How Old Were You When You First Started Wrenching?

[BlueOvalFitter]

I was 5 years old when my dad let me ride shotgun in his '55 Chevy gasser at LaPlace dragstrip. I would help him out in the shop, handing him tools, cleaning parts, watching and learning. When I was 9 years old I rebuilt my very first engine, a 2.5 hp B&S edger engine. Of course my dad helped me somewhat, but once he showed me how to put it together, add this part here, put this part there, I had rebuilt it. It cranked after 3-4 pulls of the rope. I was hooked!
Also at 9, I was fixing all of the other kids tubes (patching with hot patches), greasing their bike axle bearings, basically even building bikes. I kept helping my dad, but when I was 11 I was cutting 10 yards in my neighborhood @ $10 a yard. I used my dads mower until I built my own at 12. I had saved up enough money to buy a 22" self propelled mower from Western Auto.
My first vehicle to build with my dad was at age 16. We did a frame off resto to a 69 F100, 390, 4 speed, Dana 60 Posi rear end, factory a/c, Black Imron paint. I put Cragar SS wheels (15X7 front, 15X10 rear) Mickey Thompson N-50's rear, McCreary slims up front. We had to weld a 400 lb piece of rail road iron in the center of the bed just to keep the rear planted to hook up. This one I talk about the most because it was my 1st. My dad had so many muscle cars, and I had quite a few thru life as well. My last one was an 84 GMC swb in FL. It definitely was a sleeper that ran 14:79 in the 1/4.
Let's hear from you that started young as well.

 

[AutoMechanic]

Probably 4-5 if I remember correctly. My dad had a 1977 Alfa Romeo Spider and it seems every weekend he would be working on it. That’s how I learned about tools and parts originally. The only thing I wasn’t allowed to do was lay underneath of it (at least not when mom was home LOL) which was understandable at the time. That’s also how I learned that manual transmissions were way different than automatic. I sure do miss that car we sold it back to the original owner who sold it to my dad because he begged for it back. Everything was easy to work on for him especially the special fuel injection system it had in it I think the name was Spica it was much more unreliable than the Bosch apparently. We still have a bunch of books about that car. I also have lots of pictures of me near it or sitting in it. I was never allowed to ride in it either while mom was home because it was a convertible and the back didn’t have seatbelts. I don’t remember much about the car other than that LOL. Also when I was around 9 or 10 I got my first set of tools. Some Stanley ratchets and a little $9.99 Harbor Freight knuckle busting socket set that came with two ratchets in a black blow molded case but for a kid that was a great starter set in case you lost one or something. I ended up cracking one of the sockets tinkering on my dads tiller and just threw it away I really regret that now but I was 11 when that happened so I didn’t think much of it at the time. I still have the rest of the set in my toolbox regardless of how much I use it now I have it for the memories of stuff when I was a kid. Also since my dad isn’t really able to do mechanical work anymore after his shoulder injury he gave me all his tools most are Craftsman so I keep those too I remember using one or two of them as a kid like the ratchet and stuff.

 

[Creekside]

I was probably 4 or 5. I started messing with bicycles trying to keep my junk going. Then it was on to taking old small engines apart. I didn’t get really heavy into it until around 2010 when I was in junior high and was hired to help in a local truck shop when I wasn’t in school. He noticed I wanted to learn and he specialized in old 2 ton trucks and larger. I started learning the old brake systems and now I’m just about the only person here that works on them. I have my hands in fluid power, high and low voltage electrical, pneumatics, mechanical drives, motor controls and plc controllers among all the wheeled equipment now.

 

[chemman]

Probably around 10. Started on my bicycle, then graduated to trying to fix small appliances. By the time I was 13, I was dabbling with electronics, got my Novice Class Amateur Radio license, then built a transmitter from a schematic I found in a book. Once I turned 16, I started doing oil changes, fan belts, etc. By 18 I had graduated to tune ups and brake jobs. Just kept adding to my skill set as different things broke down or needed maintenance on the car I was driving at the time.

 

[Skippy722]

I was always tinkering with stuff, my parents told me I wasn’t interested in kids books, I wanted them to read me repair and how-to manuals. When I was 3 or 4 I removed al the shoe strings from all the shoes and made a “circuit” on the kitchen floor. There was also the time when I was 6 or 7 and my dad didn’t know how to glue PVC pipes together but I did.... he didn’t believe me until he asked a guy at Home Depot who pointed at the package in my hand and said “that’s all you need!”

The mechanical inclination seems to have skipped a generation as neither of my parents were mechanically inclined or cared to learn, they were the type to take whatever is broken and have someone else fix it, but my grandfather on my dads side and great grandfather on my moms side were very mechanically inclined.

