I just have to know how it works and how it can be modified ;D aparently even as a kid i would take things apart so much so that people would give my parents old things so i could disasemble them.
In those days they never got put back together and i always had boxes of bits under my bed lol.
Nowdays i enjoy the build more than the finished project. I have a photographic memory so i can take things apart and leave them in pieces for months at a time only to reasemble and have the thing work.
Gotta know how it works! My first memory of mechanical curiosity was taking apart the coaster brake on my huffy when I was about ten. That thing never worked right after that..must have been a bad design.
My most memorable dad-induced childhood ass kicking was for taking apart our lawnmower when I was 7. He was in the Navy, and out to sea for a week or two.... Mom didn't go into the shed behind the house much, and I decided I had to see how the lawnmower worked. He came home, went to mow the lawn the next day and saw his lawnmower torn apart in a puddle of oil in the shed. He told me to put it back together and start it or I was getting a thumping.... needless to say, I got the thumping.
I want to know how EVERYTHING works. From the can opener to the space shuttle. As I don't have the physical durability I used to have, I watch more TV than I'd really like, and I always try to find "How It's Made" or some such and learn more.
Of course, if something breaks, that's party time in the shop! Take that sucker apart, maybe fix it, maybe not. The car stuff, I pretty much always can fix.
Always have tore thing apart and most generally was able to put them back together. Mom used to bring me her mixers/toasters/et. to see if I could fix it before she bought new ones. Started helping dad on his cars when I wasn't even big enough to see over the fender.
I guess the speed gene comes from my mother (god rest her soul) as she used to street race
my grandpa's 56 Mercury. But as far as mechanical goes I always liked cars and my father
used to do general thing like air filter and plug changes and I remember helping with that
but he didn't really get into anything hardcore. However when my mom married my step dad
all that changed as he was a hardcore gearhead and the bug took hold. I remember helping to
change an engine when I was 13 in the winter it was so cold and snowing and I thought it
was great helping the old man with this task when he got cold and went into the house
I asked if I could keep working he replied "it's your ass thats gonna freeze but go for it"
well I kept at and got everything hooked up and got it running and parked it by the back door of
my grandma's house and met dad in the back room as he was coming out to see what the noise was
and said "I'll be damned" patted me on the the back and told me to go take a hot shower
cause I was looking a little blue from the cold but I don't remember feeling cold as I thought
I just did the coolest thing!!!! ;D
When I was about 12 my dad decided to rebuild our lawn mower. he tore it all down, replaced the rings, honed the cylinder and was going to put it back together when he realized it didnt have any kind of timing marks on the cam and crank gears. He said 'aw hell we'll just chunk this one and get a new one.' Now dont get me wrong, he was a decent mechanic himself. He was an airplane mechanic in WW2 but was a little low in the patience dept.
I told him to let me have a go at it since we were gonna throw it away anyway. He said 'sure, have at it'. (his term for 'go for it"). Well i commenced to study it and figure out just how everything worked and the first time I put it together it started! Was pretty much down on power so I took it apart and studied some more and moved the cam a tooth or two in the direction I thought it should go, put it back together and they baby ran like a new one! Well that got me started.
If that lawn mower had not of run I wouldn't have all these scars on my knuckles today.
Definitely like the Thermoquad pics.I was proud that my 340 was running with it's original thermoquad this summer.
I took the training wheels off my first bike with a crescent wrench my grandfather had under the deck of the pool.So my Dad said,"well they're not going back on it,so you have to learn how to ride it"
When I was in Auto Body in High School a classmate said i reminded him of Curious George because if I hadn't already taken something apart to see how it worked,I was always ready to!
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