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Let’s hear your automotive background

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AWD-Tony

Proven Member
6,801
3,735
Sep 11, 2017
Cincinnati, Ohio
Just curious what automotive background or anything interesting for that matter, people have.

I’ll start but try to keep it short.

Grew up knowing almost every car by its lights when I was about 10 so I’ve always had some interest in cars. My brothers who’s 4 years older bought an 89 tbird lx. I know the SC was the shit! But I still thought it was a cool car. One day at a red light he raced the car next to us, AND I WAS HOOKED!

For over a decade I worked as a service advisor for a handful of makes but mostly for Toyota because of the atmosphere. I actually didn’t mind going to work unless I was SUPER hungover 🤢 even on a weekday. Along the way I was fortunate to have met and worked with most of the guys there. They taught me a lot, from soldering to adjusting windows properly. I was blessed!!

Fresh out of high school, purchased a 95 gsr. Crashed it a year later racing an mr2 turbo. I could have killed someone at 120mph and yes, a complete idiot. Car never drove straight so traded it in for a 95 silver gsx. From there it was history.
 
In 1997, I bought a 93 Honda Prelude VTEC because I thought it was fast and sporty. After spending 8 months straight in the shop for a myriad of problems (broken motor mount bolt in block, then destroyed motor when timing jumped after replacing short block from said broken bolt, all due to a salvaged title that dealership didn’t disclose), I bought a 1990 Plymouth Laser. It was clean, turbo, and was quicker than my Prelude.

At the time, I could change brakes and spark plugs, and that was about it. One day the car started running rough. Not knowing much about cars, I blindly went where people told me to go. I replaced the turbo with a 16g ($500 vs $1400 for oem 14b), replaced the stock side mount with RRE FMIC kit (found the stock side mount was corroded). All trying to solve a stuttering/rough condition. Turns out it was a bad spark plug wire. Threw in some NGK plugs and wires and the car ran great. Then I discovered the Talon digest.

Soon after, the clutch went out. I believe the vfaq was already up and running. So I printed out how to swap a clutch, bought a Haynes manual, and went to work. It took me 12 hours to get the trans out because I was so careful to label every single bolt. Took me another 18 hours to get the car back together.

Ever since then, I’ve been YouTube certified on working on cars!!
 
Fresh out of high school, purchased a 95 gsr. Crashed it a year later racing an mr2 turbo. I could have killed someone at 120mph and yes, a complete idiot.
But...WERE YOU WINNING THE RACE??? 😲😄😄🙃 That's the important part....

WHen I was about 11-12 years I was into dirt bikes and home made go karts with 2 stroke chainsaw motors that my friends and I put together to drive around the neighborhood...we lived in the country in Washington state on eastern side of the Cascade mountains...lots of logging roads and open fields for dirt bikes, snowmobiles, etc...when I got my driver license the day I turned 16, I started saving up to get my first car...I couldn't drive my mom's Subaru Brat all the time as she needed it for work..

All I was able to save up was $400 in 1986, and I found a 1977 Chevy Vega with ONLY 30k miles in it...haha well, if you're in your 50s, you probably know what that means for a Chevy Vega...it was on its last few miles of life!! Crappy 4 cylinder engine design, probably the worst in the history of GM!...I drove it a few weeks, then it got so bad I was putting 1qt of oil in that motor every single day....leaking and smoking it away...with a giant blue cloud of sickness spewing out of the tailpipe and following me everywhere I went...I finally traded it in on a used Oldsmobile Starfire GT (rebranded Chevy Monza) with the 231ci V6...owned and maintained by a mechanic...and that was one of the best motors I ever owned!! When I put headers and dual exhaust with turbo style mufflers on it, I could spin the tires in first to third! That car is what got me started in working on cars...learning all I could about upgrades of any kind, learning about different engines, different models of muscle cars. There were a TON of late '60s/early '70s classic cars for sale in the classifieds back then!... I finished high school and enrolled in auto tech full time at the local community college and I've been working on my own cars my entire life. I only take them in to the shop for wheel balancing, alignments, and once for a new front end on my '68 Ford Fairlane 500 convertible that I was daily driving. It had a good 302 (5.0) with 4 barrel heads and a Holley 4 barrel carb with a built C4 that slammed into gears and chirped tires with every shift when your foot was on the pedal....it was cherry red with a white top and a white interior.

