How did you guys learn about cars?

Also, it helps if you have a like minded friend and music. Always have a second pair of eyes for complicated shit in case you miss something. Plus you won't get as frustrated.

Here you go .
arranalexander.co.uk/how-it-works---the-motor-car-vintage-ladybird-book-series-654-first-edition-matte-hardback-1965-3525-p.asp

Gran turismo

Whenever I'm depressed I look into building stuff or fixing shit to get my mind off things.

Started off with building and fixing gaming computers for myself and friends to building stupid fucking toy airsoft guns for myself and friends; building a 60 BB's a second DSG airsoft gun = fun. Slowly progressed to firearms and then said fuck it, guess the next progression is cars.

Started out wrenching on my POS DD Avalon and got the hang of stuff by myself. Changing the timing belt, oil, brakes, simple stuff like that.

I do it by myself mostly because I have no friends. My father helps me every now and then to guide me. He was an E9 aircraft mechanic so he's pretty mechanically inclined. Shows me how to stuff.

Currentlty have enough money to buy a LHD Poopra 6 spd meme car if I wanted to as a project. Deciding on buying a MR2 first however to learn the more advance stuff before I move up to the Poopy.

>tfw still live with parents however

Meh.

...

>Everything I learned about them was a shitty class I took in high school

High school should have had multiple classes in automobile shop. My highschool had a large shop garage with six bays with lifts, 2 big wide flat bays with engine hoists, and more covered areas out in the open to keep the sun off you. And of course some project storage area. The total square footage including driveway areas was probably the size of a baskball court (including the on floor team seating). There were whole series of courses on the engine. A series of courses on suspension. A three quarter series on welding because that also included frame and chassis rework and was the core of body shop training for frame rebuilding. So if you said just welding, ha, i can do that in two weeks, no, you are wrong. Welding techniques differ all the time and you have to prop things up, support things, know when to use a frame around pieces before you weld, etc. You also need to know when not to weld with certain electric or torch welders. There was a paint booth too.

I was a top A+ student (3rd) so I was disqualified from the courses (always rejected). I took small engines and took apart and put together a lawnmower engine in middle school as well as replacing worn parts so I had the prerequisites for high school auto. But since I was college bound, the classes were denied as all slots were reserved for vocational training of those who were not college bound. That was clearly a local school internal policy.

When you say you only had "a" single course in auto shop in high school, I say what the fvck? My school was also in a poor area with lots of mexicans and blacks. There were 1100 students in my freshman class and only 121 seniors graduated in my final year. So that was a steep highschool dropout rate. Although not as great as in Highschool of the Dead which had a 100% fail rate.

I really liked that middle school small engines class.

Picture: Girl Wrencher

My high school didn't have any kind of shop classes at all

lol @ highschool of the dead. Watching initial D fifth right now, shits cash.

>have question
>open google
>type in question
>read
>repeat until you can casually embarrass master mechanics

>My high school didn't have any kind of shop classes at all
All the gear was stolen by thieves, thus no auto shop?

My high school was a large one though. AAA size. This was before "No Child Left Behind" Act and high schools were allowed to fail students. So classes still required some competence from 4th grade onwards. In 6th grade science, we learned about the krebs cycle and about photosynthesis. The neat thing about photosynthesis was how light caused the double bond energy to rotate around the atoms surrounding the magnesium atom until the energy was finally enough to be utilized elsewhere and thus transferred out. Hmm, I still remember something from 6th grade. But the old system of animal, plant, insect, and bacteria is shot up as is the periodic table.

High School students and teachers were competent and we had "intro to auto shop" available to freshmen who had taken small engines in middle school.

At least I bet my 7th grade civics course had more material than today's high school civics and free enterprise course required for graduation.

So, maybe I came from a paradise time when schools were real schools and not babysitters. Our auto shop was a lot of separate courses you took in high school for years. There were 4 quarters per school year (approx aug 26 to may 14). Classes ranged from 7:30AM to 3:21PM Mon thru Fri, and a few saturday courses were available too. Summer school existed typically with vocational courses instead of scholastic ones, but also had make-up courses for those who failed english or math so that they would not be "behind" when the next school year started. One teacher per class and some class sizes were up to 55 students (i counted). Teachers today in my area are spoiled. They teach less, grade less, and have smaller class sizes of 18 to 30 students and they strike all the time with excuses of "More Pay And Benefits For The Children!". Why is it I am better educated with those huge class sizes?

