I am not a mechanic...

Growing up, I was interested in D&D, computers, reading sci-fi books, playing video games, and girls. My brother is the one that had a subscription to Hot Rod magazine, took auto shop every year since middle school (small gas engines, then, so he could fix a lawn mower in 7th grade), and dropped out of school when he was 16 to work at a local oilry and work his way to head mechanic at the used car dealership where our cousin Johnny was a salesman.

I didn't care about cars, or about anything to do with them.

When I got my license I drove my mother's old '77 AMC Gremlin with the in-line 6 cylinder, until it died on me and i traded up to my grandfather's '77 Pontiac LeMans Station Wagon. I went through a few other un-noteworthy cars, until I got my '92 Civic from my brother. He and a buddy had bought it from a title loan place and fixed it up. That was the coolest car I owned, and that is where I got interested in cars. I put on a cold air intake, new exhaust and muffler, body kit, aftermarket lights, and got a set of R15205s from an '03 Si. It was decent fast, though not to compare with if I had a bigger engine in it, but I was happy. It worked well, until I went back and Sage drove it until it was having electrical issues, and Skipp took it to Kansas where his brother's kids used it as a trampoline. That made me nauseated.

Stephanie and I have an '01 Accord (my daily driver) and an '05 Odyssey. I've always loved Hondas - well, since I had the Civic - and I want to stick with them. Solid vehicles.

Last week the van started to make this awful noise when she tried to start it. *Grind!*  Ugh.

Well, I figured that if it has trouble when trying to start it, it makes sense that it would be the starter, so me, amateur shade tree mechanic that hasn't worked on a car other than to change oil and breaks since my Civic, I'm going to do it myself. I watched half a video on YouTube, took out the battery and air cleaner, pulled the starter, took it to O'Reilly to be tested, and sure enough, starter is bad. Lucky me it goes in as easy as it comes out and her van works great now.

For not being a mechanic, it's good to know a little about cars. I bet that would have cost me 500$ at a shop, instead of 120 for the starter and 50$ for a good set of ratcheting wrenches. Love a good set of wrenches.

What is a thing that you occasionally do that is outside your normal hobby? Do you sometimes have to fix the sink? or do you always call the plumber? Do you sometimes replace a breaker switch, though you are afraid of being electrocuted? Leave a comment below or on facebook.

--Soulie

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Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

I've had a few cars in my life. None fancy or fast, and few cool. My current car, my Honda Civic, is pretty cool, but aside from that they're mostly whatever i could afford at the time to get me by.

One car that i had that held a lot of memories was my first car, a '77 AMC Gremlin. Blue with a black swoop on each side. (Pic is stockart, not my actual car.)

My mother gave it to me after high school. it was a bit of a beater, no radio, so i had a battery operated tape deck. Gas gauge didnt work, so i had a stick and every so often i would open the tank and drop this stick down and check the level. A friend of mine was trying to dig the light out of his LA Gear shoes (remember those?) and broke my key off, so no key. Long as i didnt lock the steering wheel, i was good.
It had a split-back bench seat at first, and that was okay, but not the most comfortable. So when my brother was junking his little Toyota truck, i jumped at the chance to swap my seats out for buckets. The problem was that the passenger seat wouldnt line up with the bolt pattern, so had no support. I fixed that by turning it around to face backwards, and actually liked it better. I could see the person sitting next to me so much better, and she could make samaches and change tapes. It was great for the road trip we took to McCall.
Alas, it is gone now. While i was away in boot camp my mother sent it off to be recycled.
To my first car that got me around, I salute you.

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