How did you get started working on cars?

[splinterddt]

Like many out there I got started taking apart toys and later appliances. My dad always worked on our cars. I naturally started helping him. When I got old enough to drive my dad said, "if you want to drive it, you need to know how to fix it." I helped him, took auto shop in high school, and graduated from WyoTech. After changing careers after 11 years as a mechanic, I'm back to fixing my own cars.

 

[katshot]

Wanna know how bad my sickness is? As a machinist, I tend to be overly critical of things nobody else would ever notice. When I was fitting my 'glass Shelby hood to my car, it was horrible, so I cut, fiberglassed, etc, until it fit pretty well. Then to do the final fit, I bolted it on and to check the gaps and height with machinist calipers. I see professional paint guys just eyballing it, or using a paint stick as a gauge and calling it good.

Got that beat. I got known in the fleet industry as being such a detail guy that I used to have most companies either avoid me totally at trade shows, or bring me over to look over their cars for them. On top of that, I even got hired by one company to shape up their quality control, and one big name OEM used to routinely drag me around to get my opinion of the many coachbuilders that modified their cars. Yeah, you could say I'm picky!