I was thinking about getting a small cheap motorcycle just to fuck around with, sounds fun tbqh

>How did you guys learn about cars?
Top Gear and Forza.

Bikes are pretty chill to start with. Get some friends and some sweet music and have a blast

Before I was born, my father was a diesel mechanic for the US Army. From what I can find, you'll sometimes still hear stories about "One-Turn Tom" among staff on certain bases. He quit the army before I was born and became an employee at Sikorsky Aircraft, where he still works. I grew up with my dad always working on his vehicles. When I was 4, he swapped the 4 speed manual of his S10 Blazer to a 5 speed. Apparently, I got under the truck with him and said "Can I help? I wanna get black on me too daddy!".
Growing up, my father took me to classic car shows, primarily for air-cooled VW's, and monster truck events. He encouraged my love of cars getting me books on it and allowing me to help him work on the family vehicles. I remember we had a HARD time replacing the hard brake lines on his 94 Ranger (which replaced the Blazer) around when I was 10.

>tfw no friends but some pretty sweet tunes

>cars are basically legos
That's exactly what I thought when I did my first complicated job. It took me a while to understand what the hell was going on, but once I already disassembled it it all made perfect sense and I was able to (moderately) easily put it back together, with the help of some videos of course.

If you don't want to fuck up a repair follow this advice.

If you have difficulty understanding the basics watch youtube videos of different systems in action to understand how they work. Once you have that you can isolate the system and then tinker from there.

I don't have money for tools

>tfw no dad
>no car friends
>no money for tools
>can't afford to fuck up a job and leave me without a car

We did have multiple years but it was shitty still. The teacher told us how to do basic shit like changing fluids or spark plugs. Kids were free to bring in their own cars and fix em up, or even rebuild engines and transmissions. I was a poorfag so I never had such an opportunity.

My first work was messing with go-karts. I worked with my uncle on weekends to make a little money in jr high and bought two kart frames. Both were powered by Briggs 5 hp flathead engines. I fucked with them a lot, mail ordered upgrade parts from the American Power Sports catalog. I think I blew up 3 of those engines.

I did all the maintenance on my first car. I also had to put a transmission in it because the original one split the case. I took the replacement 5 speed apart and welded a solid steel pin into the differential to replace the roll pin that broke on the original transmission. Reassembled it and put another 100k miles on it.

What bike is that?

>learn about cars

I didn't

Kirill?

how'd you know

You look like the biggest faggot, i hate your guts just from this picture, fuck you.

I didn't start wrenching until like a year ago and learned by modding my honda civic. I started with a cold meme intake and exhaust, then I went to bigger things when I fried the clutch - I replaced that, then when I blew up the engine I swapped another one in kek. I know I'm a dumb ricer, but I've learned a lot since I started owning my own car and i imagine everyone on this board was a retard like me at some point. Really it's just a bunch of nuts and bolts, but just make sure you take your time, do your research, and pay attention to the fine details. Also go to the library they have alldata there and you can get the torque specs for every bolts and good instructions on how to do stuff

Gonna be taking the old b18 apart next week to see what I can salvage, it was just a headgasket I think but I had a bunch of money saved for a new engine anyways so I went with that.

>"what u need fåm?"
>"you know when you turn on the news and see an 'amber ale-?"
>"say no more"

kek'd

My dad taught me everything

Looks like the FS moped my brother had, so I'm gonna say FS of some sort Could be a FSi-e.
Other mopeds with that look are the PUCH VS50

You don't really hate him user. You hate yourself

>wot daily
>shit breaks
>fix shit
>shit breaks
rinse and repeat

>how did you guys start wrenching

I never start even with oil changes because I just can't get over the fear of the car falling on top of me when I am under it. The chinese jacks scare me with their chinese quality or I might get a lemon jack stand. I've had too many other lemon chinese products in the past. But if these lemons fail when I am under the car, it's not something I can walk away from. The car only has about 6.5 inches of ground clearance as measured with tape measure, so I would be crushed.

user, follow all the proper procedures and give everything a wiggle test before getting under and everything will be fine. If you are really nervous then find some thick ass logs or stump sections that are big and wide(at least as thick as you) and put them under the car when you go under, that way even if some one comes up and rips the jacks out from under your car you will be okay

Could get a Mk3 for much less.

