How to become do-yourself-mechanic

My suggestion was not so much a car that can be daily transportation, rather a "learning" car. I believe the approach to walking before running is the issue. The older cars were easier to maintain by untrained mechanics, especially those not equipped with computer diagnostic tools. They are also high reliable, though they do not have the longevity in terms of miles run before needing repairs. But the idea is to have something to practice repairing on.

Reply to
Don Stauffer
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Well, actually I am quite partial to the slant-six, having had a bunch of them. But I have had a number of friends with the Nova, and know their reputation, and the Maverick had that enormous engine compartment with the tiny engine :-)

Reply to
Don Stauffer

ok, I see your point. My point was that setting points and adjusting idle mixtures are kind of a lost art at this point and pretty much irrelevant to repairing any kind of car the OP is likely to want to own. He owns a newer 'Stang - I think he'd be better off getting either a beat up 6 cyl stang or a Crown Vic with a 4.6 for the purposes of learning to work on it than a 73 Maverick...

How about an old truck? Tons of room under the hood.... and you can use it to go to the junkyard and get more stuff to work on. :)

If you really want to practice working on stuff, get a race car. I bought a dirt track "Pure Stock/Bomber" Camaro and in the year and 1/2 since I've owned it, I've done pretty much everything. My buddy and I can do almost anything now... I did everything but put new rings in my free 307... I can almost weld (I know a welder who works for supper for doing the important stuff like the cage) - I can clean and repack wheelbearings in my sleep... and my buddy can do some decent sheetmetal work now... the only part of the car that hasn't come apart yet is the TH350 tranny in there... and I was expecting THAT to fail first (I've blown up a lot of trannys in my life...) Plus it's a lot easier when you don't have inner fenders in the way and there's nothing you can't fix with a sawzall. :)

Ray

Reply to
ray

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