kee
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,991
|
|
May 16, 2007 20:50:39 GMT
|
|
the story goes:
i know feck all about cars, well a bit on suspension becuase i designed some, but otherwise, nothing.
the end.
whats the best way to learn about the mechanics of cars, I'm planning on buying an engine when i get my placement job, and rebuilding it and therefore learning how it all works and what to fix when things go wrong.
recommendations?
cash cannot be spent at the mo, as i have none, and not much time because of exams, but in a couple of weeks I'm as free as a bird and will be bored.
cheers
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 16, 2007 21:07:01 GMT
|
|
You're the same as me. I know a fair bit of history on BMC>Rover, but thats about it. Have you ever thought about a college/night course?
|
| |
[/color][/b]  [/CENTER] |
|
kee
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,991
|
|
May 16, 2007 21:22:26 GMT
|
|
that costs money and i don't have enough time for that.
would rather do it my way aswell, plus i have no transport to get anywhere, for the time being
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
May 16, 2007 21:26:51 GMT
|
|
Theres plenty of cheap cars on the bay of E. Just go for something with a simple engine, have the essential haynes manual. And if you need any extra help with something i'm sure someone on here would be happy to help.
|
| |
[/color][/b] [/CENTER] |
|
kee
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,991
|
|
May 16, 2007 21:35:25 GMT
|
|
yeah thats what i was thinking, but i only have £60 to last me till october for the moment, need a job so badly
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
May 16, 2007 21:48:57 GMT
|
hands on is the way to go. don't use your daily for this if your only just learning though.  see if you can aquire an old engine from somewhere, should even get one for free if you look in the right places. have a mess about with it, see where stuff goes and what it does, and if you fox something in the process it doesnt matter. if youve got a mate or mates into this sort of thing, get them round and have a laugh while your learning. i find i always work better with company, even if they have no idea whats going on. spare people always come in handy for tea making duties too.  |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
May 16, 2007 22:04:54 GMT
|
|
Morris Minor or Triumph Herald and a Haynes manual.
Refitting is a reverse of the removal procedure. You know as much as me now. ;D
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Learning?BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
|
May 16, 2007 22:10:34 GMT
|
|
Yeah man, can't beat a pair of oily mitts, a few spanners and a Haynes manual! I did a couple of years on an auto engineering course and a couple of years in a garage, but nothing beats the learning curve of having your car broken and fixing it yourself being the only option!
Before I could afford a car I used to mess about with stuff my uncle brought over for me, like 2-stroke engines and funny mechanical gizmos he'd get from work. Obviously it wasn't as good as a car but it kept my parents off my back and got me spannering! ;D
|
| |
|
|
rob0r
East of England
Posts: 2,743
Club RR Member Number: 104
|
Learning?rob0r
@rob0r
Club Retro Rides Member 104
|
May 16, 2007 22:14:41 GMT
|
|
I'm pretty much a numpty but I've managed to do ok so far... I just jumped into the deep end with my BMW and it's turned out ok, but I needed the welding done (cheers B&D) but have done everything else myself. I have two engines sitting in the workshop, 2L carb and 1.8i, and with some advice I plan to combine the two and change my car to fuel injection despite me knowing squat!
|
| |
E30 320i 3.5 - E23 730 - E3 3.0si - E21 316 M42 - E32 750i
ETC
|
|
kee
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,991
|
|
May 16, 2007 22:29:05 GMT
|
my plans where to pick up an imp engine, strip it, clean it rebuild/fix it/tune it maybe. generally make my self a nice clean engine for my future imp. i don't have a daily as yet and I'm not that much of an idiot to take one apart. just wanna learn engine stuff for the mo, till i have a garage when ican take on bigger duties. i have a big room and a cellar starting july so thats good  |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Learning?Deleted
@Deleted
|
May 16, 2007 22:34:07 GMT
|
Buy a car and break it for spares. Thats how I learnt about working on cars , my dad bought me two Suzuki SJ410's for my first car(s), I stripped one for spares and made one good one from the two |
| |
|
|
zep
Part of things
Posts: 199
|
|
May 16, 2007 22:35:44 GMT
|
If you know nothing, have a look at www.howstuffworks.com in the auto section. Pretty well written and informative stuff there. |
| |
|
|
kee
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,991
|
|
May 16, 2007 22:39:29 GMT
|
Buy a car and break it for spares. Thats how I learnt about working on cars , my dad bought me two Suzuki SJ410's for my first car(s), I stripped one for spares and made one good one from the two no garage, il be living on a slight incline next year |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
sorry but if you can't put the time in to go to collge and do a night class, and can't afford to sign on for one or buy anything I doubt you're going to get very far... How you doing for tools? Make friends with someone who has a car they work on and help them out I guess. Thats what I did when I was a kid. However the answer is to get a job, earn some monety, buy something to work on, buy some tools, and really, sign on at college. They let you use their stuff and get proper hands on and a qualification too (I still proudly list my "EMFEC Motor Vehicle Service Operative Level 1, Distinction" on my CV even though I'm an IT Manager by trade now ) Have fun and don't expect to know it all straight away. Most of us are still learning. Knowing people local who share your interests makes it 10000% easier and more fun. |
| |
1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As said before buy something cheap or get a scrapper for free or something, strip things down see how they work put it back together, then if it doesnt work, work out where you went wrong. Ask questions (on here or mates) if your not sure.
Buy a haynes manual an old one from ebay or an autojumble is a better bet as each repair is done in order and its not like a final fantasy book where it keeps directing you to different sections to explain each part.