Learn to embrace the 1JZ-GTE

I got hired at Sears as a lube jockey with no prior experience. I now work at a stealershit in the warehouse, own two cars and fix them myself.

...

>follow all the proper procedures and give everything a wiggle test before getting under and everything will be fine.

Bow, wow. Ruff, ruff.
My master is playing under the big hrududu noisy thing.

Bow wow. Ruff, ruff.
I want to play too.
(puts paw on jack's quick release lever)

Bow wow. Ruff, ruff.

>No pic

shut the FUCK up

Yiff in hell

do what I did op, buy a sports car under 4k, try to fix it when you really have no knowledge. break shit on said car, sell car. I know it sounds fucking retarded but I know a fuck ton about cars now bc I did just about everything you AREN'T supposed to do :^)

how about you follow the manual?

You have autism. That post is fucking garbage.

That comes after you don't.

Also if manuals actually had every single little detail, trick, tweak and ritual you ought to follow when doing things it'd be thicker than the Falcon 4.0 manual. Everything is best learned from a combination of someone smarter than you and fucking stuff up.

I like everything about your car except the fucking STANCED shit you did. Raise it up. Let it be free

i was 19 working in a grocery store, garage i always went to offered me an apprenticeship, 6 years later i still work there and have my Journeyman/Redseal tickets

fucking job ruined cars for me, dont work on my own stuff really anymore and have 2 projects that have sat for 4 years. cant wait to quit and get a desk job

aлo йoбa этo ты?

Yamaha FS1-E, I wish they still made learner bikes like this so we could actually get used to wrenching on ez mode. Thankfully my dad is a mechanic genius and is teaching me all I need to know.

What do you mean it "ruined cars" for you?

>tfw nobody responds to you

it's okay, I'm in the same boat. If I fuck my shit up, it's fucked for good

>I was a poorfag so I never had such an opportunity.
The school had no problem having junkers towed over for students to work on. Spare parts are supplied by the junkyard by students pulling parts from cars there (free for the school class) The benefit to the junkyard was that the "repaired" car was theirs when it was returned after the class was over. Thus, students didn't have to pay for any car, the car parts, or the tools. Because the junkyard got to keep the car, a lot of times, the students got to work on "better" cars because it was obviously more profitable for the junkyard to have a nice car repaired for free than some ancient beater. Because donating car parts to the school was obviously a tax deductible situation, the junkyard also got tax deductions out of it. Everyone had win-win. It just took teachers to care enough to contact and set up the process with private industry.

If the teachers won't do something without getting paid specifically for it, then of course nothing happens. Lots of teachers are like that too. They're too busy using the job's perks to make money on the side to spare time to work on projects that would enhance their high school's curriculum.

Buy breaky car
Buy cheap tools
Fix breaky car
???????
No profits because u spent it all on car, but you'll learn to fix things

Pic related.

That sounds fucking awesome, I wish my shitty class would have done something like that

Even better if it's an old shitty car like yours because they are easy to fix so while they are shitty, they will outlive the new crap that are designed to crap itself from the inside behind 7 layers of plastic parts that break if you open it just so the insurance company see that you've tampered with it.

my old job i would work sometimes until 9pm then work on my car until 1am, weekends i would spend half the day on them. now after working on other peoples shit all week i barely touch my stuff weekends

you just get tired of working on cars, have to keep hobbies and work separate. i never and it killed cars for me, only reason im still a mechanic is i need the money. once i can go back to school im getting into the medical field so maybe cars can be a hobby again

i dont regret becoming a mechanic per se because i went from not even knowing how to change my own oil to knowing a ton, but they say after 5 years you get burned out and i have

Don't call my stuff shit senpai, only I can call my stuff shit.

Tfw your truck is mechanically new but looks like doo

I bought a DSM.

I'm a cheap bastard and always buy $1000-$3000 cars. I never go to a mechanic for anything. Since they are cheap I have a complete willingness to do my own repairs. I look up the procedure on youtube or consult a repair manual.

I think your truck looks fuckin sexy, just give it a new paint job

>That sounds fucking awesome, I wish my shitty class would have done something like that

Something like that can't exist anymore in today's modern world. I went back to my hometown on a visit and it has zero junkyards in the whole region. Junkyards cannot remain in business with their used rusted weathered parts when China sells their low quality pot-metal new parts to consumers who don't care about metal purity or if their plastic chinese parts have lead in the plastic and lead in the paint. The consumers only cared that the part is declared by the chinese as "new" even if it was a lightly sanded down part that was re-chromed to look new.

