[Verdoro 68]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

He still is.

I've been wrenching on my Chevelle for 42 years.

'Course, some of the work looks like it was done by a high schooler and needs to be redone...
K

Same, only 30 years. It's fun to curse your own janky teenage work. "Who the f did this?! Oh, yeah, it was me."

[locomotivebreath]

Sure , I had a few ASE certifications by 18 . At 20 I was well onto other things in other places .

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by Verdoro 68

It's fun to curse your own janky teenage work. "Who the f did this?! Oh, yeah, it was me."

I was cursing myself a few years ago about some electrical hack work on my car. 19 year old me sure tried hard...

[carbking]

A 20-year-old me? I almost don't remember

Yes, got my first car that needed work when I was 13. Dad thought if I had one to work on, I would be easier on the car once I got my license.

Had Holley model 4000, which I rebuilt at age 13, my first carburetor that I did on my own. Lasted for more than 100,000 miles. Was still drinking gas when I sold the car.

Did some of the work in high school shop (didn't have the tool set I now have). Many of the tools we had, Dad and I made.

So yes, absolutely, on any car/truck from that era. On one of todays' electronic computers on wheels impersonating a car, no way.

Jon

[vertigto]

Any 20 y/o...no.

A qualified 20 y/o gearhead or mechanic...absolutely. My aging bones will just supervise.

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by carbking

Dad thought if I had one to work on, I would be easier on the car once I got my license.

Your dad was smart. Best way to teach a knucklehead kid a lesson in appreciation is for them to put their own effort into it. I've taken care of every single car I owned after my own first because I put the time and effort into learning it and respecting it.

My dad didn't do that, he just gave me the "you're going to get what you get and like it or I'll make you regret it" speech that I'm sure many guys here have heard.

[geeteeohguy]

20 year-old me rebuilt the 389 that's still running, trouble free, in my '65 GTO. I am 59 now. Hell, the rope rear main doesn't even leak. 20 year old me didn't like electrical and finesse stuff. 35-and up year old me has fixed/ cleaned up all of that! (well, most of it). 59 year old me doesn't throw wrenches. 20 year old me did sometimes.

[SRR]

At 17 I was running a figure 8 car at the local track. 20 year old me did a lot of work on cars just out of being poor and just having a love for cars. Once when I was probably 18 and between junkers I was using my Dad's 67 Biscayne wagon and between me and my brother managed to burn up the clutch. Him and I were terrified at what the old man was going to do to us for "Breaking" the car I bought a new clutch set up and with my brother changed it out before we had to pick him up from work. So...we go pick him up and as he's driving he says did you two change the clutch? We looked at each other horrified, he then starts to grin and says Yeah, it was starting to slip.

[Firedup6975]

On my everyday car and truck yes, on my classics no! Just personal preference not letting a 20 year old who thinks my $50,000 Firebird with Emblems that say it clearly right on the car calls it a Chevelle.


Sorry nothing personal, but most 20 year olds today are not trained to work on classics and antique vehicles. They’re more in tune with foreign made newer cars.

We do everything ourselves and keep up with regular maintenance.

[poncho-mike]

Eighteen year old me definitely made some mistakes.

The first thing I learned about Pontiacs was the difference between round port and D-port heads and the difference between fine spline and coarse spline Muncies.

In 1976, I had a 67 400 4-spd Firebird with a very tired motor. I had a cousin two years older that owned a real 1971 Judge. He was on his way to help his dad at his business in Charlotte when the Judge got rear ended and was totalled. I needed a motor, so I got an old junk Pontiac motor and 3-spd. We did the swap and I gave him some cash and I had a 455HO motor with an M22.

My 67 Firebird had headers, and I was shocked to find my rusty leaky headers wouldn't bolt up to the 455HO motor. I was hosed because my Firebird was the only transportation I had at the tender age of 18. My dad was opposed to doing the motor swap, so he wouldn't lend me a car. The friend who was helping me with the motor swap hung around Sunday to help put the old motor back in.

So I bought some expensive headers and dropped the new motor in. That's when I found out my new M22 output shaft was different from the old Muncie. I ended up running the old Muncie for awhile until I got a yoke.

[tooski]

As a 20 yo in nursing school my daughter would do oil changes on the used up car we gave her. She would do minor things on her own after asking me about difficulty. She would do other things, like brakes under my supervision. I would help with the things requiring more strength/knowledge than she had. Now, well past 20, she does basic maintenance on her Honda S2000, (replacing headlight bulbs, headlight/taillight assemblies, bumper fascia, oil changes, rnr tires.). At 20 she was more car savy than I was at 20.