 

[Nick1994]

My family owned a collision repair shop from 1959 until 2005. I was born in 94' and crawled all around there growing up. My dad has always been quite the fabricator. We were always building or welding something. He had a gooseneck trailer that he put a cab-over camper on too. I'd say I started really messing with stuff when I was 10. Before that I'd help my dad and work on my bike and stuff too.

 

[dlundblad]

As long as I can remember, but it certainly wasn’t say a TB in the 1st grade. I was driving tractors, mowing etc. by the age of 4 though.

 

[demarpaint]

Actually usefully wrenching, not playing with a wrench, about nine or ten years old, in the late 1960's. I had an older cousin who was a big brother figure and mentor. Sadly he was taken away way too soon.

 

[Whipcitywrencher]

Bicycles at around 8 or 9.

 

[jeepman3071]

When I was 10 years old I got a go-kart. I would do small things on it like replace the spark plug, change the oil, etc. I then started maintaining other things like push mowers, our family's snow blower, and our riding mower. My dad always kept the oil full on equipment, but never changed it or really maintained them, so he was happy I was helping out. This turned into working on ATVs I bought later on, and helping neighbors and family members with their equipment. It later progressed into a small engine repair business that I still do on the side today.

 

[Boomer]

Back in the 50's and 60's when I was in school, I worked on my bicycle all the time. I put on bigger wheels, fatter tires, greased bearings and adjusted everything that could be adjusted. In about 1967 when I was starting my junior year in college, I bought a '58 Chevy from a farm where it had sat in a field for a few years. I paid $100. I learned a lot on the old car. Had to pull the head to clean everything to get oil to the rockers, and since it had solid lifters, I had to learn to adjust the valves. Learned to do oil and filter changes on it. I went on from there with a '61 Impala, a '64 VW squareback and the rest is history. Best thing is that over the years I accumulated a very nice set of automotive tools, and air compressor and a lot of air tools.

 

[CharBaby]

Probably when I was about 5 or 6 yrs old with the kids toy/Erector Set and the like.
Then this worked into my bikes/tires ~8 or 9 yrs old, borrowing Dad's tools.
And then Dad's push mower(spark plug) ~8-10 yrs old. I should remember how old I was but, I don't.

Then worked with Dad at around 11 yrs old just pumping gas, changing lube/oil/filter(with Dad watching) and learning how to make change and do CC purchases. ESSO had their own CC and others that we accepted.

Then came tire change overs when I was strong enough to lift'em especially on the big trucks.
Later it was brakes and minor tune-ups as I grew up and got strong enough to see & reach...and understanding what/why I was doing what I was doing.

So, like Scotty Kilmer, I too have been working on cars for >50 yrs even though I didn't know squat back then and I'm still learning today. Who isn't?

 

[Snagglefoot]

I got interested in mechanics reading a book I ordered from one of those school based book services called Stock Bodied Drag Racing. I then sent away for a set of mechanics books by Peterson Publishing. This was at an age of 15. I started with oil changes on a 74 Datsun B-210. The darn thing is if your car is reliable, you don’t get to wrench on it. I rebuilt my first engine in my 20’s. Always enjoyed it. Still do.

 

[Trav]

Since I started trade school in 1971 at 13 which is 50 years ago next Sept. Sure I messed around with bicycles before that but I don't count that.

 

[Chris142]

My dad bought me a dirt bike when I was 8. I had to adjust the chain and replace the sparkplug when it fouled.

 

[chainblu]

I was repairing bicycle flats by the time I was off training wheels, so 4 or 5. After that, if any of the neighbors put an old bike out beside the road for pickup, it would usually end up in my backyard where I would piece one together. Yes, I was rough on bikes. I rebuilt small engines in middle school, but didn't get to cars until high school. Picked up a '72 Nova in 10th grade, dropped in a 396 (my first V8 rebuild) and ran 12.93 my first time on a drag strip.

 

[allepunta]

45. Right after I paid my first service bill here in Switzerland. I thought, "I could probably do regular services myself". Youtube and car forums did the trick.

 

[Driz]

10+- Bicycles, 13 firearms, 17 cars boats ect

 

[IndyIan]

I think around 14-15, we bought an old polaris snowmobile that like fouling plugs, and then we replaced the shocks and the big job was replacing the track and sprockets on the drive shaft... I remember having the skis tied off to the garage door tracks and a comealong pulling on the rear skid to get the holes lined up to bolt up the rear suspension. Before that I think my Dad bought me pretty good bikes and they didn't break too often but we did put together a tamiya hornet remote control car. It broke the odd part but was pretty easy to fix most of the time.

 

[javacontour]

On cars, probably 12 when my mom let me change the oil in her 1975 Cordoba. I'd worked on my bicycle and other things before that.