I had a shop class in 9th grade. We used arc welders, oxy/acetylene torches, and all manner of saws.

This was in the year 2000.

It's a very fine line between the MR2 or Mk3.

You're probably right though. If all of my dream cars are inline 6 based, might as well learn an inline 6.

The only thing that's keeping me from doing the Mk3 is the parts availability of the 1JZ. With the Mr2 I can literally do a bunch of engine swaps that have common parts I can get from a Toyota dealer or Autozone.

However doing an engine swap with the Mr2 is leaps and bounds harder I expect (and researched) compared to a car that was made for the engine I will be swapping.

We will see. There are a lot of AW11's for sale where I live and they all are barely rusted due to the climate where I live. Barely any Mk3's.....but fuck a Mk3 looks so nice as well.

>buy shitty condition 90's Audi
>have plenty of spare money
>choose to fix it up yourself
>give up your social life
You haev now learnt a lot and are stronger than ever. You have become undefeatable, a god amongst shadetrees

I don't regret it... a lot.

Start with suspension work. It's a little cheaper and simpler than engine work.

until you flip the fuck over trying to be dagumi with your new drift-tuned FWD shitbox

My first car was a '64 triumph spitfire that I had to rebuild just so that it could break again. I was 15 yo. Then I took auto shop classes in HS in fact 3 periods a day was AS. Then I fell in love with Italian cars. This path I do not recommend.

>buy shitting car
>drive like dagumi
>when something breaks pick up Haynes manual and fix it
>rinse
>repeat

The only thing that teaches you is makes, models, performance specs.

They don't teach you how cars work.

>I had a shop class in 9th grade. We used arc welders, oxy/acetylene torches, and all manner of saws

Then your school was like mine. As long as you had the CAREFULNESS and no LOL LOL type attitude, even freshman were able to handle welding tools at our auto shop classes after the first quarter which had students use hand tools to take things apart and put them together in five minutes.

It was very similar to how a chilton's guide was written out. Each student had something similar to work on. You have the guide sheets in plastic and items to take apart and put back together to not only get you used to using tools, but to familiarize with different auto parts. So, you have a class of 30. 10 work on A1 to A10 to take apart and put together. 10 work on B1 to B10. 10 work on C1 to C10. Five minutes up. Now people move to next item. Those that did A go to B. Those that did B move to C. Those that were doing C now move to A items. That was smart and reduced the number of duplicate items in the class which was important to save storage space.

My high school was well organized in its auto shop classes. The shelves had many stacks of photocopied items like those for A, B, C, D, etc. By the time students got thru them all, they had even held struts in their hands and unfastened and fastened joints by the end of the 2nd quarter.

Anyone that did horseplay with parts or tools was kicked out ON THE FIRST TIME. That was the rule of all auto shop classes. Absolutely no fooling around with equipment. You wave a tool like you're going to hit someone with it, you are kicked out. The End.

>Everything I learned about them was a shitty class I took in high schoo

If your school only had one auto class, then the teachers sacrificed the students in order to have bigger paychecks, technology bonuses, and perks to use for their own private for-profit businesses using school gear and school training.

Since they are unable to deliberately misuse autoshop gear and training, that is probably why they didn't bother to divert funds to auto shop.

Example: One high school teacher (Kent, Washington area) is partners with 2 others in a graphics art and production fulfilment business. They make brochures and mailings for businesses and have clients such as microsoft and others. She is trained using high school tech funds, and was even using high school laptops issued to teachers along with software and the training paid for by tech grants via the school. I overheard her talking about one 64,000 project they had with microsoft to produce and mail a simple brochure about how "microsoft cares" about something. I guess it was more PR stuff. But she used a lot of school property in her private business since it was issued to teachers.

So, if teachers have the option to steer funding to things that benefit them, then your auto shop funding gets sacrified.

>Anyone that did horseplay with parts or tools was kicked out ON THE FIRST TIME
That sounds amazing. The teachers I had didn't do shit to control the spics and niggers in the class who didn't want to learn, and let everyone else suffer. Everyone saw the teachers as pushovers and basically walked all over them because they knew they wouldn't do shit.

