My dad taught me TONS as I was growing up. I remember helping him change the brake pads on my brothers car when I was 14. My first car taught me a ton of stuff as well. It taught me that shift linkage can be held together with zip ties so you don't have to spend life in 3rd gear...

Working with my dad gave me alot of confidence that I could do stuff. Since I've been on my own, I do alot of research on sites like this one, or vids on YouTube (1aauto has a GREAT library of videos). When I had my Grand Am, I got step by step instructions on changing out the heater core, for instance. This site has alot of those same types of things on it for the GP.