Thread: How did you do it?

Since i can remember Ive been fascinated and quite obsessed with cars, and more recently with performance/ modding. but quite frankly i dont know SH!T. this bugs me to say the least. id love to build a career or atleast a solid hobby around autos.

Now ive been on this forum for a little bit and some times im amazed at the knowlege displayed by some, this leads me to wonder..

How did you get to the level of expertise that youre at

college?
raised around cars?
trial and error lol?

let me know, all input will be greatly appreciated

Lots of trial and error...that and the fact I sit and read till my eyes bled. Most of the knowledge I retain now are from the people I hang out with now or from what I've read...that and hanging out in Branson...you tend to learn a bit

I've always liked cars but never really starting working on them until I got my GTP. If something breaks I just fix it, or at least try. Complete trial and error, and google and this forum have basically taught me everything. Ive changed my own oil, brakes, pulley, wires, plugs, computer, calipers, and built a custom fwi with literally no experience. Just read : )

I learned Out of nessesity couldnt afford shop charges so i learned read and trial and error
worked this route for 10 years or so only recently went to school for it mainly to learn the computer aspect of it

Plus loving to work on cars and all aspects helps

Plus an office job would kill me

i did trial and error and was forced into half the work i did since something was broke. my family likes to leave vehicles 100% stock and im not down with that. i enjoy doing it when i dont have a time frame, but if im rushed to finish something on my car i usually get very, very aggrivated.

since i was 10, i just got sick of always asking my parents ''what was that cool car that passed us?'' so i began to learn different body styles and marquis and engine sizes and horsepower. then the fast and the furious came out and, ever since then ive wanted to cusomize my cars

Common sense and hands-on experience. If you can connect the dots of why/how a car works, you can figure out how to work on it, fix it, and improve it.

oh ya, and i used to SEARCH BUTTON on GPF

I did a lot of reading. I have two months left of my automotive course for college, and lots of trial and error.

Done a little bit of everything. Wasted a year of my life at Wyotech learning stupid ****. Then got a job at a dealership where I learn a bit. My largest knowledge boost however actually came from working at a shop building cars. I gained a ton of information from my boss yelling at me for screwing stuff up. He may have been an a**hole at times but I've gained more knowledge from working with him then anywhere else.


First hand know how is your best friend

i'm in the same boat as you man. no one in my family is really into cars the way i am, everything i know is stuff that i've found on google and GPF.

thanks guys this really helps.. i never got a chance to work on cars with some one who knows anything, nor did i grow up with a wrench in my hand like some.

guess im just getting frustrated with the learning curve, and lack of confidence/ rescourses.

any one have any good informitive sources that i can check out and read up on..
i used to do alot of reading on websites from google searches ect. but lately everything i get is either over my head or simply not as in depth as i would like.

unfortunately im currently tied down to a full time job and dnt have time for say a part time gig in a garage or anything like that

I grew up on a farm and watched a lot of Tool Time sponsored by Binford.

Originally Posted by SilvaMan61

any one have any good informitive sources that i can check out and read up on..
i used to do alot of reading on websites from google searches ect. but lately everything i get is either over my head or simply not as in depth as i would like.

unfortunately im currently tied down to a full time job and dnt have time for say a part time gig in a garage or anything like that

You can purchase college text for auto repair

Modern automotive technoligy IS our basic book we worked out of through all of our courses
Granted we had more indepth books and so on but this has lots of great info
and can be had for a decent price

For any one that wants to really learn You really have to just get your hands dirty and start simple Find a basic project and rebuild it /build it up granted not every one has extra cash or space for this aproach

Buy a 350 and put it in something. Its pretty hard to screw those up.

Me and 3 other people are putting a 3800 back together right now in school.

Its awesome.

I learned a lot from working on my old truck when it would break down, and learned even more when I got a job in a garage, but I learned the most in college.