Experience has got to be the best way particularly if there is someone else to advise you, I am sure a practical college course would be good as well but its not something I have ever really had time for.
Most of my experience has come from either working on my own dailys or friends dailys or family members daily drivers so generally had to make sure that whatever was started had to be completed the same day and until I built my garage (1 year ago) it was always working outside.
|
| |
|
|
kee
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,991
|
|
|
|
sorry but if you can't put the time in to go to collge and do a night class, and can't afford to sign on for one or buy anything I doubt you're going to get very far... How you doing for tools? Make friends with someone who has a car they work on and help them out I guess. Thats what I did when I was a kid. However the answer is to get a job, earn some monety, buy something to work on, buy some tools, and really, sign on at college. They let you use their stuff and get proper hands on and a qualification too (I still proudly list my "EMFEC Motor Vehicle Service Operative Level 1, Distinction" on my CV even though I'm an IT Manager by trade now ) Have fun and don't expect to know it all straight away. Most of us are still learning. Knowing people local who share your interests makes it 10000% easier and more fun. well for the moment i have no money, 2nd year of uni does nothing for a bank account. however i will be starting a placement year sometime this summer, havent secured one now but have a few applications in. i don't really want to do a college course, i know it may be useful and all but id rather do it in my own time, theres no particular rush, plenty of people have learnt. especially if the course went onto my 3 rd of uni id have no chance, mechanical engineering is not a course to be mixed with, well, anything, way too much time needed to do the work. one of my housemates has built 2 minis with his dad, so he knows a bit (psmurfy - 1275gt and suzuki g13b roundnose) although he is off to derby in june. my gf wants to know stuff and il be living with her next year, il probably just end up picking a cheap/knackered engine up from sumwer, somehow, and play around with it. iv obviously not thought it all through properly because i don't have time at the moment, was simply wondering how everyone else learnt their stuff and the best way to learn things. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
May 17, 2007 10:01:12 GMT
|
Not trying to pee on your chips mate but just pointing out that theres only so much you can have on your plate at one go... How I learnt... when I was like 6 or 7 I would spend a day each spring with my dad stripping and refitting the lawn mower engine. Then I'd be taking my bike to bits, painting or "upgrading" bits of it, etc. I remember when I was 6 my dad had to fit a kiddie seat to my mum's car for my little brother and a set of new belts for me. I remember helping him do that. And other jobs like changing the gas struts on the boot of one car we had and all sorts. I remember doing the rust and paint repairs on my mum's car when I was like about 13 or 14. I got the wrong colopur paint and it looked awful and my dad had to pay for it done properly by a garage LOL. at 15 I bought a £25 Hillman Avenger but that got vandalised as I had to keep it in a car park. I was using copies of "Custom Car" as my technical guide for that one as I had no Haynes manuyal... At 16 I bought a Morris Minor for £35 and a welder for £120 and my dad brought home bits of scrap and offcut steel from the factory and I put a floor in that thing. Made my own sills and all... Even though I knew a bit by my early 20s I took that college course 'cos it was fun and a lass from work was wanting to do it and wouldn't go on her own, and it turned ot to be really good. Got to take my own car in and kryton tune it, do all sorts of other jobs using their ramps and tools. 3 hours once a week. And then to the pub for a pint after Had mates with shonky old cars and made mates because of my shonky old cars. We all roll our slieves up of a weekend and fix each others cars and one person knows one bit another knows another and the knowledge gets spread about. The only problem is if you take an engine and takie it apart and put it back together you have learned how to do that but have you learned how to diagnose a problem or have the context of the wey and the how? Again not being funny but its the diagnostic approach which is most useful when faced with a car which won;t start on a cold damp winter morning. Is there a local car club to you? Join it and join in, offer to help out on other peoples cars I used to help out a local rodder when I was about 15, 16. Just passing tools and holding stuff while he welded it that sort of thing but I learnt some practical stuff that way. And some colourful language. A very good book to read is "Fundementals of Motor Vehicle Technology" by Victor Hiller. Seems to have been split into about a million volumes if you get the cuirrent edition, but get an older copy (I got moine from a second hand book shop near a college years ago) and it will be concentrating more on the old school technology in our kind of cars anyway... Also try eBay. Best book I ever bought that. |
| |
1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
|
|
|
|
|
May 17, 2007 10:47:32 GMT
|
Best book I ever bought was this one by John Muir  But of course it's only for aircooled engines. Seems like you'll struggle with buying tools so I agree with Alistair that you'll benefit from working with someone else. For my own learning curve I had a mate with similar taste and shallow pockets so we shared knowledge, parts, tools and undercover work space. At Uni (started with an HND in Auto Engineering which was a good practical course to do) I shared a house with other petrol heads so it worked well |
| |
Last Edit: May 17, 2007 11:16:52 GMT by garethj
|
|
|
|
|
May 17, 2007 10:54:02 GMT
|
|
Oh and "How to tune BMC's A Series Engine" By David Vizzard. Even if you don't ever own a Mini or Morris Minor the way he lays out the principals of how and why is masterful. IIRC he has similar titles out ofr Xflow and Pinto and small block chevy. A seies one seems to crop up cheap second hand most often.
|
| |
1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
|
|
kee
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,991
|
|
May 17, 2007 11:23:45 GMT
|
|
cheers for the info ak, as i say just looking for input on what everyone else does, il decide when i get a job and some moneys in my pockets
|
| |
|
|
|
|
