I find myself bringing my driver car to a oil change shop for the convenience and not having to get rid of the oil proper. It's also not that much more money with the fluid top offs and greasing the suspension. Also where I live now it's not a work friendly driveway. Now if I were to change the oil on a classic like a GS, I would love pouring in that brand new clean synthetic oil and top grade greasing. Again only reason I might get a to a shop these days is my location and not being able to keep a car on stands for days, plus lack of some tooling and a trusted 2nd hand. Grew up in the late 70's and 80's with a nice size driveway and good friends that always were willing to help. Most all of us were ok with turning wrenches. Yes though at 58 the ground hurts and bringing tools down from the 11th floor and back up is a hassle. There are car guys and guys that liked cars. One friend that was a "I like cars guy" was one that read car magazines like Road & Track and Car & Driver and would spit out facts. This was in the late 70's and early 80's like I had said and American car's pushed forward and really started to make cars that handled on top of 0-60 times and 1/4 miles. I still remember him quoting handling G numbers, 0 - 60 times and the WS6 Trans Am in his Korean accent to this day. He didn't turn a wrench though but would tell you rated HP numbers.
I am not an Astronaut but I like the Space Program.... I am not a Painter, but I admire Art..... I am not a Gynecologist, but I like women..... Dumb divisive thread in my opinion.
I'm just imagining telling someone they aren't a "car guy" because they don't change their own oil and their response would be "laughs in rich" and then drives away in their showroom condition Benz
I have lived 3/4 of a century as of this December. I know how to fix most things on my car, as it's fairly simple. But. I send it off for most repairs as I don't enjoy being sore for a week after after working on it. Didn't have any money so I learned to fix everything, got money (some) now so I job out the stuff I don't enjoy fixing. But, yes I would consider myself car guy. (Not that it really matters)
I don't think that the desire or ability to do the work has anything to do with the "car guy" designation. And to be honest, based on what I have seen over the years, a good percentage of the guys working on their cars, should not be... Regardless of if you do the work or not, interest is the key, not the nuts and bolts of it. And that interest in the subject matter is the qualification for the "title" regardless of if it's cars, guns, boating, camping, fishing or whatever.. JW
I've been wrenching my own cars since I was a kid... it used to be because I couldn't afford to pay somebody to do it for me, and once I gained experience it became more of just enjoying the work and the accomplishment. Now that I am older and not dirt poor it comes down to time vs money. Can I change the timing belts on our Hondas Odyssey? Yes, and I've done it a few times now but do I always have the 3 hours to do it properly and also check everything else out that is needed? Maybe not. Time vs money and I consider myself a car guy.
Flip the coin: How many mechanics do you know who ARE NOT car guys? When I sold parts for a living, it amazed me how many I ran across who viewed wrenching as just a job, drove whatever junk was cheap (often cars that customers gave up on) and had no enthusiasm for any of them (other than frustration because the special packages caused problems, like brakes on an SVT or the air filter on a WS6 was harder to get). Patrick
Eventhough I am not a licenced mechanic, I have been wrenching on farm tractors, combines, cars, trucks when I live on the family farm. We did not have much money so we had to make do and we learned how to repair these vehicles. It was too costly to have a pro make the repairs. Now I work on my own vehicles where possible. Since I have owned my '72 GS (in 2000), I have done most of the work required on this car. I know when to have a pro make the repairs or restorations - paint, body work, tranny, differential, etc. Whether a guy works on his car or loves cars - he is a car guy..
3/4 of my techs are not car guys, all 8 of our parts guys are not car guys, and 1 guy out of 15 salesmen is. It does amaze me and makes me wonder how they got into this industry. There's a lot of easier ways to make money, and you don't need $50k in tools like a tech to do careers in other fields.
So true. This made me thing of my friend Andy. He is and always has been obsessed with cars. He studies and reads car magazines and know a LOT of information about various cars. He dreams of working on or rebuilding cars, but seriously does not know one end of wrench from another. Is he a car guy? I think so.
Those are really bad odds.. I don't get it either?? and I have seen some of the cars that go into your shop..
My Silverado takes 8qts of full synthetic @ $8+ /qt Oil filter $9 I take it to the dealer and get an oil change, filter, tire rotation, and wash for $50 I guess I'm not a car guy. I pulled the motor and disassembled everything on my Buick 350 when I found metal in the pan. Headers off, intake off, heads off, cam out, crank out, rods out, pistons out, down to the bare block. I guess I am a car guy! I had my Buick 350 rebuilt. Full iron head ported, intake ported and matched, forged pistons, forged rods, roller lifters, roller rockers, roller cam, oil mods, all assembled to clearances I specified. I had the carb rebuilt. I had a custom converter made. I guess I'm not a car guy. I dropped the motor back in. Bolted motor mounts, headers, exhaust, carb, drive shaft u-joints, trans linkage, distributor, had to pull the intake to remove the rubber rail gaskets. Still have to set the new AE161 radiator, connect trans lines, assemble shroud and fans, wire harness, MSD 6AL box, and get it running and tuned. I guess I need some help figuring out if I'm a 'car' guy. Maybe Dear Abby can help me. ~Confused
Car guy has a broad definition. Some don’t have the ability to spin their own wrenches. Some use their cars as art collectibles, seldom or never driven even though they did the work on it. I agree with JW, some people should leave the wrenching to others. One thing in common is they all love cars.
Man y different opinions i like it... you can clearly see the guys who working in the Car business , and selling there service and also the guys who do not work on there car. Oilchanges on my daily ... i go to a jiffy lube place because its convinient, So dont take this examples to serious... i still think there are Car FANs and Car guys.. as there is Athletes and Sports fans, a lot of fans know more about statistics than the actual Athletes that produce them, however the Fan is 80% of the case not in shape to ever execute there favourite sport, on the level they critisise. Also for those who do not have the background but are willing to learn, I APPRECIATE YOU. nowadays its also easier to learn at home ( videos, books etc) it helped me as well.
More like 99.9%. A lot of people don’t realize how much more adept pro athletes are at their abilities than even top amateurs
yea i tried to stay polite, plus there is pro athletes on different levels and thats what im saying about car guys too... i dont expect you to be STEVE MORRIS or PAT MUZY but comeone... dont send the (Classic) car out to a shop to change the Air filter and then come to a car forum talking about performance mods etc...
Thats a good one... you are right, and thats why i never got into building cars for others or work on cars for others BUT people who share MY idea of how it should be like. I couldnt build it by customer specs, while i really think its not how i would build it>But i guess only a handfull builders/mechanics have the luxury/Status to do so. Its the same for tattoo guys they have to do 5000 Koi fish tatoos a month, and would never put that on themselves...however the top artists will charge you for THEIR pro opinion and art. + i understand that if you work at a jiffy lube you possibly have not much motivation to wrench on your own ****. further i worked as a young kid @ a dealership and i litterally drove the 10 $ trade-In shitbox of the customers and i was fine, because it took me from A to B , but i also made min wage so i couldnt afford the cars i was interested in. I just think a MEN should be able to change tires, oil, brakes , plugs on a car, + put a nail in the wall and change a bulb; same way i think a women should be able to cook basic meals to feed the fam. and do the laundry.
I like to assess the “vacuum advance test”. If someone says vacuum advance should be hooked up to manifold vacuum they have spent too much time on the internet and not enough time under the hood