However! That car was heavy as F*** and it didn't corner worth a dime, plus it had drum brakes on all 4 wheels....it went great in a straight line, but that's it, aside from looking classic and pretty.....about that time after I finished my two years at school, I moved down to SoCal and one of my new friends just bought a metallic silver light champagne 1990 Laser RS turbo and it was a fast car.. we raced anytime we were driving from somewhere like lunch at Rally burger, or to softball games or whatever...and he would nearly keep up with me on the highway if we dropped down a gear and floored it side by side at 40mph, but he would beat me in every other situation....launching from a stop, one block races between the stoplights, cornering and braking... it wasn't even close! My tank vs his stock Laser turbo...I didn't stand a chance.....

So, after a few years daily driving my Fairlane, I got a good full time job at a dental laboratory making crowns and bridges, and I decided it was time to get a newer car...

I was always driving by the car lots looking for something good.... something with better gas mileage!!! And disc brakes!! Air conditioning!! Well, I didn't know it, bit the DSMs had been redesigned in '95 and I stumbled upon one in a used car lot that was cherry red with a full gray leather interior. I didn't know what it was til I got close and looked at the model in the back...it said Eclipse GS-T. I knew the Eclipse was a cousin of the Laser my friend had and I liked the new body style better than the 1g wedge shape...I took it for a test drive, and the I was hooked! I never drive a turbo car before...it was a blast! And it had everything my Fairlane was missing...32 mpg, disc brakes, 16 inch wheels (these were pretty big at the time), air conditioning, cruise control, power sunroof, power doors and windows, and tilt steering...it was my favorite car ever....until my friend traded in his Eclipse on the brand new redesigned Mustang 5.0!!!! We raced some more, and if I shifted just right I could beat him 1st thru 2nd, but he would start to pull away in 3rd...and on the highway, forget it! His V8 torque would leave me way back at higher speeds....so then I started looking in to upgrades!!! I got as far as a K&N filter, then I got married....and it was all over....I had to trade in my Eclipse for something that was more family oriented when my son was born...I got a 2001 full size Montero 4x4 with the V6 and full leather loaded with all the options...it was a great truck, but I missed my Eclipse ever since then....after my divorce, things had changed drastically with my finances (you probably know someone with similar horror stories) so I was limited to buying cheap Hondas to drive around to work and such...they were great cars and very cheap to maintain and dependable too....bit I found my current Eclipse being neglected and sitting at a young kids driveway who knew nothing about fixing them...so I checked it out carefully and made a fair offer and towed it home....been driving it ever since! And I have a new 6 bolt motor ready to go!
 
As a little boy, I hung out with my dad when he was wrenching on different cars he owned. Got to a point I knew all the names of the tools and would hand them over like a nurse helping the doctor. Being very young I got into model cars and would modify them and won many model contests back then. I got my first car at fourteen.. It had no motor but me and my buddies would push each other around the block. Dad bought me a 57 Chev when I turned sixteen...This all took place in the 50's and 60;s... I have had many different cars since then and now in my 70th year I own a sweet Spyder GT....Got lots of tools but don't know crap about Mitsubishi's but love them just the same.
 
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Learned how to do most standard maintenance and repairs on cars by holding the flashlight for my dad as a kid. This site took my knowledge to the next level when I bought my first dsm and starting tearing engines apart and doing performance upgrades. Fast forward to modern vehicles and I feel like like I need to hold a flashlight for someone again since cars are more computer than mechanical these days.
 
Learned how to do most standard maintenance and repairs on cars by holding the flashlight for my dad as a kid. This site took my knowledge to the next level when I bought my first dsm and starting tearing engines apart and doing performance upgrades. Fast forward to modern vehicles and I feel like like I need to hold a flashlight for someone again since cars are more computer than mechanical these days.
I feel the same. Way to many electronics.
 
came from a poor family mom and dad both came from another country with no family in the United States. They had me and my bro at 20ish and we grew up super poor never had anything at all our cars broke down so I helped my dad try to fix them couldn’t afford to take them to a shop. Got in to cars at a young and also worked at a young age after school I worked at a farm with my dad. Made enough money to by my first dsm at 16 years old slowly did full bolt ons and was the fastest guy around LOL at 18 some one t boned me so I bought my first bike a cbr 250 and ended buying a dsm with 49k miles and I still had most of the parts from my old one. At 23 years old I bought a c6 z06 a year later it’s has heads cam intake and runs low 10s almost into the 9s. I’m currently 25 years old and I’m the head tech at a ford dealership, I own an 2020 s1000rr on e-85 and currently just finished my fully built motor for my dsm might put it in today
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I knew cars by their lights as a kid too! I think the turning point for really hooking me in was seeing Eleanor on gone in 60 seconds at the movie theater as a kid. I was in high school during the fnf era and so naturally was all into the import scene and I got a 1G gs for a first car. In 2007 I hired on as a tech at Honda and worked for them from a lube tech all the way up to master tech until 2017. I had my first of two kids in 2015 and decided It was time to change careers since I had more people depending on my paycheck. After a few years away from cars I got the bug again and bought my current project 1G that’s in my sig and sadly it just sits and waits for me to have more time on my hands. I’m really glad to be back tho!
 
