I finally realized I had a problem and spent way way too much money on magazines. I still have them all and some from the 80s and 90s I have picked up. Kinda a collector(pack rat) I guess.

 

From mostly reading it gave me the knowledge about how cars worked and I started my biggest hands on projects with dirtbikes and worked my way to my car at 15. I had a bit of hands on time with Eriks (1Runnin72SST) 72 Javelin and remember spending hours in the cold trying to get the thing together and looking nice just so his dad would take us for a ride in it until he got his license. I bought my Camaro and a few other cars as the years went by. But mostly spent my time working on friends cars. Two LT1s in particular as I started pulling the motor in the formula in what seemed like 3 times a year. Little by little I just tough myself.

 

In 2005 I went to work for the company my father manages and became a tractor trailor/diesel mechanic. After about 4 months I wanted more and I went to Wyotech. I took Collision/Refinishing where I learned to weld and alter some metal all the way to painting and making it look nice. I did custom painting on the side and I then moved on to Chassis Fabrication/High Performance engine building. I became a better welder and learned to tig. By this time I had the engine building down pretty good but learned a bit. I hand built and installed a 8 point roll cage for the formula. After I graduated I went back to the trucking company and have been doing it since.

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My first car could have been a Honda Civic.... but no, it was an '87 Supra Turbo. So naturally, between that car and my Dad / family of car guys... I was on the right track from day one. The real dive into "how does this work / let's take this apart" didn't really happen until I bought the Z though. Then it was just a downward spiral into obsession, happiness and debt.
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Well i guess growing up in the industry is what has got me to where i am today.I started out In my dad's shop in what seems like eon's ago.My grandpa, uncles, cousins every ones seems to turn wrenchs in my family. I started out recoring radiators, replacing them and heater cores, doing a/c work and so on.As time went on dad would buy dead cars and let me learn on them. fixxing them up and selling them. of course as high school came along i went to tech school, then on to north western and so on. Any time i could take a class that was offered i'd take it. weather i would learn anything from it or not. And still do to this day. In this feild your never done learning and it never hurts to ask questions. And for anyone to come in and try to say they know everything, well is just a pompous ass IMO.

 

That last bit cannot be stressed enough. From GS techs to the top guy, everyone gets stumped.

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Hanging out with my dad and his racing buddies. He painted and fixed cars. Both of my uncles had trucking companies and did all their own repair work. From mini bikes, go-carts, and farm trucks if I broke it I had to fix it. My good friend Lee show me alot about nos, super chargers, and turbos before I could legally drink. Regardless how much I have learned I am always looking for more knowledge.
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I always read about cars when I was young. When I turned 15 1/2 I bought my celica and did basic stuff on that by myself, then bought an Audi and a DSM and started working on those a lot.

 

I did research online for a while then when I graduated high school I went to CSCC for their auto program but I wasn't getting much out of it. Now I'm at UTI phoenix doing what I love doing. I'm going through the Volkswagen program soon too.

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That last bit cannot be stressed enough. From GS techs to the top guy, everyone gets stumped.

 

well the last part of that statement was for a post made in the other thread ;)

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I started by breaking stuff... lol,

 

My Grandfather was real big into cars and I grew up with him... I never took much Interest to working on cars to a few years before he passed away. I remember his Nova and El Camino... I dont have any pictures of either but I do remember the Blower sticking out of the hood on the el camino... :) I wish he would have kept it... But he sold it to put me and and my sister through private schools. But I started working on them when I was about 12 with just cleaning... then oil changes.... then breaks and so on.

 

But no I continue to learn by fixing shit that breaks. But going to CSCC for the Ford program this fall to speed up the learning process.

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