Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
My ‘63 Chevy Corvair taught me what grease and wrenching are all about.
About 1964, helped my older friend remove, rebuild and reinstall manual transmission in his 1958 V8 Ford 2door coupe.
A couple of years later removed the engine from my 1953 MG TD.
I was never cut out for tha, but admired those that are.
School was called due to snow and my buddies were out driving in the snow while I was laying in it.
Must have been late freshman or sophomore in high school. Kept the Model A alive enough to travel the five miles into town for school and related activities. Drove with a school permit until the age of 16. Hand crank was handy when the battery was low.
First experience was helping my Dad work on his 1946 Chevy. I was about 6. Mostly it was my job to hold the flashlight while he worked on it. I remember getting yelled at when the light drifted from the spot it was supposed to be shining on.
On my own was when I was about 11. I bought a go-cart from a guy for $5. I didn’t want the go-cart. I wanted the 3hp Briggs that was on it. I completely disassembled the Briggs and got it running. I learned a lot about magnetos, carburetors, valves and valve timing, etc.
I saved my money and bought a mini-bike kit, installed the Briggs and off I went. I still have the scars to prove it.
Later (early 70’s) I graduated to British cars. Need I say more?
I was 15...We had a 57 Ford...It developed a broken rocker arm shaft...
I hadn’t given it any kind of thought...I doubt that I’d even held a wrench up til then...I was taking driver’s training and trying to figure out how I could worm my way into becoming an auto owner by the time I reached 16...
My dad who had worked in the motor pool during WWII had some pretty good mechanical experience...My dad told me if I could repair the car, get it running, I could have it...That was a real challenge...He handed me a Motor Manual and a few wrenches and I was on my way...
I succeeded and had a running car by the time I got my driver’s license...
And that led to a very long career installing and repairing industrial machinery...
Mine was a 1972 Ford Torino with a bad oil pump. I foolishly tried driving it from Connecticut to Virginia in 1986 overheated, and cracked the block in Scarsdale, NY.
My first experience was on an air cooled Corvair. Ive always resented the water jackets ever since...
Later some friends put a motorrcycle front on a VW. They drove it off and it went , naturally, straight into the yard across the street LOL!
A fellow tried to fix a transmission while the car was running- it ran hm over.
Physics is fun!
Not my first but my most ambitious project was rebuilding the engine on a ‘59 Austin Healy Sprite. Took the block to a machine shop for overbore and had head milled; reassembled with new bearings, pistons, rings, etc... When finished, installed in car, connected fuel, electrical and started. No oil pressure....zero.
Shut off.... After thinking about the problem, went back to solvent tank and recovered the small pressure-relief valve and installed it in the side of the engine. YES! Oil pressure good and it ran great. Drove it two years and sold it for $75 more than I paid for it.
It was tall and narrow, and him and I were the only two that could drive it without tipping it over. We had lots of fun with that - with lots of repairs at first!
The first winter we had it I took the whole thing apart to “tune it”. Really just cleaned everything up. Put it back together and I recall I had 2 to 3 screws or bolts left over. It sure ran better though! (4th or 5th grade!)
Looking back I was sure lucky with the parents I got. Mom was a neat freak - but she let me work on that thing in the basement. I recall my dad peaking in on me - but never giving advice or anything. (He was a builder - not a mechanic).
I recall my buddy and I paid a lot of money for a centrifugal clutch to put on the old motor. I think it was $25 each and we “owned” it together.
That was my first and last time ever owning something with someone else. After several years of the go-cart something must have happened - perhaps the motor finally gave out, or we just got tired of it.
But I never did see that clutch again. Or the $25!
‘69 Chevy Nova 2 door. Businessmens special. Inline 6, 2 speed powerglide, no radio, no air conditioning. No nothing. Black vinyl bench seats that would blister your butt if you sat on them on a hot summer day. Bought it for $300. Went through the basics: cap, rotor, points, condenser, coil, plugs, fluids. Scraped 2 inches of sludge from inside the valve cover. Didn’t realize how sludged up that powerglide was until one day the trans shifted 20mph quicker. Never shifted at the higher speed again. The body was rust city. But you just could not kill that driveline. Wish I’d kept it.
CC
Bicycles, Gocarts and then the
Old Man taught me to drive a
Stick Shift.
I was 12.
I was Off to the Races!
Building motorcycles, Baja Bugs
and now Killer Drones!
I’m a Cable guy more than a Mech.
For me it was putting a set of headers on my 1969 Camaro. I was trying to get a little more power and sound out of my 327 engine. The problem was that it was in the winter time with temperatures in the low 20’s.
Summer of 67, my cousin and I (ages 14 and 13) built a mini bike from a 26” bicycle frame. We rebuilt the middle part of the frame, and used 20” wheels to give more room for the 3 1/2 hp Briggs. A jackshaft was mounted just ahead of the rear wheel with the original sprockets trading places. On the left side there was a belt drive centrifugal clutch, and a slightly larger pulley on the jackshaft. No brakes, but we didn’t care. We had a lot of fun with it that summer, and then sold it to a neighbor farmer’s son. They kept it going for another year or so.
Changing the oil in our ‘63 Beetle. I was 12. At least the bug had a gasoline-fired heater, run ya outta the car in 5 minutes or less!