where did you learn about cars?
my dad never taught me anything about them and moved away before i was 17, so i know how to fill my oil and gas and that's about it. i have an uncle who's a mechanic but he's always busy at work and doesn't have time to teach me everything. i'd really like to get into cars and get something fun i can work on, but it's really daunting when you have no experience.
Just get your hands dirty with some small projects and work your way up. That's what I'm doing with my car
Your uncle is a shit. He could let you watch and explain what he is doing with out much effort.
same OP
but my dad's just the kind of person who knows a lot, but doesn't like to get his hands dirty.
I've learned a fuckload with video tutorials and forums, you should give that a shot.
Veeky Forums hasn't taught me jack shit.
>Veeky Forums hasn't taught me jack shit.
You haven't learned even one meme?
my car is a boring mid sized 1999 sedan, there's really nothing to work on. dirtiest i've gotten was when my window motor broke, and i took the door panel off and replaced the motor. it didn't feel like i was learning about cars though, it was just some bolts and screws and a motor. i'm worried about going straight into a nicer car i can work on because if i don't know how to fix things i'll be fucked.
he doesn't work at home, he works at a mechanic shop and i don't think he wants some 19 year old kid standing behind him all day at work. i wouldnt. he does help me learn about my own car when things break though, still like i said above it's a very bland sedan and nothing that bad happens to it.
yeah from what i've gathered from lurking Veeky Forums it's mainly for somewhat experienced people buying cars / showing them off or new people asking which cars they should buy.
any youtube channel / forum recs?
>Veeky Forums hasn't taught me jack shit
Taught ya that you don't know jack shit.
This and an 1967 Bettle.
My dad does embedded systems and I write software for a living so I knew absolutely nothing until a few years ago. I jumped into the deep end and got into racing. Learned through help from other racers and a lot of trial and error breaking things. I still break things...
this is what i'd like to do, just jump straight into it with a new car, but like you said, lots of trial and error there. hard to afford as a college student. i wish you could get the best of both worlds, a fun easy project race car that also works as a daily driver lol.
Heh, race cars don't work very well as daily drivers. Not exactly legal to drive on the street after all and you wouldn't want to for a host of other reasons. It does require money so it's probably out of the question while you're a college student unfortunately. Unless... does your university have a Formula SAE or Baja SAE team? If so, definitely get involved with that. Nice quads btw.
Start with an oil change, you can't really fuck it up
Oh yeh, and if you want to get into racing when you do finish school, get a job, and have some disposable income, whatever you do, don't buy a new car. Keep your shitbox. The money normal people spend on expensive full coverage insurance and car payments is much better spent on delicious soft slicks, purple fuel, and fixing all the things that break when you inevitably end up going off the track.
i just bought an old 1 cylinder, 2 stroke, air cooled bike that i plan to restore starting with the rear suspension
this is how i plan to learn
gotta start somewhere, no?
Devil trips confirm. Who cares what you drive on the street anyway. An old craigslist hoopty gets groceries just as well as a new BMW. If anything, swap it for an old hoopty truck for easier towing of your real ride. Gotta go fast.
Do it faggot. Get that little fucker going ringadingding and farting out black clouds of hippie repellant.
From your mom when we're banging in her car she seriously wouldn't shut the fuck up.
the fucker runs.. that's why i bought it
it sounds like an airport and smells like a war crime
the suspension is fucked and the final drive too.. possible transmission issues
it's going to be a learning experience
grew up racing, doing projects with dad, etc. just born into it. glad I was too, basically my owning driving force in life is to go fast and work on shit.
I learned from my dad. We had a lot of shitboxes growing up, so knowing how to weld or rebuild an engine was essential. He did what he could to relate all his knowledge about cars and bikes to me and my brothers. I might not be able to do an engine rebuild, but I can adjust valves, rebuild calipers and a lot of stuff needed to keep my box going. I owe that to my father and if there's something I need to learn, he's always ready to help me.
>internet
>buying a shitbox from Veeky Forums's recommendations and having to work on said POS
I got Gran Turismo 3 when I was 11 or 12, I was messing with suspension settings within the year. I moved to Alabama at age 13 and shared a driveway with a 16-y.o. ricer with a 1.8L 94 Eclipse. I found that I was better at researching and working on his car than he was. I was learning a lot from the now-defunct overboost.com and Sport Compact Car magazine. At age 15 I successfully rebuilt a go-cart flathead engine and replaced the head gasket in my parents jet-ski engine.
I got an RSX when I turned 16 (thanks mom!) and got a job the week I turned 16 so I could do mods. There was a 1/4-mile strip 5 minutes away from the house that did $10 test and tune nights and I'd go there on weekends (I seriously skipped senior prom to do test & tune runs). Installing new motor mounts and a catless race header (at age 16 by myself) took over a second off my 1/4-mile times.
