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I've got no formal education in auto repair.. Replaced a few head gaskets just piddling around.. My degree is in IT, so, autos are my hobby..
I think the IT profession and auto repair professions share the same basic level of insanity. You have to have the same analytical thought process to start at one place, work through the possibilities, and at times, just eliminate the impossible to find the solution. The auto repair folks tend to get to let their frustration out a little more, tho.. If they take a hammer to something, sometimes it actually decides to start working.
I was an electronics tech at one time - closer to a mechanic than IT... IMO. I have tossed everything electronic across a room in frustration but nothing in IT comes close to the tactile aspect. I have beat a fender of a classic car into submission out of frustration; that hurt a lot - it was like watching a guy beat an ATM machine to death for the same reason, he got fired.
I need to replace the shocks on a historic Caddy now. Gee, I can't wait.
I would take that one step farther OP. Any time you are going to diagnose/do your own work, Google it. More times than not there is a video on it because someone got there before you. Last year I had to do the brakes on my SHO. I wanted to be sure there were no surprises. I have done brakes many many times but I wanted to see how this model looked. Sure enough there was a video on it.
Buy an older Ford, you'll learn everything about car repairs fast and furious, OP. At least I did.
Anyhow. I came from a country where car mechanics were - what's the good word.. Scarce? We had something like one service center for a city of almost a million? There was no dealerships. So like it or not, practically everyone was DIY. So my saga with car repairs started in 1991.
Then I moved to the USA and could not afford any decent cars. Bought cheapo 84 Buick Century and soon enough learned how to diagnose leaking head gasket and replace it on V6 and replace oil pump gasket. And so it went. Saving money was = to DIY practically everything. Where I lived, there was a bunch of same minded guys, so it was good socializing, beers and repairs, repairs, repairs. We did everything. Buddy was 18 years engine mechanic, I learned a lot from him.
Also, I always enjoyed working with my hands and tools and love cars.
So by now I can do practically any mechanical repair including engine rebuilds. Won't touch transmissions and can do only basic electrical. I have more than well equipped shop and car lift. I can now afford a good mech come to my place and do it for me, but I still DIY as much as I can and it still saved us a LOT of money.
Also, I found that internet forums are great source of solutions to various issues. I lost count how many I am or was member in.
To mock guy from Taken, who said "Through years of servicing my country, I acquired a set of deadly skills", so in my case, "In years of working on cars and being member in many automotive forums I acquired quite a knowledge" :-))
My older brother is a master mechanic he started out at age 16 by working at a gas station as a gas jockey and cleanup. He learned his trade by helping the master mechanic there who thought my brother many things. So now my brother who is in his late 60's is retired. He had his own business and worked for many dealerships. MB sent him to school in California to teach him some things about their cars. He worked with a VCR right next to him there he finished second from a group of 50 other mechanics from around the country. He also worked on oil platforms in the gulf working on generators. He made a great living wrenching and has over $100,000 in tools and boxes. The way to make great money wrenching is to be fast and good, with no comebacks what you pay at the dealer per hour is not what the mechanic makes they have a book that tells them how long a certain job should take them and if you finish faster than what the book tells you the more jobs you get to do. The mechanic only gets paid a percent of what the job pays at least that's how it use to be in the past.
My education is in finance and info tech but I've had a fascination with cars and anything involving engineering, moving parts, etc since I was a kid. In high school I couldn't drive for the first few years but I read MotorTrend, C&D and Automobile mag religiously cover to cover. When I did get my first car (it wasn't anything great) I started working on it and it just went on from there, growing my knowledge base on a consistent basis.
this describes me as well. I could identify year and make of car since I was 7. My dad was an auto mechanic but wouldn't let me near the cars he worked on. He still can't figure out how I know how to fix cars after all these years.
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