If a GURL wanted to learn mechanic-ing ... 🤷🤷🤷

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THAT Gurl

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Do what I did. Get married and be forced to fix the crap that the other half either neglected or outright broke. You learn from others screw ups.

Oh …. N/M. You’re already hitched.

Yeah but I WANT to learn. Some of you guys who shot USPSA with us will remember how ... Ahem ... Tense thing for when he "coached" me while I was trying to figure out how I wanted to shoot a stage. 🫣🫣

I want to learn this stuff, but there is a reason he is not a teacher.
 

BillM

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Try to download the factory service manual for your vehicle, it's crazy detailed and step by step. If you're mechanically inclined and have a FSM, you're about on par with lots of "techs" nowadays.
Probably better than that, with most so-called techs and mechanics these days.
Yes you tube is great also.
When I was young I learned by reading books and magazines and hanging out with mechanics.
Did a lot of that learning from books, and more than a bit hanging out with mechanics. Gotta be careful of the mechanics you hang out with, though. One guy delighted in watching me flinch every time he threw the butt he'd been smoking into the pan of gasoline we were using for brake cleaner. We were in my garage, but Clovis, NM is nearly as windy as Oklahoma, and the wind was coming in the main garage door and funneling through the door at about 40mph. If the wind had dropped for just a moment at the wrong time, we'd have probably blown up and burned... There is a reason I have a parts washer in my shop. :yikes2:
 

THAT Gurl

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Probably better than that, with most so-called techs and mechanics these days.

Did a lot of that learning from books, and more than a bit hanging out with mechanics. Gotta be careful of the mechanics you hang out with, though. One guy delighted in watching me flinch every time he threw the butt he'd been smoking into the pan of gasoline we were using for brake cleaner. We were in my garage, but Clovis, NM is nearly as windy as Oklahoma, and the wind was coming in the main garage door and funneling through the door at about 40mph. If the wind had dropped for just a moment at the wrong time, we'd have probably blown up and burned... There is a reason I have a parts washer in my shop. :yikes2:

I'm not gonna lie. He'd have bought a wrench in the side. (Don't wanna break any bones.) And I'd have been screaming at the top of my lungs "I'M SORRY!! I FLINCHED!" 🫣🤣🤣🤣
 
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Where would she start?? Nothing too fancy -- routine maintenance, how to change the oil, how to use a code reader, etc. I already know how to check the tire pressure and change one. (Too bad I cannot break a nut off -- @Glock 'em down I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂 -- to save my soul. Hopefully PT can help me with that.)

Anyhoooo ...

And while I'm at it's what about small engine repair like lawn mowers, weed eaters, **** like that?? Is it a lot different??
Youtube. I’m a fair mechanic but for stuff I don’t know how to do I turn to you YouTube videos. Just about everything you want to know about car repairs is covered. I use the videos from 1A Auto often.

 

BillM

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Google has steered to some really strange places. I don't really trust him.
That's where you really need a second (and sometimes third) opinion. Also, be aware that there are differences between even close year models, and makes. Back in the day, Dodge Darts and Plymouth Valiants were the same body, but often different engines, transmissions, and such. If you were lucky, they had a slant Six engine. Those were easy to fix, and very reliable. I drove one ( a Dart) from Florida to Nevada in 1978, with a broken cam shaft. Determined that when I popped off the valve cover to replace the gasket found the thing broken between cylinders 2 & 3. Broken ends were rusty as heck. Probably like that when I bought it. I did fix it, but probably could have gotten away with leaving it as it was....
 

BillM

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I'm not gonna lie. He'd have bought a wrench in the side. (Don't wanna break any bones.) And I'd have been screaming at the top of my lungs "I'M SORRY!! I FLINCHED!" 🫣🤣🤣🤣
I was too far away to reach him, and he really did know nearly everything a mechanic ought to know. Wasn't a bad teacher, either. Except for his sense of so-called humor! We were rebuilding the brakes on a 1963 Impala SS hardtop I'd gotten for $400. OH, do I wish I still had that car!
 

THAT Gurl

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I was too far away to reach him, and he really did know nearly everything a mechanic ought to know. Wasn't a bad teacher, either. Except for his sense of so-called humor! We were rebuilding the brakes on a 1963 Impala SS hardtop I'd gotten for $400. OH, do I wish I still had that car!

I dunno about now but back in the day I could throw stuff like a man. 🤭 (Product of being in a VERY dysfunctional family and always looking for novel, inventive ways to exact revenge ... Errrr ... Defend yourself. That tree REALLY screwed with my upper body strength. I'm sure hoping PT helps with that. I'm tired of feeling like an old woman. 🤬
 

Okie4570

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One thing I learned about Youtube mechanics, don't just watch the first one that pops up and consider it gospel. Watch several of them, or all of them about the topic at hand. Just like anything else, there are folks who do things the hard way, and there are folks who know a trick or two or three or more and do things the sensible way lol. One guy might take 4 hours and $800 worth of specialty tools and the next video it takes the guy 30 minutes using common tools from the laundry room drawer just because he took this part off first instead of the other guy who took that part off last lol.
 

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