Back in the 50's started reading every car magazine known to man, didn't matter if foreign or domestic. Fnally got caught up in the old R&C mags (Rod & Customs) and flipped over the custom jobs. They were real small magazines back then, used to take them to school, read them instead of doing classwork, they fit inside a text book so the teacher though I was studying, and learned a lot from them.
Unfortunately my marks showed my INATTENTION and my old man got it out of me that I was a gearead. Instead of giving me a good beatdown, he made a deal that if I got good marks, graduated H.S and had the marks to go to college, he'd BUY ME a car!
I wasn't stupid, worked my butt off in H.S. and was accepted to City College (at the time you had to have good grades to get in, not like today when ANYTHING gets into school!).
Much to my surprise and utter amazement, my folks got me a 1961 Impala SS 409!!!!!!!! Roman Red no less! Pop was a NYC police officer and had connections back then to get impounded cars, that the city was going to sell off! The body was PERFECT, but the tranny was shot, and it had a bearing knock! I got out my old Rod books and rebuilt the tranny and pulled out the motor, had a local shop do the bottom end, and I rebuilt it! Even went so far as to port the heads by hand, of course, reading how the PRO's at the time did it!
That was back in 1963, and had the car running 13's! Back then a 13 second car was a killer!
Until lately, when It's HARD to crawl on the ground to do stuff, I've always had some type of Hot Rod
I've got a lot more respect for you now Roy. You really need to put some of your knowledge in other sections on the board.:smile:
#1 Be poor
#2 Have no choice
#3 Listen
#4 Hang out with some one who knows. And listen.
#5 All engines take fuel,fire and air. Just different ways of getting it there and controlling it. So start with something not so complex and go from there.
#6 Listen
#7 Don't be afraid to try and fail. I have had many late night B.S. take it back apart sessions. If it is broke what are you going to do, break it.
#8 If you get it figured out . Tell no one. or you will regret it.....:biggrin:
Lie if necessary or you will find yourself under everybody elese's ****.
#9 When all else fails refer to Chilton's manual. When you have extra parts left don't panic, for some of us it is a pretty normal occurrence...
#10 After you have fallen asleep under a car or 2, burnt your eyebrows off,
welded with a wrench, accidentally torched (at least1), drank enough antifreeze to make you really wonder how much will kill you, dropped a starter on your head, cause you thought the bolt was started,put a tranny on you chest and hold the tailshaft up with you knees (was younger then ), understand why you don't wear rings on watches, eat enough cheeseburgers with the greasiest hands, bust you ass in tranny fluid and find out how well it takes off grease, shim up the backside of a rod bearing to make the knocking go away with a piece of beer can, try using JB weld between 2 cylinders where a head gasket had been leaking, (It worked) and spend $500 on a $50
job. You will start to figure a few things out....
But now with the internet the is always someone to help get you out of trouble. Maybe someone could have told me where all those checkballs came from when I was 15 and lost..........:biggrin:
Good luck
LMAO Sounds very familular Ronnie. I will add that my family hated the fact that I was facinated by two things. Guns and cars. 1 year out of high school I took a course on basic auto repair and went from there. The junior college had a basic program and I started with that. After a few years of working in independant shops and getting screwed around I decided that I wanted more. I'm a graduate of TSTC Waco and have an ASE Master now. Since I now live in a small town I got screwed around again by a local shop and now I do repair on the side for the locals and take that money out of my former employers pocket.:biggrin: I sell parts right now and that has been a great way to get customers for me.