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My dad had a mustang in the late 70's and 80's, so of course he thought he was a master mechanic even though he took all of our cars to the shop for repairs. He always liked American muscle and acted like he knew a lot about cars, even though he was involved in hobbies like dirt bikes and RC planes. Eventually, he was the one to kind of spark my automotive interest, although it never burned bright enough to start a fire in me until recently.

Funnily enough, I used to make fun of car guys a lot when I was younger and dumber. "Why the f*** would someone spend a lot of money on a car just to go fast?" was often my criticism to the hondas I'd hear on the interstate. Never turned a wrench in my life unless my mom's tire popped in a Kroger parking lot. Then while perusing youtube one day, I came across Donut Media. Started watching their videos, and after a rough breakup in 2020 I decided I wanted a project car to spend time on.

Didn't know the first thing about Porsche 944's when I bought one in December 2020, I just knew they looked really cool and 80's. Still had barely turned a wrench on a car either, even though I had a daily that always was broken somehow. The Porsche ended up needing a lot of work done, and it was the first car that I really did research and turned wrenches on. This was also the car I learned to drive stick on, and with a 50-50 balance I also became a much better driver. Eventually I realized that I really wanted an Eclipse, so I bought my Talon in early 2021 and began turning wrenches on it.
To sum up my mechanic experience: I'm a certified youtube mechanic, but a beginner actual mechanic. I've only been working on cars for around 2 years now, and as I continue to work on my Talon I get better each time. Everyone on this forum started somewhere, and I still have a lot to learn but I also have a lot of time to do it ROFL

My dad has come a long way too. He is right there with me being a certified youtube mechanic, but now he loves working on cars. He even took on my old 944 project since he loved the car so much. Ended up buying a second 944 as well, and starting a 944 club in TN known as "Music City 944's" (Give them a look on facebook while you're at it). While he still likes old muscle, he also understands that being an uneducated elitest like he used to be didn't mean that he was a "car guy" at all.

With the help of my Dad, many forum members, and some close friends, my Talon has undergone so many repairs that it's on its way to being an amazing car. I'd like to thank everyone here who has helped me or watched my build progress.
The DSM community is the greatest :)
 
Here's me as a kid, says it all. It was taken on one of those disposable cameras so excuse the quality. I honestly don't think you could get much better quality in that era anyway LOL
That right there is a vintage PowerWheels machine. They haven't made them with such style in a long time. Nowadays they're all cheap plastic

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I think we'll skip everything else because that's an entire book to be written
 
But...WERE YOU WINNING THE RACE??? 😲😄😄🙃 That's the important part....

WHen I was about 11-12 years I was into dirt bikes and home made go karts with 2 stroke chainsaw motors that my friends and I put together to drive around the neighborhood...we lived in the country in Washington state on eastern side of the Cascade mountains...lots of logging roads and open fields for dirt bikes, snowmobiles, etc...when I got my driver license the day I turned 16, I started saving up to get my first car...I couldn't drive my mom's Subaru Brat all the time as she needed it for work..

All I was able to save up was $400 in 1986, and I found a 1977 Chevy Vega with ONLY 30k miles in it...haha well, if you're in your 50s, you probably know what that means for a Chevy Vega...it was on its last few miles of life!! Crappy 4 cylinder engine design, probably the worst in the history of GM!...I drove it a few weeks, then it got so bad I was putting 1qt of oil in that motor every single day....leaking and smoking it away...with a giant blue cloud of sickness spewing out of the tailpipe and following me everywhere I went...I finally traded it in on a used Oldsmobile Starfire GT (rebranded Chevy Monza) with the 231ci V6...owned and maintained by a mechanic...and that was one of the best motors I ever owned!! When I put headers and dual exhaust with turbo style mufflers on it, I could spin the tires in first to third! That car is what got me started in working on cars...learning all I could about upgrades of any kind, learning about different engines, different models of muscle cars. There were a TON of late '60s/early '70s classic cars for sale in the classifieds back then!... I finished high school and enrolled in auto tech full time at the local community college and I've been working on my own cars my entire life. I only take them in to the shop for wheel balancing, alignments, and once for a new front end on my '68 Ford Fairlane 500 convertible that I was daily driving. It had a good 302 (5.0) with 4 barrel heads and a Holley 4 barrel carb with a built C4 that slammed into gears and chirped tires with every shift when your foot was on the pedal....it was cherry red with a white top and a white interior.