I bought a shitbox car for 500 to learn/try restoring. bought a welder (though i don't know how to weld) and going to start doing panel work on it.
an engine isn't too complicated either way so i have a general idea of what it 'could' be making car not work good, but not exactly pinpoint it.

i've never tried rebuilding an engine or transmission yet. those are things which I think would be hard to do and wouldn't really want to fuck up

When I get more money I want to buy something like a civic or rwd corona/corolla and race it, and learn how to tune/setup race car my self. at the moment i only have money enough to do basic things, not really spend 5 grand on modifications

That's the teachers' fault. Are the teachers just showing up to collect their lucrative paychecks and huge benefits packages? In my county, over half of the property taxes go to paying for education costs including teacher pensions due to their frequent strikes and COLA built in. That means less than half of the property tax remains to pay for everything else (police, fire, government employees, roads, vehicles, traffic lights, night time street lights, utility bills, construction, and pensions for everyone else). The teachers really got it good due to the voters showing up and the other voters not showing up.

start with an old trail bike to fix up

then move up to a reliable old shitbox, fix shit as they break

then buy an old shitbox with problems and fix them

then buy a newer shitbox with problem to fix, make it reliable

then buy a new car, fix its problems

then sell the cars you've fixed, recoup the money, and spend that money on a car you want or decide to keep dumping money into

from Veeky Forums

Just buy a lemon and tear it apart. Best way to learn is to do.

This isn't a humor thread user

What he probably means is that he saved a lot of time by asking Veeky Forums where the good sites are, the good youtube channels for various topics, and also looked at past archived threads such as those on detailing, synthetic vs conventional oils, how to apply soundproofing and dynamat to cars, etcetera.

>This isn't a humor thread user
And there is always the past Longpost Guy's threads about used car salesman escapes.

>This isn't a humor thread user
Nor are modern high schools places of learning.

Wanted to commit suicide, but was too lazy. Complete NEET and started learning about cars because it appealed to me. Started with random online things to learn. Went to Reddit for more in-depth learning. Went to an automotive class to learn basics and get hands on training to instill that information and have a solid foundation.

Fixed my own car because I was poor and wanted to learn hands on for more complicated things. Neighbor's noticed and paid me to fix their cars. Noticed I did a good job, had good prices, and was honest. Often times it'd be a small issue that didn't require the work the shop quoted them. Saved one person over $5,000 and they gave me a $500 tip for it and got me TONS of customers.

Had too many customers and not enough time. Started a business. Won't go into detail, obviously, but the business makes about $25,000 a month. Note I said the business, not me. I get very little of that. For now.

Also started a business selling cars. I was able to go from a rust bucket to a new, to me, Audi that I never thought I'd be able to have. Only downside is working constantly, but I love it so I don't mind. Beats being a NEET any day.

Lesson here, I guess, is that if you're not a cunt and you're a good human being then everything will work out for you. Seems bad now, but you'll be fine. If an autistic retard like me did it, you can too.

jelly as fuck. srsly, that sounds like one cool father.

Audible kek. Thanks, user.

>Sikorsky Aircraft
btw, the nickname "One-Turn Tom" cam about while he was in the army.
"One more turn oughta do it"
*snap*

Thanks for the encouragement user, good shit

> Went to Reddit for more in-depth learning
are there good subreddits for beginners?

reddit.com/r/cars/comments/1f677x/can_we_start_building_a_list_of_carrelated/

Used to be more, but I can't remember. Should have saved them.

Basically I got my start from high school auto classes (and freshman Metal shop where there was a little overlap fabricating and welding parts)
My dad was a wrencher but always would get frustrated and yell so it was never really fun working with him at all unless it was vehicle painting
>realize i'm the same kind of wrencher
>fug, take deep breaths
After my life went to hell and I dropped out
halfway through Auto 2 (and intro CIS systems, i really regret not finishing that class) I just kept falling into shitboxes that needed fixing, or knowing people who had shitboxes that needed work, so that's mainly how I gained experience.
thought about going the UTI or Wyotech route but I burn out on stuff really easy, I hate institutional learning systems, and I can't see myself enjoying it very long.
>I also hate customer service
Wrenching is a useful skill to have, and has saved me a lot of money

>the thing that has helped me the most?
youtube videos

>LPG
I knew there was a reason I never bought from dealerships, but LPG put it into perspective
>actually learned something from Veeky Forums

I learnt a shitload in rigs of rods and early automation