[marxjunk]

at 20, you feel like you can do anything any where any time, your confidence is high about everything you do in like....at 50, you second guess yourself more, because you see and hear crazy stuff all the time..

id trust ya....ya made it this far, youll be fine

[Greg Reid]

I think some of y'all are misunderstanding the question. It was, would you let 20 year old YOU work on the car you have today. Not an anonymous 20 year old but YOU. In other words, how good were you at 20 years old?
Myself, I would. I know a lot more now than I did then but I always was pretty focused and listened to my elders who knew more than I.

[tooski]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

I think some of y'all are misunderstanding the question. It was, would you let 20 year old YOU work on the car you have today. Not an anonymous 20 year old but YOU. In other words, how good were you at 20 years old?
Myself, I would. I know a lot more now than I did then but I always was pretty focused and listened to my elders who knew more than I.

Yes I would. At 20 I did a limited amount of work on my car (which I still have). My lack of knowledge was the inhibiting factor. Oil changes, brakes, other minor items. Did the aftermarket intake, carb, headers deal. Engine developed a tick. After trying to adjust rockers several times, installed polylocks (correctly). In my mid 20's I had an engine built. Six months later the non-dampener hub broke and took out the timing chain. Tore the engine down for cleaning, bearing and ring replacement. All I had was a Chilton book to guide me.

[Greg Reid]

Now that I think of it... I moved to Atlanta when I had just turned 20...soon to be 62 now.... Later that year, the clutch went out on my 240z. I bought the parts and a set of ramps and changed it in a parking space in front of my apartment.
Two years later, I pulled the engine out of my '68 GTO tore it down and sent it out to a machine shop for overhaul. Got it back, installed it with a come-along over a tree branch and got it running and everything adjusted in the back yard of my rental house. Always did my own car maintenance as far as repairs and general maintenance. Every job I've ever had since the age of 14 was some type of maintenance related. Never worked in fast food, grocery store, etc.

[Longs]

Twenty year old me, yes. Like me today, I had a pretty good handle on my limitations and didn't have too much to work with.

I always liked cars, admired some of the cooler cars when I was a kid delivering newspapers, but we didn't have any particularly cool cars in the family. My Dad flew P-51s in WWII and had been in a pretty bad accident that had him in a VA hospital, where he met my mother, a nurse. His hands were badly burned and he lost a finger so he couldn't really bend his fingers at all, could only bend in the palm, like if you were trying to touch the tip of your little finger with the tip of your thumb. He still managed to do a lot, including writing, golfing, bowling, and he could do basic stuff like use screwdrivers and wrenches but he wasn't going to take on too much in terms of repairs. He had only basic tools, he wasn't going to do anything that took a lot of manual dexterity. He didn't do anything on his own cars.

My Dad did encourage me to take auto shop in high school and I did for three years. I believe that he thought that the knowledge would be good to have, that understanding how a car worked and being able to do some work myself would potentially save me a lot of money over time, and he was right (although it also cost me a lot when cars became a hobby). He also bought me my first tools, Craftsman ratchets and sockets and such, that I still have and use.

Shop class was mostly theory although we probably got around 4 hours per week in the shop itself, which was well-equipped. We worked on whatever work founds its way there, probably all about who knew who. I was able to learn the theory very well and I was an adequate wrencher. Of course, kids who came from more mechanically-oriented home environments knew much more about tools and doing the physical work because like many on here, they had grown up around it or doing it. I did meet many who became my good friends in auto shop, guys I may not have known otherwise, many of them were "car guys". We remained friends after high school and I became friends with one of their friends whose Dad had a shop, where I learned a lot.. By the time I was 19 I had bought my GTO, I was doing mechanical work and body work, we were hanging out late into the night working on cars and drag racing. Good times.

Of course today I have more and better tools, but nothing like some of the shops folks on here have, no lift or compressor. Today we have the benefits of the internet, lots of information to be found online, youtube videos, etc. Back in the day I had a friend and his Dad with the facilities and expertise, as well as my youth,and all that I learned back then still comes in handy today.

[vertigto]

I would let my 20 y/o self work on my car...was a perfectionist then, still am now.

[indymanjoe]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

I think some of y'all are misunderstanding the question. It was, would you let 20 year old YOU work on the car you have today. Not an anonymous 20 year old but YOU. In other words, how good were you at 20 years old?
Myself, I would. I know a lot more now than I did then but I always was pretty focused and listened to my elders who knew more than I.

I wouldn't let 20 yr old me drive my car or work on it LOL

[SRR]

Originally Posted by indymanjoe

I wouldn't let 20 yr old me drive my car or work on it LOL

If I rode with 20 YO me I would probably have a heart attack!

[Greg Reid]

LoL