However! That car was heavy as F*** and it didn't corner worth a dime, plus it had drum brakes on all 4 wheels....it went great in a straight line, but that's it, aside from looking classic and pretty.....about that time after I finished my two years at school, I moved down to SoCal and one of my new friends just bought a metallic silver light champagne 1990 Laser RS turbo and it was a fast car.. we raced anytime we were driving from somewhere like lunch at Rally burger, or to softball games or whatever...and he would nearly keep up with me on the highway if we dropped down a gear and floored it side by side at 40mph, but he would beat me in every other situation....launching from a stop, one block races between the stoplights, cornering and braking... it wasn't even close! My tank vs his stock Laser turbo...I didn't stand a chance.....

So, after a few years daily driving my Fairlane, I got a good full time job at a dental laboratory making crowns and bridges, and I decided it was time to get a newer car...

I was always driving by the car lots looking for something good.... something with better gas mileage!!! And disc brakes!! Air conditioning!! Well, I didn't know it, bit the DSMs had been redesigned in '95 and I stumbled upon one in a used car lot that was cherry red with a full gray leather interior. I didn't know what it was til I got close and looked at the model in the back...it said Eclipse GS-T. I knew the Eclipse was a cousin of the Laser my friend had and I liked the new body style better than the 1g wedge shape...I took it for a test drive, and the I was hooked! I never drive a turbo car before...it was a blast! And it had everything my Fairlane was missing...32 mpg, disc brakes, 16 inch wheels (these were pretty big at the time), air conditioning, cruise control, power sunroof, power doors and windows, and tilt steering...it was my favorite car ever....until my friend traded in his Eclipse on the brand new redesigned Mustang 5.0!!!! We raced some more, and if I shifted just right I could beat him 1st thru 2nd, but he would start to pull away in 3rd...and on the highway, forget it! His V8 torque would leave me way back at higher speeds....so then I started looking in to upgrades!!! I got as far as a K&N filter, then I got married....and it was all over....I had to trade in my Eclipse for something that was more family oriented when my son was born...I got a 2001 full size Montero 4x4 with the V6 and full leather loaded with all the options...it was a great truck, but I missed my Eclipse ever since then....after my divorce, things had changed drastically with my finances (you probably know someone with similar horror stories) so I was limited to buying cheap Hondas to drive around to work and such...they were great cars and very cheap to maintain and dependable too....bit I found my current Eclipse being neglected and sitting at a young kids driveway who knew nothing about fixing them...so I checked it out carefully and made a fair offer and towed it home....been driving it ever since! And I have a new 6 bolt motor ready to go!
😂 My first car was a 72 or 73 Vega sedan I found in 1982. $300. What a steaming pile! Managed to keep it running for a couple of years but can’t count how many times it got towed home. Sold it to a guy for $500 because it had a black widow spider living in the firewall that freaked me out (I get it, a girl thing 😬). He blew it up in less than a week.
 

I'll give you a hint: it's very DSM-heavy. I guess I should post Part 4 today.
Do you recall what was wrong with it? Front O2 sensor would be my guess. Love the story btw
 
Do you recall what was wrong with it? Front O2 sensor would be my guess. Love the story btw
What was wrong with my first DSM when I first got it? I replaced so many things at that time because of previous owner deferred maintenance so I'm sure it was a combination of a lot of things, but the front O2 replacement was probably the biggest thing.
 
