Hey, I have some questions regarding mechanics. How did you first begin learning about it...

Hey, I have some questions regarding mechanics. How did you first begin learning about it? Did you have some to teach you or did you learn by yourself? What resources did you learn? What kind of process did you use to learn? Also what was your first project car/bike?

Also

General first car/bike stories cause I see a lot of people on here that already have a definitive knowledge of mechanics and would much rather the focus of this thread be on how you got to that point rather than how good you are etc

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Fixing things.

>How did you first begin learning about it?
long ago. when I was younger I took shit apart. atvs, lawnmowers, vcrs, TVs anything that could come apart. also had lots of scale models of engines and cars.

I really gained interest when I was like 10 or maybe younger. my dad was finishing restoring a 65 fastback 289 mustang someone half assed. was my first dive into the inner workings of an engine.

>Did you have some to teach you or did you learn by yourself?
my dad when I was younger, then google/youtube as I got older. then I took an auto technology course at the local college and really got into electrical diagnostics.

>What resources did you learn?
too much to list. you gain a ton of knowledge by working or learning from someone that's competent. i've learned tons of tips and tricks from guys on youtube though. i've also learned a lot about which cars to avoid.

>Also what was your first project car/bike?
93 chevy s10 blazer. that thing is long gone. looking for something else now.

>how did you first begin learning about it
Youtube videos, dad drives a prius, mom drives an aveo, so they arent particularly mechic-minded

>Did you have someone teach you, or learn by yourself?

Taught by the internet, though I did have one buddy in high school that could answer literally any question I could throw at him.

>what resources did you learn?
Huh? I dont really get this question. like what did we learn from? youtube, online forums, personal experience after buying a project car to learn on.

>what was your first project car?
A 94 miata that I was literally never able to afford to do anything to before I fucking crashed it. 19 y.o + LSD + 2300 lb rwd vehicle with friends is not a good combo lol.

about 2 years later I was in a better financial situation and found an 89 single slammer 240sx for $1000 that was the first car I ever really worked on.

I've always have had good mechanical aptitude.

I would say it started with Legos and following instructions to build stuff. I used to love just taking stuff apart as a kid, figuring how it worked, then attempting to reassemble it. It didn't always work out.

I moved on to computers. Then to cars with simple maintenance like oil changes and air filter changes. YouTuber YouTube, YouTube. Maybe a specialized book here and there for 350 engines, those hayne manuals never really worked for me. Started purchasing shop service manuals for my vehicles. Although, generally they have too much information and I end up skipping a lot of it. Just double check it for torque on sensitive areas. Forum how to's, etc

Practice, practice, practice. Start small, you will make mistakes. It usually cost just as much as a mechanic with purchasing tools, although you also purchase better parts, and get a sense of pride.

learned wrenching on my dads e30 m3. rounded a heck load of bolts and snapped a lot of connectors but i got there in the end. now work on all my friends cars.

I went to school to learn how to work on cars. Nothing fancy, just a community college, because you can learn the two ways to turn a wrench for 1000 a year or 30000 a year. Didn't cost me a dime because tuition waivers

Grew up on a farm so started by fixing strimmers and lawn mowers, moved onto motorbikes and mopeds, then finally land-rovers and tractors. After this I got a 2 year apprenticeship at a classic car garage. Left once I'd finished as it was turning a good hobby into a job. Not i buy notoriously shit vehicles (Lada, trabant, Fiat 126/500, uaz, mgb) from scrap heaps and repair them to their former glory.
You've just got to start small and build up your knowledge, that way you can relate a Rover V8 to the 125cc Honda engine.

Do you find that you become less interested in hooning and/or going fast the more you become invested in mechanics? I.E. the joy of driving is excitement enough etc without having to gotta go fast fast fast

Going fast was never a priority. i've always preferred the scenic route, especially when in a classic or on a bike

Started with legos, then rc planes and later a small 50cc honda mc and cars. Always enjoyed taking things apart and putting them together again. Learned a lot from different people, family, teachers, other students and coworkers, even stuff from people on interweb-forums.

Used to like learn by doing, but now I usually do a bit theory beforehand.

Pic is my first project car.

Quite the opposite. I like riding my bikes infinitely more than I like working on the fucking things. I can fix anything on or in the bastards, but it's such a pain in the ass.

Just do it. Read your owner's manual and look at all the maintenance they want you to do. Then start doing all that yourself. Start with changing the oil, anyone can do that if they want to.

Get the Haynes or Chilton manual for your car. Read it. These days there's Youtube as well. You can sit and watch people show you how to do things to your car for hours and hours.

Damn, I'm just like you. I loved Legos as a kid, to the point where most of the time I didn't need to read the instructions in order to assemble moderately complex sets.

I'm still in the "I moved on to computers" phase though, but I'll get my car in a few months if everything goes well.

I'm already watching and reading all I can about general maintainance. My country sucks big time when it comes to making modifications to anything that can go faster than a bicycle though.

Buy a cheap piece of shit and daily drive it.

Is there some reason the radiator is in the rear of the engine bay and not the front?

>How did you first begin learning about it?
Was poor and opted to buy an old BMW

>Did you have some to teach you or did you learn by yourself?
Dad died when i was a child and I had no father figures to teach me. Self taught

>What resources did you learn?
Factory Manuals, aftermarket service manuals like Bentley's and Google

> What kind of process did you use to learn?
Trial and Error.

>Also what was your first project car/bike?
1986 735i

>notoriously shit vehicles

Meccano, then fixing my bike, then became an apprentice mechanic, quit after five years because it's a shit job. Pro Tip: Keep it as a hobby.

the early models were both water cooled and air cooled with fins along the engine block. the fan was there to pull cool air over the engine before the radiator. when they later upgraded the engine the removed the fins but kept the fan there. East German space magic

Thanks for all the replies guys! Anybody got any noteworthy stories about beginning mechanic failures or general entertaining tales? Times you fucked up or succeeded when you didn't think you could

thats one aesthetic old bike

I was never interested in that stuff. I like cars, but I dislike the current generation car enthusiasts that think everything is a simple fix because they read it on google, or "just ls swap it brah" when their civic motor dies.

I did cadillac northstar headgaskets shortly after getting into the trade. it wasn't a bad job, but you have to drill out every head bolt thread in the block and put threaded inserts in because they like to pull out when you go to torque the head.

my old boss was a gigajew so he didn't want to pull the timing cover to properly collapse the timing chain tensioners. fucking took like 30 minutes each bank to time the chains with two of us using screwdrivers in this tiny access to retract the tensioners.

later into the trade i got this job on a old toyota mid engine van to do headgaskets. basically what we did with headgasket jobs was rip the head off, send it to a machine shop to check it over and resurface

once i got the head back i slapped it back together because i wanted that thing gone. spent like 3 days putting it back together because every fucking vacuum line broke. started it up, ran rough and had a weird tapping sound, fucked with it for like half a day trying to figure it out. got pissed and tried an italian tune up and it dropped an exhaust valve. pulled the head off, and the valve put a hole in the piston. head of the valve just sheared clean from the stem. apparently they used two piece valves back then.

Grew up on a farm, helped my dad fix everything on it. He taught me how to weld, troubleshoot diesels, and everything else. Bought a 92 240sx in HS dropped eBay turbo and blew it up. Sold it and bought a 02 Tundra. Now I'm a milwright just doing my thing.