This is all good advice. The only thing I would like to add is READ! Read everything you can related to what you want to learn.

I started taking my toys apart and putting them back together when I was very small. Later on I became the neighborhood bicycle expert. I was always right there whenever my dad was doing anything to the family cars, too (he was quite a good mechanic). All through those times I was reading and re-reading the car magazines that my older sisters' boyfriends gave me.

When I was 15 I went to work in a cousin's body shop and learned skills I still use today. During college I worked as a mechanic doing increasingly more difficult things as my skills and knowledge grew. It seemed the more I learned, the more I wanted to know and since I couldn't personally DO everything myself all at once, I satisfied that hunger by reading.

Today I am a skilled fabricator and welder and a pretty good mechanic. My forte is frames and suspension systems. Am I still reading? You bet. I have a few reference manuals that come in handy, but I get most of my info about the latest trends and technology from my car magazines. I subscribe to 6 different publications and I read all the tech articles. I've been playing with cars for over 40 years now and building hotrods and stock cars for over 30 and I'm still learning...