The story...hmm.
I grew up in the 70s so I tinkered a lot in the garage. In those days the bikes we owned weren't recreation, they were transportation. Hard to think our parents let us out of the house in the morning and we didn't return until dark (or we were hungry).
Anyways the bikes always required something. New tube, adjustments, chain lube, etc. This was a natural transition when you started driving. Especially if you were a hot wheel guy etc. I built model cars with my best friend since we were in grade school so we knew all the cars by sight. My brother is a little older so he benefitted from the cheap muscle cars in the 70s that in those days were just used cars. Camaros, novas, olds 442. All of those passed through the family in those days and I watched as engines were rebuilt etc. My dad wasn't a super mechanic but the 442 4 spd olds my brother had kept us busy. Damn, that thing had some torque. Fast forward some years and I bought a Mitsubishi truck brand new at the 1987 body change. It was dirt cheap compared to the Toyota, 7300 brand new with the dealer added wheels, stripes, and window tint. Other than that it was a stripper model, no ac no stereo. Without the dealer add it was 5999 BRAND NEW. Wish I would've bought 5 of them. Anyway, I got familiar with Mitsubishi with that car and somewhat with a Hyundai excel I had for 6 months before that truck (bad crash, a story for another time). The truck was simple, easy to work on, and flat-out dumb I mean DUMB reliable. I drove it from new, 13 years approx 300k on the original pressure plate and TOB. I barely did anything besdies maintenance items over the years. Belts, hoses, and tires. Knowing about Mitsubishi now when the DSM triplets were released I was hooked. I had to have one. Purchased my first AWD Tsi (1990) in November of 92 with 35k on it and the balance of the 70k warranty. Joined the talon digest and here we are now. I did the work on it sometimes with enthusiasm, sometimes out of desperation, and with no money (poor student at the time). Over time I did engine work, suspension, electronics, and lastly transmissions. Now I have a plethora of tools, more than I could have imagined, and 40+ years worth of wrench turning skills. I have no fear anymore. I will tear apart anything. The only thing I've never torn down is an automatic trans. I'm getting to the point now It's difficult to do those all day, all night wrenching sessions but I still do all my own maintenance on all my cars. Slowly handing that off to my adult sons and my girlfriend's boys, one of whom is in votech for auto-mech. He didn't have the childhood I have so he has about 10 lbs of enthusiasm and 5 lbs of knowledge.
I plan on staying in as long as I can and just keep driving. Since I've chosen to maintain my own vehicles and I drive them a while I've inadvertently become the poster child for Dave Ramsey. The total purchase price of every car I've ever owned including that new Mitsubishi truck is 31,100$. This is from 17 yrs old to 52 yrs old now and likely 500k miles over those years. This doesn't include several of those vehicles I sold for as much or more than I paid so the true cost is lower. I am not including the several vehicles I purchased for my ex-wife. These are just mine.
That is my story so far.
 
Fun post. I was hooked on cars from an early age, and can still recall the feeling noticing how different Corvettes were from all the other cars. Read every back issue of Road and Track I could find. I never had tools growing up, and watched both my parents suffer at the mercy of poor car choices and blind faith in rip-off repair shops. I had mechanical inclination, and talked my dad into buying a 1991(?) Laser turbo. I was 21, and that thing gave a rush like I had never felt, hitting 3,500 rpm in 3rd gear on an empty back road. I did well in engineering school, but dropped out to be a ski bum, and while doing that, got a job as a bus mechanic. Really liked that, but decided it wasn't healthy as a profession. Eyes, ears, fingers, skin, lungs, too many things to hurt you when you do it every day. Plus I worked graveyard shift, and it interfered with skiing. Fast forward a bit: Bought my gsx as soon as my son went off to college (2018). They're pretty scarce, and this one needed way more work than what the seller let on. But I was determined, and mostly enjoy it now. Looking forward to more driving and less time on jackstands. Then on to the Dodge; unfinished business on a vehicle that I've owned since 1992. I think I'll try paining it!
 

I'll give you a hint: it's very DSM-heavy. I guess I should post Part 4 today.
This is great so far. I read parts 1 and 2 just now. Thanks for sharing.
 
Me, 30 years ago in Japan. Everyday I was riding a motorcycle in mountain.
My friends and I were always gathering at a local shop and the mechanic at the shop let me see what he does and taught me many things.
I left Japan for Canada in 2003 and I started to see many DSM on the streets. In 2005, I decided to live in Mexico and started thinking to buy a Japanese car with a famous engine by importing from the States. At that moment I didn't know Mexico doesn't allow me to import a car that is built in Japan. (It must have a North American VIN) So I didn't need much time to decide buying a DSM since it's built in the States and with a 4G63, and I got my first DSM in AZ.
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... while I've inadvertently become the poster child for Dave Ramsey.

🤣🤣🤣 Best line I've read in a long time. We might be on matching posters!
 
My first start was in 1994 when i got my first dsm 1ga red, from the dealership i worked at. I had it for years did my first timing job when i broke when i was attending Indiana University, since the i learned the car inside and out, not fun. Ive owne a dsm ever since and i have fell in love, hate with the dsm but its fun and i learned a lot about myself. Wiring , bod work welding, everything i could to keep it running.
 
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