I was working as a miller / lathe worker at a factory at 17 (probably wasn't legal lol).
At age 18 I got a 6,000-mile '06 STi for $21k at a dealer auction (I knew a guy). I immediately bought a laptop for it and data logged every time I drove then used open source tuning programs to tune it very slowly over time. I had her running 12.9s on all-season tires, tuned by 19-year-old me.
Now I own a Miata that I've rebuilt and restored over the years by myself. I'm hoping to take a more ambitious project on in the coming years.
My dad has 2 antique tractors and can't restore them for shit, he always needs me to do it. I definitely didn't learn from him.
I did cert 3 and 4 in automotive mechanical
My dad showed me all kinds of stuff. He showed me how to rebuild & adjust a carb, do a brake job, set timing & point gap... list goes on. When I went into the military, I got to use the base hobby shop for all my automotive projects... any tool you might ever need and a master mechanic on hand to point you in the right direction.
whats your 'goal' here
"i want to learn about cars' google can help you there. just google / youtube anything you want to know "how does engine work" "how does suspension work" "how is babby formed"
you need to have some kind of actual goal i would say.
Honestly even at its most basic level, get a workshop manual for your car and do all the service tasks you need to do. follow the manual and youll be 'learning about cars"
if you just want to watch some dudes on the internet fill you with useless crap knowledge to make you feel smarter because you have no intention of doing any work;
engineering explained
mighty car mods (whilst i think theyre a pair of cunts, they used to cover alot of interesting stuff)
motortrend (Roadkill and Hot Rod Garage, dirt everday has some educational episodes)
Jafromobile (nitty gritty engine rebuilding)
Project Binky
i also see chrisfix recommends alot
Have you ever heard any story's from jiffy lube that Said as long as you aren't brain dead...
>never was a car-guy
>was into technical shit regardless of this fact
>didn't know shit but principles of the otto-cycle
>bought a car one summer
>started working on it and learnt things, taught myself
>now have large knowledge in 90's VAG and basics of any car
>regularly work on cars now as a hobby
I had the benefit of not being a mouth-breather when I started, so that helped too. Still have a lot to learn though.
>be libcuck who doesn't know how to do anything with his hands
>join Marines because I'm a retard and dropped out
>learn how to use hand and air tools as well as diagnose electrical in my job of fixing electric 25mm and hydraulic missile launcher turret targeting systems
>buy jeep after first deployment because hurr jeep bro
>jeep a shit and always breaks down.
>buy haynes guide and some hand tools and fix it all the time
>start hanging out with car guys in my group of friends more often, we wrench together.
>bring my jeep back from the dead a handful of times
>work on other friends stuff also or if it's something complicated they let me watch and explain what their doing while I be the tool bitch
>get part time job at vatozone on days off from marines
>learn more everyday especially from cool ass mechanics who I deliver to. They let me come into their shop and watch them work sometimes because muh patriotism muh support veterans
Don't forget to check your local public library to see if it has chilton or haynes manuals on your car. You should also check out manuals on a few OTHER cars and read their instructions as well. You can sometimes pick up insights from other repair instructions because not all instructions for each car may have the same amount of information that might lead to insight about how and why something is done in a repair.
internet
I'm learning by myself as I go. I learned the utmost basics from my driving instructor for the test. Literally, 'point to the X reservoir and the min/max markings'.
I change my own oil now. I'm intending to change my own air/cabin/pollen filters later in the year.
I'm tempted to get a 'project' car at some point and use it to learn to fix it myself. Literally the cheapest still-road-legal shitbox off autotrader that'll be halfway fun to drive when it's finished. Then sell it off once I'm done with it, ideally for more than I bought it for.
Mostly because my daily driver is a new-ish car with covers over everything, and I'll need it working monday morning to get me to work, instead of in pieces.
youtube tutorials are great and all, but what am I supposed to do if I have no place to work on a car?
I live with my parents , our garage is full, the driveway is a hill and I theres no way to get anything into our back yard
Actually a mechanic got me into cars. Daddy never was around for me. I used to drive my moms old 2004 ford focus sedan. The focus needed some service done (i'm not sure what) and while I was talking with the mechanic I told him about some lights that were burnt out and he then told me what to do to change them instead of him doing it. I saw how easy it was and my interest in cars grew. The focus died maybe a couple of months later and I got an s10 that I don't like fully.
this might be incorrect but i guess my "goal" was to have some knowledge before i got a new car so i wouldn't be shit out of luck if it broke down. in my search for an 80's - 90's car like a 240 or Supra, everyone tells me it'll break down and i won't be able to fix it, so i guess i thought it'd be easier to learn before i go in.
from what i've gathered from this thread, it seems like i should just get the car and then deal with problems as they come with help from the internet, friends, relatives, etc.
i'll check all those channels out though, thank you