I've always wanted to figure how things work, then tackle the task. I become extremely compulsive and research, research, research. It just consumes me. I've never been the type to take something apart to see how it works.

Normy, other Slav in the house. The last name imeans one from the Carpatho-Rusyn region (East Slovakia).

 

A combination of curiosity and the lack of funds.

 

"For me it was a psychotic desire to fix stuff" Marc
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Marc,
I thought I was the only one who felt that way! I am 100% that same way. Its almost obsessive! Do people who know you give you broken stuff for that reason? Thanks for the belly laugh Marc.
Randy

 

Building things and making things was present from the time I was a kid,
but regarding cars, I did not know anything. I had to learn, when my
dad gave me a POS, rusting, non-running VW bug, at age 15...
So I had to lear to fix it, and fix it up, if I wanted a car. And I really
did want a car badly, so I learned how to fix it...

 

Nowadays I'm like Rez, research until I can't fit anything more in my head, then do it until it works.

I started out taking broken TV's apart. Come to think of it, I took everything apart to see how it worked. It wasn't until my teens that I was able to put things back together again.

My first car was a Fiat 128 (Lada), followed swiftly by the car I wanted, a maroon '79 Triumph Spitfire. After I spent too much money on constant repairs, I got the Bentley factory manual, and began wrenching myself. Since then, I can count on my fingers the number of times someone else has done repairs on my cars.

 

I was taking lawnmower motors apart when I was 5 and learning by watching my dad. I have his Craftsman tools that he bought when he got married in 1953. Here's the '41 Ford p/u he finished restoration on before he passed away a few years ago. It was a rusting hulk in the middle of a field when he found it. Wouldn't even roll and had to be dragged off the trailer. When he was done, it was showroom condition - every nut and bolt.

 

For me I didn't have anyone really teach me, I just look at stuff and it makes sence, like wiring diagrams, and mechanical, computers and other logical and mathematical stuff like that. certain things I needed to be made aware of but I learn pretty quick on cars, computers and other stuff like that

 

I still don't have a clue as to what the hell I'm doing. I go in blindly and read the "how to" later if I can't figure it out. I have always been that way. Incredibly enough, I would say that I have fixed 90% of all things I attacked in my life.

Bottom line, either someone has the "feel" for these things or they don't. Let's take it to the next level....think you could have designed all those things you have worked on in your life? The crowd now gets a lot smaller!

 

I guess I ought to throw my story in here too.

For as long as I can rember, I've been takeing things apart, modifying them, repairing them, and then putting them back togethere. I started out with toasters, and other appliances, and have been working my way up.

I did some minor wrenching in my dad's shop, but he really didn't know that much about it, he would just experenment untill it worked. I alwasy wanted to know how something works. I would take it apart, and then start makeing a lay out of it in my head, trying to figure out how the fluids flow, what the levers hit, and how the gear intermesh. Anything I couldn't figure out just by looking at it, I'd reaserch the heck out of. Everything from lawn mowers, to currling irons.

My 928 is my second car. I did some minor wrenching on an 94 F-150, not a half bad truck. The engine bay was so huge there was no need to plan how everything was layed out, because there was too much space. The 928 is the first time I've done any serious wrenching. Learned alought in a short time.

Now I'm studying to be a chemical engineer, and amazeingly, I find it reletivly easy to apply what I'm learning in Fluid dynamics and thermodynamics to the car. I catalog questions in the back of my head, like "How does the AFM work?" and when we come to a section that covers a similer situation in class, I figure out how to solve it. So on and so on. It's really cool, IMHO.

 

At the age of five I was already sticking stuff into the wall sockets to see how electricity worked. That progressed into the little kits from radio shack where you could build your own radio transmitter and what not. Then by the time I was 9 I was accomplished at putting together very complicated models of cars and spacecraft. I can remember the first apollo missions on tv and I was hooked. If it didnt work around the house I took it apart to figure out why. at 12 I was taking lawn mowers out of peoples trash so I could take them apart and make them work agin so I could make money cutting grass. Once I learned to drive I remember my dad sold my first car because the clutch needed replaced and I remember that I felt that I should have been allowed to replace it myself but he was not mechanically inclined and figured it was too much work. My first real job was at a Transit Authority working in the maintenence department, there were alot of really good mechanics there and I think this is the point where I decided it was just too expensive haveing someone else work on my cars. I started buying cars at auction and fixing the problems with them and driving them only long enough to sell them. Over this time I aquired things like engine hoists, all my tools , specialty tools and what not got to drive for free and made enough money to put a down payment on a house. Then I stopped working on stuff, unless it was a bake job or something that our cars needed I just didnt do anything really complicated till this year when I bought the 928 and I found that I really enjoyed laying out in the garage under a car. Now I will say that I have a ton of things to fix on my car that my financial situation limits me in repairing this year but I really look forward to working on it on the weekends.

It looks like my brother will be moving back to columbus here soon and I am looking forward to he and I getting a 928 track car together.


Z

 

I was a "check-book mechanic" for many years....then go the best ever advice from some regular mechanic guy, (the kind that BARELY graduated high school and spent all his time in auto-shop) "Engines are nothing more than a big puzzle, each piece fits in a certain spot just like a jig-saw puzzle out of a box. Just remember where each piece fits when you take it apart." Wow, if this gomer can re-build an engine, so can I.

So, first engine was from a Ford F-250. Read a couple books, jumped right in.

Next up was the 84 Euro 928 motor. 1st time wasn't a complete re-biuld, but 2nd time was, with help from Marc Thomas at Devek. Learned a-lot from him! (Thanks Marc!)

Very satisfying to know how things work on the inside, and also have the confidence to fix things when needed.

Rich.

 

Great stories. Keep 'em coming! I'm about to do my first tbelt h2o pump job in a week (just ordered parts today!) and I can't wait to get to that stage where I really feel confident in what I'm doing. Look forward to chatting with you all.

 

Hey, I'm a guy, so natch I should and can fix things. I mean common, who are these whuses who can't swing a hammer or turn a wrench, jeez. That man stuff, right? My jaw drops when I see these mechanically retarded males, like they're missing a gene or something..

Actually, my mother was a "Rosy the Riviter" during WWII and had all the tools at home while she repaired aircraft and autos for the war effort. Not having a father, (insert WWII here) she had to be the man of the house too, so when it was fix it time . . . well you get the picture.

Growing up in a time when you didn't shop, you only bought things that you really needed. When it broke you fixed it until you couldn't fix it no more. I guess I just get the greatest satisfaction in just patching stuff back together, just like she did

 

If you guys saw the mess I've created and knew this was one of if not
the most intense mechanical fixes I've done, you'd be impressed at my courage at the least. Inspite of the mess I've made, I know where and how everything goes back together.
BTW I'm changing the front shocks, upper and lower ball joints. I've made one mistake in not ordering new rubber booster shocks.

I'm doing my own wrenching because it's fun, challenging, rewarding, and
most of all why pay somebody to do something you can do yourself especially when you have friends and their support literally at your fingertips!?!

ROCK ON RENNLIST

 

Take things apart. try to put them back together. Fail. try again. Fail. Etc. For me it has mostly been a process of trial and error. That is until the Internet came along. Now the information and contact with others (you guys) is astounding. When I wade into a new repair job on the shark, I now have some notion of what is ahead of me and the potential pitfalls. The one common thread to all my wrenchin is that it is fun and extremely satisfying and of course is sves the wallet.