Are you mechanically inclined?
have you ever tried to teach someone who really never worked on his car before?
have you every watched someone who just didn,t seem to have the skill or desire or manual dexterity to do something simple?
or maybe some one who wants to work on their car but having never done so, lacks the required tools skills or knowledge?
some guys seem to love the older muscle cars but don,t have a clue about how to maintain or repair them.
the skills are both teachable and fairly easy to learn, if you don,t know how to do something chances are excellent that you can find someone local in a car club or learn what you need on the internet.
have you ever watched someone try to do some fairly simple task, that makes you just want to grab them and tell them to go get a few sodas while you do the work, because they seem to be a total incompetent? well, we all start out as beginners and its a huge mistake to just do the work for the newer guys, you need to get in there and show them exactly what your doing and how and why your doing it! get them involved, let them do most of the work and encourage them when they do something (damn near anything , they do,correctly) and once you do that youll be amazed at what they will accomplish once they get over the feeling that they screw up everything they touch.
maybe Im just GRUMPY at TIMES,
(THE WIFE HAS SAID THAT FOR DECADES)
but I went over to help a friend recently who was trying to get a car started that hes let sit for over 20 years in his garage under a tarp, thats been taking up 1/2 of his two car garage for decades.I just don,t see why anyone would be reluctant to work on their car,or be intimidated about working on it!
HE finally decided that he has the time to work on his car, so he called me over for guidance and some help as he was rather reluctant to get started.
this guy recently retired and has decided he no longer has the excuse , that hes too busy to work on his car, hes wanted to get it up and running for years but hes been putting it off because frankly he didn,t know how to do the work.
its a 1969 dodge super bee
his looks alot like this picture I found posted, but his is with faded orange paint, and a white vinyl interior, thats needs to be cleaned or replaced in many areas
this is also just a picture of a SIMILAR engine compartment I found posted on the internet, but as you can see theres some fairly decent access to most of the engine
now if youve ever worked on a 1969 dodge super bee you know theres a good amount of room to get at access to the engine compared to most late model cars
our first task was replacing spark plugs and distributor cap, rotor, ignition wire, battery and fuel filter, I can honestly say, that I know why hes never been all that enthusiastic about starting the project, I was rather amazed at the reluctance he displayed at doing almost anything to the car, it was not him being lazy or not wanting to do the work, he hesitated because it was based on the fear or idea that he would, simply screw it up beyond repair!, he seemed to be very reluctant to remove, adjust, or replace anything on the car , its almost as if hes terrified he will screw up something beyond all chance of repair, I could see a sense of absolute relief, in his manor, when I carefully showed him step by step how to replace the components like spark plugs, how to gap them, use anti-seize etc. and had him repeat the process while I explained both what we were doing and why it should be done, and what too look for in worn or broken parts.
while he stared out having an attitude similar to trying to disarm a 1000 lb bomb, he rather quickly realized that there was nothing all that technical or difficult about doing a basic tune-up or in replacing a fuel filter, doing an oil change or checking voltage with a multi meter. etc.
if you look around on this site theres dozens of threads about how to do simple tasks, theres absolutely nothing that a bit of research and a few tools or removing a component and replacing it won,t fix on most of the older muscle cars.
example
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=609
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=321
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=6255
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=26
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=339&p=21733&hilit=getting+started+hobby#p21733
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=5976&p=18464&hilit=getting+started+hobby#p18464
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=5180&p=24886&hilit=+learning+getting#p24886
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=109
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=4687&hilit=learning+getting
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=6669&p=26074&hilit=tracking+down#p26074
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=614&p=26642&hilit=spare+engine+store#p26642
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=3527&hilit=buddies
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=5893&p=18037&hilit=+books+video#p18037
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=775&p=8401&hilit=+books+video#p8401
have you ever tried to teach someone who really never worked on his car before?
have you every watched someone who just didn,t seem to have the skill or desire or manual dexterity to do something simple?
or maybe some one who wants to work on their car but having never done so, lacks the required tools skills or knowledge?
some guys seem to love the older muscle cars but don,t have a clue about how to maintain or repair them.
the skills are both teachable and fairly easy to learn, if you don,t know how to do something chances are excellent that you can find someone local in a car club or learn what you need on the internet.
have you ever watched someone try to do some fairly simple task, that makes you just want to grab them and tell them to go get a few sodas while you do the work, because they seem to be a total incompetent? well, we all start out as beginners and its a huge mistake to just do the work for the newer guys, you need to get in there and show them exactly what your doing and how and why your doing it! get them involved, let them do most of the work and encourage them when they do something (damn near anything , they do,correctly) and once you do that youll be amazed at what they will accomplish once they get over the feeling that they screw up everything they touch.
maybe Im just GRUMPY at TIMES,
(THE WIFE HAS SAID THAT FOR DECADES)
but I went over to help a friend recently who was trying to get a car started that hes let sit for over 20 years in his garage under a tarp, thats been taking up 1/2 of his two car garage for decades.I just don,t see why anyone would be reluctant to work on their car,or be intimidated about working on it!
HE finally decided that he has the time to work on his car, so he called me over for guidance and some help as he was rather reluctant to get started.
this guy recently retired and has decided he no longer has the excuse , that hes too busy to work on his car, hes wanted to get it up and running for years but hes been putting it off because frankly he didn,t know how to do the work.
its a 1969 dodge super bee
his looks alot like this picture I found posted, but his is with faded orange paint, and a white vinyl interior, thats needs to be cleaned or replaced in many areas
this is also just a picture of a SIMILAR engine compartment I found posted on the internet, but as you can see theres some fairly decent access to most of the engine
now if youve ever worked on a 1969 dodge super bee you know theres a good amount of room to get at access to the engine compared to most late model cars
our first task was replacing spark plugs and distributor cap, rotor, ignition wire, battery and fuel filter, I can honestly say, that I know why hes never been all that enthusiastic about starting the project, I was rather amazed at the reluctance he displayed at doing almost anything to the car, it was not him being lazy or not wanting to do the work, he hesitated because it was based on the fear or idea that he would, simply screw it up beyond repair!, he seemed to be very reluctant to remove, adjust, or replace anything on the car , its almost as if hes terrified he will screw up something beyond all chance of repair, I could see a sense of absolute relief, in his manor, when I carefully showed him step by step how to replace the components like spark plugs, how to gap them, use anti-seize etc. and had him repeat the process while I explained both what we were doing and why it should be done, and what too look for in worn or broken parts.
while he stared out having an attitude similar to trying to disarm a 1000 lb bomb, he rather quickly realized that there was nothing all that technical or difficult about doing a basic tune-up or in replacing a fuel filter, doing an oil change or checking voltage with a multi meter. etc.
if you look around on this site theres dozens of threads about how to do simple tasks, theres absolutely nothing that a bit of research and a few tools or removing a component and replacing it won,t fix on most of the older muscle cars.
example
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=609
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=321
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=6255
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=26
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=339&p=21733&hilit=getting+started+hobby#p21733
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=5976&p=18464&hilit=getting+started+hobby#p18464
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=5180&p=24886&hilit=+learning+getting#p24886
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=109
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=4687&hilit=learning+getting
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=6669&p=26074&hilit=tracking+down#p26074
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=614&p=26642&hilit=spare+engine+store#p26642
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=3527&hilit=buddies
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=5893&p=18037&hilit=+books+video#p18037
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=775&p=8401&hilit=+books+video#p8401