Is There A Difference in Todays Kids? (1 Viewer)

[jpee]

I'm over 60 yrs old.. I'm a retired cop...but have been drag racing since I was 16...

When I was 16-17 my first car was a 51 Merc flathead... I had it about 1 week and bent the shifting rods that went from the column shifter.. so I bought a "NEW" Corvette 3 speed floor shifter and made an adapter and made it work in the Merc..

Then the clutch went & I learned how to change a clutch,, I got pretty good at trannys and rear end also..

By the time I was in my 20's I was building strong running Chevy small blocks... NO I'm no Bill Jenkins, or WJ but I've worked on Comp eliminator engines, & on my Vette I've done a bit of work when needed... Now at my age I'm doing less work and more racing.. however the $$ factor mandates I Bracket race to keep damage to a minimum,, I run in the 12's and try not to break the Dana 44.

Now my complaint/Bitch or what ever you want to call it... A friend of mine who owns a large Driving School asked me if I'd help him out by teaching at the local High School.. I figured what the hell, I'm retired & I'll try doing it 4 hr a day...

I get along pretty well with the kids, but I cant get over (how can I say it diplomatically) how little these kids know about cars... very sad

Some already have their license, and take Drivers Ed to get a better insurance rate... some need to just learn how to drive it in a parking lot... but I have not found 1 (ONE) who had even a "little" knowledge of how an engine works..

One kid has a Acura, and told me he was gonna build it, & I asked what he was gonna do... his reply NO2 ?? This perked my interest and I'd start to chat with the boys and see how much they knew about putting a motor together.... shezzzzz I'm embarrassed to say the most experienced kid had put an Acura V-Tec motor in a Civic...

None know about timing, compression ratio, forget about cam specs. They all knew About 20" Wheels and Fart Can Exhaust systems

I really worry about what kind of mechanic's we'll have here in 10 yrs? Maybe I'm just an "Old Fart" and expect too much.. Sorry for the rant, but I honestly can't believe how little these kids know about the mechanical part of a car...

The good news is I can ask any of them to fix my computer & they'll do it

 

[.]

I call them the 2 Fast, 2 Stupid generation. I'm only 35 but I remember at 18 tearing apart my Holley 3310 and tricking it out (secondary metering block, quick change spring kit, different pump cam) even though I'd never touched a carb before, yanking the tranny and reinstalling it when I blew it up and later removing the valvebody so I could install a B&M Trans Pak so it was manual shift, chaning camshafts and lifters, etc. 2 years later I was tearing apart my Suzuki GSX-R's and doing anything/everything to them including all the engine work. The only thing I didn't do was the machine work, everything else was done by me though.

 

[Mooseman]

I am 19 , I can't afford a car and can't drive to good since I dont have one to learn in , but I am a huge fuel funny car fan and am obsessed with hemi v8's . I am doing an automotive course to learn as much as I can about cars, I dont like japanese cars I would really love american cars . In the shed I have a 302cleveland block some heads and other bits and peases , I also have a 318 la block 4 heads 3 intake manifolds and an assortmant of other bits and peaces and sitting under my bed I have a pair of 454 chevy heads .

 

[Nitrohaulic]

As a teenager, I was rebuilding carbs when cars still had carbs at a garage/gas station when they found out I had a knack for it and customers went nuts over their car's improved performance and gas mileage. I built my first big block in my bedroom, but we grew up reading Kras and Bernie stories in CARtoons and thought that was cool.

I think what may have actually hurt interest in hot rodding, besides being three decades away from when blown nitro funny cars got regularly booked into small tracks, is progress. The average guy could tinker and find something. Now, whatever you're doing, someone's done it on a dyno and done it better.

Look at hot rods in the 80s and how much it seemed like they were emulating funny cars. Jacked up in the back for the wedge look, big tires out back, little ones up front, sometimes engine sticking out of the hood with a tunnel ram, etc. Now they have wings that slow them down and, like you say, the big muffler.

 

[vegasnitro]

The good news is I can ask any of them to fix my computer & they'll do it

And therein lies your answer. Future mechanics will simply need to plug into the OBD and the computer will tell them what to replace. They will not need to diagnose (or repair) it themselves.

I think this is a product of having something that works pretty well, let's face it, there is not much for a shadetree mechanic to do these days on their street cars. Maintenance free batteries, distributorless ignitions, fuel injection, run flat tires, front wheel drive with limited slip differentials, synthetic oil, variable valve timing etc etc have rendered do-it-yourselfers obsolete. About all there is for kids to do these days is swap out the computer, put a cold air intake and "fart pipe" exhausts on it and call it "custom work".

As a rule, the days of yanking off a cylinder head (or two) and swapping out your own cam are over ... and if you can find someone who can do it properly ... you probably can't afford them anyway ....

