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Originally posted by Timastyle
I basically want to know what steps you guys took in learning about cars ...........
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Baby!!
That's really it, as far as my story goes; baby steps. I, like a lot of others, started "fixin' " stuff when I was real young; since before I can truly remember. I had a curious streak, and was always taking things apart, and since my dad was not so inclined, I had to learn how to put them back together, on my own, most of the time. There was a teenager across the street from us who worked on his Whizzer motor bikes, and motorcycles, and I was always pestering him, and a man down the street who did a lot of his own auto work, and I was always in his hair. I took the engine off of my dad's first power mower, and fit it up to my coaster wagon, and got my butt beat, and then had to fix the mower. Those were different times, though. I really did not get any serious formal training, until I was in high school, and could take metal shop, and auto shop, and then I got only the real basic fundamentals. The U. S. Navy taught me how to make airplanes work, and after I got out of the service, I went to junior college on the GI Bill. In order to keep my benefits at full pay, I filled in my schedule with Auto Tech classes, and finally learned, formally, a lot of the things I had already figured out. Throughout all of this, I always had a car or bike, and always tinkered with them.

All of this is leading to what I want to try to get across to you. You seem to have the desire, but you also appear to be a little cautious about just getting in there and doing it. That's really what you need to do; get a project, and experiment. If you get it apart, then you must figure out how to put it back together, and make it work, again. If you find a mentor, so much the better, but you can learn much, just by applying your God given intelligence. I don't know if the junior colleges around that area, PCC, LACC, Glendale, Citrus (I hope you are in California), have auto tech classes anymore, but check, and if they do, get into them. Go to evening high school, if they have the classes. But above all, don't be afraid to do your best, make mistakes, fix those mistakes, and take the lessons they can teach you.

Nobody had all of their knowledge and ability from the very start; they had to learn it, and earn it. And I don't think there is one man here who will claim to know it all; I certainly don't, and I have been messing with stuff for a long time. I wish you the very best. This hobby needs all of the young blood it can get.