YouTube is a strange medium. You can spend a lifetime watching cute cat videos. You can watch twenty-somethings play video games and make a living out of it. You can watch fail videos, cooking videos, music videos, and some of the strangest crap that the Internet has to offer at the click of a mouse. There are precious few better time-wasters than YouTube. But one thing that it is good for is the kind of home-grown wrenching how-to videos that should be the encouragement you need to take on a project yourself.

Now, we all know that even in the best of circumstances, you have to do your homework and not expect any show to be 100% accurate in detail. But you should be able to tell who is trying to be decent versus someone who is simply showcasing a car for views. There are the professionals like Mighty Car Mods, who have everything together (or get it together quickly) and build some interesting and awesome rides in a manner like magazines did. Then there are guys like Dylan McCool, who are taking on a personal project and are treating the videos like a blog, good bad or otherwise. McCool’s personal project at the moment, bringing a dead 1969 Charger back to life, has been documented from the trip home after purchase to the front suspension work, and it’s broken down into the kind of chunks that simulate a good day  of wrenching.

One of the things that I’ve heard from people who ask me about my automotive addictions is how I can be comfortable working on a car. This really came to be when people learned that I had two Mopars in the backyard of a rented house, trading drivetrains, both cars exploded out into parts. My answer to them was simple: you have to start somewhere. If you go from never spinning a wrench to trying to rebuild an engine, you will have a bad time. But maybe you can change your own oil and replace shocks…that’s a great first step. Maybe you just want to de-crud that project car you brought home…safety goggles, wire brushes, and Gunk will be your friend. Maybe you just don’t want to spend cash at the car wash anymore and want your ride to look pro cleaned…whatever the case, skip the latest cat video and give YouTube a good search. Someone has done what you want to do, probably to the kind of car you are working on, and can show you how!