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Sheez, look at how cars are designed to be disposable today, anyways. Try to remove a valve cover from some of these things. They're NOT designed with the mechanic in mind. Like you said, plug your computer into the car's computer. Replace whatever sensor it tells you to.

 

[HEMI6point1]

I will admit I don't know jack about fixing a car, but if I had the chance I would take an automotive course if not for my back issues, that's why I work in computers.

As far as my personal taste I can't stand imports and hate front wheel drive. The issue is that most kids think that by putting big wheels and a fart can exhaust on a Honda Civic they think they got a hot rod. My current car is a '98 Mercury Sable with 105K miles on it (it has the duratec motor) and it goes faster than those things.

When I was up in NY at my previous jobs, my boss was telling me one of his old workers in another store spend $20K on a Honda Civic and spend $20K on mods and was only able to muster mid 13's at E-town. I had to laugh, I could get a used 1998+ Chevy Camaro with the LS1, spend less than $5K on mods and run circles around the POS Civic and have money left over! Plus it sounds like a real car and not like a lawnmower!

 

[Jenn]

And therein lies your answer. Future mechanics will simply need to plug into the OBD and the computer will tell them what to replace. They will not need to diagnose (or repair) it themselves.

I think this is a product of having something that works pretty well, let's face it, there is not much for a shadetree mechanic to do these days on their street cars. Maintenance free batteries, distributorless ignitions, fuel injection, run flat tires, front wheel drive with limited slip differentials, synthetic oil, variable valve timing etc etc have rendered do-it-yourselfers obsolete. About all there is for kids to do these days is swap out the computer, put a cold air intake and "fart pipe" exhausts on it and call it "custom work".

As a rule, the days of yanking off a cylinder head (or two) and swapping out your own cam are over ... and if you can find someone who can do it properly ... you probably can't afford them anyway ....

My dad is the owner of an automotive repair shop, and my brother and I have managed it the last few years. We hire a lot of kids from the high school after they've taken automotive shop classes, as the teacher there recommends kids to us. One of the things I've noticed with the demise of 'shadetree' mechanics is, like you say the high tech things, and time.

It used to be more so that the father would take the kid and the time(mostly boys, lets be real) to show him how to work on "the baby" or the car the kid would have when he turned sixteen or the project was finished, which ever came first. Teach him an appreciation for work ethic on the car, and the value of money when the kid had to pay for his own parts.

My dad has always made me do my own maitenance on my vehicles, and he, or one of the hired techs will help me with the repairs.

Now, as when I was in high school, the kid is driven to a car dealership, and if nothing else, taught the art of negotiation, and again, if case of a breakdown, the art of calling AAA to have it towed somewhere.

The fact that the automaker has complicated some of the system to where you need a 500 dollar tool to fix one car has hurt the shadetree mechanic. I have to authorize the purchase of some of these tools that have such limited use but, again, in order to stay competitive, I have to buy for the newer cars.

The days of just having a Snap-on box with wrenches, sockets, ratchets and a few screwdrivers to fix just about anything are limited. I would hate to do anything on my car without a lift, pnuematic tools, or admitedly, a tech or cleanup guy to help me loosen bolts and nuts.


I still do most of the maintenance on my car, and I can do the majority of the work building the racing engines, and tuning of the engines, powerglide work etc. But I'm also limited to that because I don't venture into street legal cars other than my own.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Was I the only kid who'd hear all the racket going down the street, look out of the yard and see that it was older kids pushing their lawnmowers? Does anyone buy their first car anymore with lawnmowing money? We tinkered with everything we could get our hands on. Mini bikes. Go carts. Bicycles that were a mismatch of parts from several. Didn't every town have the guy who'd ride around on the skyscraper bicycle? Or the homemade bike for two?

I remember mowing and doing whatever little job I could in order to get my brand new $800 Kawasaki enduro by the age of 14, which was the legal license age in TN. We rode those things EVERYWHERE, way outside of the restricted license's 5 mile limit. Don't know how many times my pegs had to be welded back on from jumping things in 2nd and 3rd gears.

 

[Bob]

I knew nothing when I was in school John. I suppose at about the age of 20 I took an interest in what made a car go down the street. Back then we could buy a 'Motors' manual and do just about anything. Cars were so much simpler back then. I could do anything I wanted to do with a car as long as I had my 'Motors' manual.

Today the basic engine hasn't changed much but the complexity of the car itself is enormous. There are 3 computers managing my Corvette. I tune it with a computer. I used to change a clutch or rear end in about an hour. Try that today. If you're really good I think a gear change on my Vette is a 7 hr job.

Like you, and at our age I don't want to work on them anymore. Aside from tuning, I just pay for someone else to do the work.

Based on my experience, I don't think the kids today are any different. You're talking about 16 yr old kids. Give em a little time.